What do ATS members think the afterlife is like?

Personally, I'm not religious. I think religion places too many restrictions on what you are "allowed" to believe. I have, however, had an out of body experience before, which verified for me that there is indeed a possibility that we have a "soul" and that there could be an "afterlife." I haven't been able to induce the experience again, but it's a distinct experience that is far more real than a lucid dream, so I'm pretty sure of what I experienced.

I don't know what I could expect an afterlife to be like though. A return to the "source", like pouring a cup of water back into the ocean? Do we retain our identity? Is this lifes identity/experience added so some kind of higher self that is a compilation of all our other past lives? Who knows. Mind boggling to think about. It seems every opinion I hold about the soul and OBE type stuff contradicts the things I believe about reincarnation and the afterlife. I'm enjoying reading everyone elses thoughts though

whatever you project it to be

Personally I think it's whatever you want it to be, but for me..

I would want mine to be like the end of a video game. You have finished the game, now everything is unlocked. The secrets, conspiracy theories, everything is answered. You are able to free roam the universe as a ghost, see everything that was previously inaccessible. Travel to any time period and witness the events of history in 1st person. Change the events of history to your liking and then be able to undo your changes with just a thought. You are now the programmer, congratulations!

Decomposition, dirt, worms…sounds peaceful being 6 feet under.

reply to post by EmperorZeno


Exactly how I feel!

reply to post by Seagurt


The more I have thought about this and the more I look at life the more I think that death is just a massive part of life.

Obviously it is the one certainty we are all gifted with from the start, we know it is coming, that alone should give you a bit of comfort because we all worry about the unknown if you think about it.

Everything else in between is what you make of it.

Death might just be what you make of it too.

I mean that a lot deeper than it might appear at first.

About 20 years ago I had too much to drink and went to bed, I dreamed I was floating in a powder blue light and felt total peace, if that was death I would have liked to have stayed there. I woke up and blew it off as a dream, fast forward about 12 years and I'm listening to coast to coast and some woman called in and said she had a near death experience and she was floating in a blue light, pretty weird.

Originally posted by Tayesin
There is a diffrence between, Thinking, Believing and having direct experience. ANd so I offer this for your reading pleasure...

I always hoped that if people knew from listening openly that when a "deadie" as I call them, arrives at what I call the arrival zone, they firstly are met with something from their 'life' to help them focus and feel comfortable in the surroundings.

And then the most beautiful thing you could ever observe starts to happen. They begin to sparkle a bit from the inside.. and as that gets brighter all the stuff I call Dross... that's all their personal Beliefs about Everything, their worthiness, what exists and what doesn't exist.. their worthiness x2.. all the BELIEFS of humans falls away from them !

When they are fully awake they shine so brightly it makes me cry in Joy. I love to watch this.. I love to tell people about it.. I just wish people would listen. It would help them not get caught up in their Beliefs when dropping off the body and get stuck close to Here or find other places to create what they Believe about everything.

It was easier to quote this than to rewrite it all here again for the 12th time in 9 years.

edit on 3-6-2012 by Tayesin because: (no reason given)

I know there is something but I could not call it spiritual in a religious sense. I have observed 2 souls crossing over and I can not explain rationally what I saw but I know what I saw when these 2 ghosts of transparent muted luminescence which went up and to the right entering into a bright white vortex. However these two people were very religious and involved in their church. I was told the week after that they had told the congregation that their time here was done and they would be going home! The suspected cause of the fire was a recently installed gas water heater.

Originally posted by korath
About 20 years ago I had too much to drink and went to bed, I dreamed I was floating in a powder blue light and felt total peace, if that was death I would have liked to have stayed there. I woke up and blew it off as a dream, fast forward about 12 years and I'm listening to coast to coast and some woman called in and said she had a near death experience and she was floating in a blue light, pretty weird.

During an episode of sleep deprivation I had the same experience. I finally laid down on the couch for a nap, I was incredibly relaxed, breathing deeply and steadily, and kind of became aware that I was drifting and I saw the same thing. Powder blue, kind of "fuzzy" and "sparkly" in certain places but those two words don't quite seem to describe it well.

It's interesting and quite exciting to randomly read of someone elses experience that is similar to your own.

reply to post by Manhater


Your idea sounds good to me. But maybe I hope we'll still be able to interact if we want to with others, and still see our loved ones who haven't passed yet, even if they can't see us.

I think it will be nothing, but I would like to be wrong. If not for my sake but for the rest who got it right.

For the religious people:

Wouldn't heaven be extremely over populated? With new souls popping up every second by the thousands.
You would have souls stacked upon eachother.

Me, personally, I believe the afterlife is exactly what it was before birth.

To me its all a circle. There is no start or end. Just is.

Nothing significant happens. Does the energy from your computer go to "computer heaven" after you turn it off? No, the energy dissipates until it's indistinguishable to all other energy.

Nothing, nada, zilch, diddlysquat.

It’s just the same as before you were born... think back to your very first thought as a human being.... and what were you were before that? Then you have your answer.

We do however live on in the minds and thoughts of the people that loved us and we become just a small part of our human history.

Mickierocksman

To be honest, im more of a spiritual person, rather than religious as a few people point out there is too many restrictions and things you have to jump through to get to "heaven"
Although i don't judge anyone who does.

So i believe that there is something, to me believing in the "afterlife" is eaiser for me to accept dying.
It's going to happen, so i might aswell believe that there is something that is going to come next.
That way it is not as scary.

Although im not sure what awaits me when my time comes, who or what will i see on the other side,
but i believe that we are all here for a purpose or a reason, there are lessons that we need to learn to help our "souls" evolve.

I think if we don't learn certain things that help us move on to the next step or dimension or whatever it is ( as im not sure to be honest)
we will be reincarnated back and go through the cycle again untill you have learned or gained the experiences you need to become and higer being, energy or consciousness

Karma

reply to post by Mickierocksman


You deny that your being is so resilient, that it will not, and can not terminate. The spirit is separate from the physical and will exist to continue it's perfection, or pass to it's next stage of development. The evidence is there, but the proof comes only in physical death. Like it or not, we are all Bozo's on this bus.

Originally posted by Thundersmurf
reply to post by AsuspiciousMANappears

 

Are you referring to '___' sir? N-n, dimethyltriptamine? Or another of the triptamine family such as Seretonin?

It was a natural flood of '___' that sparked my OOBE. I knew it was natural and not some spiritual world, although it felt like the most important thing at the time. I wouldn't rely solely on substances though because I'm sure you're aware that emotions and perception are skewed slightly under the influence.

Peace

Yeah emotions maybe be skewed under the influence of most substances witch bring you up bring you down make you feel go bad scared ect. If you experience this you will know your mind is unaffected likely largely because it is a natural compound produced by the body. And is theorist to be excreted during sleep to assist REM.

The only thing that happens is your reality switches indescribably, no false highs.

But of course I am not saying this will show you god or the source. As many shaman's believe we are only messing with astral dimensions as well as our inner mind. Though they use ayahuasca witch is NN only prolonged.

But I am saying to the people who laugh at the thought of life after death, are children in their views on reality an know basically nothing yet speak the loudest on this topic. Yet they are one toke away from a reality smashing view conquering experience of knowing.

reply to post by Nucleardiver



Indeed to people who haven't experienced it you can never really explain it to them. Even your mom will look at you with a her 100% undevided attention believing every word you say...yet you know she can't possible understand...even thought she has done this many times before and has just forgotten ..

Its like a snug warm soothing hhhhummm but not even a hum. Like a droplet of water into the sea and immediately the entire ocean welcomes you back and knows your back and feels you. And you feel them and all their vibrations reconnecting. So people say yeah I can imagine that...but no human really can we just don't have the hardware, even now I probably cant recall just how awesome it was. We are so limited in feeling or even the language to slightly interporate 1 percent of it.

Great to hear from someone who actual believes and understands me

I'm not sure exactly what I believe..one thing I can say is I don't believe that physical death is the end. I think it's the beginning.

Originally posted by windus
Every physical bit of you becomes recycled energy and matter for the rest of the universe and specifically our planet to keep creating with. You, a sculpture, become modelling clay again.

No physical part of you, Seagurt, will ever feel or witness or know of anything after your brain dies and heart stops, because you'll be being recycled in tiny, precious pieces.

And we are all made of our ancestors pieces.

I also to think we are all part of the same source of energy. We do get recycled, in a way. I think when we die, we transition into another state. I takes a couple of weeks to figure out the new surroundings. Then, I think there is a choice to be made. We either continue to transition into the main source of life energy, or, we can stay in the sort of quasi awake state. This is the state where we can interact with the living in the form of spirit or ghost energy. My reading has lead me to believe in this. The book, The Otherside, chronicles this transition pretty clearly. Some people who have done questionable things like murder, choose NOT to leave the quasi state because they are afraid they will be punished once the continue to transition so they stay where they are. I think it takes a leap of faith to transition into the "Light" where all the peace is. Do we get judged? Probably not if when one decides to go into the light, I think we are simply absorbed into the life force. That same light force that is connected to new bornes. This is where we can decide to comeback into this life form. Where we go and what our options are once we go into the light, I don't know but I imagine it's all OK.