I think we all get together in a big bubble with the finite mix of beings that have had impacts on our lives (perhaps 100 billion of them) and we all view each others life stories in some type of bubble and then judge ourselves from there. I think there is an afterlife. This comes from many experiences I’ve had with the spirit world, stories I’ve heard from others and certain dreams I’ve had. I think there are an infinite number of intelligent beings in the cosmos, in fact, I think there are an infinite number of human beings in the cosmos. This is where I stand on the issue.
One story that really compelled me from another person, was that his wife’s father died, and the day after he died a bunch of blue jays came flying through his window and walked around the house for about a half an hour… apparently, the father was a really big blue jays fan (a sports team). I won’t get into my own personal experiences, but I have seen enough to convince me that there is something that animates the body that continues on after it dies, it may even be weightless in our reality. I don’t claim to have all the answers, just that this is what I now believe.
I can assume that you would try to make yourself look silly by choosing an interpretation of how some other think that are like you but not all of them. IOW you think raising the emotional stakes in the beginning of an argument while reducing rigor is the most ethical way to dialogue with you.
By definition, if one has some degree of experience after death, it would not be after-life by definition, because life would be continuing.
As for the ectoplasm man’s theories they seem goofy. Like who wants to sit around and be judged by mere mortals. Ridiculous that such a thing would be the grand plan of the cosmos, to sit around and be judged by mortals, and share their pathetic experiences. Does one sit around and judge the experiences of random lego bricks, combinations of cards? How laughable.
Trixie, you’re in for the surprise of your life when you stand before me in judgement. I’ll watch a trillion lives to send you all to hell. No sweat off my brow, just a sliver of eternity.
You don't! Afterlife questions are about as far removed as you can possibly get from anything we can touch or experience. Any reasonable person believes whatever they believe about the afterlife as a consequence of other, more foundational positions that can actually be examined- either a product of some religious tradition, or a consequence of some basic understanding of the universe's ontology. This idea that a bunch of people with different religious/philosophical beliefs can come together and have any meaningful conversation about the afterlife is bonkers.
Even within the context of a single religious tradition where everybody in on board about the broad strokes, afterlife questions are still controversial and speculative. It's odd watching Protestants fragment and split off from each other in ever-more nuanced ways because of some disagreement over eschatology or afterlife issues that have no bibilcal or traditional support one way or the other.
So in the absence of actually knowing anything, you get ignorant, feel-good pagentry. Somebody says "I think everybody gets to go to Heaven!" and everybody claps cause that sounds nice. Then somebody else says "Yeah? Well *I* think everybody gets to go to Double Heaven!" and everybody claps harder cause that sounds nicer. It's largely a bunch of ignoramouses trying to out-nice each other.
Ahh… do you have something to be scared of? LOL. Trixie, there’s a lot you don’t know about the spirit world, in fact what I said is going to happen, is already happening.
My theory of the afterlife is that we lose our individuality and become one with cosmic consciousness. Whether that amounts to a Hellish or Heavenly experience–or something completely neutral in comparison–is anyone’s guess.
But ultimately, I agree with Ucci: none of this counts as knowledge.
Cosmic consciousness eh? Hmm… that’s a lot for me to process. I know that if there are equalities after this all ends, people will feel it’s unfair… so you step around this and say there are no people, “no individuality”, now personally, as long as I went to heaven forever, I wouldn’t give a shit if every else did as well. I’m not the vengeful sort. I mean, think about the game theory there. There are things I certainly don’t know about the afterlife, and there are some things I do know… I know that people’s personalities don’t change, so I have a sense that we really don’t become cosmic consciousness without individuality. But that’s one of the narrow things I know about the afterlife.
My reasons for saying there will be no individuality are the same as why one would say there is no more individual physical person after the body has died and decayed–all cells and molecules in their body dispersing back into nature. I believe that the physical makeup of the body (and the brain in particular) is a material expression of the soul, and that whatever happens in the brain symbolizes happenings in the soul. There is no “end” to consciousness when the body dies–it simply metamorphosizes according to the same principle of representation. But if the body disintegrates and becomes dispersed back into nature, so does the soul, and thus the individuality it once had is gone, or reunited with the greater spirit of nature.
Your knowledge doesn’t mean much to me. Not that I’m belittling it, but how is it supposed to come across to me as knowledge (as opposed to the ramblings of a delusional madman or just a baseless opinion raised to the level of so-called truth)?
I’m not going to quibble with this. My personal experience is not verifiable to you. I deal with possessions constantly, and they have distinct personalities. You can call me insane if you want, because I can’t make you live my life right now. Wouldn’t it be much easier if we could just live people’s lives when we debated? And then come back into ours afterwards and they could live ours? etc…
Which is fine. I only said what I said because I don’t know how else to respond.
But I’m not closed minded to the possibility of our personalities continuing after death, or of other disembodied personalities coexisting with us. It’s just that it’s never been represented to me physically. What I see when I observe a human body die and decay is a redispersement of its molecules back into nature. There is nothing there to suggests a continuation of personality and intelligence, at least not connected to the individual the person once was.
That doesn’t mean it never happens, it just means that whatever force or mechanism preserves the personality, with its memories and intelligence and such, is not being represented, or being misrepresented. But then this becomes baseless speculation for me.
Possessions can tell lies and give you delusions. Whose to say your visions arent delusions passed on by daemons (Even if the daemons were real, they could give you false visions.