When I put the “Second Death” into a Google search, I was provided with an AI (artificial intelligence) overview that defined the second death as a very horrific experience. It drew from the New Testament Book of Revelations, saying that the Second Death involves non-believers and those living “abominable” lives being cast into a lake of fire after the first death. It added, however, that the person who believes and lives accordingly shall not be so hurt, or words to that effect. Clearly, it is a fear-based teaching: Believe or burn for eternity. Is it any wonder that many people are completely turned off by orthodox religions?
My understanding on the “Second Death” from studying psychical research over many years is that there is an adaptation period after the body is declared dead. It involves an “awakening” on the Other Side. There is some stress and confusion by the surviving soul (consciousness) after it leaves the body. When the soul fully adapts to the conditions in the larger life, he or she experiences the second death. The spiritually advanced soul will adjust quickly, while the “abominable” soul will struggle indefinitely.
“The duration of the state of confusion that follows death varies greatly,” explained Alan Kardec, the pioneering French psychical researcher of the 19th Century. “It may be only a few hours, and it may be of several months, or even years,” Kardec wrote. “Those with whom it lasts the least are they who, during the earthly life, have identified themselves most closely with their future state, because they are soonest able to understand their new situation.”
Kardec went on to say that there is nothing painful in this mental confusion for those who have lived an upright life. “He is calm, and his perceptions are those of a peaceful awakening out of sleep. But for him whose conscience is not clean, it is full of anxiety and anguish that become more and more poignant in proportion as he recovers consciousness.”
One spirit communicated to Kardec that his state was a very happy one and that he no longer felt the pains he experienced during his final days in the earth life. “The transition from the terrestrial life to the spirit life was, at first, something that I could not understand, and everything seemed incomprehensible to me; for we sometimes remain for several days without recovering our clearness of thought; but, before I died, I prayed that God would give me the power of speaking to those I love, and my prayer was granted.” He estimated that it took him about eight hours in earth time to regain clearness of thought.
This transition stage – between the first and second deaths – has been referred to as Hades, which is not synonymous with Hell, as some religions would have us believe. In the Hades state there may be great confusion, a “fire of the mind,” so to speak, by materialistic or spiritually challenged souls; hence the belief that Hades is the hell of religion. In effect, Hades seems to be an intermediate or staging area of sorts where the soul must adjust its vibrations to the spirit world. It is said that even Jesus needed a period of adjustment, or at least wanted to experience it so that he knew what others were going through, as he reportedly spent a day or more in Hades and then on the third day “rose into Heaven.” That is, he apparently experienced the second death on the third day.
Degree of Awareness
Silver Birch, the spirit entity who spoke through the entranced Maurice Barbanell, said the same thing. “This [awakening] depends on the degree of awareness that the newcomer possesses,” he explained. “If completely ignorant of the fact that life continues after earthly death, or if so indoctrinated with false ideas that understanding will take a long time, then there is a process of rest equivalent to sleep.” He went on to say that the time for realization is self-determined. It can be short or long, as measured by our duration of time. For the enlightened, at least those whose actions in the physical world were in accordance with their enlightenment, it is a speedy process.
A very similar message comes from the writings of medium Alice A. Bailey and her teacher, the Tibetan master, Djwhal Khul. They point out that most people, being focused on the physical plane, experience a semi-consciousness in the period after death, usually one of emotional and mental bewilderment. The etheric body of the spiritually undeveloped person can linger for a long time near its discarded physical shell because the pull of the soul is not as potent as the material aspect is.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead refers to this period of awakening as the “Ground Luminosity” or “Clear Light,” and says that the vast majority of people do not immediately recognize the Ground Luminosity and are therefore plunged into a state of unconsciousness. As explained by Sogyal Rinpoche, the spiritual director of Rigpa, an international network of Buddhist groups and centers, consciousness continues without the body and goes through a series of states called “bardos.” The problem is that in the bardos “most people go on grasping at a false sense of self, with its ghostly grasping at physical solidity, and this continuation of that illusion, which has been at the root of all suffering in life, exposes them in death to more suffering, especially in the ‘bardo of becoming’.”
I asked AI (ChatGPT) why it provided such a horrific overview while not mentioning other interpretations. “What you saw is largely a result of how those overviews decide what counts as the ‘default’ answer, not necessarily a judgment that other interpretations don’t exist,” it responded, adding that the traditional interpretation is textually grounded, even though, as a literal description of post-mortem experience, it’s less empirically anchored and more doctrinal.
Developmental Model
In addition to the traditional model, AI recognized the “developmental model,” mentioning pioneering psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers. “These are treated cautiously or skeptically in mainstream academia,” it explained. “Because of that, systems trained to prioritize ‘reliable’ or ‘verifiable’ sources tend to downweigh those perspectives or omit them entirely in summaries.” It further pointed out that search engines usually interpret “second death” as a theological term, not a psychical research concept. “So they stay within that lane unless prompted otherwise.” It added that it is necessary to “nudge the system” into a different body of literature.
Communicating, after his death, through Geraldine Cummins, Myers said that he could not generalize as to the conditions in Hades, which he also referred to as the “place of shadows,” because conditions varied so much. However, he stated that the “average man who has led a well-ordered life” may very well experience communion with deceased loved ones and see fragmentary happening of his earthly life, judging himself, before resting, seemingly in a veil while in a state of semi-suspended consciousness. He added that three or four days of earth time may suffice for the Hades experience, but also pointed out that many souls “linger a long while in Hades and wander to and fro in its grim ways, encountering certain strange beings who hover near the borders of the physical world, who wake old sorrows and troubles in the minds of men, and who play upon the understandings of certain individuals they would possess while still in the flesh, dethroning the reason, stealing from man his birthright.”
In comparing the traditional model with the developmental model, AI said the developmental model “behaves more like a natural process and less like a one-time decree,” as it offers a gradual, staged process and a shedding of unstable or illusory aspects of mind rather than the “sudden, binary outcome” (saved vs. lost) of the traditional model. I read that to mean that the developmental model makes much more sense than the traditional model as it is easier to reconcile it with a loving and just Creator.
Next blog post: May 18
Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I. and No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife. His latest book Consciousness Beyond Death: New and Old Light on Near-Death Experiences is published by White Crow books.
You might yourself look into “Ladder to the Sky” by E.V. Ingraham. I can send you a pdf of it if you like.
August, I am not familiar with it and would appreciate a PDF. mike
I, too, prefer the multi-level, development model or metaphor of the afterlife over the binary heaven or hell scenario, especially when you add in a judgmental god whose main concern is what you thought rather than what you did, or worse yet, whether you were a member of the elect, rather than the damned, as determined solely divine whim.
All that being said, I remain convinced that there is a healthy, indeed necessary way, to fear God, to hold him in awe with some degree of “fear and trembling” to borrow the title of one of Kierkegaard’s most famous booklets.
Take, for example, the well known parable of the prodigal son. Here’s the young man eating pig food, who blew his inheritance on wine, women, and song, mulling over whether he should return home. As Jesus reportedly told the story, he thinks about all of the bread his father’s servants have to eat and decides to take the chance of journeying back to his father and begging to become his servant.
We all know how the story works out, but ask yourself this. Could it have worked at all had the young man thought to himself, while munching the pig food, “You know, my father is a kindly old fella, a real sweetheart of a guy who never gets mad at anyone, never lays down the law, always forgives. Hell yes I’m going back home, smooth out the old man, and pig out on some of that fresh-baked bread.”
And thus, as the Good Book says, the fear of the Lord (rightly understood it must be added) is the beginning of wisdom.
Newton, I agree. Without fear, there would be no fearlessness. Like everything else, there are many degrees of fear and a number of synonyms. Thanks for the comment.
Newton,
I knew this story with the good news for the prodigal son. I went to graduation of ministers andheard their version. Why reward a lazy no good son when the other son stayed and made money? The drug filled son deserved nothing.
The story which I like was forgiveness.
Bruce
I, too, like the forgiveness part of the story, Bruce. But that part is meaningless without the repentance part, as my little thought exercise tried to demonstrate.
Michael,
It is great to see an article on Second Death. Spiritualists often discuss this transition. I have Sir Arthur Conan Doyle quote below (not the one which I wanted)
“ I have passed through what you know as the astral life, and have now been cleared from the conditions which were hampering my work. To clear a soul of the astral vibrations is not altogether an easy matter; but do not be misguided with regard to this state; it is a necessary evil. To be freed from these astral ties does not sever a man from those he loves, but it sets free his spirit and allows him to enter into the full realisation of his own nature.” page 55 The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle – Ivan Cooke.
ACD spoke often of the Second Death on both sides of the veil. He mentioned it as uncomfortable but necessary.
Thanks
Bruce
Thanks, Bruce for the ACD quote. I neglected to include my little comparison with the “second wind” in running. I often experienced the second wind within a minute or so of the start, i.e., struggled for the first few hundred yards and then settled down into a nice rhythm for the rest of the race. But the unconditioned participants struggled the entire race.
Mike, in the Padgett messages, as you probably know, the “In Christ” communicators differentiate between continuous life in the physical and spirit worlds and immortality. Those in Christ are immortal and the rest are not. In all the messages I can only find “Second Death” mentioned by Jesus, John (the apostle), and Padgett’s grandmother, Ann Rollins. The messages are long but here’s some excerpts.
Jesus writes: “… immortality does not pertain to the physical body or to the spiritual body, or to the soul unqualifiedly, but to those qualities of the soul which makes it possible for the soul to become in its nature Divine. And immortality does not mean mere continuous existence, because every spirit and every soul may live through all eternity in their individualized form. When it was said in the Bible that I brought immortality and life to light, it did not mean that I showed man merely that they would, as spirits, continue to live forever, but it meant that they would live forever in the Father’s Kingdom, with natures Divine and not capable of being deprived of the great and true life which is found only in that Kingdom.”
John writes: “And as the Father desires all men to become at-one with Him in His Divinity of Love, we must work until the day of the great consummation of the kingdom arrives, and the spirits who have not on the wedding garment shall suffer the doom of the second death.”
Rollins writes: “And here, let me say, because of the fact of the great variety of beliefs and teachings on earth as to the meaning of the second death, many men and spirits will neglect to exercise their privilege of obtaining the Great Gift of the Divine Love and suffer the second death. The second death will take place when that great separation occurs, and the gift of this privilege of receiving the Divine Love of the Father will again be withdrawn from man and spirit. No other death is meant, for man and spirit will continue to live their mortal and spirit lives, without any other death than that which is now constantly taking place. There will be no death in the sense of condemning the spirit of man to eternal punishment, or the annihilation of any spirit, as is taught by some of your religious teachers. No, the only death will be the death that the first parents died at the time of their disobedience, which was the deprivation of the great privilege of receiving the Divine Love and thereby partaking of the Divine nature of the Father, and immortality.”
Thanks, Jon. Somewhat confusing. I don’t know, but I prefer Kardec’s explanation.
Mike,
We’ll find out sooner or later… or not. 🙂
Dear Michael,
Thank you for raising this important subject. I agree entirely that the punitive “lake of fire” interpretation of the Second Death is not the one supported by the better psychical and discarnate literature. But I think your post may identify the Second Death with an earlier stage in the postmortem process.
In Myers’ communications through Geraldine Cummins, “Hades” does not mean Hell, nor even the Greek underworld in the usual mythological sense. Myers, an accomplished classical scholar, employs the term in a specific technical sense: an intermediate condition of rest, adjustment, semi-consciousness, review, and awakening after bodily death. The soul may pass through it quickly or linger there, depending on its state. But this first awakening out of Hades into the larger life is not, I think, what the literature usually means by the Second Death.
The Second Death proper appears to be a later and deeper transition: the shedding of an already postmortem vehicle, personality-form, or mode of selfhood, and the passage into a higher, subtler, or more inward state. It is therefore not only a change in consciousness, but also a subtilization of discarnate embodiment. Myers’ technical phrase for this is “The Breaking of the Image,” the soul’s relinquishment of form as a necessity. It is not annihilation, punishment, or damnation, but metamorphosis. Chapter 9, “The Second Death,” in Paul Beard’s Living On is one of the best comparative treatments of this theme.
Several narrative accounts make this distinction vivid. In Jane Sherwood’s Post-Mortem Journal, T.E. Lawrence witnesses the transition of his mentor, Dr. G., who passes through what is explicitly called the Second Death. Lawrence describes this as “a simple change of condition necessary for growth,” in which “the succeeding and more glorious form glows through” the outworn body; Dr. G. later returns briefly from his higher condition. In Helen Greaves’ Testimony of Light, Frances Banks recounts the upward translation of a missionary woman whose attainment came not chiefly through knowledge but through love: “Love had been translated to Higher Spheres.” In The Barbanell Report, Maurice Barbanell describes an Indian companion undergoing an inward purgation, a state of “agony and ecstasy,” after which rapport with him is lost and Barbanell can only conclude that he has reached the next stage.
There are also important first-person accounts. Myers – who clarifies in The Road to Immortality that he himself has passed through the Second Death from the Third to the Fourth Plane, in his schema – describes through Cummins the “Breaking of the Image” as the soul’s release from form and appearance before birth into a higher state. Arthur Conan Doyle, through Grace Cooke, describes in The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle the painful but necessary clearing away of astral limitations and the relinquishment of the self that clings to knowledge, achievement, and personality. C.E.J. Fryer’s father, in A Hand in Dialogue, explicitly describes his own transition from the third sphere to the fourth sphere and the joining of a more closely united spiritual community.
Another especially explicit first-person account is Franchezzo’s A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, chapter XII, “My Second Death.” There he says that after freeing himself from earthly attractions, he passed from a lower astral body into a brighter and purer spiritual envelope, the discarded astral form being dissolved much as the physical body had been left behind at the first death. His closing summary is exact: “Thus did I pass through my second death and awake to the resurrection of my higher self.”
The maps do not all overlay perfectly. Myers, Beard, Sherwood, Conan Doyle, Fryer, Franchezzo, and others do not give us one perfectly congruent cartography of planes, spheres, or heavens. That is a persistent problem in studying this literature. Franchezzo himself notes that some teachers count seven spheres, others twelve, and others still use different divisions. But the functional pattern is quite consistent. The first postmortem awakening is one thing. The later shedding of an outgrown subtle body or personality-form is another.
Seen in this broader light, the Second Death is not an isolated doctrine or a final terminus. It is one great episode in the soul’s longer progression through higher and higher grades of being, as consciousness becomes less earth-bound, less ego-bound, less dependent on form, and more capable of approaching the Source of all life and light.
So I would put the matter this way: the Second Death is better understood as a second birth. It is the soul’s further liberation from a mode of existence that has served its purpose, so that it may enter a fuller, higher, subtler order of life.
Best,
Paul
Paul,
Great to see your post. Your theological background gives a valuable perspective. The Second Death is top of mind for Spiritualists, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, President (in Spirit), provided a vivid description. “Arthur Conan Doyle, through Grace Cooke, describes in The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle the painful but necessary clearing away of astral limitations and the relinquishment of the self that clings to knowledge, achievement, and personality.” The President’s description carried a lot of weight with Spiritualists.
I haven’t had much contact with the Spiritualists lately so it may have fallen off the top 10 topics.
Thanks
Bruce
Michael,
Just by “coincidence”, I came across this quote in Light 31 January 1885 (the mail is slow to the colonies).
Stonehouse.—Sailors’ Welcome.—On the evening of January 25th, at 7 p.m., the controls of Mr. W. Burt discoursed on “ The Second Death ” in their usual powerful and convincing manner, showing that the passages of Scripture—“Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever”—were to be understood only in their symbolical signification.
Death : a life contrary to the will and laws of the Great Creator ;Hell: the consequent reward, so to speak, of such a conduct of unholinees, bringing remorse of conscience and the sting of guilt.
The lake of fire was the dark spheres, where a full expiation has to be made, and the last farthing has to be paid. The necessity of a life of holiness was urged upon all present, so as to attain to the first resurrection in which the second death shall have no power.—W.B.
I liked the W.B. initials (past life connection?), but my usual saying was for illegal activities – Fire and brimstone await the wicked, but the hours are pretty good. My other statement was that it is not illegal until you are convicted.
Thanks,
Bruce
Paul and Bruce, many thanks for your comments. I think Paul’s view of it agrees with the Theosophical teachings and may very well be the correct interpretation of it all. One of the problems is factoring “time” into the picture.
Michael and Paul,
An interesting thought is that the Second Death is when a spirit ascends into a state which is not in contact with the previous state, hence the term death. This ascension is not always welcomed, as I suspect it depends on qualities that are judged. A person attending church and giving 10% might expect an easy ascension but if it is rote rather from love it might become a shock. I refer to these people as the skin deeps from a song from the Stranglers.
Thanks
Bruce
No. Wrong. The only way to know what the 2nd death is, is not by speculation and conjecture. The way to truly understand it is to experience an authentic spiritual awakening process for yourself. An authentic awakening takes decades if not an entire lifetime to complete. The first death happens at the conclusion of the Dark Night of the Senses. This is the first phase of the Nigredo. The Nigredo is “the Dark Night of the Soul”, which has 2 phases. The first phase is the Dark Night of the Senses. This is where the ego is forced to face and integrate it’s shadow and its anima. These are deeply repressed unconscious instincts, emotions, and feelings. This phase took me 10 years to complete. Then there is the 1st Ego death. The Ego literally dies and yes, it’s scary as hell, but the ego awakens as the Soul. The problem is the Soul is also badly wounded. An ego at this point usually believes it has “made it”. This is a delusion of the Ego. A much more harrowing ordeal is coming called The Dark Night of the Spirit. In this phase, the Soul faces its deepest karma and trauma. This took me 12 years to complete. At the end of the Dark Night of Spirit, the 2nd death occurs. This is the death of the ego/Soul. This is absolutely terrifying. However, this is the last trial on the path. The Soul awakens completely Unified and merged with Spirit. Such a person is now awakened or “enlightened”. They literally get filled with Light and Bliss on a permanent basis. That is what the 2nd death is in actuality.
Rob, thanks for contributing that. I’m left to wonder, however, how that was identified as the “Second Death?” Were you in some way told that the experience was the “Second Death”?