Life Post Life

[alkan]

This is a fairly frivolous post on a serious topic, frivolous at least in comparison to some current threads (my wishes for positive outcomes go to @FreshFluff and others on that thread).

 

I have recently been watching for entertainment purposes a number of YouTube videos of various psychic mediums "reading" various people and contacting their deceased friends and relatives. There never seems to be any curiosity on the part of the living about the practical conditions of the afterlife. Yet if I did believe that there was some sort of continued existence after death, I would have many questions about it, as it would presumably last much longer than life on this earth and therefore what it is like would have great significance. And this is not even dealing with the major religious questions I would have. Does this seemingly startling lack of curiosity mean that the people do not actually believe but are just seeking some sort of anodyne comforting form of words?

 

If any of you do believe in an afterlife what form do you think it will take?

[Rudynate]

My niece makes a very good living as an Internet psychic. She is fairly well known. When her mother died, her father was quite distraught. To lessen her father's grief, she called in a consulting psychic for a seance so that he could talk to his recently-departed wife. The wife reassured him that everything was great and he shouldn't worry about her, that they were keeping her really busy.

 

When I heard that, I had a bunch of questions: who is they? What do you keep busy with in the afterlife, etc., etc?

[alkan]

Yes, it is all very non-specific, isn't it? What does your niece believe? It may just be the way my mind works but I think I would almost have to have a specific notion of the form an afterlife could take before I could start believing in it.

[Rudynate]

Yes, it is all very non-specific, isn't it? What does your niece believe? It may just be the way my mind works but I think I would almost have to have a specific notion of the form an afterlife could take before I could start believing in it.

 

 

She has the usual agglomeration of new-agey beliefs that they always have.

[spider]

Fake news. All fake. Fake, fake, fake.

[JayCeeKy]

If any of you do believe in an afterlife what form do you think it will take?

Implosion into Cosmic Consciousness. (See Friedrich Schleirmacher's "point of contact with God"; Teilhard's "noosphere"; Hegels's Geist; and especially Richard Maurice Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind." ). And, perhaps for a philosophical/theological (and a recent/popular) discussion of why there is something instead of nothing (which lends itself to a serious discussion of the afterlife) read Jim Holt's "Why Does the World Exist?"

 

Cosmic Consciousness, according to Bucke:

"This consciousness shows the cosmos to consist not of dead matter governed by unconscious, rigid, and unintending law; it shows it on the contrary as entirely immaterial, entirely spiritual and entirely alive; it shows that death is an absurdity, that everyone and everything has eternal life; it shows that the universe is God and that God is the universe..."

 

Sounds a bit pantheistic but contemporary proponents of this belief do distinguish between personal, transcendental consciousness (which is the basis of traditional meditation, Eastern mysticism, and William James' "religious experience.") and the supreme Consciousness of the "Godhead." At death we are joined to that universal knowledge, wisdom, and Goodness that is the essence of the "divine." Until then, we sense our incompleteness, as, Augustine stated: Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

 

There was an article in the Washington Post last year that stated that neurological biologists have discovered that the brain seems to be hard-wired for a belief in an afterlife, perhaps lending credence to the old adage that it's more difficult to be an atheist than a believer, at least in terms of brain science. I guess most of us WANT to believe and that Peggy Lee was wrong when she sang:

 

Is that all there is, is that all there is

If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is

[KeepItReal]

Fake news. All fake. Fake, fake, fake.

[Rudynate]

Implosion into Cosmic Consciousness. (See Friedrich Schleirmacher's "point of contact with God"; Teilhard's "noosphere"; Hegels's Geist; and especially Richard Maurice Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind." ). And, perhaps for a philosophical/theological (and a recent/popular) discussion of why there is something instead of nothing (which lends itself to a serious discussion of the afterlife) read Jim Holt's "Why Does the World Exist?"

 

Cosmic Consciousness, according to Bucke:

"This consciousness shows the cosmos to consist not of dead matter governed by unconscious, rigid, and unintending law; it shows it on the contrary as entirely immaterial, entirely spiritual and entirely alive; it shows that death is an absurdity, that everyone and everything has eternal life; it shows that the universe is God and that God is the universe..."

 

Sounds a bit pantheistic but contemporary proponents of this belief do distinguish between personal, transcendental consciousness (which is the basis of traditional meditation, Eastern mysticism, and William James' "religious experience.") and the supreme Consciousness of the "Godhead." At death we are joined to that universal knowledge, wisdom, and Goodness that is the essence of the "divine." Until then, we sense our incompleteness, as, Augustine stated: Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

 

There was an article in the Washington Post last year that stated that neurological biologists have discovered that the brain seems to be hard-wired for a belief in an afterlife, perhaps lending credence to the old adage that it's more difficult to be an atheist than a believer, at least in terms of brain science. I guess most of us WANT to believe and that Peggy Lee was wrong when she sang:

 

Is that all there is, is that all there is

If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing

Let's break out the booze and have a ball

If that's all there is[/QUOTe]

 

The fact that the brain is hard wired to believe in an afterlife means exactly that. It doesn't mean that there actually is an afterlife.

[alkan]

The Cosmic Consciousness type explanation does at least indicate why there are no specifics. It would be like a warm hearty soup that the medium could dip into to find words of comfort without there being any explanation of what it feels like to be a crouton floating around and getting progressively more broth-sodden until individual identity is lost.

[+ sync]

I neither believe nor disbelieve there is an afterlife existence. For me it is just one more thing over which I have no control, therefore, I don't fret about it one way or the other. One thing that stays with me is a remark made by a former co-worker: "My only fear of death is that reincarnation is real and I'll have to go through this crap all over again."

[+ Charlie]

Although souls are immaterial, there would obviously be trillions of them wandering around in the afterlife, so finding the one you want to connect with would probably be pretty difficult, unless each one has its own ID number in an accessible data base. I tend to think of it like moving around in a dark back room of a sex club in which I would occasionally run into someone I used to know, and we could have a conversation about what happened to us in our life/afterlife since the last time we met. That's all I really want to find in the afterlife, if there is one.

[JayCeeKy]

"My only fear of death is that reincarnation is real and I'll have to go through this crap all over again."

LOL. Sorta reminds me of a remark that a friend once made that his biggest fear is that, after death, as he falls into the deepest chasms of fire into the very pit of hell he will be screaming "I thought all you smart people said these were just metaphors!"

[Rudynate]

Although souls are immaterial, there would obviously be trillions of them wandering around in the afterlife, so finding the one you want to connect with would probably be pretty difficult, unless each one has its own ID number in an accessible data base. I tend to think of it like moving around in a dark back room of a sex club in which I would occasionally run into someone I used to know, and we could have a conversation about what happened to us in our life/afterlife since the last time we met. That's all I really want to find in the afterlife, if there is one.

 

 

If there is an afterlife, I am imagining that it is metaphysical rather than physical and therefore lacks the limitations of the physical world. In a metaphysical after life, I imagine those trillions of souls could easily occupy a space the size of a head of a pin without feeling crowded, or the size of the space could dwarf the universe, or they wouldn't occupy space at all.

[+ tassojunior]

The fact that the brain is hard wired to believe in an afterlife means exactly that. It doesn't mean that there actually is an afterlife.

 

or that we're all in a Matrix or as Elon Musk says is probable, all game pieces in some advanced civilization's game.

[alkan]

But aren't you supposed to act the same whether you think you are in the Matrix or not? So if I were in contact with the dead I would still ask the questions, even if I could not trust the answers as they would be in the Matrix also.

[spider]

Fake news. All fake. Fake, fake, fake.

 

I should clarify that I wasn’t making any statements about the possibility of an afterlife one way or the other. No one knows, and the people who were called back to life who saw lights and so on were experiencing what happens as the brain dies.

 

I was talking about the scammers who claim to be able and see in. They’re very good and pick up on clues you drop and everything is vague because they’re making it up as they go.

[Walker1]

In some of the eastern religion beliefs, there is the form and the formless or maybe the conscious and the unconscious in western belief. The formless is what binds all this and is timeless and eternal. The form is us who come and go like a little wave that crests and disappears back into the ocean. The great cosmic dance or maya or illusion. But hey what do I know. This tiny planet alone has billions of humans, billions more birds and animals, trillons of insects, bacteria, fungus, virus all being "born", growing up having their own unique experience and disappearing into that-only a memory in those that experienced that life form while they are in this planet.

 

The living too is just made up of water and other minerals and non living stuff. Then there is DNA, genes etc etc. As someone who had children through scientific means -it is fascinating. Somebody took my sperm and eggs from someone combined it and hey presto you have embryos. Within day 5 of embryo development you know if it is male, female, embryo has potential for Down's syndrome etc etc and other ailments. The implant it in a womb and hey presto a few months later you have a mini me in this world! All this complex stuff was happening normally/naturally in so many species for millenia.

 

Maybe that is why they say the part is simply unknowable- we know bits and pieces and think we know it all-but this is one tiny planet among galaxies, and if you believe quantam physics-parallel/alternative galaxies

[+ oldNbusted]

I don't believe in any kind of afterlife or soul. In fact, I believe the perception of self is a chimera created by the default mode network. Suppression of activity in that network, such as in some meditation practices, or with some psychoactive substance dosing, is correlated with reports of feeling 'at one' with the cosmos, which of course makes people feel like the death of their corporeal body is a fairly meaningless event. Which in the big picture, is correct.

[Rudynate]

I should clarify that I wasn’t making any statements about the possibility of an afterlife one way or the other. No one knows, and the people who were called back to life who saw lights and so on were experiencing what happens as the brain dies.

 

 

That is one explanation. No one really knows.

[alkan]

No, but the people who claim to know are not asked about it by those who believe them. And the mediums (media?) themselves should want to know the details, I would have thought, so the fact that that they don't seem to tells against their honesty. Thank you all for the interesting replies.

[Rudynate]

No, but the people who claim to know are not asked about it by those who believe them. And the mediums (media?) themselves should want to know the details, I would have thought, so the fact that that they don't seem to tells against their honesty. Thank you all for the interesting replies.

 

 

The Tibetan Book of the Dead gives a detailed description of the soul's journey after death. Just about anyone who came of age in the 70s is at least familiar with it, even if they haven't read the whole thing. It gives as good an answer as any to the question of what an afterlife might be like. Of course, Tibetan Buddhists believe in reincarnation so it might not be palatable to those who want to believe in Heaven.

[Guest]

If any of you do believe in an afterlife what form do you think it will take?

 

I don't believe in an afterlife, but if I believed in heaven, it would be one orgasmic sexual experience after another. Interrupted only occasionally by some fantastic meals and some skiing, white-water rafting, etc. But mostly sex. Am I really the only one who feels this way?

[alkan]

The Tibetan Book of the Dead gives a detailed description of the soul's journey after death. Just about anyone who came of age in the 70s is at least familiar with it, even if they haven't read the whole thing. It gives as good an answer as any to the question of what an afterlife might be like. Of course, Tibetan Buddhists believe in reincarnation so it might not be palatable to those who want to believe in Heaven.

Well, thanks a bunch for that. I had to go through my bookshelves to find my copy after that and eventually found it though I will have to wait till daylight before I can retrieve it. And of course I also found many other books I'd forgotten about all leering at me and saying "read ME!".

[+ Charlie]

Well, thanks a bunch for that. I had to go through my bookshelves to find my copy after that and eventually found it though I will have to wait till daylight before I can retrieve it. And of course I also found many other books I'd forgotten about all leering at me and saying "read ME!".

Happens to me all the time.

[Walker1]

I don't believe in an afterlife, but if I believed in heaven, it would be one orgasmic sexual experience after another. Interrupted only occasionally by some fantastic meals and some skiing, white-water rafting, etc. But mostly sex. Am I really the only one who feels this way?

No. There are cultures where they believe in 70 virgins in the afterlife!

 

If they guarantee 70 strong muscular sexy, good looking male virgins with an instaiable sexual appetite-hmm what do I have to do ??