Place Between Worlds
Definition
The structural region the spirit traverses immediately after bodily death and during the Threshold Period: a space beyond time and matter where existence is timeless. The Place Between Worlds is where the spirit processes the life just lived through the life review, encounters deceased loved ones, and prepares for the next phase (whether continued incarnation or progression into the Aethereal Cycles).
Literal meaning
The post-death region of operating-existence. The Place Between Worlds is structurally distinct from the Aethereal Cycles (which are the cycles of the spiritual realms proper) and from the material-realm cycles below. It is the transitional region where the spirit operates between vessels: not yet in the new vessel, not still in the old one, with time and space losing their ordinary meaning.
Esoteric meaning
The Place Between Worlds is the operating-region of the personal-scale Threshold Period. The spirit's typical six-day processing of the prior life occurs here; the life review, the encounter with deceased loved ones, and the access to alternate-timeline scenarios (the *what if* explorations) all unfold in this region. The Place Between Worlds is also where spirits with unfinished business linger past the typical six-day window until their attachment is resolved.
Allegorical meaning
The harbor at sunset where the day's ships are unloading and the night's ships are taking on cargo: the harbor is real, the ships are real, and the harbor is neither the ships' destination nor their origin, only the place between voyages.
Extended meaning
The Place Between Worlds operates structurally as the immediate post-Veil region for the spirit. When the spirit leaves the physical plane after death, it transitions to this region where existence is timeless. Most spirits take about six days to process the event, which is why funerary traditions are often held within a week. During this period, spirits typically remain nearby their body and family to recognize their new state and bid farewell to attachments. Even firm prior belief in life after death does not eliminate the disorientation of confronting one's own lifeless body. Some spirits linger longer in the Place Between Worlds. In cases of sudden or violent deaths, consciousness can fracture and the spirit may be temporarily unaware of its own demise, requiring extended time for recognition. Others remain by choice, unwilling to release a particular person, object, or out of fear of the unknown. In all these cases, the spirit stays until it is ready to depart. Once the spirit moves on, it enters the life review: revisiting its entire life, examining actions and broader implications, with alternate timelines becoming accessible so the spirit can explore *what if* scenarios and see how different choices might have unfolded. This expanded perspective grants invaluable insights. The spirit retains lessons through resonance even when the conscious mind forgets, and these lessons guide subsequent incarnations through intuitive impulse. The Egyptian *Duat* is the closest figural ancestor of the Place Between Worlds in the comparative literature; the *Duat*'s articulation across the *Pyramid Texts* and the *Book of Going Forth by Day* provides the most-developed pre-modern map of the structural region. The Tibetan *bardo* literature (the *Bardo Thödol*) provides the second most-developed articulation, with the *chikhai bardo* (the moment of death), the *chönyid bardo* (the experiencing of dharmata), and the *sidpa bardo* (the seeking of rebirth) corresponding closely to the Netist articulation of the Place Between Worlds' structural phases.
*Place Between Worlds* is structurally the region of the Threshold Period at the personal-scale. The Threshold Period entry treats the period itself; this entry treats the region in which the period unfolds. The two are complementary articulations of the same structural feature.
Usage
A practitioner encounters the Place Between Worlds in cosmological study, in pastoral support of the bereaved (the family is supporting a process unfolding in this region during the first six days), and in the practitioner's own preparation for the threshold-passage. The phrase is used in the standard Netist cosmological vocabulary alongside *Threshold Period*, *the Veil*, and *Aethereal Cycles*.
Ritual usage
Funerary rites within the first six days after death support the spirit's traversal of the Place Between Worlds. The Rite of Severance addresses cases where the spirit has remained in the Place past the typical window and family or community recognizes the lingering presence. Anniversary rites for departed loved ones recognize the spirit's continued presence in the Aethereal Cycles after the Place-Between-Worlds passage has completed.
Comparative tradition
Egyptian *Duat* in the *Pyramid Texts*, *Coffin Texts*, and *Book of Going Forth by Day*; the closest pre-modern comparative articulation. Tibetan *bardo* in the *Bardo Thödol*; the most-developed structural-articulation in the comparative literature. The Greek Underworld in Homer's *Odyssey* book 11 and Plato's *Phaedo*. Christian *purgatorio* in Dante's *Divine Comedy* and the broader medieval Catholic articulation. Jewish *gilgul-and-shoel* threshold articulations in the Lurianic corpus. Hindu *antara-bhava* (intermediate existence) in the *Garbha Upaniṣad*. Sufi *barzakh* in Ibn ʿArabī's metaphysics.
Science correspondence
Pim van Lommel's near-death-experience research provides the most rigorous empirical articulation of the Place Between Worlds at the clinical-death-and-revival scale. Bruce Greyson's *After* (2021) and Sam Parnia's AWARE study extend the documentation. Jim Tucker's University of Virginia research on children with verifiable past-life memories provides indirect evidence of the Place's structural reality (memories sometimes traceable to specific Place-region experiences during the prior threshold).