From the author: The material contains differences from the printed version All about Orthodox psychology on psyheo.by “Now we see as if through a dark glass, fortune-telling, but then face to face; Now I know in part, and then I will know, just as I am known.) (1 Cor. 13:12) Oh, hidden from the eyes and minds of men is the secret of the mysteries about the leaving of the mortal body by the human soul to continue its posthumous existence in places of light and darkness, determined the state of the soul and its deeds on earth. Oh, the great miracle of afterlife, which “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and nothing has entered into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9) Oh, the inexpressible wisdom of the highest spiritual calling and destiny of a person to eternal life in the heavenly city “New Jerusalem”, surrounded by Angels and heavenly powers, constantly singing the Glory of the Most High, in fiery hell, surrounded by demons, spirits of evil and darkness, testing souls, is it possible to comprehend you and say about the being of the future century and state in the language of rough syntactic forms and rational concepts? Before starting a conversation about the future or posthumous state of a person, one should immediately make a reservation that there is no possibility of more or less accurately and correctly describing the future state, as in essentially spiritual from a bodily state, as lower than natural and gross. Essentially, the future state of man is in many ways similar and akin to the supernatural state of man, but not in the bodily (material) aspect of “I”, but in the spiritual aspect of “Not I” or “We” , when there is no body, like a rough material shell, but the awareness of the fullness of the human personality is preserved. The principle of resurrection itself implies, of course, not a return back to the bodily ego state, which is impossible in principle according to the law of the same evolution and hierarchy, but a transition to some other state existence, which is fundamentally different in its dimensionality (dimensions), but in many ways identical to the human way of perception and sense of the “reality” of existence. The “new” state of man should not be confused with the future. A person can feel a new (renewed) state, as a spiritual and moral one, while still living in the flesh, having stripped himself of the form of the “old” human ego. A person can feel the future state only beyond the grave, having crossed the threshold of the death of the flesh. Speaking about the future state, it should be said that from the point of view of psychology there is only a metaphorical way of reflecting this state through analogies. “But someone will say: how will the dead be resurrected? and in what body will they come? Reckless! what you sow will not come to life unless it dies. And when you sow, you do not sow the future body, but the naked grain that happens, wheat or something else; but God gives him a body as he wishes, and to each seed his own body.” (1 Cor. 15:37-38) “at the resurrection all members will be resurrected and, according to what is written, hair will not perish (Luke 21:18), and everything will become light-like, everything will be immersed and transformed into light and fire, but not will be resolved and will not become fire, so that the former nature will no longer exist, as some claim. For Peter remains Peter, and Paul remains Paul, and Philip remains Philip; each one, filled with the Spirit, remains in his own nature and being.” (Venerable Macarius of Egypt, Spiritual Conversations) “There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of those in heaven is one, and that of the earth is another. There is another glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another of the stars; and star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; sown in humiliation, raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in strength; the spiritual body is sown, the spiritual body is raised. There is a spiritual body, there is a spiritual body.” (1 Cor. 40:44) Even the Apostle Paul, being blessed with many gifts of the Holy Spirit, did not undertake to write anything specifically about the future state of man, but wrote allegorically using parallels,metaphors and comparisons “distantly, vaguely, fortune-telling”, etc. “And just as we bore the image of the earthly, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. But I tell you this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, and corruption does not inherit incorruption. I tell you a secret: we will not all die, but we will all change suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed.” (1 Cor. 15:49-52) That is why everything that is known about the future state can only be gleaned from the Gospel, patristic tradition and the messages of the Apostles, who saw Christ Himself after His Resurrection, this is an amazing state of man. The phrase “we will not all die” is somewhat alarming due to the duality of the understanding of physical and mental-spiritual death. The main difficulty in describing and understanding the future state of man is the lack of appropriate terminology and language that would be able to convey, on the one hand, the essential specificity of future reality in its immaterial and timeless aspects, and on the other hand, the specificity of the incorporeal state of man itself, as the state of the basic forces of the soul ( mind, feelings and will), deprived of the body, i.e. psychophysiological and material distribution, but representing a concentrated energy-informational substrate. Even such concepts as a “wave” or “quantum” state cannot convey anything about the post-mortem state of a person who has thrown off his bodily shell and found himself in a different reality, in a different quality and state in the entire mental and spiritual, i.e. the mentally realized and sensually felt completeness of one’s personality. By mental-spiritual completeness one should understand the completeness of a new qualitative state, as if newly erected (recreated), which is now completely different - spiritual, not physiological, and therefore possessing completely different properties. “secondary erection” resolved and deceased living being" (Venerable John of Damascus, An Accurate Statement of Faith, Vol. 4) The term secondary “exaltation” means that after passing the threshold of death, as the moment of decomposition (disintegration) of the trimerial bodily-mental-spiritual nature of a person, it will be re-integrated by some higher forces, but in a different “aggregate” state while maintaining the consciousness of the individual and heartfelt feeling. Will, as a desirable force and property of the predominantly bodily state of a person, will be absent in the future state, and the entire being of the individual will be concentrated primarily in strength and clarity of thought. This is, in fact, why the state of a person’s consciousness and the quality of his mind at all stages of a person’s life, including the posthumous one, is decisive in relation to other forces of the soul - feeling and will. Speaking about the human mind in the future state, it should be said that we are talking about not about the rational mind in an ego state, which has no use in the spiritual world, but about spiritual consciousness, as dispassionate and purified from egoism and the corresponding passions of the soul (pride and vanity). There is synergistically no place for egoism and the passionate ego of the mind in the Kingdom of God , as the eon of the glory of God and the triumph of the spiritual and moral law (the Law of God), but there is a place on the outskirts of the spiritual world, where “crying and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12) It is for this reason that the depth of the purification of the human mind from passions and the degree its spiritual and moral perfection is neither more nor less, but determines the posthumous fate of the human soul. One can only assume that passions and egoism, if not synergistic (vectorly) with all-permeable and impassive divine energies, in the language of physics, cause the effect of “resistance”, as “conductors” of the soul, and therefore are felt by the soul as Gehenna “fire” and “burning.” It can be assumed that it is passion - the dispassionateness of the soul, according to the law of connecting like with like, that determines the place of its final stay inthe afterlife until the General Resurrection. According to the tradition of the church, the posthumous resurrection should take place in the image of the Resurrection of Christ, when the resurrected and, as it were, re-erected nature of the Savior could be seen and even touched by the Apostles and disciples. “When they were talking about this, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and He said to them: Peace be with you. They, confused and frightened, thought that they saw a spirit. But He said to them: Why are you troubled, and why do such thoughts enter your hearts? Look at My hands and at My feet; it is I Myself; touch Me and look at Me; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have. And having said this, he showed them his hands and feet.” (Luke 24:36-40) When speaking about the future state of man, one can to a certain extent use the analogy of spiritual entities of an angelic nature. Saint Theophan the Recluse directly correlated the nature of the future state with the angelic. “His nature will be close to the ethereal, angelic” (St. Theophan the Recluse, Commentaries on the Epistles of the Apostle Paul) It should be clear to any person that the future state of man is preceded by the inevitable death of the flesh and the passage ordeal of the soul, called the test of “air”. The main milestones of the soul separated from the flesh are known in the Christian tradition: Day of death (first contact with the spiritual world and spirits) 3rd day (the first two days after death - farewell to the world) 9th day (six days from the 3rd days to the 9th - vision of Paradise) 40th day (30 days from the 10th day to the 40th - vision of Hell) Finding a place for the affairs of the soul (before the Last Judgment) Last Judgment General Resurrection Speaking about the state of the human soul in the future state, as already mentioned, one should focus on the supernatural qualities of Christ, as the second Adam from heaven. “The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second person is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, so are the earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are the heavenly. And just as we bore the image of earth, we will also bear the image of heaven.” (1 Cor. 15:47-48) From the Gospel we know about a number of amazing properties of the future state, among which we can note such as amazing penetrating ability, the ability to reincarnate, the ability to travel long distances, etc. This can be confirmed by the free exit of the resurrected Christ from the tomb (cave), closed with a large stone with a seal applied and standing guards, entry through a locked door into the house of the disciples, appearance in different places during one period of time and etc. “That same day two of them went to a village sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, called Emmaus; and talked among themselves about all these events. And while they were talking and reasoning with each other, Jesus Himself approached and went with them.” (Luke 24:13-15) As St. John Chrysostom wrote about this state, the renewed body “will be able to rush through the air,” i.e. possess the properties of instantaneous movement in space. Among the properties of the future state of a person, one can note the amazing ability for direct materialization and dematerialization: “When they still did not believe and marveled for joy, He said to them: do you have any food here? They gave Him some of the baked fish and honeycomb. And he took it and ate before them.” (Luke 24; 41-43) This amazing manifestation by the Lord for the disciples of natural human properties and needs can be considered rather a deliberate demonstration of true humanity based on supernatural capabilities. This artifact of supernatural properties and capabilities of the future state suggests that this is the human condition not identical to the angelic, but surpasses it in capabilities. Thus, in the future state, all three parts of the trimerium body-soul-spirit will continue to be characteristic of human nature, but in a completely different quality and state compared to the bodily one. “It will be earthly.” the body is incorruptible, but without wetness or whiteness, having been ineffably transformed from the spiritual into the spiritual, so that it will be both earthly and heavenly. As it was created in the beginning, so it will rise again,that it may be conformed to the image of the Son of Man through the full participation of deification.” (Rev. Gregory of Sinaite, On commandments and dogmas, threats and promises, 46) Speaking about the future state of man, we can say that the very concept of the body in this state, as an old and material “physiological suit”, becomes conditional. One should not even try to describe the state of the powers of the human soul in a future state, since this will be a gross distortion and simplification of what cannot, in principle, be assessed and expressed by concepts, categories and images actualized in our cognitive and mental reality. We can only say that the degree and depth of purification of the soul from passions and the influence of egoism is the key to her salvation in eternity and all parts of the nature of a dispassionate person in the future state will achieve the fullness of the spiritual state (deification), and for some to such an extent that “The righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13;43) Speaking in general about the state of the cognitive sphere of a person in the future state, we can say that it will be radically different in its characteristics from the state of rational cognition known to us all, as a method of logical thinking and mental construction based on the use of “I- mind.” If the ordinary “I-mind” is characterized by a state of constant movement of thought from emerging thoughts caused by the work of the power of feeling and willpower, then in the future state the human mind will be characterized by “not thinking,” but mental-spiritual contemplation due to the lack movements of thought caused by the absence of will and bodily feeling. It is for this reason that in the future state the human mind remains in a state of relative peace and freedom from thoughts. “After all, when he has achieved divine love, he rises above this thought and remains free from thoughts. “For virtue is a natural path, which consists in humility, works, alms, chastity, sacrifices and prayers of the mouth, as well as mercy. In the new century, none of this is required, because the spiritual way of life consists of a different knowledge, which does not appear as a result of physical or mental labor, and its service does not come from them. Those who are at this level (mental) tend to think. In the spiritual way of life there is no reflection, no thought, no excitement, no movement. Thoughts are set in motion at the soul level, but at the spiritual level there is no thought, since the mind rises above the images of this world and resides in a different knowledge. The knowledge of those people (spiritual) can be described in the usual verbal way for us; as for these (spiritual) their knowledge cannot be described even in the form in which the mind exists there. The knowledge here, of course, presupposes the movement of thoughts, while that way of life (spiritual) is above all such things. It is in this state that we will be after the resurrection from the dead along with the holy angels; the angels are already in it.” (Venerable Isaac the Syrian, On Divine Mysteries and Spiritual Life, Conversation 20, P. 5, 6) Thus, in the future state there is no “disappearance” of the personality or its “dissolution” in emptiness, suffering or grace, as some think, and personal individuality is still preserved, but at a completely different (spiritual) level of understanding of the individual. Speaking about the future state of man, it is simply impossible to ignore the aspect of understanding hell or Gehenna (fiery) from the point of view of the meaning of eternity. “And these will go into eternal torment and the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25:46) This question, related to the revelation of the Savior Himself and the fundamental tenets of faith, has caused and continues to cause a lot of controversy among the church fathers, clergy and theologians. Its essence lies in the understanding of the term “eternity” - literal or figurative. In this regard, to this day there are two lines and points of view regarding the eternity of hellish torment, one of which literally understands eternity as