Chapter 13 – Night Practice 1: Theoretical Aspects where he had to spend some time before his next human incarnation. Because the moment of death is so critical, many esoteric schools, western and eastern, have developed precise methods for leaving the body the right way so one can find one's proper direction in the non-physical worlds. Let us now look at a daily experience which is no different from the adventure of death. Where do you go after you fall asleep? A whole range of planes of consciousness are open to you. Some are light and refreshing, others are more likely to induce terrible nightmares. As far as fatigue recovery and spiritual development are concerned, the value of your sleep depends on the quality of the planes that your astral body visits during the night. If you wander into the wrong places you may well wake up more tired than when you fell asleep, or even sick. What determines which planes you visit during your sleep? Once more, your state of mind when crossing the threshold is essential. At the gate of sleep as at the gate of death, a resonance takes place. The quality of your consciousness at the very moment of falling asleep plays an essential role in determining where you will journey during the night. Hence the inestimable value of a time of pure and coherent awareness just before falling asleep, which will allow your astral body to be drawn towards the ‘right place’ during the journey. Many valuable side effects will result, such as greater energy during the day, better resistance to disease, increased memory and enhanced creativity. You would never treat the moment of your death lightly. The parallel between the two experiences is such that the moment of falling asleep should be treated with the same importance.
13.2 Initiatory death and the mystery of the threshold Several traditions have emphasized the analogy between death and initiation. Even without any occult knowledge, you can convince yourself of this correspondence just by observing a dying person. There may have been traumas and suffering beforehand, yet when the moment of death approaches, the person starts to radiate a great serenity. If he has not been sedated with too many drugs you can clearly sense that an opening takes place. From an esoteric point of view the connection between death and initiation is obvious: the initiate is the one who can, while alive, become aware of those planes visited by the dead. The initiate can see the non-physical planes and travel through them even though
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