“It is not really possible for the soul to withdraw from the body if one has not learned detachment – up to and including the ultimate detachment of death. So many people who have never learned detachment are incapable even at the moment of death, of leaving their physical body ! The bonds which bind them to it are so strong. During their lifetime they were only interested in material questions, money and pleasure : is it surprising that they are unwilling to give it all up ? for a long time they suffer dreadfully, prowling around their own lifeless body and clinging to the people and places they knew in their lifetime, until a servant of God comes to help them to free themselves. Others, on the contrary, leave their physical body instantly as though taking off a garment with the greatest of ease and intense joy.
This is why schools of initiation have always taught their disciples how to be detached. It is not a question of abandoning everything, it is a question of understanding that true detachment exists inwardly and that purity is the only way to achieve detachment.”

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov – Meditation, Brochure 304
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