An Afterlife(?)

[MoiraofWords]

What do people believe will happen when they die? Are you someone that believes in a monotheistic heaven and hell scenario? The chain of reincarnation? Nothing at all?

Personally, I'd like to think that there was a pseudo-reincarnation-- that one would be able to choose what realm of existence (based on popular thought (the aspect similar to Robert A Heinlein's Number of the Beast in traveling either the tau or teh axis...)) and able to live there. I'd be torn between pokemon and other interesting worlds.

That's what I'd like to hope anyway. That'd be fun. What says you?

[Guest]

I don't believe in any sort of afterlife, nor do I want to believe in one. I prefer non-existance after death. Life is a daunting, horrifying experience that I wouldn't want to be stuck in for eternity, even if I'm watching from the outside.
There are two things I want to experience before I die: my son growing up and having children of his own, and the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe. Those two things accomplished, I would be happy to disappear forever.
I know it sounds more romantic to think in an afterlife where I would see my wife for all of eternity and we could look forward to being with Taeo when he dies, and an evergrowing family, or perhaps even reincarnation so that perhaps we can live another life together. Yes, of course that sounds nice...in a sense. But I don't want to see the end of the downward spiral our would is speeding down. I want what I had before I was born: nothing.
It is something I didn't realize until I had a class on death and the afterlife for my religious studies minor. From that class I gained many new understandings, including the fact that I am no longer afraid of death, and that I am ready to just let go, to disappear forever. I am very discontent with the world in its current state, and with the exception of my small family, I would be more than happy to leave it behind.

If I could take my family into nothingness/non-existance with me, I would. But that, of course, is nonsensical...

[osacredxo]

I see what Silvone is saying, and I agree in a basic sense, but my thoughts have more of a twist...

I believe, when we die, we go wherever we believed we would go when we were alive. That's what happens to our consciousness, at least. Our soul, instead, disperses throughout the universe. It makes sense to me because I believe all living material things are made up of energies. I feel the soul is an impersonal energy, separated from a deceased living organism.

So when we pass on, we can think whatever we'd like about the afterlife, as long as it's someplace you'd like to be. I feel we will only be able to register things on a material level...our souls will be doing things of it's own volition (kind of like a tree, it has an instinct to do things but it doesn't need a brain for it,) but we'll be in the Dreaming state forever. Or at least until we are able to see and recognize things that aren't on a material level, which may or may not involve developing a new sensory. Maybe that's where ghosts come in...

[Fate Flyer]

I don't believe in any sort of afterlife, nor do I want to believe in one. I prefer non-existance after death. Life is a daunting, horrifying experience that I wouldn't want to be stuck in for eternity, even if I'm watching from the outside.
There are two things I want to experience before I die: my son growing up and having children of his own, and the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe. Those two things accomplished, I would be happy to disappear forever.
I know it sounds more romantic to think in an afterlife where I would see my wife for all of eternity and we could look forward to being with Taeo when he dies, and an evergrowing family, or perhaps even reincarnation so that perhaps we can live another life together. Yes, of course that sounds nice...in a sense. But I don't want to see the end of the downward spiral our would is speeding down. I want what I had before I was born: nothing.
It is something I didn't realize until I had a class on death and the afterlife for my religious studies minor. From that class I gained many new understandings, including the fact that I am no longer afraid of death, and that I am ready to just let go, to disappear forever. I am very discontent with the world in its current state, and with the exception of my small family, I would be more than happy to leave it behind.

If I could take my family into nothingness/non-existance with me, I would. But that, of course, is nonsensical...

I really agree with Silvone entirely. My own goals before death are really almost identical to Silvone's as well. I would love to become a mom and watch my child (or children) grow and have children of their own and also to, at long last, be able to learn of the existence of life on other planets. I think Silvone's outlook is really quite a mature, wise, and brave one.

Ironically enough, my own mother just not a minute ago sent me a text message, apparently having read my religious claim on Facebook, angry with me for being Agnostic, accusing me of having been baptized as a Christian. People like her are truly what makes me feel sick about religions as a whole and their ideals and beliefs -- not to be rude, but frankly I like to believe what I want to believe, not what my mother or the world would like me to. As such, I no longer believe in such things as a Heaven or a Hell.

As for an afterlife? I really cannot say for certain what may lie after the body ceases to live, and in no way, shape, or form am I ever going to so much as consider myself wise enough to venture a guess. I will forever be open to anything and nothing. Having experienced the paranormal personally however, I am inclined to believe that there is something that we may never truly know or understand, but I will never go so far as to say what.

[MoiraofWords]

You don't need religion to believe in a heaven or hell. Those are just names. Everything is based on names. What is up? A word? A direction? Two letters? Another word for vertical?

What's up with the pessimism? Death is part of life. If you don't like life, you can't like death. Death is the constant that compliments life's unpredictability. To like something for being what makes the other something valid (that you dislike) seems weird. And if there is an afterlife, before you were born you'd be doing something.

Life is cyclical. I read a novel where the person de-aged back down to a child and sent back to life. That'd have completed a circle.

Death isn't something that anyone can be certain about. Nor is life. It's all about speculations. Why , if you die, would you have to go to this world? Hasn't your mind traveled to other places when you dream, when you read, when you create? Haven't seen other places within your mind's eye?

Deal with the world as you will. If you aren't satisfied with it, do something. Absence of action is only one of the flaws of our world.

To dream. To think. To deal with the known instead of the unknown. There are known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns. We know we don't know about death, but we don't know what we don't know about it. There is no room to make assumptions about it but to live as we already live. A poor death ruins a good life.

[Fate Flyer]

Those words are associated with religion though... In the context of talking about the afterlife, Heaven and Hell refer to places the human spirit goes to after death, as believed by various religions. The main definition of each puts plainly its religious ties. Whatever you call them though, whatever names they are given in any language, they are views that I just don't hold, regardless if they are religious or not. I suppose, in that sense, then I do have some beliefs in regards to the afterlife, that being that I do not believe that which I was told to believe growing up. But otherwise, my beliefs are pretty void of all else and are open to many possibilities.

I think the important thing is to truly just live your life and enjoy it to its fullest. Whatever comes after is something we can never know for certain, and therefore, people can debate it until they themselves are on their death beds, but what it comes down to is truly an unknowing, and so we have to learn to be content in not knowing what comes, and embrace whatever it may be.

[The Melancholy Spirit]

Life is a beautiful thing. The fact that we are here, that we coexist with each other and influence all that is around and us and are thus influenced by all that is around us, be it a sentient entity of any species or merely the image in a painting, a sunset, the words of a poem, the nightly sky or any other forms of numerous amazing things through the universe. I do not believe life is a daunting and horrifying experience, far from it. We experience things ranging from daunting and horrifying to those uplifting and enlightening.

I agree with Moira more than anyone else so far on the subject. Death is simply a part of the cycle, nothing to be feared but certainly not something to be sought after for that would be but a waste of a potentially wonderful life. We’re going to face hardships; it is just how things go. But that is no cause to seek out death or to claim that life is a daunting experience. I for one am damn glad that I have suffered throughout life, in the several forms that it has occurred. Much rather die a man with many scars than a man who lived a sorrow less life, for it is the sorrows that truly make me appreciate all the beauty around me and cherish it. I live for the moment, take everything as it goes and look back at my own history and that of others and the world as a whole and take lessons from them, for a in my opinion a history that is ignored has been a waste just as much as one that is dwelled upon to the point of create a state of perennial grief.

As for an afterlife, surely none can say what is there. However, I do believe that I would prefer to live a short, full life rather than spend an eternity in a life that would eventually begin to grow stagnant until it was nothing more than a repetition, a prison. My belief is that when we die that is the end of our conscious and what makes up who we are, the numerous particles in our body, disperse back into the universe as we decay and breathe life into unknown and perhaps unnumbered specimens on perhaps different worlds… whatever that form of life may be. And that, is just another phase in the cycle.

[Kathryn Lacey]

Well, Inerio made a thread about this exact thing that only received three replies once upon a time, so I'll just quote what I said in her thread because my ideas haven't really changed in four months.

I don't really know if there is anything after death. I can only hope there is.

I formed an idea of how I hope things occur, and they make sense to me, but I don't know if I actually believe it or if I'm just deluding myself.

The afterlife, reincarnation, and spirits are all hopeful ideals. I think it's an interesting theory that people are alive to learn lessons. Everyone has one soul, but that soul lives many lives. It's impossible to learn every lesson life has to offer through one, short life, so the soul has to be reincarnated into a different life to obtain all the knowledge life offers. This is also why it makes sense that history repeats itself all the time. If it didn't, the lessons of life wouldn't be around for those spirits who hadn't learned them the first time a major event occurred.

I haven't quite decided what happens after a spirit learns all the lessons of life. Perhaps it's some sort of transcendental behavior or something. No clue... It would probably be easier if I believed in deities...

Anyway, yeah. That's my belief/hope in a nut-shell.

[Gadreille]

I believe in reincarnation as well, Kathryn.

Life is built off of cycles, and it just makes sense to me that our lives would cycle as well. Whether it is a whole soul reborn again and again, or if it is more like 'dust' or 'the force' where we disintegrate and become a part of the world around us, I'm not sure.

I realize that Silvone and I believe different things, and I don't pretend to know that I'm right or wrong. It is just my belief, and though for a while I was near atheist, it is just not where I belong.

I've officially decided to call myself Theosophist, but I've never participated in any group activity with others of that 'religion'. It is just the easiest way for me to describe my beliefs.

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