Life after death?

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I think that both trying to describe this phenomena, as well as trying to deny its existence, do not make sense. If our consciousness is beyond this material world, then it is beyond our understanding either, period. One can either beleive it or not, but can neither prove or disprove it. Beleiving in it is akin to views of "letsism", or "agnostic theism".

I suspect that a lot of folks, especially educated ones, who say that they do not believe in god, actually believe in it, but not in the Christian (or any other organized religion) way, but the way described above...
 
I'd be interested in knowing if Mike, aka quadbliss, can recommend some books on human consciousness. I would be interested in learning more about the subject, especially because I find human psychology so compelling and in lieu of facing an ALS diagnosis.

Mike
 
i agree with one of the others who posted on this thread, that religion may not
be appropriate for a forum, but a medical text book, science or dream book is
not where i go to find out about life after death. there is another book that tells
you everything you need or want to know about the subject - it's the holy bible,
and after reading it, believing it, and obeying it, you will look forward to going
toward the bright blue skies where Jesus is.

thanks for listening.

jackiemax

Kudos,

"Jesus said to him, I am THE way, and THE truth and THE life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6

Judith
 
Big Mike, There is an interesting book called "I Am a Strange Loop" (by Douglas Hofstadter) that attempts to explain mathematically how our sense of "me-ness" arises. The book cover says "What do we mean when we say "I" ?

It does not attempt to relate to any religious beliefs, just tries to explain how our brains create a sense of ourselves as unique individuals. I found it fascinating, despite the fact that I did not understand one word of his mathematical explanations! The other half of the book that I could understand was interesting. Very much off the beaten path :), but I agree, human consciousness is a fascinating subject.
 
My youngest daughter, age 20, gets a real kick out of that old Peggy Lee song, "Is That All There Is?".

Sort of a tragic song. One let down after another and she sings, "If that's all there is my friends, then lets go dancing. We'll break out the booze and have a ball - if that's all - there is..."

I believe there is more (but still tempted to break out the booze and I very, rarely raise the glass).
 
I believe there is more. I have to because I love my kids and family too much to think that they, or I, simply cease to exist.

However, for some reason I think reincarnation is not an impossibility. Here is what I LIKE to think (haha):

We reincarnate based on how we treat others in this life....and I mean intentionally....then after so many lives we get to heaven.....don't know about hell so much....

I simply wasn't around when the world began and (as far as I know) haven't died yet (unless it was in another form in a previous life) and so how can we know?
 
Jennibf, I think that what you're talking about is karma, how we treat others today can and does have an effect on all of our life and the next if there is one. Another quote from Deepak Chopra's book (Life After Death) that I have thought about;

What you choose today will ripple through a thousand tomorrows

While Chopra wasn't talking about reincarnation, the idea fits. Heaven or hell or more of the same, who knows? All we can do is act today like there is something after this and let the future be.
 
I hope I can input as non-PALS. Regarding to reincarnation based on how we thret others this life, there was large philosphy discussion about it, because there is no "bad" and no "good". People invented good and bad, its our way how to describe reality in non-neutral way, those are basics of morale and etique.
But in the world generally good or bad doesnt exist. If a shark kills a small child - is it bad? Of course not, its its nature, its predator and it need to eat. If one person kills another person, from our view its bad of course, but its the same as animals killing each other.
The very good summary I have read in one famous book: ,,if there was something higher than us, it would not share with us our "primitive" emotions like anger, revenge, envy. That is the best proof there is no god - gods in every culture were personificated with typical mankind attributes for the culture that invented them. If there was a god, he would not certainly need churches or prayers, because he would be much more advanced than us. Something with ability create universe would not be so primitive for forcing people to worship it. That is typical attribute of powerful rulers."
I think I paraphrazed it correctly..its very true IMHO.
 
another good read on reincarnation is the "Tibetan book of the dead", I read it years ago and found it very interesting it deals with reincarnation and has some very good points. I myself beleive in a" higher power" of some sort and have to beleive that there is a reason for everything and somehow our lives are pre-planned.
 
I actually might not make it out of this life alive.

What? I was planning on living well into the year 3050! :wink:
 
Wheeler, I, too, have a "higher power" working in my life. Things go so much better when I remember to surrender!
 
Being dead in not a bad thing

"Big Mike, There is an interesting book called "I Am a Strange Loop" (by Douglas Hofstadter) that attempts to explain mathematically how our sense of "me-ness" arises. The book cover says "What do we mean when we say "I" ?

Thanks BethU, I'll check it out.

Even if it turns out there is no afterlife, I don't believe that being dead is a good thing or a bad thing. It may simply be a state of non-existence, and therefore, a state of non-awareness. The best analogy I can think of is the state of deep, dreamless sleep each of us goes into everynight. There is simply no awareness of anything. Or like the time I had to be anesthesized for my appendectomy--there was no awareness or mentation of any kind that I experienced.

Of course, we all want to live as long as we can, no matter our personal beliefs! I know I am grateful to people such as quadbliss and joelc for leading the way as examples and showing that there are options for extending your life indefinitely with als.
 
I saw a comic this week and he said hell can't be so bad. It's warm and I'll know so many people. I kind of thought, what if he's right?
 
I'm not a PALS, merely a caregiver of a PALS but this is a subject I've spent years thinking about for reasons outside the scope of this thread. Most people get very uncomfortable when I speak of this but here's my story: Some 17 years ago when my oldest daughter was just a couple of months old I had what I believe to be a glimpse of what some might call the "afterlife". At the time I was working a second shift and spending the morning/early afternoon taking care of her. She was a very pleasant baby and we normally spent most of the morning dozing on the couch, me on my back and her sleeping peacefully on my chest. One morning as I lay there "sleeping" I sat bolt upright. I clearly thought "I'm going to drop the baby", but when I looked down I saw myself peacefully sleeping with her on my chest. At that point I literally "flew" through the atmosphere, at a speed way beyond anything I've ever experienced. I found myself in an alpine meadow, all alone, but with a presence all around me. I felt like I was home, amongst family and friends. It's kind of hard to explain but I felt like I was there just to put my mind at rest, that everything I was to experience in the future wasn't really anything to be overly concerned about. Now, some might think the emotions of being a first time father and all the changes that come about during that time of life might have triggered some crazy dream and this is all in my head. Truthfully though, I never felt stressed out about being a father, it felt like the most natural thing in the world to me. Even now, 17 years and three more kids later, it seems perfectly normal to me to be raising these kids. I'm very aware of my shortcomings as a father as well as my strengths. I feel much the same about my efforts as a caregiver. That episode though, 17 years later is as etched in my mind as anything that's ever happened to me. I'm not religious, never have been, but I'm absolutely convinced that there's more to life than what we see here on earth. The one overriding thing I can say is: I haven't been afraid of death since that day. I may not know what the answer is, but I'm absolutely sure there's no reason to fear it.
 
I'm not going to get religious on you, so don't worry. But I will tell you some philosophical
thoughts that convinced me of life after.

Prophesy has come true that was written over 500 years previous. Life itself is a miracle and couldn't have just happened on its own. The time line of the Bible is so explicit and with it, you can follow right along with its events, including how eventually the USA will fight alongside the Muslims in the end wars.

That's just a sample of thoughts on the subject that convinced me long ago. We are making a choice for or against where we will spend eternity, whether we deny the possibility or not.

Let's put our hope there and also strive for a better consciousness along the way too.
Our Creator gets to choose how we get there or if we don't.

I am overwhelmed about it, but I believe we have a "higher consciousness" where our
soul still soars without the old diseased dead body, and we get a new one in time. I like
claiming the promises in the scriptures, even though I used to be an unbeliever.

All I know, is I want to meet you all someday, and embrace you.
 
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