Theories Of After Death - [Now With GA]

I wanted to make a poll but accidentally submitted it before I was finished :(

Probably nothingness. But that's really, really boring and I'd rather not live my life believing in that. I'm a more interesting person than that (or so I like to believe). I like the idea of rounding about as a spirit, or go to heaven or hell. I like the idea of being more than just this body - the concept of "soul" is very appealing to me. If your spirit stays too long here on earth, you'll become a vengeful spirit. So yeah, I don't really believe in this sort of stuff (rationally), but I choose to have a more interesting belief wheel. Makes life (and death) more interesting.

you mean.... some tales from the crypt

Nothingness. Our bodies, those who aren't cremated, will slowly disintegrate and become part of the soil, eventually, after some generations, that soil will be used to cultivate some lettuce. Then, a futuristic vegan will acquire said lettuce and make a soy taco out of it, using the lettuce as a tortilla. And he/she will say, what a tasty vegan taco! totally unaware that my remains now form part of the lettuce, in a molecular scale.

But I secretly wish that when we die we become part of some "universal conscience" and we observe everything as a whole.
Or if we live in a simulation, maybe the overlords controlling it just send us to the Recycle Bin and that is when we die. Then they press "Empty the recycle bin" and we are tagged as "free space" in some sector of their hard drives. Eventually we will become overwrited and the bytes of information that conformed our conscience will be changed forever.

I've always been terrified of it. Not the nothingness so much as never being with the ones I love ever again. I'm a twin so I was never alone, even before I was born so the idea of losing that connection to the humans I have met and love in my life is something that scares me.
I don't know what I believe because well, we won't know until we're there, right? But I like the idea of reincarnation more than most. Especially if we get to meet the ones we love in other places and other times.
And yes I know, technically we wouldn't know them, but you know sometimes you meet someone and you feel like you've known them all your life? Maybe you have.

I sure don't like the idea of Heaven. Sounds boring. And I don't like exclusive clubs with bouncers that tell people who's welcome and who's not depending on how cool they are. Also, since most of my people are non believers, I wouldn't want to hang out where they are not welcome, even if I was allowed in.

So maybe we can make our own hangout for non-believers? I'm sure it would be way cooler anyway.

The Egg
By: Andy Weir

You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.
And that’s when you met me.
“What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”
“You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.
“There was a… a truck and it was skidding…”
“Yup,” I said.
“I… I died?”
“Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said.
You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”
“More or less,” I said.
“Are you god?” You asked.
“Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.”
“My kids… my wife,” you said.
“What about them?”
“Will they be all right?”
“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.”
You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”
“Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”
“Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”
“Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,”
“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.”
You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?”
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”
“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”
I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.
“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”
“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”
“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”
“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”
“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.”
“Where you come from?” You said.
“Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”
“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”
“So what’s the point of it all?”
“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”
“Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted.
I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.”
“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?”
“There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.”
You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…”
“All you. Different incarnations of you.”
“Wait. I’m everyone!?”
“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.
“I’m every human being who ever lived?”
“Or who will ever live, yes.”
“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”
“And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added.
“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.
“And you’re the millions he killed.”
“I’m Jesus?”
“And you’re everyone who followed him.”
You fell silent.
“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.”
You thought for a long time.
“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”
“Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”
“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”
“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”
“So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…”
“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way.

.

Well, I'm a Christian. So after death I will be with my Lord and Savior - and with plenty of people of all types and from all parts of the world throughout history. I won't really consider that as boring.
With some previous commentators I agree that some of the children's stories do now sound quite dull or lacking imagination. But that's how it always is with children. As children you are given some basic images of everything, and later when you grow up you'll find them dull. Works with what you learn about heaven, works with what you learn about math. Images of heaven are attempts to describe indescribable. So in different times very different kinds of stories have worked. I won't cherish the idea of singing in a choir in white robes through eternity. But I won't have to. Some do, and if it works for them, fine. Same goes with that red guy jumping around in a hot place with a trireme. Maybe the image worked at some point, and that's fine. For me it looks more like a bad satire.
As a Christian I try to understand something about heaven and hell from what's revealed in the Bible. There's not much we can understand of something where we haven't been and which is quite literally "otherworldly". Whether a Christian or not won't make much difference in that. But what I hold quite certain is that my feeling's will change that as much as they will change the overall reality in this world - and that is nothing. So my purpose is not so much to feel but to attempt to understand something, to attempt to imagine according to the hints given. And when one actually reads the Bible beyond the stories told in childhood or later stories by some animal hating preachers, they are very different. There are plenty of images given about afterlife, and the variation of the ways the heaven and hell are depicted is huge. So there is lots of room for imagination different from the traditional stories.
To give one example of a different Christian way to see heaven and hell I would highly recommend reading C.S.Lewis: The Great Divorce. It will definitely give some food for thought.

At the end up the day, anything aside from the basic naturalistic ideas remains a baseless (generally unprovable) hypothesis...
There is really no reason to suspect that there is something "after" as nothing seems to indicate it, and every claim of your personality or experience outliving your body is disproved through neurology, biology and/or simple experimentation depending on the particular claim.
So far there has been nothing where the answer was some "super nature", so there is really no real (non-pragmatic) reason to believe that there is such a thing.

Aside from the psychological benefits these beliefs may at times have, I see no reason for anyone to conclude that such a thing is real, or even possible. But to each their own...

I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to follow something like "The Egg"; anything I say will seem insignificant, because that really says it all. But here goes, anyway: my beliefs are a mix of many different Eastern philosophies, mostly Hindu and Buddhist. I've also struggled with Christianity - both spiritually with myself; and physically with those who mocked, beat, and spat on me, because I was born a heretic - but I'm long past the point of harboring any ill will against it; I am not quite so young, anymore. I believe in Samsara, which is not only the wheel of birth and death, but also that we will someday grow spiritually to that point that we leave it. I believe in the concept of Atman and Brahman. Atman is a Hindu concept equivalent to the soul, and Brahman is the Cosmic Body, from which all Atman comes and to which it will return. All of our lives, our experiences, and everything we are and have seen come together in - pardon the inelegance of the following analogy, but - a sort of cosmic YouTube, where all of existence is recorded.

Though I strongly hold the belief of reincarnation - largely due to my experiences in this life, as well as memories that I cannot otherwise explain - the rest of it is, as you've said, more of a hope than a belief; it gives me comfort to know that all of the beauty we've seen in our time will not be lost; that it will wind up SOMEWHERE.

Another part of the equation is the mind. What is it? Is it just the brain? Is it just our thoughts? What are they? Chemical reactions or something more? Is there a spiritual body, or is the concept of the mind just a fluke set of amino acids and electrical impulses? The question, should you choose to work toward an answer, brings more questions that are equally difficult to answer, but no less important..

But we don't really know. I mean, some "know" just the same some people even in this day and age "know" that the world is flat, but what we know isn't always true, so much as knowledge in which we have the utmost confidence. I've studied most major religions, and while they all have their own beliefs as to what lies beyond, I feel like most of it is what their culture finds comforting to them. Some use it to scare others into being good; some use it to soothe the minds of those near death. But what do I know? I'm agnostic; present your case well enough, and I'll approach it with an open mind.

I have been Christian, so as a child I believed somewhat in that heaven or hell thing, too. Evangelic though, so way less strict rules than Catholocism teaches. After getting more information about other religions in my youth I detached myself from the Evangelic beliefs and decided to go on with an own, way more simple "religion": there are things between heaven and earth, which can't be explained by physics or other science (at least yet) and there's somewhat like fate with all its consequences (e.g. doing good things to others surely don't harm your fate, so at least try it as good as you can).

Regarding the aspect of the afterlife: reincarnation would be nice if we could at least unconciously remember it and therefore treat other beings better. But I doubt it.. most probably it will be nothingness.

And at this point I have to agree with most Avantyr wrote: there is nothing indicating an afterlife. If there is anything, you can't control it. There are enough other reasons to behave altruistic, so the fear of a final judgement isn't needed.
It's okay to create some mind games about it in a philosophical manner, but getting to deep into it or even setting high hopes in it leads to escapism. Life offers you chances, whereas noone knows if afterlife does. So use them while you're alive.

are far as proof of anything beyond death is concerned the only person i feel i trust to not be full of crap is Edgar Cayce. he used to do these readings where he would go into a trance as his wife would read letters from people with health issues then he would give them advice on how to cure the different ailments. since these and what he told them to do is recorded and what he told them did help in most cases (at lest the cases that followed up with him) it gives him some credibility. one of the cases was a blind man asking if it could be cured and edger told them that he could not help them because the blindness was punishment for a past life where he would blind people before they threw them to the animals though it wasn't punishment for blinding them but for enjoying it.

you should look him up he does talk about a lot of subjects. there is a clinic with records of all his cases where they try to use the information to try and help people with his cures.

Remember how you felt before you were born? It will be the exact same thing after you die. So no need to worry, it’s all cool. :)

This could sound stupid for some people, but I think we are going to the astral world (or whatever you want to call it) after death.
I experienced it myself (no drugs or anything involved), for me, it's real. Some cientific studies have said that it's just a brain hallucination but they can't really prove if something else is going on.

Logically speaking when you die you seize to exist. You won't have thoughts, you won't exist.

I think its good for people to accept this truth sooner than later. It will make you cherish each day and avoid making decisions that may impact the well being of your happiness or decisions that may shorten your lifespan. (Causing violence, going to war, committing crimes, etc.)

Going a bit deeper, most people seem to think that living longer or forever is a bad thing. Personally I'd love to lengthen my lifespan as I feel like life is far too short to experience everything. (Especially to play all my games >.< haha)

On the flip side I'm glad that everyone dies within their ~80 year lifespan. Might be a bit wrong, but sometimes I'll look at someone who is very outgoing or very rich and get a bit jealous, but then I'll comfort myself by thinking that they are going to die and no amount of money will save them. I also feel like people who work 50+ hours a week are wasting their lives away. Some people think you need to work until you retire at 65-70. For what? Might as well enjoy life while you are young.

Most likely it's nothing. But you've gotta be a boring sod to think that.

I personally like to believe you teleport to a divine fuckpad where you just do whatever you want and you're content with everything.

Brain dies, you die, end of the story as far as you're concerned. Maybe some neurons will go nuts in the end and make you believe something magical is happening before fully shutting down.
Yeah, I'm a boring logical person. :/

When you die that's it. The end.

There's lots of fun theories though. I'd like to think that reincarnation is a thing because there are many interesting mechanics with how that could work.

Huh? Are you going to die?
Huh? Are you alive?
There is only a lie.
This is an obsession of the world.
Everything is played by characters in delusions.
on that evidence···

Wow! What do you do!Hel;medc

One theory I've heard that's quite different is that because everything is energy (science!) when you die the majority of that energy is left in the form of your decaying body, but some of it likely escapes (neural energy). However the longer its outside the body the more it decays. As a result people that remember past life experiences normally only remember a very tiny part of them since most of the energy that those memories were a part of has already been lost.

So, if you find your 'spirit' floating over your dead body, hopefully you can find a way to move to a new one (fetus) before too much of you is lost.

Once we're dead, there's nothing. No heaven or hell, no reincarnation. Period.
We are given this one live and each of us should try to make the best out of it, and don't worry too much of what happens afterwards.

I would like to recommend a book to you. It's called "The Red Lion" and was written by Mária Szepes. When I was in a situation where I was spiritually kind of lost as Christianity and its lore and symbolism did not meet what I felt was right inside, this book gave me an understanding of how our souls could evolve over the span of several incarnations, and in the end helped me strive towards being a better person. May it bring some relief to you as well.

Here's a short summary of its content from Wikipedia

Szepes tells the story of the unhappy Hans Burgner, a miller's son born in the 16th century. After the death of his weak father and of a likewise miserable but beloved teacher, he becomes afraid of the unavoidable death of all living things. Driven by a monomania fed by persistent rumors of an Elixir of Immortality, he becomes an apprentice of a mysterious physician and alchemist. However, instead of listening to the Alchemist's compassionate counsel and warnings, Burgner is driven by feverish greed to murder him; in this way, he acquires the Elixir while he is still spiritually unprepared, and is cursed thereby. This is the starting-point of a journey through the centuries: while Burgner can physically die, the Elixir enables him to retain the full memory of his previous lives as he repeatedly reincarnates into a variety of different circumstances. It also bestows upon him a profound spiritual sensitivity. Several times he attempts the Great Transmutation in order to deliver himself from his self-imposed curse. Hans Burgner is refined through his various incarnations. Against the backdrop of the last five centuries of European history, he undergoes dramatic personal development: beginning as a spiritually unawakened (and even infamous) character, he matures spiritually through the various challenges he is led to confront. He is first an initiate and Aspirant, eventually attaining the perfection of human personality which characterizes the Magus, or spiritual Adept.

The only one who really can tell us what happens after, is the one who came back from the dead

Enjoy this life because maybe that is all there is

I´ve always had this theory. They say that when a baby is born the first thing they see is a bright light. Most people who have near death experiences claim to see a bright light. So when you die somewhere you are born somewhere else, and when someone has a near death experience a baby is born dead.