Here are some quotes from the Holy Scriptures. Jesus Christ Himself speaks quite definitely about eternal life. Addressing His disciples, the apostles, He said: "Verily, verily, I say to you, he who believes in Me has eternal life." This is from the Gospel of John (chapter 6, verse 47). And again: "And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).

And here are the words of Jesus Christ: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).

And again: the first testimony is from Luke (20:38), the second from John (12:50 and 14:1-2). "But God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for with Him all are alive." "I know that His commandment is eternal life. Let not your heart be troubled" – that is, do not doubt – "in My Father's house there are many mansions..." The closest disciples of Jesus Christ were called apostles – pillars of faith. At first there were twelve, then seventy more. They came to Christ at different times. Among them were ordinary people – fishermen, there were also scientists. The Apostle Luke, one of the seventy, was a physician. They followed Christ, leaving everything behind, and gradually learning new things for them, they came to a deep faith in one God and eternal life. After that, none of them had any doubts. They saw that Jesus Christ brought the dead back to life, which meant that death on earth was not always final. They saw Jesus Christ crucified, died on the cross, rose from the tomb three days later for eternal life, and appeared to them several times in a new body. All of them devoted their lives to serving Jesus Christ, being persecuted and tormented. Eleven of the twelve were martyred. They accepted it joyfully, without hesitation, because they knew that only the body dies, and the soul cannot be killed, because it is immortal.

Many apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, and then many saints and simply theologians, wrote that death is not the end and that the soul lives forever. If you read this without prejudice, then your soul becomes lighter, because truthful people wrote who gave their lives for what they believed in. And what they described is the result of what they have seen and experienced, and not the fruit of reflection; Not a game of the mind, but the results of experience.

One of the disciples of the Apostle Paul, knowing that his teacher was not afraid of death, asked him about it. The Apostle Paul answered: "It is good for me here and it will be good there." Speaking of life after the death of the body, he said: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

In the same epistle, in chapter 15, he explains more: "Not all flesh is the same flesh... there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies... and as we bore the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly... for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality... Death! These words of the Holy Apostle Paul speak of how Christianity understands death – when a person dies, he changes his perishable, temporary body for an incorruptible, eternal body.

For the apostles and many saints, the existence of the soul was obvious, so they did not prove, did not convince, but looked at it as something self-evident. St. John the Theologian wrote the prophetic book "Apocalypse", it is also called "Revelation". There are many interesting and important things in it, many predictions that have partially already come true. In the first chapter, St. John writes, "I was in the spirit on the day of the Lord," and then describes what was shown to him when he was in the spirit, out of the body. He doesn't explain what it means to be in the spirit, but he says, "I was in the spirit," as you would say, "I was on the street" or "At my neighbor's."

St. John was not alone in this. In addition to him, the writings of many apostles and saints testified to the same. It was obvious to them then that the soul could live outside the body and could sometimes leave the body and return to it.

And in the following centuries in theological literature and in the Lives of the Saints there were many descriptions of the life of the soul.

St. Augustine tells about the unbelieving physician Gennadius. Gennady went out of his body during sleep and talked with the young man, but did not understand what was happening. This happened several times, but Gennady continued to disbelieve it. Then the young man asked him: "Do you see your body, apart from you, there, on the bed?" "After all, the eyes of your body are closed, and you see both your body and me. You see with spiritual eyes. Know that after this life there will be another."

St. Gregory writes in his Dialogue: "Often, on the verge of death, the soul recognizes those with whom it will share the heavenly abode for a similar reward or punishment"... "Saints often come to the righteous to comfort them."

Archbishop Anthony of Geneva writes that the life of the soul beyond the grave is a natural continuation of its life on earth. Having passed into the afterlife, the soul feels, realizes, perceives, and reasons.

Not only in spiritual, but also in secular literature there are many similar descriptions. In Leo Tolstoy's novel "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", the deceased passes through a dark cave, sees pictures of his entire past life and the appearance of a bright light.

Ernest Hemingway describes a case of temporary death in his novel A Farewell to Arms. The hero of the novel tells, but, apparently, what happened to the author himself.