Life after death

[Benjoe]

What do you think happens when we die?

Is that it, lights out game over?

Personally I don't believe in any organised religions, I suspect they were just invented by man to fill in the gaps about our lack of understanding of the world. Probably to give people hope and to keep their behaviour in check.

Saying that I don't completely rule out the possibility of there being more to life and death than we currently know or will probably ever know. But without this turning into a for / against religion debate, because it's not about that, what are your thoughts on life after death?

Do you think we might be reincarnated? Perhaps some other reality, call it heaven if you like or if your not religious simply a place we go after we die.

What do you think?

[JWaggy]

Life after death can be a nice thought from time to time, but there's no indication in my eyes of anything more than 'nothing'.

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

[Laufey]

Nothing.

We take on the role of being wormfood.

[talbot57]

I have been giving this some thought lately. Was discussing this with a friend of mine about a year ago, she believed that there was something after this life, myself I think this is the only life. Sadly she was recently diagnosed with cancer and lost her battle so soon after. I hope for her that there is an afterlife, she was taken too soon from this one.

[HoodedRat]

No one truly knows ... and those who claim to 'know' (ie, religions, spiritualists, shamen, new-age nutters, etc) all teach different things with very little in common..

[Hard-up1]

I live in hope of the world to come, but I make this life count as if it were the only one, and that doesn't equate to hedonism.

Life is the main event, not the prelude.

[Laufey]

BTW you can't destroy energy the only thing you can do is transfer it.

So the energy you had in your body will continue to be a part of the world.

But since I believe the "soul" is just your brain and how it is built, I don't think your personality can live on with that energy.

[Nishin]

As far as I'm concerned I do not "think" anything...
No-one knows

But I can settle with the wishful thinking version in order to accept a few things

[REALWILDARKIEHERE]

Good topic, I feel a presence of people who have passed... It may very well be a type of energy that continues to have a form of life which we are unable to understand. Just my thoughts...

[palbert]

Doesn't happen.

[Keeland]

Doesn't happen.

It did here.

[csb999]

Atheism does not essentially include not believing in a soul and afterlife . They are quite separate things . Much amused Wikipedia to find that Alan Turing while a complete atheist nevertheless still believed in a soul . Secondarily " the energy you had in your body will continue to be a part of the world." Was thinking your brain is electrical and electricity cannot be destroyed BUT pointed out to me by a shrink the electrical activity of the brain is so small it must be amplified millions of times just to be read . Your kitchen table probably has more measureable electrical activity .

[cgymike]

Pretty much it will be like it was 100 years ago or 10000000000000000000000 E10000000000000000000 years ago.....life is just a blip in time.

[rareboy]

Ok.

So in 1992 I had my first pulmonary embolism and the clot lodged in my heart.

And I died. Kind of.

But the good news is that I was standing up at the time peeing.

But when it all went black. It all went black. No light. No music. No heaven. No hell. No release of karmic energy. No Transmigration. No out of body experience.

And I fell backward. And the fall dislodged the clot and I was jarred back into life although I was lying paralyzed on the floor for about 10 minutes or so, not even able to move my head or arms or legs or make any noise to call for help. I remember though that my bowels and bladder had completely relaxed.

And during that 10 minutes or so laying on the floor and then over the next few hours when I finally crawled back to my bed.....I knew that I had seen what the end looked like.

It isn't that bad.

[Pianist]

We contribute to the overall entropy of the universe.

[Laufey]

Being dead feels the same way as before you were conceived.

[cgymike]

Being dead feels the same way as before you were conceived.

Describe that feeling. "Oh the existential horror of it all"....

[Laufey]

You feel nothing since you don't exist.

[cgymike]

^Yeah but how do you know that?

[Ryuukie]

I believe in life after death. I can't say anything more than that since I have no proof. But there was a wonderful article in Newsweek a few weeks ago in which a doctor writes about his personal experience.

[oakpope]

'But since I believe the "soul" is just your brain and how it is built' : where is the conscience of oneself ?

I believe in a soul, and that that soul is detached from the universe we know. I don't think the soul cares at all for the universe it leaves.
It's only my belief, no proof whatsoever of course.

[Benvolio]

I believe in life after death. I can't say anything more than that since I have no proof. But there was a wonderful article in Newsweek a few weeks ago in which a doctor writes about his personal experience.

There is a thread in the Religion sextion about the Neurosurgeon discovering after life, but pretty much discredited.

- - - Updated - - -

I believe in life after death. I can't say anything more than that since I have no proof. But there was a wonderful article in Newsweek a few weeks ago in which a doctor writes about his personal experience.

There is a thread in the Religion sextion about the Neurosurgeon discovering after life, but pretty much discredited.

[mbamike]

I think it is pretty sad to not have any hope of another life after this one is finished; to come to the end of one's life and to know that tomorrow you will no longer exist. I only have my religious beliefs and I know how anti-religious some are on here; however, I believe in life after death.

[oakpope]

Well if we knew, there would be no need for faith anymore, wouldn't it

[JP.]

Now this..freak the hell of me.

Im not scared of old days..(was before) but I was pushing myself to face getting old in my previous thread and also..with dozen of weird stimulation/therapies until the reaction is not that disheartening as before.

Old days still alive..but death? Who dies and come back to earth? I hate because death is really close guarded, nothing spilled out..drives me nuts to no end.

TBQH I haven't mastering ...how to prepare for death? I just have recurring dream stimulating myself as a floating spirit in darkness...

[Laufey]

I think it is pretty sad to not have any hope of another life after this one is finished; to come to the end of one's life and to know that tomorrow you will no longer exist.

So you pretty much believe it because you want to believe the better option?

'But since I believe the "soul" is just your brain and how it is built' : where is the conscience of oneself ?

A part of the brain.

^Yeah but how do you know that?

I don't I just think it's the most likely option. I need scientific research to believe in something I can't just have faith in something simply because I want it to be the truth.

[BENDERBOY]

Nothing, we return to the earth or we get burned to a crisp.

Enjoy it while you can.

[loveguys72]

All things are possible, but the most probable outcome is that this is all there is, and when it's over, it's over.

[Sausy]

I can't believe that there is nothing after our physical death. I don't know what life after death would emcompass but the universe is so vast and wondrous some kind of energy, some kind of different plane of existence must go on. Not simplistic heaven or hell, but something vastly moreunmaginable and unable to easily articulate into words. Maybe there IS nothing, but I chose to believe there is more to existence than just the physical. Maybe I'm just afraid, or need to comfort myself that those I've loved and lost aren't truly gone forever. Or that seeing that there is so much suffering and death in this physical world of people well before their time, that the universe wouldn't be so cruel and arbitrary as to life ending with the last breath without a transition to something better.... something that gives even death meaning.


If there's nothing, if death is just like drifting into an endless sleep... then it wouldn't matter. Yet if physical death didn't mean cessation of total existence, what a wonderful new chapter awaits us on the other side.

[teadrinker]

I've never understood why people hang on to this strange notion of "life after death". I had no existence before I was born - why should I contemplate any sort of existence after I die? I much prefer the clean notion of totally ceasing to exist after death (except for memories of me). To me, "life after death" exists in the same curious philosophical realm as Russell's teapot, and Carl Sagan's dragon: the existence of which can't be logically falsified, and so the burden of proof is on the believer. Now, I have no problem if you or anybody else believes in an afterlife: you can take what comfort you can. But I think it's philosophically indefensible.

-T.

[star-warrior]

I don't think there is anything beyond this life, nor that there is a so-called 'soul'.

All the notions about 'souls' and after-life are to sooth the fears of oblivion, the finality of death. It is sad that people don't live this life for the now rather organising themselves into groups that fear the inevitable and build fantastic notions of punishment and eternal tortutre to further their fear of living for the now.

[Ram]

I just don't care what happens to me after death. Just burn my body and throw my ashes at Lilbit's face. Please.

[AshyPhoenix]

I'm looking forward to death.

Now, that's not because I'm in any way unhappy with my life; I'm very satisfied with the way things are going. The thing is, nobody can tell us what happens after death. I'm not religious; I am spiritual, though, but even barring any afterlife theory that spirituality can offer, I once read a fascinating article about death and the scientific theory of the the dimensions beyond the physical (in particular the fourth, being time). I don't recall the details, but it was something to do with time not being a linear progression, but rather a kind of "soup" that makes it possible for us to exist in any time. I personally believe in living my life to the fullest so I have good times to relive after my death.

At any rate, nobody knows what happens after we die, so it's really the next big adventure. I'm not going to go out and run in front of a bus tomorrow, but I'm certainly not averse to the thought of death.

[rareboy]

I just don't care what happens to me after death. Just burn my body and throw my ashes at Lilbit's face. Please.

Another approach:

[Chrizze]

I know,A Priori,that it does,perhaps even so closely resembling this one,that it takes time to notice.If we reincarnate,I believe we born into some other planet,or something.Why would there be such a big universe,and I believe,that one day science will found,that there is more dimensions,or planes of existence,or whatever name you my use about it.

[Scealle]

I still believed in a certain aspect of Christianity. Like Purgatory, Hell and Heaven etc. etc. But I do find it really questionable when I heard the Pastor preaching about certain expects of Heaven such as we can "earn" merit points for a better/ different level of heaven for eternity. Since when did it become a competition of helping people just for the sake of a better future???

[rareboy]

You pastor is full of shit.

[hanzosword]

There is definitely life before birth and after death. All the religions of the world are man made and they do a terrible job of describing the way things are. The people who made them up wanted to control people's behavior by categorizing what's good and what's bad. I believe there is a heavenly place or dimension that everybody automatically goes to no matter what they do on earth. There is nowhere else to go. Hitler, Saddam and Bin Laden all went there after they died and it's where we all come from. I do think we reincarnate over and over again too.

I used to be a christian until I started having doubts and I started reading tons of near death experience stories. I think every dream and desire we ever had in life will be fulfilled and waiting for us after our bodies die.

[refujiunderground]

to tell you the truth, i don't care about what happens after death. if i die, i die. that's one thing i know that is a guarantee so i'm not worried about that at all. i'm concerned about living because there's so much things that i would like to do, would like to know and etc. worrying about death to me is a waste of time. the whole concept of the afterlife is ridiculous to. it's basically talking about living forever. screw that. i enjoy sleeping. i think death would probably be the best sleep i'll ever have. the best part about it is i'll never wake up again where i would have to worry about all the things in my waking life so i look forward to it. there's some days where i wish i never woke up. no dreams, no nightmares, just pure rest and pitch black. i think i'll be in total peace then if i don't find it in my waking life.

the whole idea of dying and coming back to live again, dealing with people, feeling stressed out, sad, happy, and a whole bunch of issues. HELL NO. i would probably kill myself in the afterlife if i realized that i had to live again and see some people again too. i plan on dying once.

[mikey3000]

I strongly believe in life between lives. At death we ALL return home, from where we came, to decompress a little and plan out our next voyage here. We come to learn, to become enlightened, and to help our souls evolve. Earth is Hell, but where we come from/ return to is shear magic beyond description.

[cgymike]

I strongly believe in life between lives. At death we ALL return home, from where we came, to decompress a little and plan out our next voyage here. We come to learn, to become enlightened, and to help our souls evolve. Earth is Hell, but where we come from/ return to is shear magic beyond description.

Yeah but what if you came back as the front bumper on a TTC train? Scary thought...

[mikey3000]

Humans can only come back as humans.

[HoodedRat]

^
Many Hindus, millions of them, believe otherwise.

[cgymike]

^^And you know this how? If I said humans can come back as a parsnip who is to argue? But yeah I was being ridiculous with the subway thing. It's reasonable to assume you come back as something with a life cycle. Even coming back as for example a Cornish pasty would make no sense since there's no real life cycle except to be prepared then eaten...

[Laufey]

I don't really see the appeal of eternal life. I think after a certain time you would get tired of existence, just like you get tired of life.

[HoodedRat]

^^And you know this how?

I didn't say I 'know' that ... read my first post in this thread #5 ... millions of people believe all sort of different things about life before/after death; they can't all be right. They are quite possibly all wrong.

[cgymike]

I didn't say I 'know' that ... read my first post in this thread #5 ... millions of people believe all sort of different things about life before/after death; they can't all be right. They are quite possibly all wrong.

No...when I typed you hadn't posted yet. Was responding to Mikey...^^ means 2 posts above - I corrected it from ^....

I was questioning his assumption about coming back as humans...I think we are on the same page on this...

[mikey3000]

I'm not Hindu. They can believe what they like and I believe what I like. Easy Peasy.

[cgymike]

I'm not Hindu. They can believe what they like and I believe what I like. Easy Peasy.

Since you like cats what about coming back as one?

[mikey3000]

Nope. All cats go straight to heaven. No improvements required.