The soul of somebody always exists. It undergoes stages especially just after death.
Just before you die you experience a flashback. All the important events of your life are brought to your memory. You see, as in a movie, your mother giving birth to you, you see the first time you walked and talked, you see your first day in school, high school, you see your wedding, the birth of your children, the first day of your new job. You see major sins you committed, major good deeds, for example, helping other people, you see great events that changed the course of your life. You see the wedding of your children, your retirement.
After the flashback your soul battles death then you see two angels: your guardian angel and a meeting angel standing by your side. For you to die a demon comes: death and gives you a drink. If you refuse to drink it your soul will battle death without dying. After you drink it the death demon unlocks your joints in order for your soul to leave your body. When your soul leaves your body it floats, you see a tunnel at the other edge of the tunnel there is light. When you go through the tunnel, as some people report, you see love and feel the light. There deceased relatives and friends meet you and talk to you. You feel love and happy. You can meet your parents if they had died.
After the meeting with your relatives your guardian angel asks you where you would like to go and see for 2 days. You can go wherever you like. You can see your children, your friends, your relatives who are alive. When you go and meet them you are invisible to them however you watch them what they do and say. You can go to Eiffel Tower, to the moon, to the deep of the sea.
After that the judgment of your soul begins. On the one camp is you and your angels, on the enemy camp are demons. They have lists with all the sins you have committed while the angels have lists with all your good deeds. You pass from the toll houses. The toll houses are stations where a demon is seated in an office and hears and judges you. Now, I will advice you what to do this is the point of why I am writing all this. When the judgment begins you do not answer the demons with the accusations against you. You kneel down saying: Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me your sinner and unworthy servant, moving your head down towards the floor. You stand up and repeat. The sinner you are the longer it takes to complete the judgment. The demons might argue he admits that he is a sinner he deserves hell. There was a certain saint who was asked by the demons what good deeds he has done and he replied: I am a sinner and unworthy servant of Christ all I am counting on is the mercy of the merciful Jesus Christ. The demons might say you are a sinner you can do this prayer to Jesus for ever and nothing will happen. They try to discourage you to stop praying. You ignore them and continue your knee-bends. The demons are cunning they might even hit you and kick you while you perform your knee-bends but you insist. The sinner you have been the more powerful the demons will be, trying to condemn you to hell. There are accounts that the soul feels. You can feel pain or tiredness.
The good news is that you have angels who support you. The demons might try to distract you saying loudly your sins or even tell exaggerations or lies. Sins you have not committed. Insist and continue praying, your angels will mention your good deeds and rebuke the demons. Demons will mention your sins for each particular toll house. There are twenty toll houses:
1. Sins of the tongue
2. Lies
3. Slander (a false statement uttered maliciously that damages a person's reputation)
4. Gluttony (excessive eating)
5. Laziness
6. Theft
7. Covetousness (desire something belonging to another person)
8. Usury (lending of money at excessively high interest)
9. Injustice
10. Envy
11. Pride
12. Anger
13. Remembering evil
14. Murder
15. Magic
16. Lust (intense sexual desire)
17. Adultery
18. Sodomy (Homosexuality)
19. Heresy
20. Unmercifulness
At each toll house demons mention the relevant sin, for example, Charis lied 10.000 times and some of his lies damaged the lives of other people. The angels will retort that he confessed that he lied so these sins are canceled. The demons might say not in all his confessions he mentioned that he lied and he lied after confessing. There is a row between angels and demons. If it is proved that the sin of the toll house is not so great and there are good deeds that counteract the sin you are transported to the next toll house. If you do not pass a toll house you are sent to hell. Finishing the toll houses there is a pair of scales. On the one side the angels place your good deeds on the other side demons place your sins. If the pair of scales shifts to your good deeds you go to paradise.
Then, the angels transport you to paradise you ascend and ascend with the angels and start hearing hymns from the angels and see paradise. In paradise there are seven heavens. In the seventh the Apostles and Prophets are living. In the sixth the Saints and it goes until the first: people who are in partial repentance.
The above are from what I have heard and read, I could be mistaken. The demons might argue: all his life he did not do knee-bends, this judgment is made for him to see what wrongs he has done all the days of his life. It is important that he participates. Consult your angels. First say to them: In the name of Jesus Christ who are you and where do you come from? If they answer something like: I am your guardian angel I am always with you. Say to them I will do knee-bends invoking Jesus Christ at the same time I will listen to you. While you perform your knee-bends also pray inside of you for your angels to win and they will win.
Passages from the Holy Bible about judgment
Romans 14:10-12: You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
2 Corinthians 5:10: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Romans 2:6-11: God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
Hebrews 9:27: Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
1 Corinthians 6:2: Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1 Corinthians 3:8: The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.
2 Thessalonians 1:5-8: All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Hebrews 2:2: For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment,
Hebrews 10:26-27: If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.
Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
There was a certain monk Gregorios who was a student of Saint Basil the new. This monk wanted to know what happened to the soul of Theodora, a spiritual child of Saint Basil, because she died. Gregorios was insisting until Saint Basil told him: "My son Gregorio this night I am going to Theodora come with me to see her." When the monk Gregorios slept his soul went out of his body to paradise where he found Theodora. Theodora told him everything about the judgment of the soul as she experienced it. This account is written above in summary form.
Also you might find useful the book: The Soul after Death by Fr. Seraphim Rose (an American).
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