You're born...you live....you die?

[ambi53mm]

You’re born…you live…you die….and after?? Do you have a belief that there exists some level of being once the body ceases to exchange air, or do you believe that with the last breath comes the final end of consciousness? What would be your wish if you had choice?

Ambi:yinyang:

[jem_is_bi]

I have only made it to step 2, even though I was once close to step 3. I do not know anybody that has returned from step 4. I do know someone who had an out of body experience while under general anesthesia. He definitely, believes in life of the spirit after death of the body.
Unfortunately, in my one close encounter with death, all I remember is flopping around half paralyzed and chocking on my own blood. I would rather have had a dreamlike meeting with angels. But, not too long a visit with them.

JEM

[Azrael]

I'm not sure. Science tells us the physical form breaks down, becomes recomposed as something entirely different. We're told something similar regarding energy, that it can be manipulated and tweaked, but never destroyed.
From there it's pretty much based on your own set of perception filters.
I can't be sure how much of what I feel is 'real' or if my brain just created it.
I believe in Karma, I see existence as being essentially cyclical and transitory, and I'd definetley like to believe that my insights are somewhat on the right track. I have, however at certain points of my life hallucinated without any drugs. Sometimes my brain chemistry just manages to get really out of wack.
I had a period when I was going manic where I was INTENSELY spiritual. Essentially I'm still in that space, but I don't feel the same command of my energy as before I was on psych drugs. Everything I believe is counterbalanced with a hearty dose of 'maybe my brain made it all up'. I was speaking to nature or god or whatever you want to call it all the time. Things made sense to me, and I wasn't afraid of anything anymore, not even dying. Then I had my brain twisted every which way with anticonvulsants. I stopped telling my family (my friends get where I'm at, aways have) what I really thought and felt at this point because they all think I'm insane. They tell me how much better I'm doing now. They think the hospital made me 'stable' again. It just made me better at hiding things and 'playing the game'.
I got somewhat sidetracked there with lots of dumb back history, but it was to illustrate a point. I don't believe what I believe or feel what I feel due to manic episodes, but through many years of intense searching and deliberating.
I'm not as intense as I used to be, but my belief structure and general philosophy which was deemed 'psychotic hogwash' by the doctors and family, has remained unchanged.
Reincarnation is a lovely idea to play with at times. Maybe that's what Jung was getting at with his archetypes. It has such a wonderfully moralistic flavor to it- you've been a prick, so you're coming back as a lesser being.
Heaven would be nice, but I like to think that life in itself can be heaven if u work @ it.
I worry more about what future generations will have to deal with, as we burn through more resources and alienate all our allies, but that's me :P
Death occurs in stages, cardiac death, cerebral death, cellular death.
Some would tell you that you start to die the moment you are born.
As for part of us hanging on after the fact, I couldn't say. I haven't seen it, but (I know this sounds crazy) I get an odd feeling in certain buildings, like I feel the wicked energy of shit that's happened in there or something. Again, I'm not sure how much of this is in my head. Certain things can be purely psychosomatic, but your brain makes it real.
What would I like to happen?
Personally, I wanna ride around on a medieval looking black winged horse into a stormy psychedlic background while Randy Rhoads plays oldschool ozzy riffs while standing on his head and it rains high grade cannabis. But again, that's me :bigrin:

[Long Duck Dong]

* sits in the undecided section *

honestly, I know what people say about the bible and karma and reincarnation and all that stuff..... but where is the proof......

unlike stubbing ya toe on the concrete.... the afterlife, is not as clear and precise....and tho I am a wiccan person ( the mainstream believe in gods and goddess yadda yadda yadda )... I have a open mind

I have read many of the books that give you all the details of the afterlife.... yet if you put them all back to back.... 90 % of them say something different about the same thing and yet they will claim to be right....( reminds me of the bible, so many different versions of the same thing )

as I say to a lot of my friends who ask me about the afterlife * I will send you a email when I get there * lol

if I had a choice..... mmmm eternal life as a spirit or returning to life in another form.... or nothing at all.....I would choose nothing at all
I have enuf trouble dealing with the mistakes I make in my life at the moment without them coming back to haunt me in another lifetime
and if I was a eternal spirit... there is only so many times that you can sit them looking at the wallpaper, before you go starking raving mad
so I choose nothing at all... cos its no fun, no enjoyment, no excitement.... and best of all.... no headaches, worries or fuck ups, to deal with lol

[the mage]

You’re born…you live…you die….and after?? Do you have a belief that there exists some level of being once the body ceases to exchange air, or do you believe that with the last breath comes the final end of consciousness? What would be your wish if you had choice?

Ambi:yinyang:

we are not gawds.....
When you're done, you're done.

"You" rejoin the material universe as the atoms you are to be recycled.
Like everything else, you'll be turned into something else.

[innaminka]

You’re born…you live…you die….

:

Pretty much sums it up as far as I'm concerened.
Maybe you live on as a memory if you're lucky.

[MarieDelta]

Undecided

I have certainly seen things which lie outside my ability to explain. What were they? I dunno.

Sometimes I am more on the budhist side of beliefs, but then again who knows?

I know that peoples ability for self delusion and fantasy is *almost* unlimited. We can believe pretty much anything in the right circumstances.

I hope after this I end up in someplace like the "happy hunting ground". ALthough I have been told that heaven is like a place where everyone feeds each other with twelve foot spoons, and hell is like the same place but everyone is concentrating on just themselves. *Laughs*

All I know is that I really don't wanna come back here. Hope that when we're done it's over. Not a never ending reincarnation untill you reach enlightenment.

[Skater Boy]

Another unanswerable question. Simple truth is that none of us will ever know for sure until we actually die.

Mind you, all this talk of the afterlife is making me seriously curious! I'm getting tempted to top myself right now, just to see if any of these theories are right.

Who knows, I may eventually even bump into Fran in hell... and get to take my turn! "There's no Courvoisier in this realm, m'dear! But I've got something else for you! Muahahaha!" :bigrin:

[darkeyes]

Ere we go gain...title of thread minus the question mark is me ansa... no more needs 2 b sed...

[someotherguy]

We come from and return to oblivion. That is also my wish. It works great just the way it is.

[Doggie_Wood]

I believe in the eternal soul ... that being said, this is a really big fucking cosmos. Where my soulful energy drifts to or is directed to go by a higher power greater than I, I haven't a clue and won't know till I become cognoscente at that time, when ever and where ever that may be.
Always Remember! We are not alone in the universe!
:doggie:

[Skater Boy]

Always Remember! We are not alone in the universe!

There are plenty sceptics on that one. But IMHO, with MILLIONS of planets in this universe, the chances are stacked against them. Still, yet another unanswerable question...

[darkeyes]

There are plenty sceptics on that one. But IMHO, with MILLIONS of planets in this universe, the chances are stacked against them. Still, yet another unanswerable question...

This 1 aint unaswerable skater baes...jus as yet unanswered...:tong:

[DiamondDog]

Nobody knows what happens.

Friends of mine who are religious/spiritual or who have taken lots of drugs claim that there's somethimg more after we die.

Friends of mine who are depressed/pessimistic say that there's nothing after life and that this is it.

Who's to say who is right or wrong?

[FalconAngel]

Died once when I was a kid. The spirit goes on to be reborn in another body when the time is right for them.

I cannot believe in the Judeo-Christian belief system. I just can't wrap myself around the idea that, after we die, our spirit either goes into eternal damnation or we sit at the right hand of a jealous god singing his praises.

There are just too many things to learn in the universe than can be learned in just one lifetime. Wisdom is too infinite to pick up in just a meer 70-100 years of life. It can take hundreds of lifetimes and thousands of different experiences in those lifetimes to reach that point.

[12voltman59]

I do think that there is something beyond--it really makes no sense to me that this one little life we live for however long we have it-- is all there is--if that truly is the case--then life really makes no sense and what is the point really??

The notion of something more, something after is so deeply ingrained in us---that I do have to believe there has to be something to it all-

I do believe the standard notion of heaven and hell and all of that is a bit off though---

[Nara_lovely]

If I had the choice:

I'd like to think that all I go though, the ups and downs...that it is one small part of a long journey of discovery.
To go into the 'cosmos/afterlife/unknown' and remember everything, and to continue however I chose, does hold appeal.

Makes me feel more energized to keep trying, rather than see the physical end as the full end of who I am (and yet to become). If I focus on the negative and give up, I am doing myself a disservice. But to strive, challenge, grow, and leave a quality mark on those I interact with...life is entertaining.

[naive]

I do think that there is something beyond--it really makes no sense to me that this one little life we live for however long we have it-- is all there is--if that truly is the case--then life really makes no sense and what is the point really??

The notion of something more, something after is so deeply ingrained in us---that I do have to believe there has to be something to it all-

I do believe the standard notion of heaven and hell and all of that is a bit off though---

so my beliefs about life after death follow the much loved cliché that our souls live on in the hearts of others. all the people that we encounter in our lives, every person that we touch in some small way will remember how we made a difference (any difference) in their lives for just being who we are. there doesn't need to be some belief in our spirits watching over them from heaven, guiding them thru life's difficult decisions. because u could never actually know the opinions of the departed in regards to ur life on earth. all u can do is treasure the memory of their life. the lack of an after-life doesn't make our lives any less meaningless. i think it should do the opposite, cause us to make the most of the little time that we have.

even tho i'm agnostic, these sound like the opinions of an atheist rite?

[12voltman59]

so my beliefs about life after death follow the much loved cliché that our souls live on in the hearts of others. all the people that we encounter in our lives, every person that we touch in some small way will remember how we made a difference (any difference) in their lives for just being who we are. there doesn't need to be some belief in our spirits watching over them from heaven, guiding them thru life's difficult decisions. because u could never actually know the opinions of the departed in regards to ur life on earth. all u can do is treasure the memory of their life. the lack of an after-life doesn't make our lives any less meaningless. i think it should do the opposite, cause us to make the most of the little time that we have.

even tho i'm agnostic, these sound like the opinions of an atheist rite?


I think I basically have a classical agnostic view of the existence of God---I do believe in the existence of something beyond our mere mortal lives---even though I have no way of empirically proving the existence of such to any degree of satisfaction--certainly there is not enough evidence to prove the existence of God in a criminal court of law--"beyond a resonable doubt"--even though you might win the case on the standard of evidence in civil court--"the preponderence of evidence"--but even that might be hard to do.

It is a matter of a leap of faith to believe in any sort of existence beyond that of our physical world---

I do have my own singular vision of what the nature of God, heaven and all of that is--but its not the traditonal judeo-christian one of a judgemental old man sitting up in heaven on his throne, smiting and smoting people.

[AdamKadmon43]

I suppose that, to me, the most problematic aspect of the concept of moving on to an after life is what exactly does one do when one gets there.

It is like some sort of perpetual, eternal drug high? Is there something equivalent to the physical senses, or do we just exist in a state of pure consciousness and mental energy? Is there some sort of social director and planned activities, or do we just kind of mentally hold hands with the other billions of souls and spend eternity contemplating the Sweet Celestial Music of the Spheres? What happens if you get bored with it all and want to just go away?

I believe the sum totality of human existence - what makes it worth while and interesting - is the incredible and wonderful set of experiences that can be derived from our physical senses, and the incredible and remarkable sorts of things that our minds can do with them.

The entire notion of a here after is so troublesome, and scary and downright bizarre that, if given a choice, I think that I would rather just be dead.

But I have limited experience in these matters, so you must not rely too heavily on anything I say.

[<<GOD>>]

we are not gawds.....
When you're done, you're done.


Sometime I'm right I can be wrong My own beliefs are in my song.
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag l'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah


<<GOD>>

[Azrael]

Sometime I'm right I can be wrong My own beliefs are in my song.
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag l'm in
I am everyday people, yeah yeah


<<GOD>>

Well, it was nice to meet you, god. Thanks for manic depression, blisters and boy bands :rolleyes:

[<<GOD>>]

Well, it was nice to meet you, god. Thanks for manic depression, blisters and boy bands :rolleyes:

....and Thankyou Tom...with providing me with so much genuine laughter over the years

I Love you cuz you're such a cutie heimer :)

<<GOD>>

[turgid1]

Interesting site on near death experiences with lots of testimonials:
http://www.nderf.org/

[darkeyes]

Interesting site on near death experiences with lots of testimonials:
http://www.nderf.org/

Jus as the lil ole pea brain acts funny wen it is loaded wiv substances it shudn.... it acts stangely wen deprived of stuff it shud... oxygen deprivation is the mos likely explanation for wots called near death experience so me treats them wiv jus a lil hint of caution an scepticism...

[folk2punk]

I'm not sure. Science tells us the physical form breaks down, becomes recomposed as something entirely different. We're told something similar regarding energy, that it can be manipulated and tweaked, but never destroyed.

Personally, I wanna ride around on a medieval looking black winged horse into a stormy psychedlic background while Randy Rhoads plays oldschool ozzy riffs while standing on his head and it rains high grade cannabis. But again, that's me :bigrin:

Two good points to touch on. First, in the scientific realm: If the body can be broken down and recycled as dust to dust, with the help of hungry bugs and all manner of gross fungi (rotting is yucky,) then as long as you believe that the Soul is a seperate entity, and not tied to the body breakdown, the Soul is returned to the Collective Unconsious and broken down and recycled into something else too.

I also get exicted by the idea that the body and soul are not separate, and being tied together, they recycle together. This (to me) would explain child prodigies in music and the arts, how such young people can just pick up an instrument and just go with it. It also works nicely for de-ja-vu. (yes, you have been there before, even if its only some kinda carbon-dated memory being called up from the viscus matters in your spleen.)

The other thing i wanted to say was "What a cool ride to the heavens, man!" It make the "flight of the Valkyries" a little lame. Besides, why should anyone settle for what Wagner or King James says about Judgement Day? If we're lucky enough, we'll all get a little moment of our kind of heaven. Anyone ever watched "Dead like me" ?

[darkeyes]

If we're lucky enough, we'll all get a little moment of our kind of heaven.


Me dead lukky then... every time me gets brot off me has me lil bitta heaven... :tong: