"At the moment of death, our soul rises out of its host body. If the soul is older and has experience from many former lives, it knows immediately it has been set free and is going home. These advanced souls need no one to greet them. However, most souls I work with are met by guides just outside Earth's astral plane.
A young soul, or a child who has died, may be a little disoriented until someone comes closer to ground level for them. There are souls who choose to remain at the scene of their death for a while. Most wish to leave at once. Time has no meaning in the spirit world. Discarnates who choose to comfort someone who is grieving, or have other reasons to stay near the place of their death for a while, experience no sense of time loss. This becomes now time for the soul as opposed to linear time.
Homecoming is a joyous interlude, especially following a physical life where there might not have been much karmic contact with our intimate soulmates. Most of my subjects tell me they are welcomed back with hugs, laughter and much humor, which I find to be a hallmark of life in the spirit world."
Destiny of Souls - Michael Newton
“Regardless of their state of mind right after death, my subjects are full of exclamations about rediscovered marvels of the spirit world. Usually, this feeling is combined with EUPHORIA that all their worldly cares have been left behind, especially physical pain. Above all else, the spirit world represents a place of supreme quiescence to the traveling soul.
Although it may at first appear we are alone immediately following death, we are not isolated or unaided. Unseen intelligent energy forces guide each of us through the gate. New arrivals in the spirit world have little time to float around wondering where they are or what is going to happen to them next. Our guides and a number of soulmates and friends wait for us close to the gateway to provide recognition, affection, and the assurance we are all right. Actually, we feel their presence from the moment of death because much of our initial readjustment depends upon the influence of these kindly entities toward our returning soul.
Since encountering friendly spirits who meet us after death is so important, how do we recognize them? I find a general consensus of opinion among subjects in hypnosis about how souls look to each other in the spirit world. A soul may appear as a mass of energy, but apparently it is also possible for non-organic soul energy to display human characteristics. Souls often use their capacity to project former life forms when communicating with each other. Projecting a human life form is only one of an incalculable number of appearances which can be assumed by souls from their basic energy substance.”
Journey of Souls – Michael Newton
{Information received from the past-life regressions of thousands of people.}