A:

Thanks so much for this interesting question to us here at TruthBook. Just in case you didn’t know, this is a website dedicated to the teachings of The Urantia Book, so my reply will be taken from my experience with those teachings.

The thought of disembodied souls caught somehow between heaven and earth seems pretty scary. I would not like to experience such a thing. Although it is impossible to be sure, it seems to me that something like that would be inconsistent with God’s merciful ministry to his children.

On the other hand, I do think that there may be something like an “energy imprint” that might be a residual impression left by a personality who has recently passed over. This imprint might be mistaken for the actual presence of that soul. I only say this because there are those who sincerely believe that they have had contact with lost souls. I am sure they sense something, but what that something is, who can say? In the modern world of quantum physics, and our growing understanding of the nature of energy, many things seem possible.

I prefer to believe that Urantia Book teachings are correct when they say that our souls and our personalities are in the safe custody of the angels after we die – I like to think that we are never on our own, wandering around. I like to believe that no matter what kinds of trauma we may have suffered here, we are not doomed to linger here while we sort it out ourselves. That kind of distress will be worked out when we awaken on the Mansion Worlds.

The Urantia Book teaches us a lot about death, and what happens to us when, and after, we die. Here is a sample of those teachings, from the section titled “The Phnomenon of Death.” In this passage we read about the Thought Adjuster, the fragment of God that lives in the mind of all of his children.

Physical (body and mind) death. When death overtakes a human being, the Adjuster remains in the citadel of the mind until it ceases to function as an intelligent mechanism, about the time that the measurable brain energies cease their rhythmic vital pulsations. Following this dissolution the Adjuster takes leave of the vanishing mind, just as unceremoniously as entry was made years before, and proceeds to Divinington by way of Uversa.

112:3.7 Upon death the Thought Adjuster temporarily loses personality, but not identity; the human subject temporarily loses identity, but not personality; on the mansion worlds both reunite in eternal manifestation. Never does a departed Thought Adjuster return to earth as the being of former indwelling; never is personality manifested without the human will; and never does a dis-Adjustered human being after death manifest active identity or in any manner establish communication with the living beings of earth. Such dis-Adjustered souls are wholly and absolutely unconscious during the long or short sleep of death. There can be no exhibition of any sort of personality or ability to engage in communications with other personalities until after completion of survival. Those who go to the mansion worlds are not permitted to send messages back to their loved ones. It is the policy throughout the universes to forbid such communication during the period of a current dispensation.

Read more about Thought Adjusters HERE.

This sentence makes it pretty clear: “…never does a dis-Adjustered human being after death manifest active identity or in any manner establish communication with the living beings of earth.”

I have heard of people who claim that they can see or sense the presence of a “lost” soul who has not yet left the earth. But, is such a thing real? Is there ever an interval of time between death and the leave-taking of that human being? We just don’t know…

Again, I prefer to beilieve the Urantia Book teachings on this matter, since I know (also from Urantia Book teahings) that God loves us – each one of us – tremendously, and I doubt whether getting lost between heaven and earth is part of his plan for any of us…