Man does not die, his biological body does. Originally, all of us only feel our body – the earthly desires. Then a desire for spirituality awakens in us. This desire is not of this world, it belongs to the Creator. If man develops it, he starts feeling not only the properties of his body, but the soul – a part of the Creator’s properties in himself.
If man corrects himself so that the spiritual desires suppress the desires of the body and the body completely associates itself with the soul, he perceives the death of his body as shedding a cover from the soul. The body dies, but man feels detached from the body while still living in it.
Courtesy of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGMWBnpkuFE