People are scared of Death.

Nobody is an exception to this.

I have remarked in an article that there are two reasons for this.

One is the fear of Pain accompanying Death and another is,

The uncertainty of what would happen after death.

Would we suffer unbearable pain after Death as described in various legends and Religious Texts?

What would happen to us after Death?

Are we reborn?

In that case will we be a Human being?

Will what is called as Sins haunt us?

I have a friend who is a neurophysician of world repute , a scientist and consultant to over Eighty Governments.True scientist that he is, he ,on this subject and on things which defy logic and empirical science says that once you start saying awareness or the concept of ‘I’, Neurology takes a backseat.Most of the things that are felt, experienced by this are not explained in Neurosciences.Cognition is one such Concept.Undestanding and feeling, there is a fine difference. Some experiences are not explainable from the angle of neurology.At best, they attempt to stimulate and try to understand the phenomenon.However, the answer,at best, would how it could have happened,that too as a tentative hypothesis,and never why .

Such an experience is one feeling one to be out of one’s body, looking at it and observing it. Most of the times, one can recount what had happened during that period.Some times the Experience, called Out Of Body Experience,OBE,is quite vivid,and sometimes it is not.You can see yourself,either seeming to float over your body, or standing away from it. This happens, typically either when you are sitting ,deeply engrossed in thought or, at other times, you are lying down, not sleeping, but hovering around that area between sleep and wakefulness.You can, at that stage,see your body,people around you and hear what the see or hear. But you do not hear what you say! The last part is my personal experience.

Check out yourself. This happens to everyone of us. What is the explanation?

Esoteric Hinduism and Buddhism have explanations.

As a philosophical theory, Hinduism talks about layers,Sheaths covering human soul,Atma.

• Annamayakosa,Sheath of the essence of food.
• Pranamayakosa,Sheath of Breath,
• Manomayakosa,of Mind,
• Vignyanamayakosa,of Knowledge and
• Anandamayakosa, sheath of Bliss.

Our Body, according to Hinduism,is, apart from our Karma, is sustained by essence of Food,annarasa.We can compare to our concept of calories generated ,that gets converted to Energy. Similarly, Prana is the vital energy and there is a sheath of This vital energy surrounding human body. Then we have the Mind, which is repository of responses received by it from the external world and also the impressions created in our Mind because of our dispositions.This is the next sheath. After this we have the sheath of knowledge, Vignyanamayakosa. Knowledge is different from information. Information is collected by the Mind while knowledge is the domain big Intellect, Buddhi, the discriminator between Right and Wrong, Correct and Incorrect.This sheath is the one that keeps us away from Reality, Brahman, by feeding us untrue knowledge.The final sheath is Anandamayakosa.This is a sheath of Bliss.This is the Attribute of Brahman, Reality.This is our our real nature.

Except, Annamayakosa , all the kosas,sheaths are beyond body. These sheaths support the physical frame.During out of body Experience, Manomayakosa kosa comes into play and it observes the gross ,Sthula sareera,body as a disinterested Observer.It is impelled to do so because of our Karma palas, our actions reactions and our dispositions.Dispositions are determined by our Actions.

According to Hindu thought Human body has two aspects. One is Gross ,another Subtle,Sookshma.The Sthula sareer is sustained by Annarasa,essence of food,Sookshma sareera is maintained by Pranamaya kosa and Manomayakosa.This is why out of body Experience happens.When manomayakosa is quite active as in deep thought, it goes out and observes body.Mind is not expected to leave body for a long-time unless dictated by Prana. Sometimes because of some remnants of Good karma vasana, remnants of good actions, mind goes out and tries to say out. But the Time is not over for the Body.It is over only when Prana,life energy leaves the body.So Prana pulls the Manomayakosa back to gross body. While it renters,at times, it may not enter at the correct angle. So, you would find a Jerk,as in suddenly coming awake or while breaking away from deep thought.

Buddhism says body has Gross level,followed by Abstract. Abstract has Etheric level,Auric level
Etheric body surrounds the physical body( immediately next to it) and then Auric body surrounds.When one sees the Physical Body, it is the Etheric body that sees it.

More of Etheric body is explained by Theosophy by Madame Blavatsky, Reverend Leadbeater and Dr. Annie Besant. I shall write on this.

On Buddhist interpretation, please read Lobsang Rampa’s The Third Eye.