What is the "Second Death"?

     In my years as a competitive long-distance runner, I regularly experienced the phenomenon referred to as the "second wind."   Even for the well-conditioned runner, the first 150 to 200 yards of a race involves some stress and struggle as the heart and lungs are asked to suddenly quicken.  However, after around 30 seconds, the second wind kicks in and the body settles down into a relatively effortless rhythm.   It is like a car going through first and second gears before finally shifting into high gear.

     As I have come to understand it, the "second death" is something akin to the second wind.  That is, immediately after the silver cord breaks and the physical body releases the spirit body, i.e., "gives up the ghost," there is some stress, some confusion, some struggling in the spirit person's attempt to adjust to his or her new condition.    When the adjustment is made, the second death is experienced. 

      The term "second death" is found in the New Testament Book of Revelations four times:

      2:11:  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

     20:6:    Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

    20:14:  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.

    21:8:  But the fearful and unbelieving, and abominable, and murders, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

      Bible scholars don't seem to agree on the meaning of those verses.  They do agree that physical death is the "first" death, but beyond that interpretations become very convoluted. One popular fundamentalist interpretation puts it that he who has accepted Christ has already died the second death - death to sin.  Therefore, it cannot hurt him.  Those who actually experience the second death end up in a "lake of fire."

      While we might infer from the Biblical interpretations that the second death means some kind of condemnation, the more metaphysical interpretations suggest just the opposite - a graduation of some kind from a lower state to a higher state. 

      The predominant theory is that the second death takes place within hours or a few days for the spiritually advanced, but may take months of years in earth time for the spiritually challenged, those who remain "earthbound."   In effect, the second death is an "awakening" to one's condition based on one's spiritual consciousness in the earth life.  The second death might be equated to the now popular expression, "going into the light" at the end of the tunnel as well as to the "Ground Luminosity" of the Buddhist.             

    "We might with justice speak of a first and second death because not only the physical body has to be shed but the next body also," a spirit entity calling himself "Scott" communicated to Jane Sherwood.  "Think of the whole man as being composed of four interpenetrating forms.  The second of these is very near to the physical in substance and is very closely knit to it.  It is the etheric or life-body and gives the power of sensory experience.  It never leaves the physical body, even in sleep, but at death it parts from the physical along with the astral and ego bodies.  It is too closely related to the physical to allow the higher bodies to pass clearly into their proper sphere, so it also has to be shed and this is the second death."

     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.   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.  Thus, he initially 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.  Of course, there are many who would argue with such an interpretation.

      The spiritually-challenged souls are frequently referred to as "earthbound" spirits, because they cling to earthly ways.  Referring back to the long-distance runner comparison, it seems appropriate to liken these earthbound spirits to the overweight couch potato who attempts to run a marathon.  He might run for 200 yards, but instead of getting a second wind, he is forced to slow to a trot or just walk, and even surrender in frustration.        

     "The duration of the state of confusion that follows death varies greatly," explained Alan Kardec, the pioneering French psychical researcher of the 19^th Century. "It may be only of 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.

       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."

      Silver Birch 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 peopledo 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'."

         Communicating through Geraldine Cummins, Frederic W. H. 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."

       Myers had died, at age 57, on January 17, 1901 while in Rome.  The first communication from his came through Rosalie Thompson, a medium, to Professor Oliver Lodge and his wife on February 19, 1901.  However, it was clear that Myers was struggling to communicate.  He told the Lodges that he was confused when he first arrived on the other side, before he realized he was dead.  "I thought I had lost my way in a strange town, and I groped my way along the passage," he said.  "And even when I saw people that I knew were dead, I thought they were only visions.  I have not seen Tennyson yet by the way."   

       Many other spirit communicators have said that awareness or consciousness on that side of the veil is in proportion to the spiritual awareness or consciousness while on earth.  Thus, there are some who immediately recognize that they have departed the earth life, while others are slow to understand their condition.  "I awoke standing by my dead body, thinking I was still alive and in my ordinary physical frame," Julia Ames communicated to William T. Stead.  "It was only when I saw the corpse in the bed that I knew that something had happened."

      Stead, a world renowned author and journalist who was very much involved with Spiritualism, was a victim of the Titanic disaster in 1912.  One survivor recalled Stead sitting calmly in the smoking room while apparently reading a Bible as chaos gripped nearly everyone else on the ship.  Not long after his death, Stead began communicating through a number of mediums in both Great Britain and the United States.    Communicating to his daughter, Estelle, Stead recalled that his first awareness that he had passed over when he found a number of deceased friends with him. "I knew it suddenly and was a trifle alarmed," he communicated. "Practically instantaneously I found myself looking for myself.  Just a moment of agitation, momentarily only, and then the full and glorious realization that all I had learnt was true." 

       All of the victims seemed to gather in one place as their bodies floated in the ocean below.  Some of them were mental wrecks, wondering if they would be taken to meet their Maker and what their sentences would be, while others were more concerned with loved ones left behind.  There were a number, however, who seemed more concerned about their valuables that went down with the ship.

      After all of the victims gathered together, they seemed to rise vertically into the air at a terrific speed, as if they were all standing on a platform.  "I cannot tell how long our journey lasted, nor how far from the earth we were when we arrived, but it was a gloriously beautiful arrival. It was like walking from your own English winter gloom into the radiance of an Indian sky.  There was all brightness and beauty."

      After their arrival, they were greeted by many old friends and relatives and then all parted company.  Stead's father then accompanied him to a temporary rest home, which he was told was for newly-arrived spirit people. "It was nearest to earth conditions and was used because it resembled an earth place in appearance," Stead explained his arrival in what seems to have been the Hades condition, going on to say that the main objective was to get rid of unhappiness at parting from earth ties. 

      "On arriving here there is often much grief," Stead continued.  "Grief that is sometimes incapacitating, and no movement forward can be made until the individual wishes it himself.  Progress cannot be forced upon him."

      A number of spirit communicators suggest a period of conscious confusion, followed by a "sleep" and then an awakening.  A spirit identifying himself as Thomas Dowding, a schoolmaster who joined the British army and was then killed on the battlefield, communicated to Wellesley Tudor Pole that one moment he was alive and the next moment he was helping two of his friends carry his body down the trench labyrinth.  "I did not know whether I had jumped out of my body through shell shock, temporarily or for ever," he told Pole.  "You see what a small thing is death, even the violent death of war!  I seemed in a dream...Death for me was a simple experience - no horror, no long-drawn suffering, no conflict.  It comes to many in the same way."

     Dowding said he experienced no pain when struck by a shell splinter.  After his body was taken to the field mortuary, he remained near it the entire night, expecting to wake up in the body again.  He then lost consciousness.  When he awoke the next morning, his body was gone and he began hunting for it.  He then realized that he must be dead.   Once he recovered from the shock of that realization, he felt as if he were floating in a mist that muffled sound and blurred the vision.  "It was like looking through the wrong end of a telescope.  Everything was distant, minute, misty, unreal.  Guns were being fired.  It might all have been millions of miles away...I think I fell asleep for the second time, and long remained unconscious and in a dreamless condition."

       When he "awoke" the second time, he felt cramped, but this feeling gradually left him.  "I think my new faculties are now in working order," he continued his story.  "I can reason and think and feel and move."

      He was welcomed by his brother, William, who had died three years earlier, and accompanied to a rest hall.  William explained to him that it took some time for him to help him because the atmosphere was so thick.  "He hoped to reach me in time to avert the ‘shock' to which I have referred, but found it impossible."

     It was after reaching the rest hall that things became clearer and he was no longer confused.

       According to those who see more than a single spirit body, there can be a third death and even a fourth death as the spirit sheds the additional bodies or goes to a higher vibration.   I can relate the running experience to this as well.  Although it was a very rare experience, there were several times during my many years of long-distance running when, after acquiring the second wind, I achieved a state of what might be called effortless euphoria.  There was no stress at all, no matter how fast I seemed to be running.  It was if I had no limitations and could go on and on forever.  Unfortunately, however, those few experiences all came during training runs, not during races.   Perhaps the ego was too much involved in the race experience.