What Will The Afterlife Be Like?

We're all the product of our experiences. In my case people close to me have either been sources of endless self indulgent hyperbole or outright deception - lies - for their own purposes. And not strictly confned to Fortean topics either. The intent may not have been malicious but that doesn't change the net result. I may as well move to Missouri because you'll just have to show me. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

Thing is, I work with a man who is a deacon of some sort in his church. Roman Catholic. Very intelligent and well spoken, we've passed quite a bit of time having this exact discussion and he's far more philosophical about it than I would have given credit for initially. He spends a lot of time grief counseling and with pre-Cana classes. He surprised me by being extremely open and receptive but naturally has his own Belief.

Another coworker is - not to put too fine a point on it - a kook IMO. She's Jamaican and involved with some sort of church that preaches scripture at the drop of a hat. Really wants to tell you how to live your life. Probably a Democrat
She speaks of The Rapture being imminent and how Christmas might not be coming this year - that's what she hopes. Only a few select people will make it to Heaven, so she says. I guess I'm just ****ed and may as well behave like a Viking a while, eh? She gave me an odd 'never thought of that' look for that one. Really paints herself to be above the fray but doesn't see her endless proselytizing is having the opposite effect. Yet I can cite a few examples where that will all be put on hold in favor of some immediate earthly need she has. Interesting that they both tithe to their churches. Always a red flag to me - Joel Osteen was stuffing cash in his walls and probably still is.

I would imagine the members of the local Palpung Thubten Choling Monastery would have their own take on all this. They are a common sight here. I really would like to ask the monks sometime but how to open that conversation without being extremely tacky? You can't. At least they are nice. The Hasidim I regularly encounter have their own perspective but are not generally approachable period, much less about something like this. I recently started working with a lovely young woman from Pakistan and as we get to know each other that'll be on my list. She's cool.

My own mother told me she was Satanic and that went on for some time. Really. Told me it wasn't what people think it is and gave me some books. Never read them - I was like, nine years old at the time. Not out of bounds, always been a reader, but to inflict that on a small kid is questionable. Welcome to my mom. One of them had a picture of the author on the back cover that I thought actually WAS the Devil for a while.

So how does spiritualism and religion relate to life after death? From my p.o.v it's a level playing field, all roads lead to Rome. I spent some time looking for a relevant Dennis Miller clip - and failed - where he says something like 'Hey ... you're not Yahweh ....' The people I've mentioned all have their own convictions that their path is The Way and I'm not arguing any of that. It's all a path to the same thing. You can probably include the non-believers and total atheists in there too. Comes a point where we'll all have our turn. Wouldn't surprise me if there was truth in George Carlin's old line that says you go where you think you're gonna go ........

I keep mentioning the reincarnation studies for a reason. Didn't Jacques Vallee finally get what he wanted? Enough funding to create useful database(s) to study UFOs ? If you believe Skinwalkers at the Pentagon then yes, he got his cookie and we'd all know how useful it is if it weren't locked away where nobody can see it. That helped. There are apparently several of them that have quantified things like Sign, Grudge, Blue Book etc.

Long post made longer with this analogy. I have a large box of old pictures that I've pawed through my whole life. One day a couple of years ago I dumped it all out and rather than just look at the pictures I arranged them all by size and shape. To my surprise it all organized very neatly and suddenly different cameras, perspectives, times and places all just clicked into place and were obvious. Freaky. All that 'data' was very familiar to me but organizing it revealed much more that had always been there just not quantified. Now, I realize that Ian Stevenson and Jim Tucker represent a narrow slice; they represent a certain interest and point of view like a religious or spiritual belief, except they (and a number of others they network with) really are collecting accounts of children who remember past lives and building a database. Right now that includes more that 3000 case and is still counting. There are common themes that emerge from these accounts, from NDEs that might actually serve to reinforce rather than dispel various Beliefs. Again, like discovering a new species, often there are those fully aware of it long before western science catches up .

I like this thread quite a bit. Glad it's gained some traction.

 

Had the opportunity to ask my young Pakistani coworker about this very topic. She lit right up and was very glad to speak of it. In her religion and background there is absolutely zero question of an afterlife.

She told me that we see relatives at the moment of death as a distraction from an upsetting if not necessarily painful process. She described it like covering a rose bush that has thorns with a scarf and then trying to remove it - sort of a ripping process. Spirits who do this appear as loved ones to ease the process. The soul is then taken to a middle ground for processing. Like FedEx I guess. Life is a process to which we are returned repeatedly and at some point we face Judgement, after which we go to Heaven or Hell. Didn't have a chance to ask the specifics about that.

 

I think the afterlife is reality and this is all just an illusion.

 

I can't even tell what tomorrow will be like, much less what an afterlife will be like. Haha.

But this is all good stuff. I really like this thread!

 

My choo-choo went around the bend thinking about all this stuff. Too close to home. As I get older my views change and one thing I never saw coming as a result of all this esoteric pondering is my position on abortion. I've always been pro-choice and still am but I do at least look at other viewpoints differently as of late and think maybe I got a more visceral interpretation of being pro-life than ever before. I can at least see the other side and for once maybe even feel it a little.

 

Maybe it's just me, But I think fearing the end is something more common in the young. The older I get, IT seems like the more time Life and reality have had to hammer in the many losses of loved ones. A time comes when one wouldn't want to live forever. I get a lot of comforts knowing that When I'm dead, I won't know it.




On the philosophical side, I do believe in an afterlife. But there are so many unanswered questions about that, Even from the position that one followed the bible on it. Let me give you an example, there is a passage in the bible I believe it was psalm 146 4. It says, His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; In that very day his thoughts perish. ... For his spirit goes out and he returns to his earth and in that day ..

So. What I'm getting from that is, You lose all your memories,, other people believe it to mean, You stop worrying about the things of this life as it has now passed. Others Say, That that was from psalms, A book that, believe it or not, Was a book of songs. not to be translated literally


Either way, It's hard to know what to expect when it comes to passing on, I'm assuming the experience could be unique depending on the situation, For instance, Id imagine, someone having a stroke would experience passing differently than someone in a sudden accident. I don't know, like a lot of us, I've thought about this a lot :/

 

I wonder if monkeys try to think about these things while sitting in a tree and eating a banana?
Imagining the bliss of such a simple life, I grabbed a banana, and tried clear my mind of nothing but enjoying a banana.
...
...
Nice!
Maybe part of being human is to think deep thoughts... but my deep thought for today is- `I think I envy that monkey.'

 

I've had similar discussions With Tate, " I don't know if you guys remember Tate. He and I still speak almost every day, He's just not a presence online as much as he used to be. But I and he were speaking about The nature of reality and how it's subjective, Meaning that The reality a bumblebee experience is different than the reality that We humans do.

Tate took the Side that We humans experience a superior reality to animals, And while I don't fully disagree with that, One has to consider, While Other forms of life here on earth may experience reality in a different way than we do,

I still feel a dolphin would know more about swimming than a person would, And maybe an Eagle or a falcon would know more about flight than a human would, Even though we know physics and math and trajectories and flight patterns, Eagles know Flight as an extension of their being. They may not understand the advanced concept of gravity or wind sheer as we know it, They still have to overcome those issues to physically fly.

So Yeah, I do believe 100 percent that animals conceive and ponder higher concepts like Life and Death and Time, They just do it in a language all their own.


Consider two people at the top of a mountain, Both looking at the sunset, one from America, The other from China.
On the outside, their actions appear similar, Ultimately Their thoughts will be different, As one will think in the language they are most comfortable speaking,

But, Even though their thoughts sound completely different from one another, they both are experiencing the same sunset, Most likely feeling the exact same way about it.

Have you ever loved a Dog? Or Some beloved Pet? That's a real feeling that you can feel reciprocated back to you. We are more alike to animals than our pride will allow us to believe.

 

As I watch my parents get older, I get the impression that they accept their eventual demise as just the next step that everyone has to take, whether they want to or not. And, they also accept the humbling reality that their generation are no longer the big movers and shakers on Planet Earth. Its a rather helpless feeling if you think about it too long, and the 24 hour news stations that so many of these people have playing constantly only serve to compound it. It's entirely understandable why so many of these folks are ready and willing to see what is in store for act II.

 

Yes, I was just saying to a friend, 20 years ago it seemed like simpler times. All the new world tech has only added noise and chaos. Where did all that negative energy come from? We need a big wave of peace and understanding to wash over the planet.