Experience after Dying

(from Herbert Hahn: Rudolf Steiner)

Now Rudolf Steiner spoke about death, of the experience which the soul has immediately after the moment of leaving this earthly life. He reminded us how the soul experiences its whole earthly life like an immense panorama.

But, Rudolf Steiner continued, the most grandiose of all is the fact that this whole picture-world is at the same time a sounding, musical experience. And like a gigantic symphony, the whole cosmos is floating toward these 'sounding' pictures and absorbs them. In the midst of this symphony, the listening soul suddenly hears one sound—one tone that rises above all other sounds. A most extraordinary experience ... the whole symphony is being listened to, and yet out of this whole, one sound—a pure sound—arises above all other sounds ... and suddenly, the soul is flooded with a wonderful understanding: this singular sound—it is my Self, and without this sound, this world-symphony would not be complete.

No other moment in life after death, or in one's earthly life, can be compared with that feeling of ensoulment when the human being, who has just been liberated of the dross of earthly vanity, when he experiences this great secret: without a doubt, my I belongs to the entirety of the world. Without me, the world-symphony would be incomplete.

(translation: C. Jensen)