Possible Theory of Living Eternity in Heaven/Hell

I read Rick Straussman's The Spirit Molecule and at one point watched Waking Life. Staussman talked about the possibility of the super-hallucinogen, '___', that is excreted from our pineal gland at the moment of death can produce an afterlife experience. The question is, for how long?

Then, in Waking Life, the part where Ethan Hawk's character is conversing with his girlfriend about how dream time can be condensed into small amounts of waking-life time, ie, an hour of dream time equals much less in waking life time.

So, I was thinking, what if the '___' release at the moment of death is so intense that it could speed up the perception of time to an ultimate degree. IOW, you could experience years within a few seconds. In addition to that, any deep loss-of-ego psychedelic experience causes one to lose the sense of time.

So, perhaps it's possible that a kind of heaven or hell exists, even if it only exists in our brains. Regardless of whether or not it's real, as in "out there", wouldn't matter when you are spending eternity in bliss or hell, even if the eternity is really only a few seconds of waking time. BTW, there are reports of people having NDE's who don't experience the pleasant white light, but a real hell instead.

I'm an atheist, but this is one of those things that makes me think that I'm still not off the hook!

Definetly makes sense on a physical level.

However if this were to occur, I would think of it as just another part of the journey. I think it may seem like eternity, but I don't think it can physically go on forever because it still answers to time and chemicals. And I have to imagine one would have the capacity to seek the truth (of the situation) within that sort of illusion of eternity. One big clue would be if you could find evidence (for yourself) that all this was coming from your mind.

So a seemingly endless dream, well that's not so bad. If you believe in reincarnation then it also might explain why we forget our past lives, because we had a dream when we died that lasted seemingly millions of years. Or maybe the dream just lasts long enough for you to die all the way, for the purpose of a peaceful death.

But in my mind it would not be the "ultimate" or final experience, the ultimate answer to the question of afterlife, it would just be another part of the journey. As well, I believe if there is a heaven or hell in any sense, that these are parts of the journey still and there is more to come after these even. I mean these illusions can't persist forever, eventually we must find our way to a place or state that for better or worse is based in truth and has integrity, possibly love if that's the word.

Novise, you filled in the missing gaps that I didn't explain. Yes, the illusion of eternity would only last until you actually physically die and the '___' is expended and you just fizzle out of existence without even realizing it.

However, I don't believe, without training, that anyone would even realize what was happening. From what I've learned about meditation and reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead, is that the whole point behind the Yogi's meditations is to visit a glimpse of that afterlife state and learn how to REMEMBER who you are and that you are entering a new state. Intense psychedelic experiences, as well as dreams, are the same; that is, you instantly lose memory of your wakeful life. It's almost as if we have to completely separate memory stores that only function in their own respective states. Then, after returning to the wakeful life, you usually forget, in the case of dreams, that you even had an eight-hour series of dreams. And, in the case of '___' and Salvia, the memory starts to fade as well. Only through training can you learn how to recognize that you are dreaming (lucid dreaming).

The Yogi's whole goal (from what I recall) was to REMEMBER what they experience during those brief glimpses, so that when they enter the afterlife state upon death, they know what to do and can follow their plan, which is to not resist and to forget about themselves and join with the Buddha mind, lest the descend into hell on the way to being reborn again.

www.youtube.com...

doesnt quite make sense...if adrenal glands excrete this substance...how would it affect you if your dead?

when consciousness is seperated from the body, how can the body feel that?

even if it can...seems like everyone would interpret their own heaven/hell differently...it would be an illusion and or "trip"...

then what? is the real question after the feeling goes away...

[edit on 1/19/2009 by AceOfAces]

reply to post by AceOfAces


I'm speaking from an atheistic viewpoint. I'm suggesting a way so-called afterlife experiences could be experienced, even if they only occur within the confines of our skulls. That's my general take on religious experiences... that, just because they are only a brain phenomena, it doesn't mean they aren't real. My life is most certainly real, even though it doesn't exist "out there". The same goes for anything I experience. In that sense, all experiences are real... in a sense, get it?

I'm suggesting this could happen before your brain is completely dead... during the last few moments.