Toward Ecosophy

There seem to be various ways it can happen, depending partly on the condition of the etheric body, partly on the specific spiritual disciplines involved, and partly on how death happens. In some cases, yes, it's like an ordinary death, going up to the mental plane and then resuming an astral and etheric body; once the mental body is fully active it's possible for the soul to condense a new etheric body the same way it forms the astral body, by drawing on the substance of the plane directly. In other cases, the Second Death never happens because the soul has taken full conscious control of the etheric body and can fill it directly with life from the higher planes; in extreme cases, more common in Asia than elsewhere, the dead physical body literally disintegrates into light (this is the "rainbow body" discussed in Tibetan writings, for example.)