For example, statements of clinically dead people being revived have shown that mind can stay in working order after cardiac or cerebral death. First of all, what is experienced is less interesting than the experience itself. Who or what has experienced, if 'everything' is dead? Buddhists say that it is the consciousness, a stream of the mind, flowing on, from life to life.

Only on this basis it can be explained why so many human beings remember events from their former lives. Especially in the US there exist numerous studies not only about the recollection of former lives but also about clear facts proving that the person concerned did actually live at that place at a certain time. In a similar vein, the existence of some children, socalled wunderkinder, indicates that there must be a former life, because these children did not achieve their extraordinary skills in this life. In this way, we can also explain why infants show general patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, which they could not possibly have learned in their short life span.

When a human being is dying, certain observable processes are taking place. The dying person more and more loses control over the solid element in body, muscles, and bones. Then all the liquids are getting out of balance: saliva and urine cannot often be controlled any longer. The body becomes chillier and chillier, starting from the toes and the fingertips, in the direction of the heart. Eventually, the breath becomes shallower and shallower, until it stops completely.

While the western medicine declares the human being dead at this point of time, he or she is not yet dead from a Buddhist point of view. What now happens is the following: Within about 10 to 15 minutes, the male energy experienced as white is moving from the head (about 8 fingers behind the hairline) towards the heart. During this time, the dying person experiences a great clarity, and 33 different forms of anger disappear. Then a red, female energy rises from the middle of the body (4 fingers below the navel) towards the heart. During this time, 40 different kinds of attachment disappear. When the red and the white light merge at heart level, a deep blackness arises, and 7 kinds of ignorance disappear. Now a glistening white light appears, which is called "Tudam" in Tibetan. This means that the mind is now in the heart. This is the moment when body and mind depart. According to the Buddhist view, the human body is dead not until about half an hour after the clinical death.

The body stays back, and the mind now falls into a kind of unconsciousness, lasting about 68 to 72 hours. Because the consciousness still has its old habitual tendencies, it searches for beings and places it knows from its former life. This, however, results in great confusion, sometimes even panic, since it no longer has a body. The perception of the phenomena changes. The world around us appears dull, emerging like in a fog, then vanishing again. This kind of perception enforces the confusion even more. After about 10 days, the mind finally realizes that one is actually dead, usually resulting in another, short unconsciousness.

Eventually, the deep-psychological impressions from the former life mix with the current perception. In the next phase, however, all the bridges to the old life are more and more pulled down, and the main tendencies from the store consciousness take over. Because one is not bound to a body any longer, this kind of perception heightens many times over and becomes very intensive. Depending on the kind of impressions of the former life, these states of mind are at least confusing, often also extremely painful.

This phase finishes 49 days after one's death at the latest. At that time, the consciousness wants to get away from this extreme state of mind, and it 'searches' for new parents. It can be imagined that the mind is pulled by parents who show a correspondence to its main tendencies (like we feel drawn towards people complying with our imaginations, later becoming our friends). The consciousness is clinging to the sperm and the egg of the parents, and a new life comes into existence.

Since cause and effect always function on the relative level, they determine our future life as well: Where will we be reborn (in western democracies or poor dictatorships)? With which tendencies of the mind (for instance, willing to help, aggressive, willing to learn, suppressing others, neurotic)? How is our body (e.g. healthy, athletic, in poor health, handicapped)?