Questions on the Afterlife

Ever since I had my first child, 2 years ago, I have found myself to be questioning life and death more. Sadly, the thought of dying has become more fearful now for me, because I know the pain that I felt when close family members died, and I do not wish for my daughter to ever feel that (which I know is not possible). Also, the thought of leaving her forever scares me to, but hey, that is life, right?

Anyway...let's get to the point here. The other day, I was reading a thread on the afterlife and a comment was made that really got me thinking. The poster implied that the afterlife did not make sense, because after we have done everything there is to do 5 times...and still have an eternity to go, imagine how bored we would get?

I have been thinking about this post a lot since I read it, and it make sense to me. People, at the end of their lives here, often claim to be "tired," and "ready to go." This is after 75-100 years. Imagine what an eternity would be like for them?

Now, I was at church this weekend (Don't knock it...this is not a religious debate forum - thanks), and the Pastor had mentioned that God gives us eternal life if we chose to take it...well, who wouldn't right? This, of course, got me thinking. Mainly on the idea that the after life is created by people, because people are afraid of dying...which could be a whole post on its own.

So, here are my two questions:

1 - How many of you think that the after life is just what I said above...created by people who feared their own mortality?

2 - If there is an afterlife, it cannot be eternal in the way that humans think. It has to be something we cannot, as humans, fully understand. Like the comment in the other thread stated, that would get old fast... So, there has to be something different, maybe each death brings us to a new life? What do you think?

Thanks for reading and responding. I am tired of just thinking back and forth in my head, and would like some outside perspectives.

Take care!

Originally posted by MarshMallow_Snake
So, here are my two questions:

1 - How many of you think that the after life is just what I said above...created by people who feared their own mortality?

2 - If there is an afterlife, it cannot be eternal in the way that humans think. It has to be something we cannot, as humans, fully understand. Like the comment in the other thread stated, that would get old fast... So, there has to be something different, maybe each death brings us to a new life? What do you think?

Thanks for reading and responding. I am tired of just thinking back and forth in my head, and would like some outside perspectives.

Take care!

Your post breaths such an integrity that I don't feel inclined to be cynical (my operations modus most of the time)
First a little disclosure to position my views:

1. i am an atheist
2. i am a materialist: to me, when the brain stops, the game is over. I don't buy into souls and the mind is simply the effect of a working brain, just as the ATS website is the effect of a computer running some programs)
3. i am willing (most of the time, for most of the people) to dwell into alternative possibilities

so count me among those who say "I" to your first question. When one dies and is buried, worms will be part of us. that's it. game over. you were a fine candidate ;-)

maybe question 2 can be resolved if we get rid of a time-based conception of reality, whatever that is?
Suppose the (passing of) time is just part of the way we have to translate reality into something meaningful to ourselves?
Suppose in that outside reality there is no time and all things that ever happened, happen and will happen simply happen?
Suppose dying and the afterlife actually means part of what makes us "us" is becoming aware of that non-brain-infected reality (that brings with it another way of perceiving it, of course)?

As i believe there's no way to go beyond the human brain to grasp reality, all the "suppose" above might be possible or not, without giving me any tool to know the answer.

what are you talking about?

i would love to live forever i have not even come close in my 24 years on this planet to doing everything 5 times and i doubt if i live to be 100 i will have done everything i wanted or could have done

when people say their tired and ready to go it means their body is tired not that they are bored of life alot of times they are in pain as well barely able to do much of anything and if they truely believe in an afterlife where they will be full of energy and young again then of course their ready to go

i would be just find doing what i do right now forever and ever living with my wife and kids

anyway i am not into religion but i believe their is something after this life people claim to see ghosts have NDEs get weird phone calls from dead loved ones some of this might be bull# lies from attention seekers but all of them i doubt it

I don't think of the afterlife is something we created because we are fearful of dying, even tho that plays a part. I think it has to with as much that we just wonder while alive what happens to us when we do die. I've always had the suspicion that what is in the afterlife is as much of what we bring with us and what we create when we get there. When we get there we'll find out and learn more than we know about it, or can know about it while alive. As for older folks here claiming that they are tired or ready to go, I liken that feeling as being more akin to the sort of thing that happens to people when they are waiting and ready to go on a trip somewhere and the time for the trip is simply 'soon'.

Whatever the true nature of the afterlife is, when we do get there, we start out with understanding it from the perspective of where we were when we arrive and as we go on, we understand more kind of like when we all went through school and grew up here, we understand things as adults and older folks that we didn't understand when we were five or ten.

I used to just suspect that we go on to an afterlife. Never was and still am not particularly religious. Nowadays, after the death of some that are or have been particularly close to me, I don't just believe they are in whatever is in the afterlife, I simply know there is an afterlife and they are there. I can't explain why or how I know, I simply just know. I know they are there, doing well, and that when I get there I will be catching up to them.

When we "die", we go back to the place we came from. Some call it "heaven". What it is, is "home". I suggest this page and the entire website if you're interested in learning more.

Homecoming

reply to post by MrSmokeydogg7


Maybe I did not state that portion clearly. I do agree with the wanting to live forever part, and being happy with your family.

What I meant was, the person who posted raised a point about eternal life, which got my wheels spinning. They asked what do you do when you have done everything there is to do so many times, because you are eternal. Wouldn't is start to seem like a curse at some point? Would one not get bored if they have seen and done everything there is to see an do? Like, here on earth, if we lived long enough to visit every square inch of the planet and see everything there is to see, would we not long for something else? (Personally, I would love to have this option).

Eternity is a long time...and that is why I think that we cannot truly understand the concept of an afterlife in comparison to human life...because, obviously the two are so different.

reply to post by NeverSleepingEyes


Thanks. I know this can set off different aspects of what everyone believes, and I am not out to say either is right. I just had a lot of questions running through my head and want to see other people's thoughts on what I was thinking.

The sad part of my whole thinking process is that there is a sliver of thought in my head that you may be right, that when we die, it is game over, which is scary to think of...especially when you meet so many people that you love and wish to be in a relationship with them forever (here and after).

I suppose either way, one side of the coin is going to be rather surprised when the final moment is reached .

reply to post by Overstuffed


I tend to agree with your thinking. I am a believer that there is something there after we leave here. There are way to many reports and coincidences out there. Yes, like MrSmokeyDog said, it could be BS, but there is too much of it to be in my mind.

reply to post by angellicview


Thank you. I will take a look at this link.

Originally posted by MarshMallow_Snake
The other day, I was reading a thread on the afterlife and a comment was made that really got me thinking. The poster implied that the afterlife did not make sense, because after we have done everything there is to do 5 times...and still have an eternity to go, imagine how bored we would get?

.......This, of course, got me thinking. Mainly on the idea that the after life is created by people, because people are afraid of dying...which could be a whole post on its own.

So, here are my two questions:

1 - How many of you think that the after life is just what I said above...created by people who feared their own mortality?

2 - If there is an afterlife, it cannot be eternal in the way that humans think. It has to be something we cannot, as humans, fully understand. Like the comment in the other thread stated, that would get old fast... So, there has to be something different, maybe each death brings us to a new life? What do you think?

I'll respond to your two questions first....

1. Not me.. for good reason.. explanation will follow.

2. Nothing we humans think comes close to the bigger picture reality.. we think far too small all the time.. well, most of us do.

The comments in the other thread you spoke about likewise comes from a human with no direct experience of the topic, in which case what they said can only be their personal Belief. And it is Beliefs that cause our perceptional limitations.

There is nothing to be afraid of when it comes to death, we just fear it because we have been lied to for so long about what happens from death of the body onwards.

Science thinks death is the end, it thinks the Brain is the be all and end all of Us... when the case is more like the Brain is simply the neck-top computer that operates the body's functions.. the system user.. You.. are the Experiencer using that Brain-controlled body .. not the other way around.

As one who has worked directly in the field with the dying and the already dead.. I can tell you from direct experience what can happen after you .. the system user.. drops the current body.....

Many newly dead want to hang around to see that their family is okay... but once they go they will do one of three things.. depending on whether they committed suicide or died from other causes.

Most people see and experience what they think they should see and experience.. based on their Beliefs about everything... and these deadies are the ones who can be caught up in their own creations of reality.. some self-create a hellish existence because that is what they believe they deserve, while others experience other self-creations and all of them do so until they realise that they are dead.. then they are ready to move on.

There are humans who work in those areas which are called the Belief Territories.. and their work is based on helping those deadies who are waking up to the fact that their body is dead.. so that they can then move into the Light.

The Light is a very real phenomena.. it is also something we don't have to wait for death to experience.. anyone with a little training and self-mastery can "visit" into the Light at will.... it is what I do when taking the awakened deadies across into the light. a place I found for myself back in 1977 during my early experimental phase with OOBE.

Thye dead who do not self-create their surroundings.. the ones who are "tired and ready to go" do not suffer the same struggle for clear perception. Instead most of these go dirctly into the Light without getting waylaid.

Once they go into the Light they find themselves coming to what I call The Arrival Zone,,, and there is always.. repeat ALWAYS.. someone or something of their past waiting to meet them. I have experienced this scenario played out hundreds of times over the years.

The next thing that happens once at the Arrival Zone, is the deady begins to feel something stir deep within them.. this is the Memory of having been at that place before... and as this memory grows within them they begin to shine from the inside... it is something that I consider the most amazing thing anyone alive can experience for themselves.

As the shine grows in brightness, every single HUMAN BELIEF, every human thought, every human concept and theory, everything that deady Believed about Life on Earth starts to fall away from them like dirt from the body when showering.

As this happens, the deady regains their Soul memory.. some may take longer, which is why they have a "guide" who waited for them to arrive... in case they need help to Remember and Wake up from that Dream of Life into the bigger picture reality.

This is what I have experienced in my 'spiritual' line of work for over 35 years. I know this to be factual as I experience it repeatedly as an Observer who does not self-create a poor reality that prevents me from seeing what is real.

One day, all people will come to this same understanding.

reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake
OP, i want to make you my new best friend You have put into words something that has been massively troubling me for a while now. I keep pondering the afterlife, and the notion of eternity. In my thoughtful moments, i realise that only two things will happen to me when i die, i will switch off and be no more, or i will enter a realm of no body, no death, eternity, and even thought this is considered by religious folk to be glorious, it scares the hell out of me be i cannot comprehend such an existance and im frightenend to be quite honest. I do believe in God, but i cannot even begin to comprehend my life afterwards, particularly the notion of living eternally.

reply to post by Tayesin


Thank you for that post. That was truly a great read. I would like to hear more from you on your experiences, if you do not mind sharing. Feel free to send me a message.

reply to post by thedoctorswife


Well, I feel your pain! I have been struggling with this for some time now, and just this weekend finally was able to open up to the community and share my thoughts. I have most of the same thoughts as you do, and I just cannot fathom it. This is why I believe the here after to be something that we cannot describe, as humans. We tend to think more in the way of beginning, middle, and end. And eternity is a concept that we have, but one that, as mortal beings, I believe we cannot fully understand.

I am happy to see that it is not just me that was thinking this way. I accept your friendship.

Just giving this a bump because I would like to see other people's opinions.

reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake



I understand your pain and I will share what I know in my 60 plus years.

All religions are man made to serve man, as the ones that man they are and those
in charge of war and peace. It is and was a way to keep people willing to fight the
war or find a witch (the list goes on). But it truth it is a way to control the needs
of a church or a political order to have the followers to do their bidding.

With all the above being said, I watched my father die at 16 years old and my
middle brother died at 38 from a wreck on a motorcycle (in town 2 blocks from home).
During all this I was held a firm believe that god had a plan that was good. Then
my middle brother and I was fishing in the fall of the year 1994 (he was 52) and we
have just gotten to shore from that trip and he started having chess pains. We called
911 and before they could get there he passed in my arms. Right there I knew what
I was always taught and the plan of god was BS. So in effect I know your pain with those
feelings you have on this.

Personally there is a going on after death as we are made of energy and energy is never
made or destroyed so when we pass the body will die but what makes you you continues
to the next level. I am not sure of what the next is for sure but it is not some of what
the religions are trying to tell you they are. From these happening in my life I knew
what the creator is and was as hell is a scare tactic and heaven is just another delusion
of religions and those in charge.

Did I mention that I had a massive stroke in 2005 and lost 80% of my heart, yes I have a idea of what's next!

reply to post by truskeptic


Thank you. I appreciate the response and the info that you have shared. Some of that was pretty heart-wrenching.

When you had your stroke, did you pass? Do you remember anything from that, if you care to share?

Have a good night.

reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake


I stopped breathing (from want I was told) but being honest I am not sure as it was peaceful where I was at. I can say that I do not fear death and when it is my time to go I will pass without fear. Some may fear it but with what I have witnessed it is a passing to another dimension (for lack of better term). But until that time comes I am going to enjoy life to the fullest as I have many stories for the grand-kids.

reply to post by MarshMallow_Snake


Hi

Interesting Questions!

Quick background:

-Raised in a pretty religious Christian Background
-Became an Atheist while in my teens and early 20’s
-Last couple of years, became interested again in spirituality which led me to study reincarnation.

So with that background, my opinion as to your first question:

1 - How many of you think that the after life is just what I said above...created by people who feared their own mortality?

While I can’t argue that it is not possible we just made up the idea of the afterlife for comfort purposes, I sincerely think there might be something to life outside of our physical body.

In cases where people have recalled their death in a past life, many people describe experiencing such an enormous relief --- almost shock and feelings of pure elation upon their discovery that their consciousness continued to exist outside of their physical body.

In addition, the many cases of people who have reported “near-death” experiences and/or “out of body/astral travel” lends credence to the possibility that our consciousness will continue on after our physical body dies.

An interesting comment that many people make when recalling a past life death, is that their nonphysical reality feels more “real” then their physical life. In others words, after their death, they began to view their physical lives as more transitory and almost feel like they have “woken up from a dream”.

On the other hand, to believe these accounts, you have to accept that these people are not delusional, mistaken, or deliberately lying. I will admit to being somewhat cynical regarding many of the stories, however, I’ve read about so many interesting cases that are backed by compelling evidence and researched by well-respected people that I’ve come to believe that we are likely more than just our physical body.

My answer to your second question:

2 - If there is an afterlife, it cannot be eternal in the way that humans think. It has to be something we cannot, as humans, fully understand. Like the comment in the other thread stated, that would get old fast... So, there has to be something different, maybe each death brings us to a new life? What do you think?

Yes to everything

I do think that after we die, we have a choice to return back earth in a different form. Probably as another human in a different life. “Apparently” we travel in “soul groups” whereby our close friends and family will often reincarnate with us, albeit in different forms. Ie. Your best friend in this life might reincarnate as your brother in a next life. Or who knows, we might chose to experience life on a different planet or in alternate universe where the laws of physics are vastly different.

Similarly, from other’s people description of “their life between lives” it seems that there are many different dimensions in which we can chose to live --- and so we might decide to exist in a different form that we can’t even comprehend right now.

In fact, there’s probably little chance that while we’re human we’ll ever be able to comprehend just how complicated and beautiful our existence might be. When I think about it, I feel that our lives and consciousness are made up of so many overlapping layers and dimensions that we’ve likely barely scratched the surface of what might be out there.

According to some researchers, who have asked past life subjects (while they’re in a deep hypnotic trance” what the purpose of it all is: A common answer is that: at the end of it all we’re all "one". We exist in and are part of everything. People call it God, the Divine Source ect. And that the reason we choose to live as physical beings is because:

1. We love to Create
2. And we love to have new experiences
3.And all of these experiences that we create help us to know ourself better

I don’t know if that’s true. Because that would mean that God has chosen to experience life as me and at the same time has also chosen to experience life as my smelly neighbor down the hall. And likewise, God has even chosen to experience life as my cat. Which is crazy, because even I wouldn’t chose to live a life as boring as me lol. But according this theory --- God, or The Divine Force has decided to have the experience of me drinking one too many beers and writing a way too long reply on ATS. (I could however understand why God might like to take a breather and experience life as my Cat

And then if this is true, we would have to direct our attention to those who inflict evil. And it’s hard for me to comprehend that a kind, benevolent God would wish to experience that. It’s just too hard for me to stomach the theory that the suffering of so many innocent souls has a purpose and might balance out in the end.

So in conclusion, I do not have any answers yet. But better or worse, these are some of my crazy musings to your very interesting questions

reply to post by OwenandNoelle


Now this is the type of response I was looking for. Thank you.

I tend to believe that there is more to us then this. Otherwise, humanity got screwed.

Anyway, thank you again for that response. It was awesome.

I believe in life after death and i know that i and my ex-girlfriend were visited. A TRUE STORY. One night my girlfriend shook me several times asking me to get up. I finally awoke and sat up and she said, "what is that?". I said, "I don't know". It was a glowing orb thing in front of the t.v screen. I looked around looking for a light source, but i could not find one. I was baffled by the light source giving off it's own light, so i stared at it for about 4 to 5 minutes. The thing was the size of a golf ball and seemed to have, like veins of light inside that moved, very small tho. I got up and told my girlfriend that i was going to touch it. As i approached it, it moved. I stopped and watched it more for about a minute more and then i walked towards it. The thing moved over to the wall next to the t.v and it. How can i say this, it faded thru the wall and when it did this, i could see outside and then the glowing orbs light got dim and the wall was the wall again. Me and my girlfriend still believe that we were visited by the after life people. Our next door neighbor died and the following year after we saw this orb thing. Bright as can be, giving off it's own light. The only way i can really describe it is well, here is an example. Take a laser and point it at a blank white piece of paper. Look closely at the laser on the white piece of paper. See the little movements in the red dot on the paper. That is what i saw, only it was the size of a golf ball and the little movements inside it were bigger. It was a glowing yellow orange ball of light. So yeah, i believe in life after.