Our physical body will decay and return into the cycle of matter. The etheric body (except for some highly evolved yogis and saints) dissolves into the etheric world. The astral-mental body has the possibility of independent existence, especially if our relatives support its survival by their attachment, or if we ourselves are so attached to the earthly world that we want to keep it alive at all costs. Then, while remaining in this body, we can have certain experiences on the subtle material plane which, depending on one's purity, can give the impression of either hell or heaven, but which in any case are fed by our inner world of illusion and have nothing to do with reality. In many religions this is called th ...