What Happens after We Die

What Happens after We Die: Making the Connection between the Living and the Dead

Throughout life, we wonder: Is there life after this life? What would such a life be like? Do we enter a paradise? Do we encounter our deceased friends and loved ones? Our Western culture tries to avoid thoughts of aging and death, and the most simplistic explanations are often enough. But perhaps a detailed view of our life after this life can help us prepare for what is to come.

Arie Boogert, a seasoned priest of The Christian Community, offers a detailed description of what happens after we die. He begins with the days immediately following death and, juxtaposing descriptions by Rudolf Steiner, shows how we separate gradually from our earthly existence, beginning with a vivid review of our life on Earth. He then shows how those who are deceased gradually leave physical life behind and acclimate to a new and very different reality—how we come to understand the effects of our actions and inaction by witnessing and feeling the slights and hurts we have caused others; and the realms we experience before we move on to form our destiny and a new life.

Moreover, the book shows how those still alive on Earth can maintain contact and help those who have died. With the help of Rudolf Steiner’s meditative verses and prayers and by understanding the deceased’s reality and experiences, we can accompany them on their way through the worlds of spirit.

What Happens after We Die offers much needed help to all who want to come to terms and work with death and grieving in a responsible and realistic way.

See also Arie Boogert’s companion volume from Lindisfarne Books, What Happens before We Are Born: Creating Our Living Web of Destiny.

C O N T E N T S:

AFTER DYING
1. First Experiences: The Review
2. Entering the Soul World: Kamaloka
3. The Living and the Deceased

THE FIRST DAYS
4. The Moment of Dying
5. The First Days after Dying
6. Funeral, Cremation

EXTRAORDINARY SITUATIONS
7. Three Cremations in 1915
8. Dying under Various Circumstances

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIVE VERSES
9. The Significance of a Verse or Meditation
10. Prayers and Meditative Verses for Those Who Have Died

A LASTING BOND
11. The Bridge between the Living and Those Who Have Died
12. Reading to the Deceased
13. The Bond between the Living and Those Who Have Died
14. Finally . . .

Afterword: Accountability
Appendix: The Form Body and the Body of Formative Forces
Cited and Related Works

This volume is a translation from Dutch of Onze Doden. Rudolf Steiner over het omgaan met dood en sterven (Uitgeverij Christofoor, Zeist, Netherlands, 1992).

About the Author

Arie Boogert (1933–2013) was born in The Netherlands. He was a priest in The Christian Community, Movement for Religious Renewal. After his ordination at the Seminary in Stuttgart, Germany, he served in the congregations of The Hague and Zeist in The Netherlands. In 1989, he went to Australia for three years, after which he served in Denver and later in Boston until 2008, when he returned to The Hague. He made a lifelong study of the many indications Rudolf Steiner gave in his books and lectures on life after death. He wrote several books on this subject, including What Happens after We Die (2020) and What Happens before We Are Born (2020), published in English by SteinerBooks.

Philip Mees was born in Holland and has lived in the United States since 1969. He is a retired bank officer and was for many years a trustee of the Rudolf Steiner Foundation (RSF Social Finance, San Francisco CA). He is a long-time student of Rudolf Steiner’s work and one of his particular interests is the evolution of human consciousness through the ages as expressed in art, as well as in human actions in everyday life today. His principal retirement occupation is translating Dutch anthroposophical books, in which his ably assisted by his wife Linda Connell. Linda and he live in Glendale CA.