The Astral Space is the realm of the dead, awaiting entrance to higher levels of heaven, if we can call it that way. It is full of good and bad, of nefarious and vicious, of criminal and hateful, and of meek and discontent people.
Those of a pure mind only have a stop in the astral and are whisked away to a higher plane or realm.
Those who need work, lessons to learn, healing, caring and so on, spend some time there, to regroup themselves. They are kept and nurtured until they are deemed fit to move on.
Some others spend a long time there, to address their actions in the previous life. They spend time mourning and regretting having taken those steps which caused them to be retained in the astral realm.
And then we have those who have no regrets for their actions. They are close to what one can call demonic. They are kept apart in specific areas, like cornered animals. Those ones take many, many years to redress somewhat, until they are ready to get back to life.
The astral world caters to all. Every dead person whether from earth or some other humanoid realm in this system, passes through the astral world.
You must understand that there are many astral worlds. They are each in their own system to tend to their own people.
The term astral is just a word to refer to the place where dead people commute to, reside, displace or receive others. It can be scary to a friendly, loving person, but that person’s time there, will be so brief that he may not experience the threat that such a place can present.
Once again, the dead arrive there after their departure from their world. They are received by higher beings who are used as helpers. These beings are volunteers for such a task. They themselves many moons ago, had been there, and it is a way for them to repay those who had volunteered in their well-being.