We are afraid of death in our culture. A lot of tales from folklore tell us how dead man take away the alive ones, for example, mermaids (which in Slavic culture are the drowned girls with no fishtail) put chants on the strangers and drag them into the underworld. The cemetery magic based on myth that every dead man is ready to help your just for the piece of fresh meat. Death is all about mystery, and its scary.
You are scared because of lack of information. You are scared of unknown dead men, but you ok with your grandmother passed away when you were 10. Restless soul is something unknown, formless, some kind of devil, goblin or just dark figure. Boo! Cemetery is very scary at night. All the deceased are bad, they will drag you into the grave right into the hell and do scary things there with you. What a nice screenplay! And so untrue.
I got to tell you, life is even scarier. It all depends on which dead man we are talking about. If there is a restless soul yes, we have all reasons to be scared. If there is a deceased not from your family you should be scared too. But if there is a guardian spirit everything could be fine depending on lifestyle of your relative, the way he died, what was he thinking, what was the conclusions in his head these factors determine the further journey of the soul.
There are several ways where the soul can go after death. Before starting reincarnation process, there are few stages person should pass through. Shortly, if you lived your life well and died well, then you will be free. Died well means the understanding that he is dead, he went through burial rituals with prayers, where applicable. Everything was performed in accordance with rules and the person is gone to the Other side. If something was made wrong the soul may get stuck between the worlds.
Frankly speaking, rules are also not applicable sometimes. If the person was not very religious, all burials procedures will not affect him on energy level. It is just the following the rules. If the person was true Christian, the rituals matter. If he was atheist, his spirit will be indifferent if the body was buried or cremated with prayers or in silence. The most important thing is to calm the soul of the person youve known rather than following the rules.
Where exactly is the afterlife?
I would like to tell you the important thing. When one asks, where the soul is going, it is supposed that there are two ways out heaven, up and hell, down. Sorry. Neither heaven nor hell. Neither up nor down. The souls are right here in our space, in our everyday life just before and behind us we just dont see them. As we cant see the air, so we cant see dead souls. You can break down air into molecules and alike the space has tiny cells for restless spirits, our beloved ones, etc. It is very important for understanding. And yes, just in front of you there is your dead grandmother. She has another form and structure now, thats the difference. The older the death, the further the spirit and weaker the impact. As soon as you focus your attention on it, attract it, the energy will be activated. Its not magic, its science, the quantum physics which states that object is changing when observed. All worlds and dimensions are around us, right here, we just cant see them because of our minds, because of what we consider as reality, because we dont want to open up our consciousness to light energies. Im not saying about freeing your mind by any and all the ways like yoga, meditation, drugs (in some cultures this is the way to enlightenment, too), I mean the expansion of your perception to be mindful and sensitive. Training your intuition and sensibility to flows of energy is useful, it gives the feeling that you are not lost, that you live your own life, not someone elses. These skills are not just for talking to ghosts. Believe me, though in media and in movies we see the romantic vision of mediums life, in fact and in real life it is not easy at all. An there are a few real mediums, not only tv stars of psychic shows.
Afterlife is not the cemetery either. The cemetery is a spiritual storage of dead bodies, storage of energy of death. But is not afterlife. If it was, the connection with dead spirits would be possible on the cemetery only, but in practice to connect with the dead soul I dont have to visit the place of his bury (it is very hard when the body is cremated). Afterworld is like Internet. Its everywhere but it is accessible only if you duly connected. Any information of past or future is in the internet itself, you just surfing to find it. Where is the Internet? Somewhere here around us. Everywhere and nowhere. Just like that the dead souls and not bodies, they are souls. And soul is completely different energy.
Transition stage
I see the world as layers of information. When the person is sitting in front of me, on the left above I see his fathers side, on the right mothers side, I can see the family of my client (both alive and dead). Late grandparents are above and a bit further. Overhead I see the divine channel and sometimes this channel is much brighter and stronger than ancestral channel. This means that connection with the god, angels, whatever you call them, is stronger that connection with family. In that case my clients often say that they feel they have a mission more important that build a family, build a house and grow the tree very often its all about creativity, art, poetry, music, become a star, mission like serving people in any field. The deeper I go, the more I see and feel. All these layers are felt different.
Dead people are seen near the client and I see them as alive. Usually, they are dressed in clothes they were buried in or some other clothes recognizable by my client. Sometimes I see then younger (for example, the man died in his 80s, but I see him as he was 50 years old this means his spirit still feels himself as 50-years-old man). Usually he tells me all information he needs to tell, all offences, desires, all his thoughts concerning why you come and dont come to visit him in the cemetery.
~ Case from my practice ~
Once at mediumship session the soul of the dead husband told his wife Svetlana that she did all right on the funeral. Svetlana made very unusual and extraordinary funeral with piano and she was worried if his soul liked it. He did. Thank God. Moreover, he said some words in French, and Svetlana said that they are from his favorite song. I dont know any French songs so it was definitely his message from the Other side.
The space of dead souls I call the Transition stage. At this level they tell me how long they are going to stay there. The Transition stage begins right after the physical death, but first 40 days they are closer to the edge separating the living world from the afterlife, therefore it is strongly recommended not to disturb this soul it could just be stuck between the worlds. Based on my practice, 40 days are very approximate period, the departure may take 2 days less or 5 days more after that period.
Sometimes dead souls tell me why they are here on the Transition stage and give information how long they are going to stay there before they move to another level of transformation. Usually the transition period takes 7 years or more within that period the person frees himself from his personality, ego, his memories, etc. The Transition stage is for everybody but not like the room for party where all dead souls meet and greet each other this is special space same for everyone and everyone sees it differently. Everybody has to go through this but alone. Its like apartment building where everyone has his own apartment but there are thousands of apartments and the building is one.