Why do humans believe in an afterlife?

reply to post by JaxonRoberts

Myself I was unsure of life after death until I began to have OBE's. It happened at a time of grief when I was begging for answers. Someone not here physically went out of their way to share this knowledge with me.
It proved to me there is life after death and that we exist outside our physical body. I wish everyone could have experienced what I have, I almost look forward to the end of my physical life here.

reply to post by cushycrux


would you be willing to describe your experience for our benefit ?

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


The reason I know there is life after death is because we are here right now. If you look at life, anything that has happened once, will happen again, therefore you will live again because you have lived once. I'm not afraid of death and actually look forward to my next life. Who knows where you will be in your next life but too me its exciting.

reply to post by wash222


With all due respect for your beliefs, but you're the perfect example of how traumatic experiences make "spiritual" events become reality.

The fact that you were seeking answers is a catalyst for your brain to accept something, anything, to fill that sentimental gap that you have.

-

On a general note, people can't handle death, period. The few that do, are extreme points of view on death, and most of them are not accepted because people don't want to face a possible scenario: that nothing exists after death.

People are too afraid to accept that when they die, their existence also stops to exist. While now you're a conscious, thinking being, after you die, there is simply nothing. And the fear and marvel at this scenario is the same reaction that people have with Black Holes. Most people can't understand how "nothing" can actually exist.

In nature, even in void, there are particles, air, light, SOMETHING. The "nothing" scenario brings all belief systems to the ground.

I was quite surprised when a Tv Show (Flashforward) portrayed this scenario in one of their characters.

To those who don't know the show, all humanity passes out for 2 minutes and has a vision of their lifes 6 months into the future, while they are unconscious.

One of the character doesn't have a vision. Doesn't see anything, doesn't feel anything, only a huge void that he didn't felt. The conclusion was that he was dead. He didn't see heaven, he didn't see hell or anything else... He saw a "black screen".

IMO, that's what happens.

There is a consensus that the view of Heaven/Hell is a made-up thing to input fear in people and control their actions according to your statement of right/wrong.

Some people go in another direction, deny that view and make their own idea of after-life. But that is a different kind of system, because in that case, it's an individual made-up scenario so you can accept your life "here", and not fearing death, or at least, that when you die, you stop to exist.

Either way, the concept of after-life, in my opinion, is just a self-defense mechanism to prevent you from stop living your daily life, or exaggerating your life in order to "make the most of it" while you can.

...most people, without this system of mental self-defense, would freak out.

People can't handle the word "end".

[edit on 12/3/10 by Tifozi]

[edit on 12/3/10 by Tifozi]

Sure but words wont do it much justice, I will try.

I lost someone very close to me and was having a hard time accepting it. I just wanted to know if he was happy and still alive somewhere. I stopped believing there was a God....I would go to bed crying and begging for this person to give me a sign he is ok.

soon enough I was being pulled out of my body every night by some force, I was terrified and would fight it...I began to be able to see with my eyes squeezed shut under the covers...after a few nights of going through this I was floating around in my room with sight, I kept testing things to see if this is reality..one time I floated downstairs and was later able to tell my roommates exactly what they were doing and saying (impossible from where my physical body was)... it sure did freak them out.

Thats just a very brief description of the early stage of my experience...I am off to work now: (

I personally think Science is coming full circle on this one. For a long time I think science was driven by scepticism and a need to find natural explainations for the overwhleming belief that everything was done by God or the Devil. So science came along and found that most physical phenomina had (surprise)...phyisical causes. Science has been good for medicine and accurately explaining our physical existence. However, now I think we are seeing the pendulum swing back as science is opening up to the posibility of alternate states of existance and reality, life after death, and the existence of more then just the physical. There are exciting studies being conducted by non-religious scientist about near death experiences. I am realy glad to see these developments. I mean even if you are not religious at all in any sense of the word, if you have lived long enough you have heard about or seen things that phyiscal laws just can't explain, especially if you believe in aliens, phycics, etc.

reply to post by Tifozi


How do you explain the countless countless NDE's and past future life regressions that have been told?

regressions are a state of hypnosis which the person I believe can not lie.

Would be interesting for your comeback.

Forgot to add where people know they are being trailed by family members, such as the granny saving me from a fire or something..

[edit on 3/12/2010 by ThichHeaded]

I didn't believe until I had somewhat of an awakening about 2 years ago. I began to practice astral projection, OOBE's, and separating my conscious awareness from the physical body. Once I had mastered the separation part, I threw away my atheistic thoughts. Getting out of the current body is so vivid, and is indeed very real.

I have been able to find a healthy balance between science and spirituality, and encourage all to at least try and do the same. Are Christians right? Are Jews right? Are Muslims right? The truth is, they're all right in their own ways. And what you believe is what you'll get, until your true self and memories are returned to you. That's what I think anyways, and there is substantial evidence to back these claims up.

Is there evil in the world? There sure is ignorance, but I don't know about inherited evil. That doesn't mean some entities aren't out for personal gain. People are mislead all the time. I think that somebody who puts such a high value on religion (high enough to suicide bomb, or ridicule and look past obvious facts) is somebody who is not spiritually in tune at all.

That's not to say scientists are without their flaws. Most scientists are so arrogant that they can't seem to pull their heads out of their asses and ask the real tough questions, like "What happens to the consciousness after it dies?" "What is the story with electromagnetic fields, NDE's, OOBE's, and other mysteries?" They chalk it up to the brain hallucinating, instead of actually studying the catalysts, or the messages that are received from humans. If I am in a state of death, and unconscious, it's unlikely that I'm going to hallucinate about floating above a hospital bed, hearing conversations that are going on, and after being revived; be able to recall said conversations.

One of the major issues is our current life. If you look at the present time, and compare it to the actual Dark Ages, you'll find that the Dark Ages never really ended. We're in such a state of mind, that people don't want theories of a white-bearded God disproven. They're afraid of finding out that perhaps Jesus Christ was nothing but a spiritual teacher, who was off-base on some things, and on-base on others. People don't want to hear that the bible is a fictional retelling of events that maybe or maybe not transpired. It scares them half to death. They don't want to hear that the universe is teeming with life. Part of the problem with this, is it's been ingrained into our minds that we are special, we are unique, and we are the only inhabitants of this universe. The odds of that are impossible, considering the vastness of this universe, which is probably one of many. Does that mean I can't believe in an afterlife? No.

I guess what I'm getting to is, this all had to come from somewhere right? And I think it's unlikely that a few hydrogen molecules gave birth to consciousness.

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


Toss all religions out the window and just look at it as one person point of view. If the one lifetime is all we get, we as humans would never learn all the lessons were ment to learn. You just can't do it in one lifetime. So if all we get is one lifetime it would be rather pointless.
so everyone can say this or that but when it comes right down to it, no one really knows until they take that final breath. Everything else is just here say. The religious folk would say."You gotta have faith". For me, I've seen alot of strange things in my 48 years on the planet. Each day is a new lesson. Looks like I'll just have to wait and see.
Anything is possible, except when you get your hopes up on something, it usually turns out to be just more BS, from other folks wanting power over the masses..
Which blows, but even that is a lesson..
Hmmmm....

I think of it as being recycled. Just as everything on land goes back into the earth to exit a volcano eons later, so too our energy is re-appropriated when we die to fill a vacuum somewhere else in nature. Enlightenment and self awareness might push us into other planes of existence, but all of this is just a guess, a feeling.

For me, it's because life would seem like such a waste.

Take for example a tree. It's a living, breathing organism. It serves a purpose and contributes to this world. Yet, it doesn't feel pain, love, hate or any other emotions.

The human experience is the pinnacle of (known) evolution: to be a reasoning yet emotional organism. One has so many experiences throughout their life and all are unique.

Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to believe if many people were the same ... with the exact DNA. Or if many people's lives played out the exact same way. But, that's not how life works. Each person is different from all other. And no life contains the same experiences as another person's.

For the lights to just turn off and shut down? Seems like a big waste of one's life to me. What was it all for? Why all the unique people and experiences?

To me it just screams that there is an "afterlife". Though, I think the human mind is not capable of conceiving exactly what that will be. I certainly don't believe it will be a "heaven" or a "hell". I tend to think it'll be more like being a tree. Only 10,000 times more complicated and will serve the Universe much as a tree would serve the Earth.

Because it makes it much easier to die.

Originally posted by ThichHeaded
reply to post by Tifozi

 

How do you explain the countless countless NDE's and past future life regressions that have been told?

regressions are a state of hypnosis which the person I believe can not lie.

Would be interesting for your comeback.

Forgot to add where people know they are being trailed by family members, such as the granny saving me from a fire or something..

[edit on 3/12/2010 by ThichHeaded]

The NDE experiences of people make me totally convinced in an after life. I saw a program that compiled interviews and experiences of people from all over the world. What they had to say was astounding. Everyone of them without exception when asked how has this experience changed them said..."I am not afraid to die."
I made my mother, a Catholic who didn't believe in an afterlife- watch it before she died.
Another reason I believe is because of an example the eastern religions use to make a case for reincarnation.
A soul inside the physical body is like tea held in a teacup. When the teacup breaks (the body dies) the tea doesn't just vanish into thin air...it goes somewhere else.

Well I can't tell you why humans believe in afterlife but I can tell you why I believe in the after life.

I have nearly died a couple of times in my life and through those experiences I have grown in to a person who has started to understand what life is really about and how very very very very very very very very small we are in it all. This topic is to deep to see on one particular level and must be approached at in a higher state of awareness i.e through meditation.

reply to post by InfaRedMan


I honestly was thinking about the same thing. For us to exist now, we had to be "something" before. The truth is we have no idea. I want to believe there is more after we are gone. If there isn't, try to think what that would be...eternal blackness? What is nothing? We can't just become "nothing." I would be lying if I said I wasn't afraid of dying. I'm not afraid of it just ending there for me, I believe there is something more. I'm afraid of living another existence without my children. But who knows, maybe in a past life I had children and felt the same way. Some might say that you will find the answer when you die, but maybe we never find the answer because we are eternal.

As a scientist i can with facts say that after we humans die our energy still continues to move further on. You have to read some science to fully understand this. But lets just take an example, if you just "die" or take suicide tomorrow. Then your period as a human is ended,but still your journey has just started. Its abit complex,and since i understand people are still talking about "belief" i think we humans still have a long way to actually fully understand ourselves and the human resources.

Read some of Mr Kakus explenations.

Originally posted by skywalker_
reply to post by St Udio

 

I dunno..
there are some past life regression mp3 out there.. perhaps it would be more accurate to give it a try and then come to a conclusion..

Those past life regressions you note, are mistaken for 'proof' of a former life of that particular person...

closer to actuality is that the person now alive has been 'imprinted'
the source of the 'imprinted' data/facts/memories is still up in the air,


I would venture a guess that the living persons mind, was somehow caught up in the place that some call 'The Hall of Records'

and that subconscious experience needs the cognitive brain to mesh the conflicting information (former life-v-present life) ~ and the best accepted solution is that the soul transcends individual lifetimes.

reply to post by rusethorcain


Ya its kinda hard to disprove something that happens constantly.

I tell people I would rather believe in the 10% of the people worldwide that has had an NDE to 0% of the people who never seen god.

At least i can get some facts to back up what life after death is..

I could understand if a few people state they see the bright light, but its been thousands and thousands of people, from Plato, to Socrates, to Edgar Cacye, to Bob down the street.

Things just dont happen and a lot of people know about it, this is a widely known thing that people die and come back and able to tell instances of when they were dead.

There is a video in my media area that shows about NDE's



in one it talks about a blind person who never was able to see having an NDE and was able to see things in color and so on..

There is alot about NDE's that can not be explained so the subject of nde's when they have obe and able to back it up has never been explained by anyone to bunk it.

Originally posted by Tifozi
reply to post by wash222

 

With all due respect for your beliefs, but you're the perfect example of how traumatic experiences make "spiritual" events become reality.

The fact that you were seeking answers is a catalyst for your brain to accept something, anything, to fill that sentimental gap that you have.

-

On a general note, people can't handle death, period. The few that do, are extreme points of view on death, and most of them are not accepted because people don't want to face a possible scenario: that nothing exists after death.

People are too afraid to accept that when they die, their existence also stops to exist. While now you're a conscious, thinking being, after you die, there is simply nothing. And the fear and marvel at this scenario is the same reaction that people have with Black Holes. Most people can't understand how "nothing" can actually exist.

In nature, even in void, there are particles, air, light, SOMETHING. The "nothing" scenario brings all belief systems to the ground.

I was quite surprised when a Tv Show (Flashforward) portrayed this scenario in one of their characters.

To those who don't know the show, all humanity passes out for 2 minutes and has a vision of their lifes 6 months into the future, while they are unconscious.

One of the character doesn't have a vision. Doesn't see anything, doesn't feel anything, only a huge void that he didn't felt. The conclusion was that he was dead. He didn't see heaven, he didn't see hell or anything else... He saw a "black screen".

IMO, that's what happens.

There is a consensus that the view of Heaven/Hell is a made-up thing to input fear in people and control their actions according to your statement of right/wrong.

Some people go in another direction, deny that view and make their own idea of after-life. But that is a different kind of system, because in that case, it's an individual made-up scenario so you can accept your life "here", and not fearing death, or at least, that when you die, you stop to exist.

Either way, the concept of after-life, in my opinion, is just a self-defense mechanism to prevent you from stop living your daily life, or exaggerating your life in order to "make the most of it" while you can.

...most people, without this system of mental self-defense, would freak out.

People can't handle the word "end".





[edit on 12/3/10 by Tifozi]

[edit on 12/3/10 by Tifozi]

Here you have mixed alot of info. Good try though. You earlier said to someone" With all due respect for your beliefs, but you're the perfect example of how traumatic experiences make "spiritual" events become reality.".

As a scientist and a psychologist i can assure you that many people have experienced something that actually gives them proof of that the life as a human,is just a very short "travel" in the meaning of existence. And you know what? It is true.



We scientist DO have 100% proof of that the human life is just a journey, the only thing we havent found out yet,is the option of actually carry on memories from your past as a human into the new existence. Now this we still think is very "SCI-FI". But for you as a normal human being,having alot of sceptical views (by nature ofc) it is impossible to even grasp at the option or even the explenation of life after death.

Life after death is NOT a belief,it simply is something we cannot choose to controll.

Alot of our top ranked scientist get info by research with the help from the government of course and other firms around the world. About 90% of our info , About 90% of the results we get EVEN if its a FACT,we keep to ourselves. The reason for that is that the "normal" human being per today are not ready for knowledge or even grasping at something huge as this. Many of our results we got back in the 1930s,but have we informed anyone?? No we havent.Many of the results we got back in the 1950s we were showing for the public for the first time in the 2005 period. All this because of a reason. Humans ARE not ready, we have not evolved the way we wanted when it comes to even brainusage.

When we still see over many places around the world that people still talk about "belief" when it comes to Ghosts or even Aliens,and also think that we are the only intelligent race in our galaxy,that is for us most disturbing,we actually get abit frightened. We scientists and people working high high up in the government must always and has always been aware of holding the info to ourselves until the time is right for this very reason.

Nobody wants to say it-But we are by facts still a little group of intelligent cavemen.

We are at the momement the only race that still have these beliefs. The other documented races has evolved to Dimension\Level 3\4..We humans are still at Phase 0.
But we are very eager for those other races to come and inform us as a whole Estimated time 2011\2025.

Many surprices are will come in the next coming years, So sit back and enjoy.



[edit on 12-3-2010 by Archirvion]

[edit on 12-3-2010 by Archirvion]

[edit on 12-3-2010 by Archirvion]

reply to post by JaxonRoberts


Very nicely put. S&F for the quality post, though I don't agree with ALL of it.

Not every religious group claims a life after death. Some divisions among the Buddhist faith claim that nothing is permanent at all, that everything will cease. Reincarnation happens until you reach Nirvana which in their eyes is no longer existing, thereby freeing you from the pains of life. Not all of them believe this way though.

I think the thought of an afterlife actually supports Darwin's theory in regards to our desire to Survive. We have such a strong desire to survive that we want to survive beyond death itself. We have accepted death but are determined to survive forever and have decided that an afterlife must exist so that we can continue to "survive."

All this said, I believe it because that's what God says in the Bible, and I believe what the Bible has to say. All the reasons you post are very thought provoking though. Again, good job.