What happens before and after you die?

Its the biggest mystery we know. What exactly happens when we die? Does the way you die dictate what happens after you take your final breath? Does it matter if you're murdered, killed by accident or die of natural causes?

But the bigger question is this: What exactly happens when your final breath comes and goes? There have been a lot of theories.

1) Some think we just end up being worm dirt. Meaning nothing happens when you die. You're just dead and gone forever.
2) Some think we are born again and destined to live as another life here on earth. Its a cycle. This has past life implications.
3) Some think we are destined to haunt the earth in a ghostly form from the realm of the dead.
4) Some think we go to either heaven or hell.
5) Some think you're elevated to a higher state of consciousness on another plane of existence.

Am I missing any? I am sure that I am. Feel free to add them.

Then you have other questions. At what point during dying does the pain stop? The second that your last breath comes and goes? There have been some theories that if you're beheaded, that you still see out of your head for 12 seconds after its detached from your body. How much truth is there in that? I guess we'll never know. But it begs the question that I am asking.

Is there truly a light at the end of the tunnel when you die? Are there any legitimate sources or claims out there about someone who died and then was brought back to life stating what they saw during the death phase? Are there any "known" facts about what happens during this? Or is it just all guesstimates and theories?

Ive also heard that seconds before you die you enter some kind of state of high clarity. I am not familiar with this. However, Ive heard about people saying very odd things just a short few seconds before they die. Sometimes what they say does not make any sense at that exact moment. However, it ends up making sense at a later date to whoever overheard it. Anyone know what I am talking about here?

Anyway, I'd like to strike up a conversation here about what some of you ATSers think happens before and after death. Is there an afterlife of some sort?

You are alive and then you are dead!

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite
You are alive and then you are dead!

So your saying that you believe my #1 theory above? That nothing happens?

Care to elaborate?

a reply to: Bloodydagger

I will run with worm dirt , although that wont happen in my case as i have asked to be cremated . Just to be sure you know .

I had to look the beheading thing up..

From Wikipedia

Decapitation is quickly fatal to humans and most other animals. Unconsciousness occurs within 10 seconds without circulating oxygenated blood (brain ischemia). Cell death and irreversible brain damage occurs after 3-6 minutes with no oxygen due to excitotoxicity. Some anecdotes suggest more extended persistence of human consciousness after decapitation:

“[After several seconds], the spasmodic movements ceased... It was then that I called in a strong, sharp voice: "Languille!" I saw the eyelids slowly lift up, without any spasmodic contractions – I insist advisedly on this peculiarity – but with an even movement, quite distinct and normal, such as happens in everyday life, with people awakened or torn from their thoughts... [After calling his name again, Languille's] eyelids lifted and undeniably living eyes fixed themselves on mine with perhaps even more penetration than the first time.”

—Gabriel Beaurieux, A History of the Guillotine[59]

But most doctors consider this unlikely and consider such accounts to be misapprehensions of reflexive twitching rather than deliberate movement, since deprivation of oxygen must cause nearly immediate coma and death ("[Consciousness is] probably lost within 2-3 seconds, due to a rapid fall of intracranial perfusion of blood.").[60]

However, there are reports of patients remaining conscious for up to 12 seconds after cardiac arrest, gradually losing consciousness within that time due to lack of oxygen replacement to the brain (which reaches 0% within 12 seconds), therefore it is conceivable that a person may remain conscious for up to that period of time after decapitation (assuming that no blunt trauma took place at the time of decapitation).[citation needed]

Some animals (such as cockroaches) can survive decapitation, and die not because of the loss of the head directly, but rather because of starvation.[61] Although head transplantation by the reattachment of blood vessels has been successful with other animals,[62] a fully functional reattachment of a severed human head (including repair of the spinal cord, muscles, and other critically important tissues) has not yet been achieved.

Eerie.. very eerie.

a reply to: WakeUpBeer

Yes, extremely eerie

I go for the heaven and hell , not because I'm religious , I just don't think all the people who say they have been are lying .

You must have watched I survived beyond and back , if you haven't watched it , dig in because it's a great programme .

originally posted by: Denoli
I go for the heaven and hell , not because I'm religious , I just don't think all the people who say they have been are lying .

You must have watched I survived beyond and back , if you haven't watched it , dig in because it's a great programme .

Has it been stated anywhere from anyone who seen hell when dead and brought back to life? If so, what did they see and experience?

a reply to: Bloodydagger You don't die. You can't die. You are not in charge of what happens to your spirit. You change from a universe of matter, where you leave your matter behind, and enter a universe of non-matter, no space, no time. You meet the others who arrived ahead of you that you know, and some you don't know.
Quantum physics implies that, at the lowest levels in the neurons in the brain, you have connected to the quantum universe. When you die, that energy connection is continued by the quantum universe that it occupies. Light, the source of all matter, will energize your connection forever, and you will become one with everything and all things.
At that point, you will meet God in the form of a man, which you will recognize as Jesus Christ. He will show you where you will live and you will be happy forever.
Your position in that place will be somewhat based on what you did in this life. You will "receive crowns", of which there are nine. They are listed in the Bible.
Good luck on your journey through this life into the next.
Remember this, do not fear death because we never die.

This is a subject that weighs heavy on me, and I think about often. I would really hope there is a higher plane of existence, or ghostly world we will transport to. Lights out, and nothing afterwords is what scares the hell out of me.

Don't be afraid of dying. If it was anything like being born, it was a bit dizzying and exhilarating but nothing bad. It's a journey. So is life. And, like gandalf said, death is but another journey.

originally posted by: gunshooter
This is a subject that weighs heavy on me, and I think about often. I would really hope there is a higher plane of existence, or ghostly world we will transport to. Lights out, and nothing afterwords is what scares the hell out of me.

Yes, that is the scariest one. However, when it happens, we wont know it. But the thought of lights out and then nothing is quite scary to ponder.

originally posted by: rukia
Don't be afraid of dying. If it was anything like being born, it was a bit dizzying and exhilarating but nothing bad. It's a journey. So is life. And, like gandalf said, death is but another journey.

I don't think anyone is truly afraid of the dying part. Its the minutes/seconds leading up to it that people fear the most. Its that moment of "I am about to die" that really gets people.

The astral body and the life that goes with it awaits the dead.

Death is a transition from the material to the astral, which is supposed to be a good thing.

originally posted by: Bloodydagger

originally posted by: gunshooter
This is a subject that weighs heavy on me, and I think about often. I would really hope there is a higher plane of existence, or ghostly world we will transport to. Lights out, and nothing afterwords is what scares the hell out of me.

Yes, that is the scariest one. However, when it happens, we wont know it. But the thought of lights out and then nothing is quite scary to ponder.

Hi.

Once we die fear as an emotion is no longer required. Fear is a biological survival response that is only useful in this earthly life.

Regarding Jesus, He did not say that we all go to Heaven happy ever after. In the Bible it tells us that our souls are held in a place until the Resurrection of all the dead;

Daniel 12: "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise[a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

Revelation tell us exactly the same thing. The former earth will pass away and a new earth will be created. Jesus says that there will be no need for marriage even because we "will be like the angels".

Jesus says that He would have told us so if it was not the case. Also, it appears there is a lake of fire of eternal torment for the Beast, False Prophet and that those who have the Mark of The Beast will be weeping and wailing and gnashing teeth outside Zion. A Book of Life is mentioned, too, where all those who are written in it will rise to everlasting life.

Sheol (Hades) is the world of the dead. Gehenna is a metaphor for the rubbish pit/heap. Heaven is God's domain. Humans don't go there. Revelation says that God will come and dwell with people in the new earth.

This is actual Christian doctrine. I don't know where the very common misunderstanding of going to Heaven comes from, but Jesus never spoke of us residing there.

Some interesting observations, though, Jesus said to one of the people crucified with Him "Today you will join me in Paradise". To others He said that it is a blinking of an eye for us before we are awakened. To others He said "I have gone to prepare a place".

It feels like death is totally necessary, I feel it is where you came from in a sense. Terence McKenna said that "life is what you get when a trans dimensional object petrudes into 3 dimensional space and time."

I found this interesting.
He goes on to say:
If you have a paper cup and you cut it in half, nothing really happens you just have a paper cup in two pieces, but when you take a living body and cut it in half you realize that the thing you once had is a mess and the entire system becomes mute"

He also adds:
We clothe ourselves in matter, but we (our souls) are not matter. You come from realms of unimaginable power and light and you will return to those realms.

I enjoy the novelty in these ideas. all of these ideas are from Terence McKenna

a reply to: kalalausoul

That is......deep lol, wow.

And interesting.

hey guys i have a special gift for your answers i have pdf file ( non organic beings ) in this PDF go and study type B non organic being and if you have a question ast from me ) maybe it not the answer you want but a good first step to take

www.megafileupload.com...

a reply to: Bloodydagger

Great question!

Wish I had the ultimate answer, but I'm still learning as I go through this lifetime.

Back in 1991 they made a movie called "Defending Your Life" that presented an interesting premise that has always stuck with me for some odd reason...granted, the film is somewhat of a humorous metaphorical allegory, but it also contains striking parallels to the various descriptions of karmic reincarnation in various cultures - but in a modernized, Western Civilization setting.

If you have two hours to kill, I'd recommend the full film for a recreational way to meditate on the question you have posed.



The cool thing is many of the conceptualized ideas within the film are based on precepts within formal literature such as The Tibetan Book of the Dead (though not as directly stated) and many of the reincarnation principles are direct reflections of the main precepts of Eastern Buddhism on the subject of dying and death.

Now granted, a lot of those aforementioned texts don't always translate easily into modern terms due to cultural differences, but long story short - it's basically the same ideas presented in the film - the soul finds itself on a level of consciousness where it has a chance to reflect on and come to terms with it's last incarnation, pass through and deal with latent ego-constructs and misdeeds/inactions before moving forwards into the unknown of the Light of Nirvana, or else decides to return to the birth-death cycle until one has accomplished all they feel they have set out to do.

Sometimes the soul is unprepared for these realizations and immediately returns to the birth death cycle without much choice in the matter.

Some texts warn of unpleasant experiences that can sometimes manifest while in this transitional realm commonly referred to as the Bardo of Tibetan Buddhism....failure to properly navigate these sometimes frightening and dangerous manifestations and propel the consciousness into an undesired rebirth if not handled appropriately.

What is even more interesting are scientific studies that have speculated the brain releases a store of the chemical dimethyltryptamine that propels the consciousness into an ascended state during the death process....probably in order to help facilitate the moving of consciousness from one plane to another as it enters into the transitional state after death. Some people use this chemical compound as a recreational drug, but I strongly advise against such practices as there remains a high likelihood that the naturally occurring levels of this unique compound within the brain may never return to their original levels and it might complicate things when the Final Death arises because there isn't enough left to propel the dying mind into the Bardo state and ones consciousness can easily become lost in lower realms.

Granted, that last paragraph is pure speculation and personal conjecture as I am not in a position to confirm my bias on this issue...but better to be safe than sorry when it comes to such matters. I'd rather not run the risk of screwing things up at the last moment when it comes to advancing into the next phase of consciousness.

If, however, you are of the opinion that the soul does not exist and consciousness absolutely ceases when there is no more neuroelectric activity present in the brain, well....shoot...I guess that's the end of it and there's little more to be said after that.

Hope some of this rambling might help unlock new avenues of reflection in unraveling the Great Mystery.

One of the most profound things about the transition is when you realize that your human emotions are gone and you are simply a consciousness without the notions of time, fear, ego, etc. The immense feeling of contentment is gratifying and if you come back from it, you'll always miss it and look forward to experiencing it again.

There's a very valid reason why people who've had a near-death experience come back feeling perfectly fine with the notion of dying.

Being in this physical body is its own version of hell once you realize the beauty that lies on the other side.