What happens to you when you die

The purpose of religion is to provide meaningful answers to the great four existential quiestions:

1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What does it all mean?
4. What is going to happen to me when I die?

Question number 4 is a good one. I think studying near-death experiences is very interesting. There have been books written on the subject. Often people talk about a white light and tunnel. I think, based on this idea, what happens when you die is time slows down. You begin to experience everything with a heightened amount of detail like you have in the middle of a car accident. Your consciousness turns to the light and becomes mesmerized by the experience. I think looking into the light is the same thing as looking into the face God. You become so enamored and enthralled by the absolute encompassing beauty of God's face, you cease to have conscious thought. In that moment you experience eternal everlasting bliss and your mind melts into the mind of God. You become one with the great mind of the Universe.

Your last experience is the greatest possible one anyone can achieve through our minds. I think once you melt into the mind of God you never wake up from the experience. You are by definition the most awake you will ever be experiencing eternal heavenly bliss without any time for conscious thought.

Now some of you will say that's not what our Bible tells us. Our Bible tells us we have a vengeful anthropomorphic God who will judge us after we die. I don't think that's true. I think we just melt into the mind of God and everyone is saved or gets to experience eternally heavenly bliss regardless of our earthly sins. I think the mind of God has no boundaries or limits and is therefore indiscriminate when it comes to the melting process.

Any thoughts? I would love to hear someone quote scripture or talk about eternal damnation. By the way, how bad can eternal damnation be? It can't be worse than living in New Jersey.

a reply to: dfnj2015

I'll put my hand up and say that I've died (temporarily obviously) From an overdose when I was 17

I remember leaving my body and looking down on the scene below in the hospital room I was in. I also remember being fearful that I was separated from my body. I begged God to let me go back, and somehow I did.

So, drawing my own experience I am lead to believe two things;

1) The essence of ourselves, ie our souls probably does live on after the flesh dies.
2) We are not alone. There is another realm out there that we cannot usually see or talk to.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Even though it cannot be measured, I do believe consciousness is energy itself. Therefore it is something that can neither be created nor destroyed. Your life energy will not cease to exist, but rather be recycled into another form. What determines that form? Who knows. We are mere infants in the basic understanding of life, and the basic understanding of the universe in general.

Or there could be an actual heaven and hell.

Well, you've asked a question with an impossible answer. It's just a guess at this point in our evolution, but it's becoming more evident as time passes that there is a great deal more to this story called life!

I think we create our own reality when we die---just as we do on earth. And karma definitely enters into our afterlife---we seem to reap what we've sowed.

People's experiences seem to vary when they pass, just as their experiences vary in life.

Personally, I'm kind of mad at the whole experience of life. We are living in very difficult times and it's not easy, cheap, comfortable or ideal to be here. And given that we don't really know what we're doing here makes me kind of mad.

Sometimes I look up at the sky and tell the other-world: "Hey, you come down here and do this! You get a job, a mortgage, feed your family, pay your bills! See how you like it!"

originally posted by: markosity1973
a reply to: dfnj2015

I'll put my hand up and say that I've died (temporarily obviously) From an overdose when I was 17

I remember leaving my body and looking down on the scene below in the hospital room I was in. I also remember being fearful that I was separated from my body. I begged God to let me go back, and somehow I did.

So, drawing my own experience I am lead to believe two things;

1) The essence of ourselves, ie our souls probably does live on after the flesh dies.
2) We are not alone. There is another realm out there that we cannot usually see or talk to.

But you didn't actually die die. So you don't really know do you. What you did do was lose conscious and your heart stopped, so your brain had a temporary loss of oxygen. So what normally happens at that time is your brain starts getting you ready to die. It starts producing large amounts of a substance that i cannot mention on these forums. This molecule is a highly hallucinogenic substance. So basically, you were tripping, hallucinating. This is a very well documented medical condition.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Isn't this the second time you've posted this same thread?

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: dfnj2015

Even though it cannot be measured, I do believe consciousness is energy itself. Therefore it is something that can neither be created nor destroyed. Your life energy will not cease to exist, but rather be recycled into another form. What determines that form? Who knows. We are mere infants in the basic understanding of life, and the basic understanding of the universe in general.

Or there could be an actual heaven and hell.

The energy that keeps your brain working can actually be measured. And when you die that energy that your body is made of gets put back into the ground so that other forms of life can eat it and use that energy for itself.this is also a well known phenomenon. Nothing spooky about that.

a reply to: Woodcarver

Sorry mate, but getting all scientific about what happens hen we die soooo misses the mark.

Human beings are in kindergarten.

Therefore, anything we think we know has basically been drawn with crayons.

originally posted by: MRuss
a reply to: Woodcarver

Sorry mate, but getting all scientific about what happens hen we die soooo misses the mark.

Human beings are in kindergarten.

Therefore, anything we think we know has basically been drawn with crayons.

Dying is actually quite a scientific process, there is nothing about it that science cannot explore.

originally posted by: Woodcarver

originally posted by: markosity1973
a reply to: dfnj2015

I'll put my hand up and say that I've died (temporarily obviously) From an overdose when I was 17

I remember leaving my body and looking down on the scene below in the hospital room I was in. I also remember being fearful that I was separated from my body. I begged God to let me go back, and somehow I did.

So, drawing my own experience I am lead to believe two things;

1) The essence of ourselves, ie our souls probably does live on after the flesh dies.
2) We are not alone. There is another realm out there that we cannot usually see or talk to.

But you didn't actually die die. So you don't really know do you. What you did do was lose conscious and your heart stopped, so your brain had a temporary loss of oxygen. So what normally happens at that time is your brain starts getting you ready to die. It starts producing large amounts of a substance that i cannot mention on these forums. This molecule is a highly hallucinogenic substance. So basically, you were tripping, hallucinating. This is a very well documented medical condition.

Believe what you will, my story is purely subjective. Just as an FYI, my heart was stopped for just under 5 minutes.

The point of my post is that even if the two things I believe are as real as the tooth fairy, it harms nobody for me to believe them.

originally posted by: MRuss
a reply to: Woodcarver

Sorry mate, but getting all scientific about what happens hen we die soooo misses the mark.

Human beings are in kindergarten.

Therefore, anything we think we know has basically been drawn with crayons.

maybe you're driving with crayons but some of us have graduated from college.

Fact of the matter is : No One Really Knows. Not religions, not science, not some Guru on a mountaintop. You'll find out all too soon, so don't sweat it. Worry about what you can do to make Life better now.

originally posted by: markosity1973

originally posted by: Woodcarver

originally posted by: markosity1973
a reply to: dfnj2015

I'll put my hand up and say that I've died (temporarily obviously) From an overdose when I was 17

I remember leaving my body and looking down on the scene below in the hospital room I was in. I also remember being fearful that I was separated from my body. I begged God to let me go back, and somehow I did.

So, drawing my own experience I am lead to believe two things;

1) The essence of ourselves, ie our souls probably does live on after the flesh dies.
2) We are not alone. There is another realm out there that we cannot usually see or talk to.

But you didn't actually die die. So you don't really know do you. What you did do was lose conscious and your heart stopped, so your brain had a temporary loss of oxygen. So what normally happens at that time is your brain starts getting you ready to die. It starts producing large amounts of a substance that i cannot mention on these forums. This molecule is a highly hallucinogenic substance. So basically, you were tripping, hallucinating. This is a very well documented medical condition.

Believe what you will, my story is purely subjective. Just as an FYI, my heart was stopped for just under 5 minutes.

The point of my post is that even if the two things I believe are as real as the tooth fairy, it harms nobody for me to believe them.

Do you think it doesn't harm people to lead them astray? Do you think there's no harm in ignoring actual scientific knowledge and support Some kind of woo experience? There is plenty of exploration of this phenomenon, but you will just ignore all of that because it makes you feel special that you died once and now you have All the answers.

a reply to: MRuss

We are the other world doing this.

originally posted by: markosity1973

originally posted by: Woodcarver

originally posted by: markosity1973
a reply to: dfnj2015

I'll put my hand up and say that I've died (temporarily obviously) From an overdose when I was 17

I remember leaving my body and looking down on the scene below in the hospital room I was in. I also remember being fearful that I was separated from my body. I begged God to let me go back, and somehow I did.

So, drawing my own experience I am lead to believe two things;

1) The essence of ourselves, ie our souls probably does live on after the flesh dies.
2) We are not alone. There is another realm out there that we cannot usually see or talk to.

But you didn't actually die die. So you don't really know do you. What you did do was lose conscious and your heart stopped, so your brain had a temporary loss of oxygen. So what normally happens at that time is your brain starts getting you ready to die. It starts producing large amounts of a substance that i cannot mention on these forums. This molecule is a highly hallucinogenic substance. So basically, you were tripping, hallucinating. This is a very well documented medical condition.

Believe what you will, my story is purely subjective. Just as an FYI, my heart was stopped for just under 5 minutes.

The point of my post is that even if the two things I believe are as real as the tooth fairy, it harms nobody for me to believe them.

do you know what happens when your brain is deprived of oxygen for five minutes? You start hallucinating, this is a well known, well documented phenomenon.

originally posted by: Woodcarver

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: dfnj2015

Even though it cannot be measured, I do believe consciousness is energy itself. Therefore it is something that can neither be created nor destroyed. Your life energy will not cease to exist, but rather be recycled into another form. What determines that form? Who knows. We are mere infants in the basic understanding of life, and the basic understanding of the universe in general.

Or there could be an actual heaven and hell.

The energy that keeps your brain working can actually be measured. And when you die that energy that your body is made of gets put back into the ground so that other forms of life can eat it and use that energy for itself.this is also a well known phenomenon. Nothing spooky about that.

how can it be measured?

a reply to: Woodcarver

M'ehh, what makes you so sure that you are right anyway?

Don't be such a grinch.

originally posted by: Vector99

originally posted by: Woodcarver

originally posted by: Vector99
a reply to: dfnj2015

Even though it cannot be measured, I do believe consciousness is energy itself. Therefore it is something that can neither be created nor destroyed. Your life energy will not cease to exist, but rather be recycled into another form. What determines that form? Who knows. We are mere infants in the basic understanding of life, and the basic understanding of the universe in general.

Or there could be an actual heaven and hell.

The energy that keeps your brain working can actually be measured. And when you die that energy that your body is made of gets put back into the ground so that other forms of life can eat it and use that energy for itself.this is also a well known phenomenon. Nothing spooky about that.

how can it be measured?

Uhmm. EKG. Surely you have been hooked up to one before. It is a very simple device that measures the electric signals in the body. There are other more specific machines that can measure actual brain function like an MRI. Doctors can also measure chemical levels in your body they know exactly what the physiological changes that occur leading up to death and into actual death.

originally posted by: markosity1973
a reply to: Woodcarver

M'ehh, what makes you so sure that you are right anyway?

Don't be such a grinch.

That im right about what? I study and i read. This is pretty common knowledge. The Real question is how did you not know?
on the other hand your conjecture comes from an experience where your brain was literally being damaged. But you seem pretty sure of what you experienced. All of the things that you were talking about are also well known phenomenon of hallucinations and oxygen deprivation. Those same phenomenon can be synthesized in a lab. The tunnel experience, The bright lights, voices, looking back down on yourself, feeling separated from your body, this is simply what you would expect from a brain that has been deprived of oxygen.

originally posted by: Woodcarver

originally posted by: markosity1973
a reply to: Woodcarver

M'ehh, what makes you so sure that you are right anyway?

Don't be such a grinch.

That im right about what? I study and i read. This is pretty common knowledge. The Real question is how did you not know?

Reading about driving a car gives you absolutely no feeling of what it is like to sit behind the wheel and feel the acceleration, the sensation of changing gear, the feeling of the wheel, the effectiveness of it's brakes.

Just saying........

Rationalise away. To you it might just be a magnificent hallucination. To me it is a life changing experience. Until you've been behind the wheel of such an experience, you are just relying on dry texts to gain insight.