However these are general rules for the masses. Much depends upon the individual who has departed. There are some whose atmosphere is quite good because they have lived largely a clean life detached from worldly things and turned towards a higher and nobler ideal. Also, if the funeral ground is kept neat and clean these elemental energies cannot linger long. 

As to empathy, it should be there. For those who are left behind it was not the protoplasmic sheath but the personality that has gone ahead further in its journey. That is the origin of grief and not merely the absence of the body. What is needed is an understanding of the human condition that in its ignorance wants to hold on to people and things forever in the same way as they are accustomed to. This is not permissible nor desirable as it is counter-progress. All this needs to be slowly brought home to those left behind that death is not an end but the soul’s opportunity. However those with whom we share bonds that are deeper and rooted in the soul are lost only for a while. They meet us across lives and something within feels the old links even though the senses and the outer mind has forgotten.