What IS the meaning of death?

There is an old saying,

"The ultimate in optimism is believing that there is no life after death."

Now I like to think I'm an optimist, but I'm not that big of an optimist.

I believe it would be easier to stop the sun from shining or the season from changing than to stop the growth of the eternal soul.

I can't back that up with anything, it's just something I've come to believe over the years.

Death? I'm not worried about it. All I can say is it had better sneak up from behind and knock me in the head with a board, otherwise it's going to have one heck of a fight before it takes me.

Originally posted by Deus Ex Machina 42
Uh, so TC you believe in reincarnation not bound by the earth, right?

Kind of like...

Maybe reincarnation does exist, but not the way we think it does. Its not from human to human, but from one species across the universe to another species, we're all just recently aliens who have gone up(or down?) the ladder to become a human being during this life.

Do you ever wonder why toddlers and young kids seem to amazed by it all? They want to explore, they want to do everything, they want to experience all the senses to their fullest, this could be because in other parts of the universe where they recently were, maybe they didn't have all the senses we had? Maybe these alien beings lacked sight, but when they become humans they're gifted with it(Of course, maybe they lose a sense from their past life, but they would never realize or know)

So we could all just be aliens reincarnated as humans, and when we die we become different beings throughout the universe.

?

THAT, my friend is the question. A very good one.
I believe in reincarnation very much, but as far as if we screw up do we come back as a bug? An ET? A king of some sorts? - I don't know.

And I just needed to clarify one of my previous posts. I didn't explain it like I should have.

What I meant to say was that I don't believe there is a heaven and hell, nor do I believe you just wink out to nothing when you die. That would LITERALLY make our lives here useless, no? What would be the point? Seriously. I mean, it's just MY belief, but I really see logic in that last one.

I would even go as far as saying that I would rather believe in the heaven and hell thing over the just winking out thing anyday.
One just seems more unlikely than the other. - But I don't buy either.

I look at it like this. Every piece of physical matter (atoms, subatomic particles, etc) makes up something.
I'll start with the non-living: Things may be destroyed, broken down, etc. but the bottom line is that they recycle back into the enviornment.
Same thing (especially) with living things. Things are born, things die, decompose - things are eaten and pooped back out, and they break down and eventually are used again - recycled.

Are our souls and spirits that are made of pure enery any less important??? If physical matter - even poop can be recycled, then why the hell can't a soul????

So like I said, it would be a waste of existence if we just fade to black when we die.
Heaven and hell are probably standing room only by now. How much can the places hold? I'm sure they've run out of room by now.

So that's what I have to say about that. Just my beliefs.
Peace.

I think the first question, more pertinently, should be..."what is the meaning of life"... :-)

The problem about the word "meaning" is it is loaded with man-made connotations - i.e. my life has more "meaning" if I feel a sense of progression, justice, attainment, accomplishment, harmony, whatever...and that sense of an additional unifying and sense-making "something" can mean a million different things to a million randomly chosen people. So "meaning" is a little too mercurial and subjective a word to pin to universal life cycles. It's like asking a hamster, what is the meaning of life outside of it's cage, when the hamster can only define meaning through life in a cage!

For example: how long does our existence have to be to acquire meaning? Does it have to be never-ending? Does there have to be a permenent soul on an interminable journey of discovery which crosses dimensions and cannot be extinguished? I hated that idea as a child - the idea of "forever" use to freak me out (I wondered what I would do with IT ALL)!! But then again so did the idea of death. :-)

These are the questions I ask myself in pondering the OPs question. Of course, none of us can truly know, but I often intuit that the answer lies in both how spiritually enriching we make our lives for this brief period on earth (i.e. when we give something meaning, it acquires that quality) and, the very nature of awareness/consciousness itself which I actually believe is a non-local enigma and therefore can survive physical death; although in what guise I am undecided.

I have doubted a life after death many a time (with my skeptical Scully hat on), but always come back to the fact that, in PSI terms, "what" does the remote viewing, "what" is able to cross space/time in precognitive or psychic terms, "what" has an NDE, when by all accounts someone has flatlined? I don't believe scientists have all the answers (yet) so in my view the meaning of death is transition, which is what the universe is all about.

The meaning may, of course, lie in the fact that the universe made itself conscious through man - the ultimate, if you think about it no matter how long or short our stay!!

Just my two-pence worth....

Originally posted by mrwupy


I believe it would be easier to stop the sun from shining or the season from changing than to stop the growth of the eternal soul.

Yet that is assuming that we actually have an eternal soul, which, at least theoretically, may not be the case.

Note that I'm not taking that position, but it is conceivable that all our beliefs in an eternal or immortal soul is just wishful thinking. If such were the case, then our individualities are the result of chemical processes in the brain, and cease to exist at death.

For a long time I held that view. I no longer do, but certainly understand why many others do.

Originally posted by Tallsorts

Originally posted by Somebodyelse7
Nobody can possibly tell you the meaning of death because the only people who could possibly know are dead.

It's just as well then, that there are plenty of people who have bothered to find ways of succesfully talking to people who have died, so that we can all benefit from that knowledge.

Some of the 'dead' people have written books by channeling with a partner who is alive. One notable example is Sir Oliver Lodge FRS, a scientist and inventor of the automotive spark plug.

Another one is Hugh Benson who was a Roman Catholic priest and son of the Archbishop of Canturbury. Fortunately his book is available free on the web if you'd like to read it. It gives a graphic account of life after death:

www.thenewearth.org...

Please Note: 10 minutes after posting this link, the web-site concerned was down, but it was working yesterday. I am hoping that it will be back on-line soon

[edit on 13/3/2009 by Tallsorts]

Fair point if thats your beliefs. Personally though I am not a believer of many of the people who are said to have contacted the dead.

There are a few who have deemed in my opinion believable interactions but it is still in my eyes far from proof.

Death is balance.

Every action must have an equal and opposite reaction. We are born, therefore we must die.

I was born dead though... so I kind of messed up that balance though.

Even the Holy Bible which people think says we become a spirit and go to heaven or hell tells us that people simply die, and going after lost loved ones using magic/rituals is futile. You simply die (no consciousness) after death. That's all. There is a resurrection of all who lived at the end of time, but no heaven or hell we go to. Heaven is the kingdom of God and his angels, hell is the same thing as hades, but we go to them after being resurrected and by then the Kingdom Of God will be on Earth. (Like a much much better Garden of Eden.)

I have read a little about Near death experiences and maybe this is the closest living people will get as to what may happen....a lot seems to be connected to them seeing religious figures......

heres a link for you to ponder on.....some interesting stories....

www.nderf.org...