In almost every community, there is a belief in what is commonly called Life After Death, although specific assumptions about such a life may vary. The main options include the following: after physical death, life continues with only minor changes in the conditions and quality of existence; a person lives several lives and dies several times before his real disappearance; each person improves his spiritual qualities, "living" various stages, levels and even "planes"; people are destined for bodily resurrection on a certain day in the future. The idea of life in the future is closely related to the belief in reincarnation (reincarnation) - a return to earthly (material) life in different bodily shells.
Christian views on the afterlife include the idea of the day of judgment, when it will be determined where exactly the person's soul should go - to heaven or hell, depending on the sinfulness of his life. An indefinitely long period of an incorporeal life must end with the acquisition of a bodily shell at the time of the second coming of Christ, which must also be the end of the world. Christian ideas greatly influenced 19th century spiritualism, although some spiritualists (such as Andrew Jackson Davis) devoted much effort to understanding what was happening in the intermediate state. According to Davis, who dictated his lectures in a trance state, after physical death, a person continues his path of spiritual development, passing through several heavenly spheres. This happens until the seventh sphere is reached,where the human soul merges with the "Endless whirlwind of love, wisdom and the great spiritual Sun of the divine mind."
The most primitive communities (tribes) also have their own beliefs about what happens to people when they die, although the concept of an afterlife is not always formulated clearly enough. Sometimes these beliefs are reduced to the continuation of existence, and without due attention to the nature of such existence. In other communities, the afterlife is imagined to be very similar to ordinary life on earth. For example, they believe that there is the same type of social organization, but it is complemented by an abundance of everything. It was this kind of ideas that formed the basis for the description of the "Land of the Happy Hunt", in which the American Indians believed. In some communities, the afterlife was presented as on earth, but exactly the opposite. For instance,in their attempts to connect with the world of the dead, people spoke up and did exactly the opposite of how it was supposed to be done in ordinary life.
The land of the dead is not always in heaven. Perhaps even more often it is placed underground. For example, the Zulu tribe believed that the dead live in the underworld, where mountains, rivers, etc. the same as above. After death, people live in villages where cows are milked, which are the spirits of cows killed in the earthly world. Or, according to the beliefs of others, the dead may live on a mountain or in a valley on the surface of the Earth. A European in Borneo managed to persuade local guides to take him to the top of the mountain, where the natives believed the spirit world was. He was shown the moss on which the spirits are eaten, and the hoof prints of the buffalo ghosts, but the guides flatly refused to spend the night there.
As a rule, in primitive communities (tribes) it was believed that knowledge about the afterlife comes to people through the sensations of shamans - intermediaries between the living and the dead. Shamans have the opportunity to visit the Land of the Dead in search of souls that are unable to return to their bodies either due to an accident or due to illness. Often, the statements of the shamans were supplemented by stories about the near-death sensations of ordinary people, who at such moments have visions associated with the afterlife.
Spiritualism and animistic representations of communities at the tribal level of development converge in the assumption of a connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Animistic ideas about the soul are quite complex and completely different for different peoples. In many communities, they distinguish between the spirit itself, going to the Land of the Dead, and a separate part of it, capable of reincarnating. The spirit is considered especially strong before it travels to the Land of the Dead, but this cannot happen until three or four days after physical death. That is why everyone is trying in every possible way to facilitate this departure and somehow discourage the spirit from returning later and disturbing the living (see Funeral rites and customs, Places and types of burials).
The spirits of ancestors may appear on some special occasions. For example, after the death of a family member. However, it is believed that they are no longer so dangerous. The Ghost Dance is a special North American Indian festival where the spirits of the dead are believed to return to live the life they led before the appearance of the white man.