There has to be something after

[Sunshine]

There are infinite possibilities.(well maybe not infinite)

When you say that all of these different stories are conflicting, is it because some people see Jesus or another religion God, while others see a dead grandma or family member? If so, here is something extra to ponder: what if it's a spirit guide or archon(an archon is believed to be evil and trick you to continue living) that take the form of that being.. basically they'll take the form of whoever makes you feel the most comfortable and at peace?


I'm sure that many Ndes are bullcrap, but say that some are real. Do the drugs make you hallucinate, or do they allow your brain to reach a certain level of awareness.. a very specific state of mind that allows you to leave your body? Or is it just a lucid dream type thing? Who knows?


Some People claim that a nde feels more real than real..basically your senses are heightened and so strong that reality feels more fluid and vivid and your awareness is more awake, like being tired vs not tired(much bigger difference though). This still makes it hard to tell(assuming the person is being honest about their experience) if a hypoxic brain fires more neurons and works super fast, or if it really is spiritual or whatever.

No, people are communicated different truths and "facts" on the other side. That makes me believe (aside from the fact that studies found Ketamine drug trips to induce the same experiences, and that an oxygen deprived brain that is dying acts similar to a Ketamine drug trip) that it's a personal hallucination. For example, I read in some NDEs that the beings on the other side told them suicide is no big deal, all good. But other people had hell-ish experiences in their NDEs and got scolded. So what's true? Why do people get different truths if its real?

I dunno.

 

[theguineapigking]

No, people are communicated different truths and "facts" on the other side. That makes me believe (aside from the fact that studies found Ketamine drug trips to induce the same experiences, and that an oxygen deprived brain that is dying acts similar to a Ketamine drug trip) that it's a personal hallucination. For example, I read in some NDEs that the beings on the other side told them suicide is no big deal, all good. But other people had hell-ish experiences in their NDEs and got scolded. So what's true? Why do people get different truths if its real?

I dunno.

For all we know the astral world is real and maybe some people have bad luck and meet spirits that are fully aware of existence and decide to f with them by tricking someone that hell is real or cause them pain and terror, while others meet with kinder souls that comfort them and have no intention of screwing with them. Kind of like if you run into bad people vs good people in this life. Some are out there to hurt you while others are good and would even help you.


In simpler words, it's basically a bunch of beings in the astral world that see someone that has lower awareness(nde or obe) as prey to screw with. I've read about this before.


Who knows? It's too annoying to have motivation to try to figure out something that can't really be figured out most likely.


The block theory is interesting. Don't read it if you have anxiety though.

 

[Taran]

Why would there be an afterlife?
Don't get me wrong, I don't want to start an argument, it's just something I don't understand. Do you believe there is something after death for each thing that lives? An afterlife for worms? for microbs? for each of our cells?
And if not, why would only humans have the privilege of an afterlife? We aren't that different from evolved monkeys.
Because we have a "soul"? I never had the feeling I've ever had one. To me, saying that we have a soul is like saying that the screen of a computer is essentially different from its tower (for example). Like, everything we think, we live, can be traced back to our body in the end. At least that's what I think.

Like I said, I don't want to start an argument. I'm really interested by the religious feeling. I never had it. And I just want to understand it.
Personally, I really hope there isn't anything after life, because I just want to stop existing and finally get some rest.
I guess my point of view is quite Lucretian. I find the idea of nothing after death really soothing.

Exactly....I think the same.

 

[braketimez]

Logically I dont belive there is. I think theres nothing but its impossible as a living conscience being to comprehend. The ego doesnt allow us to belive that life can and does go on without us. The nonlogical part of me wants something after. The first time I ever tried to kill myself I was still very spiritual. I was actually excited that I would die and then be free of my physical body and could be happy in the afterlife. I imagined I would die and be able to watch my life like a movie and relive the good and learn from the bad. I thought that death would bring me all the answers, how and why we camt to be. I would love to be with my friends, family, and pets forever in some eternal bliss. However as I have grown older ive come to belive that this is it. I think if there was somehting more we would know. I think the dead would communicate with us in such a way that we knew for certain. It sucks because so many people like us on this site have lives of pain and misery and yet its our only one, our only shot and it sucks. However I take great comfort in the fact that death is the great equalizer, every single living being must die. I feel better knowing that every single person who has come before me, those who are alive with me now, and those after me will die. I will say that when the time comes I think it can be peaceful. One time I had too much to drink and had taken too much medication and then proceeded to go to a party and do more stupid shit. At one point I felt my heart slowing down and it felt like the walls were coming in on me so I decided to find a bed and lay down. I was having a hard time getting enough air and thats when I started to feel "me" slip away. You know that voice inside your head, what you hear when your thinking, that was leaving. My conscience which is essentially me was getting further and further away. At first I was actively trying to fight it by forcing myself to think my own name but it got harder and I was getting so tired. Someone came in and found me and got me breathing again but that experience is what made me belive that we are nothing more then the neurons in our brains firing off. I could be wrong, everyday I wish that I was shown a sign that life goes on after or that there was something more, hell I would even take aliens!

Wow. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Notabadguy]

I don't think it matters

 

[Kornyboyo]

Ouch. Now I'm more terrified than ever.

 

[Taran]

Well, I have seen a paranormal activity when I was around 12 and a friend saw it too so there's definitely something out there. An afterlife might be far fetched though and I sure hope there isn't one
Peace/hugs

Wow sounds interesting...can you elaborate what you saw exactly?

 

[eksded]

I've had a few spiritual experiences where I've felt that I've connected with the "cosmos". These experiences felt like absolute bliss, the happiest I've ever been. Yet I don't believe in the afterlife. I'm sure that my experiences have been created by simple chemical reactions in my body. Death is Death, consciousness will die when you pass. At least my body will last forever in some state.

 

[Una]

Hi,

Like many, I like this topic as it brings a certain element of intrigue and mystery, almost beauty to the whole idea of death … irrespective of our individual belief systems.

I think of NDE's as tiny glimpses into what may or may not lie beyond as it is often referred to. The video below is one I particularly like:

 

[Pan]

Just look at how this thread has grown...truly a delight to read insightful observations whether pro or con. And to think, it all started with a simple question! Keep on keeping on, folks!

 

[a.n.kirillov]

What are your options on afterlife. There is too many accounts of NDEs, channeling etc for there to be nothing. Even astral projection proves something.

Well, my conception of consciousness is that it is a wholly undiffetentiated phenomenon; so your consciousness and mine are of the exact same quality, all the differences of our experience (conscious observation) lie with the object we are observing (our will, our body—so individual differences in the quality of our sense organs, our memories, which are stored physically, and so on), which is to say that were your consciousness to, in an instant, switch places with mine, neither of us would even notice.

This has some interesting implications, namely that, yes, your individual experience will vanish from the planet once you die—but "experiencing" or consciousness in general will persist, in the very same manner as yours experiences right now, qualitatively no different.
.
That's to say, thinking that y o u will somehow survive the death of what makes you you, i.e. your body, is fallacious from the beginning.

 

[selfhater]

i think there is nothing but i understand that when i suffered and still suffering my whole life and think "so i'm gonna die just like this? that's everything? no there's gotta be something afterlife for me":( the idea that i just born to get tortured then die like this..

 

[Kumachan]

what allows a sentient being to feel? To have perceptions? Obviously its conciousness or being present. So I am not a human strictly speaking, but this presence. I am, by definition and expirientially, always present - non-experience is impossible for me. I must be always present. Even when this body dies and i go back into my pre-birth condition, time disappears as well so theres no "waiting in blackness" for me - time does not exist either.

Much like going under before a surgery - one moment im just lying there, and the next moment im awake and the surgery is already over. 2 hours, 10 hours, a day or a billion years doesnt matter.

I believe theres always something, simply cos we cant experience non-existence.

Lets say this body dies - this story is over. And many years later another body appears in my presence, maybe a 1000 years from now for me it will be seamless experience, very much like falling asleep every night...

 

[Pan]

To all the great folks who have enlivened this thread with your posts regardng the afterlife and the more existential aspects of the problem—-thumbs up! The problem is that the elephant is in the room and there's no turning back—-once suicidal ideation kicks in, the door is OPEN. Forever.

 

[dying]

I hope there's nothing after I die, I don't want to feel or be conscious at all. I want nothingness for myself.

 

[SNOB]

1st post, hi everyone ((((((((:

reincarnation cant be true, explain the population increase over the past hundreds of years? where would have all the 'extra soles' come from?

i dont remember what it was like before i was born, so im assuming when dead it will be the same.... nothing!

 

[disabledandhopeless]

1st post, hi everyone ((((((((:

reincarnation cant be true, explain the population increase over the past hundreds of years? where would have all the 'extra soles' come from?

i dont remember what it was like before i was born, so im assuming when dead it will be the same.... nothing!

I'm thinking maybe from another dimension.
And hiiiii

 

[ExitStageLeft]

what allows a sentient being to feel? To have perceptions? Obviously its conciousness or being present. So I am not a human strictly speaking, but this presence. I am, by definition and expirientially, always present - non-experience is impossible for me. I must be always present. Even when this body dies and i go back into my pre-birth condition, time disappears as well so theres no "waiting in blackness" for me - time does not exist either.

Much like going under before a surgery - one moment im just lying there, and the next moment im awake and the surgery is already over. 2 hours, 10 hours, a day or a billion years doesnt matter.

I believe theres always something, simply cos we cant experience non-existence.

Lets say this body dies - this story is over. And many years later another body appears in my presence, maybe a 1000 years from now for me it will be seamless experience, very much like falling asleep every night...

This is probably correct, but your timescale is infinitesimally small. The universe will cycle through every other possible state of existence before you experience existence again. And the existence you experience will be identical to the existence which you have experienced to date, and nothing in it can or will change, absolutely nothing. You will experience absolutely nothing different in your next go-around.

Think of the implications. A two-year-old who died in a housefire will... always die in that housefire. An aborted fetus will always be aborted.

A billion years? Try as many years as there are particles of matter in this universe.

I am convinced that, when you die, your brain kicks into overdrive, producing an illusion of eternity, which lasts for the subjective perception of several lifetimes, depending on your mode of death (clearly, if you shoot yourself in the head with a shotgun, you're not going to experience this NDE as long). As soon as this is over - as soon as you have actually achieved brain death - you undergo the subjective experience of being born again, though the universe will have rolled over hundreds of quadrillions of times, each time ending in a heat death phase that lasts hundreds of trillions of years until quantum fluctuations kick the universe back into existence in a new form, again and again, until we at last arrive once more at this particular arrangement of energy and matter, which cannot change. I believe this has happened innumerable times, and will happen innumerable times more.

(Note: This isn't a time loop theory, but an ontological loop theory.)

The only possible alternative is the event that some future civilization (human, alien or machine) somehow restores your consciousness from the quantum foam of existence. But this is unlikely for us. It is not inconceivable however that in the future there will be some kind of digital reclamation project for the dead, though this will almost certainly be limited to pale reproductions of deceased humans based on the decaying information they left behind about themselves on the Internet thousands of years previously. For us, resurrection will occur the natural way - through the Poincare recurrence theorem.