The human being passes through the events of the spiritual world between death and a new birth in a very special manner. He experiences them, however, also upon Earth through initiation; he experiences them also - if he has prepared his soul - already even during existence in the physical body, in that he becomes in this way a participant in the spiritual worlds. One may assert, therefore, that what happens between death and a new birth and what is, indeed, a living through of the spiritual world, - this can be beheld through initiation.

You are already aware what awaits the human being immediately after death. His physical body being laid aside, within and about him he has his I, his astral body and his etheric body. From birth till death, as you know, the etheric body remains united with the physical body. Even in sleep, it is only with the I and astral body that the human being is outside the physical, - and thus outside the etheric body too. Then for a short while after death (only a matter of days), man still inhabits his etheric body - his body of formative forces - and he is thereby enabled to look back on the whole course of his past earthly life, which is in fact always contained in the etheric body.