Life After Death

[mrj222]

I don't believe in an afterlife. Personally I don't need a crutch to hold onto hoping the next life will be better than this if I'm a good little boy and follow the rules.

I live my life now to the fullest everyday and enjoy every minute I can. if it turns out you're right and there is an afterlife I'll be doing the same there.

I'm not really sure the purpose this topic serves so now I'll just sit back and watch the comments.

[CoffeeCanuck]

I will repeat what I put in my opening post.

***Please, I dont want this discussion to turn into yet another ugly argument between atheists and Christians. This discussion is not about proving anything, it's just about sharing ones beliefs and experiences in the afterlife.

Please, STAY ON TOPIC!!!

This is a discusison on ones belief in the afterlife. Many dont believe there is one, fine, end of your discussion. That is not what this is about. People of different faiths have different afterlife beliefs, and then there are people who have experienced dying, the afterlife, and then have come back to their mortal body, this is called a NDE, (near death experience). This is what I want discussed.

~D

[Jo]

Just so it is very clear: Off-topic remarks in this thread are going to be deleted without comment.

[Mr Danksworth]

Just so it is very clear: Off-topic remarks in this thread are going to be deleted without comment.

I was perfectly on topic, and I would appreciate you no erasing my posts.
What exactly is wrong about posting an image of the christian afterlife(as per topic), from a christian site? If I had posted an image of the egyptian afterlife would I have still been deleted?

[Jo]

Just so it is very clear: Off-topic remarks in this thread are going to be deleted without comment.

I was perfectly on topic, and I would appreciate you no erasing my posts.
What exactly is wrong about posting an image of the christian afterlife(as per topic), from a christian site? If I had posted an image of the egyptian afterlife would I have still been deleted?

1. I, not you, will be the judge of what is off-topic and what is not.

2. If you don't want your posts erased, don't post off-topic posts. If you're not sure, contact me.

3. If you have a problem with the moderation on this board, contact me via PM or email, don't post your concerns in the thread. By doing so, you are, once again, going off-topic.

Jo

[katykat]

Great thread, Coffee - thanks for starting it.

I certainly believe in some sort of continuation of the spiritual essence that is me in this life. My biggest question is whether or not the person who I experience as me will continue. Does my consciousness continue, or is it just existing for this life?

But apart from that, as I have been reading through the pages and seeing references to NDEs, I can't help thinking of other documented examples of out-of-body-experience that are not death related. Someone here posted their own experience of flying around their bedroom.


I am thinking of the surgical cases where the spirit (soul, energy, essence, consciousness) of a person, not in danger of death, temporarily departed the body and just toured around some. A sort of involuntary astral travelling thing. The patient, upon recovery from the anaesthetic, will have recounted various things he/she could not have known. Notably conversations carried on far out of earshot; the garb of people who had no contact with the patient and could not have been seen by them under any circumstance. I was always sort of, "Yeah, yeah. We can hear much more than we are usually aware of; probably saw that person momentarily somehow without conscious memory of it. Yeah, yeah." What got me was the particular case in which the patient told the OR staff of an item up on top of the cabinets; an item which could not be spotted by the tallest person from any angle of observation in that OR. But there it was.

Okay, I have no recollection now of where I will have read these accounts, but I do remember that I was satisfied at the time that the sources seemed fair - no axe to grind either way.

There have been many instances of "spirit contact" in my family, and one very startling one that I experienced myself. Perhaps an Irish heritage increases the likelihood that people will talk about these experiences without fear of ridicule or suspicion of madness. Dunno.

My Mum, now 86, has had many experiences over her life time which leave her in no doubt that there is independent existence of spirit after the death of the individual. Her greatest question is much like mine: are we ourselves in the afterlife? Her own experience, as well as countless others, shows that certainly the spirit retains individuality, at least for a time, but what then? On to the next universe? Into the great pool of oneness? Actual real-live heaven or hell? Reincarnation without memory of earlier incarnations? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?

- Katy

[CoffeeCanuck]

My Mum, now 86, has had many experiences over her life time which leave her in no doubt that there is independent existence of spirit after the death of the individual. Her greatest question is much like mine: are we ourselves in the afterlife? Her own experience, as well as countless others, shows that certainly the spirit retains individuality, at least for a time, but what then? On to the next universe? Into the great pool of oneness? Actual real-live heaven or hell? Reincarnation without memory of earlier incarnations? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?

Hi Katy, thanks for joining in. You bring up some thought provolking questions that I'm sure many of us have. I dont think any of us have the one singular answer, and I often say, everyone of all faiths or non-faith will be mighty surprised at how little we really know. There are vast amounts of people who have had these NDE's, where they have not only been in the room with their body, but have gone on to another place (heaven?), have beeen greeted by spirits, and often times describe being in the presence of Jesus. They were shown things and then told that is was not their time yet to 'return', so they must go back to their mortal body, or like my grandma who desperately wanted to stay, but she knew she had return to her earthly body and raise her two little boys.

I have always been intrigued by the spirit world and now as an adult who lost my grandma 13 yrs ago, I wish desperately that she had written her experience down in a journal, as I'm sure I dont remember all that she told me as a child.

I have no doubt that our souls are uniquely 'us', forever. I've come to this conclusion from listening to my grandma's journey, from listening to and reading others stories of NDE's, and from my belief as a Christian.

I saw an interview on tv yrs ago with a lady who had such an experience. Her name is Betty Eadie and she wrote of her experience in Embraced By The Light. I read that book quite a few yrs ago and always remembered her saying how it was reveiled to her that we have always existed as spirits and actually choose to come to earth and choose our parents. This astounded me. Because of this discussion, I once again needed to read that book and so I bought it and just finished it last week. It's not a long read book, and I would encourage anyone who is curious about these things to read it. She talks about meeting different 'beings' or spirits and having the sence that she knew them before her life on earth, some were spirit friends and some now act as her guarian angels who are with her always.

As for reincarnation. At one time I rejected it completely, now I'm not so sure. Lets just say the door has been cracked open. If we do in fact come back to experience earth, I absolutely dont believe we come back as a beetle, dog, or goat, like some believe. If it does exist, do we come back into another body with a different spirit or the same one? I believe we were all created by our Heavenly Father and our spirit remains the same, forever.

~D

[eyepop]

if the mind, or a soul continues and it is just the physical body that dies a physical death..

rather than asking is there 'life after death' ...

the question becomes 'is there life after life?


maybe this life, is last life's, afterlife.

are you reaping what you sowed?



______________
karma chameleon

[CoffeeCanuck]

Confucus says eyepop?
Is there life after life...hmmmm something to ponder.

Ok, I'm done pondering. Yes there is life after this life. Do we get to repeat living on earth in mortal bodies till we actually learn something meaningful? Dunno. I'll tell you what though. If I die an early physical death, I'll someohow find a way to let a Castaneter know for certainty, that yes we do indeed live on in spirit. Hmmmm, now I just have to figure out who that special somene will be to get a haunting, er, visit from me.

On a side note, here is a collection of out of body experiences some may find interesting.

http://www.oberf.org/sobe_stories.htm

~D

[bshemley41]

In life as we know it, the thoughts and knowledge on an afterlife will become clear in the near future as we come towards the end of the mayan calender.

[Nebula]

In life as we know it, the thoughts and knowledge on an afterlife will become clear in the near future as we come towards the end of the mayan calender.

Please read this thread:

http://forums.castanet.net/viewtopic.php?t=10622

We've gone over the whole Mayan calendar thing and I think it has been adequately debunked.

[CoffeeCanuck]

Thanks WD.

~D

[Nebula]

Thanks WD.

~D

Welcome. By the way, do you suppose there is coffee after death?

[CoffeeCanuck]

Thanks WD.

~D

Welcome. By the way, do you suppose there is coffee after death?

There better be. I would imagine it would be the purest of coffee bean too!

You know the saying...'be careful what you wish for'? I sometimes wish for an out of body experience, I mean how awsome would that truly be! And if I did have one, the people who know me would genuinely know something does exist, because a crack pot I am not.

~D

[eyepop]

I sometimes wish for an out of body experience, I mean how awsome would that truly be!

meh,

they're ok.