In the esoteric worldview, a person is never considered just a body. The body is a stage, but not the role itself. It is a veil covering deeper, dynamic layers of consciousness. Beneath the surface of physical form lies a complex architecture of consciousness, which consists not only of biological or psychological functions but also of subtle spiritual aspects.

Personality – is a temporary project of consciousness, born for a specific incarnation. It is formed from mental habits (saṁskāras), life experiences, external circumstances, collective influences. This structure is necessary for the Soul to interact with the physical world – it is like an “action costume” designed to live through a particular experience.

Soul – is an individualized aspect of Spirit. It takes form in order to grow, evolve, transform through experience. The soul is constantly changing – it forms memory, accumulates karmic impulses, shapes tendencies. In Vedanta, this corresponds to jīvātman, and in the language of Sufism – the rūh traveler of the world.

Spirit – is the immutable, eternal source of consciousness. It is a light that never goes out, even when the Soul wanders through births and deaths. It always remains in unity with the Primordial Source – the Unmanifested Principle (brahman, Ein Sof, Tao, the Divine Field of Emptiness). It does not come and does not go – it only observes. It is the silence between beats, the peace between lives.

Death, in the context of this system, is not the end. It is like a pause after a completed note in music, a breath between sentences, a turn in a winding river. It is a transformation – not a destruction, but a metamorphosis. Consciousness does not vanish, it changes form of being, gradually revealing its deeper layers. This is not a matter of belief – it is a model replicated across various traditions, inner experiences, mystical testimonies, and today – even certain neuropsychological studies on consciousness during clinical death (Near Death Experiences).

This text is based on the 40-day model – a symbolic, yet widely recognized map of the consciousness journey after physical death. It is not a fixed timeline, but an archaic model of inner transition, reflected in the Tibetan Bardo Thödol, the Egyptian "Book of the Dead", Slavic "nine and forty day" rites, Sufi "seven thresholds" structure, Christian archetypes of "soul judgment", as well as Eastern Vedantic, Tantric and Buddhist systems.

Each concept presented in this model is not based on one specific tradition, but is integrated from a broad spiritual field:

• Vedanta and Yogic Psychology – define layers of consciousness (koshas), subtle bodies, and the action of causal impressions (vāsanā, saṁskāra).
• Tantric systems of Buddhism – especially the teachings of Dzogchen and Mahamudra – describe the dissolution of consciousness into light and the world of visions as mind projections.
• Theosophy and Anthroposophy – introduce stages of consciousness development, spheres of Devachan, and the hierarchy of consciousness structures.
• Sufism – speaks about inner alchemy, the refinement of consciousness through the transformation of love and devotion.
• Gnosticism and Hermetic traditions – depict the human as a spiritual being fallen into matter but having the possibility to return to the One through knowledge (gnōsis).
• Jungian Psychology – analyzes archetypes, shadow integration, and stages of consciousness transition from a psychological perspective.
• Transpersonal Psychology – describes mystical experiences, consciousness expansion, ego death, and spiritual integration in modern terms (Stanislav Grof, Ken Wilber).
• Neuropsychological NDE studies – especially the works of Pim van Lommel and Bruce Greyson – provide scientific evidence that consciousness can persist beyond neural boundaries.

All this wisdom here is not blended into one system, but combined as a multifaceted vision, allowing one to see the human as a cosmic being of consciousness, traveling not only through life but through transitions of consciousness after physical death.
It is a map – not a territory. It is a thread helping to remember oneself not only as a body but as a living, evolving stream of consciousness, whose true nature is freedom, light, and eternal unity.

Chikhai Bardo – The Moment of Death

 Day 0 – Transition from the physical to the etheric body

The moment of death is more than a biological process. In esoteric traditions, it is perceived as the first threshold on the path of consciousness transformation. When the connection between the vital field of consciousness and material form is severed, consciousness separates from the body and transitions into the subtle – so-called etheric – sheath. It is a shift from the outer to the inner, from visible form to invisible being.

In this stage, the Great Light is revealed. In the Tibetan tradition, it is called the Light of Dharmata (Tib. ösel), in Vedanta – the radiance of Paramatman, in Western mysticism – the source of divine consciousness. It is not a vision, not a metaphor, but the experience of pure being – without form, without time, without identity. It is the essence of consciousness that always resided within the human, but was hidden beneath layers of personality and the sensory world.

If this light is recognized, consciousness naturally merges with it. This is liberation, known as moksha or the merging with rigpa – a state in which the individual no longer returns to cyclical existence. The experience integrates into the Spirit without an intermediate path, and consciousness transitions to a higher, unchanging level of being.

However, more often the light is not recognized. The reasons vary – fear, attachment to the body, identification with forms of the mind. Such withdrawal of consciousness initiates the further transition – into the realm of visions and inner projections, known as Chonyid Bardo. It is a significant boundary between liberation and a new cycle of experiences.

In recent decades, this esoteric knowledge has increasingly gained scientific attention. Neurocardiologists and psychiatrists, such as Pim van Lommel and Bruce Greyson, researching near-death experiences (NDE), have described numerous cases where patients experienced a tunnel of light, merging with everything, pure love, and the expansion of consciousness. These experiences occur when brain activity is minimal or entirely absent – prompting a rethinking of the relationship between consciousness and matter.

Cross-parallels between these experiences and descriptions in ancient spiritual traditions suggest that the Light described in Chikhai Bardo may be a universal state of consciousness, accessible both through meditation and at the moment of death. In Western psychology, such states are often called transpersonal, while in Eastern traditions – a merging with the Supreme Essence.

Chikhai Bardo is more than a transition. It is an existential moment of choice – either merging with the Source or continuing the journey. It is the first starting point on the journey of consciousness after death – a moment where silence speaks and Light calls one back to oneself.

Chonyid Bardo – The World of Reality Visions

Days 1–9 – The transition of consciousness through the Kāma–Manas field

The second transitional phase after death – Chonyid Bardo – is the realm of deep inner reality, where consciousness first encounters not the physical or symbolic exterior, but its own content, revealed without filters, without the limits of form, without cultural or psychological masks. Here begins the essential mirror of the self – the passage through the Kāma–Manas field, which connects emotional desires (kāma) and the thinking, shaping mind (manas). In this layer, consciousness encounters that which constituted its human personality: attachments, desires, fears, unfulfilled expectations, and idealized images.

This inner space corresponds to what is called the Kāma–Loka – a subtle, interdimensional field where emotional and mental contents take on visible, energetic forms. It is precisely here that yidams – peaceful deities – and krodha – wrathful beings – appear. These archetypal visions are not external, but projections of consciousness, arising from samskāras – subconscious impressions and seeds of unexperienced thoughts and emotions that were repressed or unintegrated during life.

Consciousness begins to perceive skandhas – inner contents that structured the experience of “I am.” These are not so much facts as subconscious forms: demons reflect repressed fears and shadow tendencies, deities – idealized but unrealized aspects of the self. There is no objective good or evil between them – all are fragments of consciousness now seeking integration.

If a person developed self-observation and awareness during life, they are able to recognize these visions as internal reflections of the psychic structure – not only from the level of Buddhi–Manas, but also from deeper levels of consciousness. Such recognition neutralizes the power of the visions – consciousness shifts from the role of an involved actor to the position of an observing witness.

If these forms are not recognized, consciousness gets involved with them: begins to perceive them as reality, reacts to them and interacts with them, thus falling into psychic labyrinths – the world of its fears, desires, and inner conflicts. It is like a hall of mirrors of consciousness, where every reflection seems real, but only if it is not recognized as a reflection.

This stage of Bardo is a crucial point of direction: if consciousness realizes the origin of these forms – the process rises upward, toward integration and liberation. If consciousness succumbs to the visions, it becomes stuck in the lower layers and transitions into another – even denser – level of consciousness transformation. This is the place where not fate is decided, but the degree of maturity of consciousness.

Second Death – The Dissolution of Personality

Days 10–20 – Dismantling of the ego structure and release of identity

Between the tenth and twentieth day after the death of the physical body, consciousness reaches a crucial threshold – the so-called second death, or ahamkara-pralaya. This is not the death of the body, but something much deeper – a psychic, structural state of dissolution. The term ahamkara refers to the ego – the individualized center of identity, while pralaya means a process of disintegration, dispersion, dissolution. At this stage, the ego ceases to exist as a unified construction.

The gradual dismantling of personal identity begins. Consciousness loses the ability to hold on to the familiar “I,” which maintained narrative continuity throughout life: “who I am,” “what I believe,” “what I’ve achieved.” Everything formed from beliefs, convictions, emotional traces, and attachments begins to crumble like a net pulled into the light.

This state corresponds to the manomaya kosha – the dissolution of the mental body layer. Its structures are not only thoughts, but all the forms with which a person identified: duties, names, roles, even spiritual beliefs. It is an inner earthquake, during which the Personality loses its ground – not because it is punished, but because its structure is no longer needed.

Then follows the life review phase – but it is not a “film reel,” as often imagined, rather a multilayered, synchronous reflection: every action and thought is seen not only from one’s own, but also from the perspective of all affected consciousnesses. Consciousness sees itself not as a subject, but as a point of influence in a field. What we call karma here appears as a resonance of light: as much as consciousness caused reflection – it receives back as a revelation of the quality of experience.

This process corresponds to svabhavic atma-darshan – the vision of true nature. It is neither moral nor religious – it is the function of the buddhi–karmic mirror: clear, yet without judgment. Consciousness does not see what it “did,” but what it became as a result of its actions. This is not punishment, but a structural truth that cannot be hidden or distorted.

The Higher Self is briefly activated – the brightest aspect of personality, operating from the antara-karana – the bridge of consciousness between the mind (manas) and intuition (buddhi). It becomes the final “witness” of this being – collecting and transmitting all the refined experience to the causal field of the Soul, where it is inscribed as essential evolutionary information.

Once this function is complete, the Higher Self – as an energy field whose mission is accomplished – naturally dissolves. There is no destruction, only release. The personality does not return – its structure, narrative, and form lose continuity. This is called the second death – the true endpoint of the ego.

And then, in the empty space where no role or image remains, consciousness turns toward a new horizon – no longer to what it was, but to what it can become. This is the gateway to the next phase – Sidpai Bardo, where the future structures of consciousness are born.

Sidpai Bardo – The State of Becoming

Days 21–39 – Activation of causal memory and reformation of consciousness structures

Having passed through the second death and released the structure of personality, consciousness enters Sidpai Bardo – one of the most subtle and profound phases of transition, known as the state of becoming. This is no longer a stage of encountering the past, but a space of forming a future existential trajectory – here the question is no longer who I was, but who I will become.

This state manifests as consciousness entering the Causal field – an informational dimension where the entire incarnational experience accumulates not as a collection of memories, but as a structural, holographic whole. In the Vedic tradition, this layer is called kāraṇa śarīra – the causal body. Here are recorded the saṁskāras – the deepest impressions left by experience, and the vāsanās – the seeds of the mind that determine the tendencies and limits of future consciousness.

In this stage, the field of consciousness begins to crystallize: skandhas – the components of consciousness – are purified and harmonized. From them, adṛṣṭa karma is formed – an unexpressed but inevitable directional energy, which already knows in which direction it will manifest, once conditions become favorable.

The reaction of consciousness at this stage depends on the maturity of the Being. If consciousness has learned not to identify with structures, it can recognize that even these deepest records are temporary – like matrix models, not its true essence. In such a case, consciousness rises above them, like light no longer bound by form. However, if identification with old habits, desires, or ideals remains, these structures act as gravitational knots – pulling consciousness downward into denser layers, initiating the birth of a new form.

One of the key moments of this phase is the inner meeting with the council of consciousness, in Tibetan tradition called 'khor lo’i tshogs pa. This is neither a symbolic court nor a mythic figure, but the highest vibrational aspect of the Soul, reflecting the qualitative summary of the entire incarnation. What is recorded here is not what you did, but who you became. It is not a judgment, but an inner dharmic metric – a reflection of the density, direction, and quality of light of the consciousness.

This process resembles the phenomenon of a standing wave – consciousness no longer exists in its old form, but has not yet assumed a new one. It balances in an intermediate state: purified, but not yet unfolded; potential, but not yet having chosen a direction. This is a moment where everything is possible, but nothing is yet realized – the time of the outer world ceases to apply, and the inner becomes the forming foundation of everything.

This is the final stop before the ultimate ascent into the spheres of subtle light – or a new fall into cyclical existence. And this depends not on circumstances, but only on one question: can consciousness recognize itself without any form?

Devachan – The State of Subtle Light

After the 40th day – The entry of consciousness into the field of ideal experience

After the main phases of transition have ended, consciousness is given the opportunity to enter one of the highest spheres of subtle existence – Devachan. This is not a place in the geographical sense, but a vibrational frequency where the flow of light, wisdom, and love is experienced. Here, consciousness is no longer affected by dense forms or emotional vortices – it lives through archetypal being, in a space of pure ideas.

In Vedic and theosophical systems, this state is described as sūkṣma loka – the subtle world where experience becomes an uninterrupted inner process. Here there are no longer physical objects, emotional narratives, or ego structures. Consciousness reaches a clarity in which it experiences absolute beauty, pure joy, and the feeling of unity with everything – not through form, but through resonance.

According to theosophical classification, Devachan has two levels:

• Formed Devachan (Rūpa-devachan) – a sphere where consciousness operates in a higher emotional form: here live idealized memories, love without attachment, spiritual intuitions that still have a shadow of form.
• Formless Devachan (Arūpa-devachan) – an even higher level where pure ideas, dhyāna states, and spiritual vibrations are experienced, independent of any images or impressions. This is the pure dimension of spiritual meditation.

In this state, the aspect of the soul that resonates with the highest ideals is the one actively experiencing. Meanwhile, Buddhi–Sākṣī – the inner witness – observes everything from silence, recording spiritual shifts. It does not participate, but sees – like a cosmic observer, maintaining the balance of consciousness and planning further evolution.

Devachan is not the final destination. Although time stops here and the soul rests in light, this state is not eternal. It lasts as long as there are subtle aspirations within consciousness, unexperienced ideas, or undissolved crystals of light. When these vibrations are exhausted, when even ideal consciousness loses its object, a calling arises. Not from the outside, but from within – from the remaining pulse.

This is not a “fall” nor a “punishment.” It is the rhythmic structure of the universe – like breathing: inhalation (downward), exhalation (upward), pause – and movement again. Devachan is that cosmic pause, a rest between births, where consciousness rests not in non-being, but in light without desire. 

Return to Spirit

Final stage – Consciousness merging with the Origin Essence

When all experiences are complete, when every form has been lived, recognized, and released – the final phase of the journey of consciousness begins. It is no longer a path through symbols, no longer a process of transformation, but a return to that which was never truly lost.

The Soul – as an individualized spark of Spirit – experiences the dissolution of all identities. The skandhas (psychic structures) that held the construction of "I" reach their end point. There remains no desire, no memory of separation. Consciousness is freed even from the subtlest desires to be or to become.

Then occurs what ancient teachings call ātma–buddhi–saṁyoga – not a connection between two things, but the return of consciousness to its primordial identity. It is like a ray of sunlight that, after a long journey through all the spectrums of color, returns to pure white light – not as an addition, but as a remembrance of its source.

At this stage, Spirit no longer returns to experience, for it becomes self-sufficient. It no longer creates, because there is nothing left worth creating. It does not disappear, but unfolds into ineffable being – a state without direction, without task, without action – a silence already full.

This moment of return was called in ancient texts paramātmā–darśana – not as a vision through a symbol or image, but as an inner seeing where Consciousness and Source become inseparable.

It is not ecstasy. It is not triumph. It is a blissful emptiness in which even the need for bliss dissolves.

Then begins nivṛtti – the withdrawal of action, the resting of consciousness in its own fullness. No more ascent, no more descent, no mission. Only silent being, in which everything already is.

 Cosmic Pulsation – Mahā–Pralaya

Eternal breath between universes

One day – marked by no calendar, calculable by no time – everything that has ever been expressed will be subtly recalled. Not destroyed, but invited to return. It will not be a decision, but a cosmic impulse – a calling from the Unmanifested, inviting all to return to the Primordial Silence.

This universal withdrawal is called Mahā–Pralaya – the Great State of Dissolution. It is not collapse, but a breath out of consciousness. Just as waves return to the ocean, so all Spirits, Souls, and sparks of consciousness become once again the unified Ocean of Consciousness – without separation, without names, without forms.

The universe breathes:
– Inhalation – pravṛtti – creation, expansion, embodiment.
– Exhalation – nivṛtti – return, merging, disappearance.

This cosmic rhythm is not subject to human or divine will – it pulses as the very core of Consciousness, the foundation of all cycles of being. From a single idea to a cluster of stars – all are invited to breathe with the same pulse.

And when all forms are exhausted, when there is nothing left to experience, not even a thought of separation – only Consciousness–Without–State remains. Not as emptiness, but as potential from which all is born and to which all returns. It is the Source that creates not from need, but from fullness.

This is not the end.
This is the stillness between beats.
The silence between universes.
The unrecordable interval between breaths.

That which was in the Beginning.
And that which always is.