Chezz said:
hi,
i was just thinking...
there are those on this planet that know how to 'astral project' 'obe' and such.
when a person is in a near death experiece, they would often describe it as, that they were outside of their body, and looking at themselves (insert way of death here) etc.
now....
if one was to astral project, leave their mind and body at the exact second of death... what would happen then?
would their consiosness just float around?
or
do you think the link was severed so was the consiousness?
I think that consciousness is a
`thread' unto itself, sometimes called the
antahkarana, or
antas-karana in various teachings. The life-thread, or
sutratma (sutra + atma) is what remains anchored within the physical heart, keeping us alive while
out of the body.
So someone astrally-projected, or on an
`excursion,' would quite possibly observe, at death, that the "silver cord" which binds the sutratma to their sleeping body - simply retracts, withdraws, or maybe even
disappears, in the wink of an eye. I like to think that this is the simpler answer, but research has shown that a second physical body exists - called the
`etheric double,' which serves as the ensouling agency, or force, behind the dense body of flesh & blood.
It might be a little more complicated ... such that we see the connection between the etheric double and the dense body - becoming broken. As the break occurs, just as with any death, the etheric double will begin to dissociate, then fully withdraw fromt he dense body. This
cannot occur without killing the person. This
is death. And I think that in reality, the astrally-projected person would
at this point be drawn back into the etheric double, which almost certainly means that they would "fall asleep," as we often use this expression. They would
lose consciousness.
What happens next just depends. For most folks, withdrawal from the etheric occurs anywhere from several minutes, to several hours after bodily death. It can even be longer. But it may be - and I'm really not sure at this point - that while we're still in the etheric double, the
`life review' occurs ... so that
this is what takes all that time.
In the case of someone very advanced, or semi-enlightened, death would and will be a very conscious, intentional event. It is simply a
transition. And in such a case, there need be no time spent in the etheric double whatsoever. The life-thread, or
sutratma, is simply withdrawn from both bodies, and the
consciousness, via the
antahkarana, is re-centered into the astral double. In cases of very advanced individuals or adepts, the astral body, and also the mind (mental body), Causal body (Soul vehicle), maybe even the Buddhic vehicle (Sambhogakaya in Buddhism) are probably bypassed. This returns the consciousness of the individual
directly to the Atma, or to the Nirvanic Realm ... which equates with the
highest Heaven of Christianity.
I find it interesting that in all my esoteric studies, I cannot recall a single instance of a clairvoyant, or a Master, describing the
precise events occurring at physical death. Indications are given, and enough details to help us get over the fear and apprehension usually associated with death ... but I suspect there are details that remain carefully guarded, perhaps even being secrets of Initiation. If this is so, I believe it's for our general safety. Then again, I might just have never run across a description!
lol 
cheers,
andrew (taijasi)
