Death
The next life is not far away. Death is seen in a positive light. We live forever. A new-age view of life means that we do not have to fear death or mourn those who have passed away in the same way as if they were gone forever. Especially not as the newness explains that life on the other side is very pleasant and that it is given opportunities to get in touch with friends and relatives who have gone over there. This view of death has been a support when close relatives have been very ill or died, several interviewees tell us. One of the respondents tells us that this understanding that we will come back has even kept him from taking his own life:
But now it is, that is, if I end my life voluntarily now by jumping from the Katarina elevator, or eating all the sleeping pills I have, and so on, I will still come to the same situation next life, and next and next, until I have learned that it is wrong… You're on the wrong path. So that what I'm postponing today is coming tomorrow anyway. It's just as well to try to find life' s true… The real substance, what makes life worth living
Life is short while forever. When we leave this world, we come to "another level in the universe where everything is fine." The unpleasant or frightening death is present in the reincarnation stories and in the past of humanity, but hardly otherwise. Death is seen as an event among others:
I see this whole world as a kind of school, a great theater. And if no one really dies, but if everyone is eternal, unique, identity perspectives, from different parts of the universe, and your body dies, but you go on somewhere else, then death will not be as serious and great. I can't see it like I once did when I was young. Death is black and you are gone. I can't see it that way now.
Soon the individual will come back and be able to pick up where she left off. Several of the respondents tell us that they are already preparing for the next incarnation. One of the interviewees is looking forward to being able to devote herself to space travel in the next life, when she returns to Earth. Another interviewee expects psychological science to go further then.
The newness may give the impression that it has finally succeeded in abolishing death. This is of course not alone, other religious or spiritual teachings normally also describe an existence that continues. What is surprising about the respondents' answers is rather the lightness with which the subject is handled, which can raise questions from a psychological perspective. One of the respondents likens death to changing cars, to the latest model year. Abolishing death also guarantees justice: Those who do something bad in this life get a payback time in the next. What could previously be met with the idea of a heaven and hell may now be placed in future incarnations.