As the body dies, the soul gradually disconnects from the body. Normal and peaceful death is helpful for the proper transfer of our life experiences to the soul. If the body dies in a violent manner and is damaged, that damage could be inherited in the next incarnation. This is a common type of past-life trauma.
Some people remember their past lives. Children usually remember their past lives better but forget them as they grow-up.
After the death of the body, the soul and the personality returns home to another dimension which is usually called Discarnate World. This world is located in the 7th and higher dimensions. There, your soul is healed from the life and death traumas. There you will meet your close friends and relatives who have already passed on and those from previous lives.
Next, you will proceed with a life review which is assisted by teachers and guides. This usually happens in classroom setting. Our universities and schools are built after a galactic archetype of university and therefore the spirits use it to symbolize learning. As you review your life, you have an opportunity to see the events of your life, not only from your own perspective but also from the perspective of other people involved in the events. There is also an opportunity to replay each life event to see what would happen if you took an alternative course of action than you did in life.This way you learn how different decisions affect other people. So now, when you make decisions, understand that from the spiritual perspective, ultimately, it doesn't really matter which decision you make, it matters only that you experience the process of making a choice and later in the afterlife, you'll be able to replay all these decisions in any way you like.
The spirit world is a happy place. It is the place where the soul comes home. The time of the death, is only a time of death of the physical body in a physical world. In the spirit world it is coming home and rebirth into the spirit. Every time you come home to the spirit world, it is like rebirth. While your body's death might be mourned in the physical world, your return home and rebirth is celebrated in the spirit world.
When a friend dies, it is alright to remember them with love. But it is also wise to let them go, because too much grief and too much attachment prevents a soul from returning home and continue its path in the afterlife. You can always reconnect to a friend who is gone. Invite them and talk to them in your meditations and dreams, pray for them and send them love.
Time and space are different in the discarnate world, so your friends there can always hear you and they can always communicate. If you don't hear them, or if they don't appear to you, it is not because they are not available, but because you are not in a proper state of receptivity. Coming to the stage where you can notice them allows you to communicate with them. It is only your vibration and your openness that make you capable of hearing and seeing them, because they are always present and available for communication.
While in the spirit world, you receive much assistance from teachers, friends and ancestors. Life there is very structured. Much of it is celebration and communication in groups. Some of it is classroom instruction and some of it is individual homework in an academic setting.
Some souls remain in the discarnate world for a long time and jump back into a new incarnation quickly. The time spent in the afterlife is a choice of the soul and depends on its level of development and its preferences.
Also, there is an advisory committee which advises the you in which direction to move. After you finish the healing process and the life review, you can incarnate again or become a teacher in the spirit world or become a spirit guide.
When you go into a next incarnation, you invite your spirit friends to serve as your spirit guides. Here, down below, each of us has several spirit guides - some of them are human spirits and some of them could be alien spirits. As you go through life lessons, helping you requires different expertise and strengths, so spirit guides join you and leave as needed.