Do you believe in an afterlife? If so what is your beliefs as to what happens when you die?

B

Babsinbloom65

Member
Since y'all know that I call God my Father and Jesus Christ my Redeemer and Savior....then most of you will know that I believe in a very real heaven and hell. But many people have other beliefs and to them their beliefs are just as real to them as mine are to me. So I am interested in knowing your beliefs and I hope y'all will share with me.
 

I am of a divided opinion.

My scientific training tells me that once an organic entity dies, that's it. We return to the Earth as a few dollars worth of chemicals and minerals. Lights out.

But my Taoist training tells me that we are energetic individuals - that when we die, since energy cannot be destroyed, it has to go somewhere. Perhaps something as simple as memories in our family and friends, but also possibly ending up in some sort of universal energy web ...
 
But my Taoist training tells me that we are energetic individuals - that when we die, since energy cannot be destroyed, it has to go somewhere. Perhaps something as simple as memories in our family and friends, but also possibly ending up in some sort of universal energy web ...

I'm not a Christian so I go with the above. I do believe in spirits, not that you can see them, but they exist. I've told the story before about my sister in law's funeral. The priest didn't know her in life and kept mispronouncing her name. After like the twentieth time he said it wrong, a wreath crashed down onto the alter. You tell me...

I was three months pregnant when my mother passed on. That girl was a firecracker combination of me and her grandmother. Could almost hear my Mom chuckling " I told you that someday you'd have a kid just like you...don't turn your back on her...". Definitely spirits out there.
 

I believe in energy. I think each individual is born with their own spark of energy. Where that energy goes after death I haven't a clue. Does it return ? Maybe. Is it reborn? Maybe. Does it linger or live in another dimension? Maybe.
Is there a deity? Maybe. Is there only one deity? I have no idea. Maybe there are many. I've had people tell me ' If there were more than one the world would be in chaos' my answer to that is .."look around".
I believe that many of the religions of the world/belief systems/ man-god deities could have sprung up through ancient folklore for different possible reasons. Possibly Alien encounters, possibly schizophrenia, or epilepsy. Maybe mushrooms. I did have a roommate knock holes all over the house once trying to get rid of "that little green bastard". I often think the movie 'Stargate' may have been right on the money. Many times travelers with superior technology have been taken for 'gods'. We do have pyramids all over the planet and many other unexplainable things. I've studied the Bible a bit. I've studied the Quran a bit. I've researched into how both books were compiled and who actually wrote them. An interesting thing is what the quotation marks and the words " attributed to" mean. Anyway, in his day Muhammad did set forth laws that prohibited men from selling their wives ( they had been free to do so before) . He encouraged freeing slaves as a penance. He gave women the right to work, own property, and vote. He forbade animal abuse, slave abuse, abuse of women, elderly, children.. He came into a very harsh harsh world and gave relief to many downtrodden people. In his time men were permitted unlimited number of wives. They bought and sold women like cattle. He did limit them to 4, and they couldn't sell them when they got bored anymore. I think where the Muslims got bound to live in the past was the Hadiths and not so much the Quran. And yeah there's the cutting hands off thing not so cool, but the Bible is full of not so cool punishments as well. I used to say I lived by 'the code of Hammurabi' just because I think the name Hammurabi is fun to say. BUT the Babylonians were there with a chiseled law first ;) Anyway.. what irks me is the ' My God's better than your God' stuff. And fanaticism coming from a believer in a God or a person who believes in no God is something that is a big old turn off for me. Religion has been used as an excuse to war and plunder by evil men manipulating the gullible so long. It's the oldest trick in the book. Keeps on a tickin though [I came back to edit and add that I do pray. I pray to ' The Kind Guides of the Universe If You're Listening'. It's more of a comfort/relaxing thing for me]
];) I'm not concerned with the beliefs of others until they try to control my mind and my space. Then I feel like this clip of Jackie ..

 
It's a nice thought, comforting for people on earth to think of a pleasant afterlife after they die, but since nobody has ever come back from the dead and actually reported on this, seein' is believin'. I know that we have a spirit along with our physical body, but I doubt that it lingers very long after we die. I've lost many beloved family members over the years, and welcomed some interaction with them after they died, but that never happened. If it does some day, it will change my mind. I always try to keep an open mind with these things, but I'm in my sixties now and haven't yet been convinced of life after death.
 
I don't believe in a heaven or hell, but I do think that consciousness has its own *life* (for lack of a better word), and that it may be eternal. I have seen a person who died. I saw only his hair and his legs at first - his lap, actually - as he squatted down beside me. It was a curious and rather chilling sight. Then I saw his arms as he embraced me. I couldn't feel his arms, but saw them, and I felt comforted. I sensed very strongly that it was my brother-in-law, who had died of a drug overdose about 3 months earlier. He no sooner embraced me then I fell asleep. Had I fallen asleep already, and dreamed this? It's possible, but I don't think so. I remember being awake, because I was crying. And I didn't grieve his death. We were friendly, but not close.

I can't say I have a strong opinion on the matter, but, especially after that incident, I remain open-minded regarding afterlife.
 
I have seen some interesting things. I also have a memory dating back to childhood I believe may be a piece of a former life. Logic dictates I don't know, empathy believes in spirits/consciousness, reincarnation. I know my consciousness was briefly

sucked into a tree, we touched, and then it threw me out. Daytime, perfectly sober. Very cool, very slow entity, sentient ? Not as we brief beings are, no explanation, it just was.
 
Does anybody believe in reincarnation? I remember reading somewhere that who ever was supposed to be in charge of our lives kept making you come back over and over again until you got whatever it was you were supposed to get right the first time...right. And I also read that others believe you come back not just as the same person in another time or even a different person, but also you can come back as animals, etc.
 
Babsinbloom65 said:
Does anybody believe in reincarnation? I remember reading somewhere that who ever was supposed to be in charge of our lives kept making you come back over and over again until you got whatever it was you were supposed to get right the first time...right. And I also read that others believe you come back not just as the same person in another time or even a different person, but also you can come back as animals, etc.
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I think it might be possible.
 
I believe :
1. There are no gods and precious few heroes.
2. When your dead, you're dead.
3. It may be possible to inherit memory from a parent (obviously from before your conception).
4. Self awareness. Not re-incarnation, but being self aware as another person.
 
SeaBreeze said:
It's a nice thought, comforting for people on earth to think of a pleasant afterlife after they die, but since nobody has ever come back from the dead and actually reported on this, seein' is believin'. I know that we have a spirit along with our physical body, but I doubt that it lingers very long after we die. I've lost many beloved family members over the years, and welcomed some interaction with them after they died, but that never happened. If it does some day, it will change my mind. I always try to keep an open mind with these things, but I'm in my sixties now and haven't yet been convinced of life after death.
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Well nobody but Jesus and many people saw him when he came back to life. And they also saw him ascend from this earth too. Maybe it would have been easier to believe if we had actually been there when he did those things but there was enough human beings who did see him to convince me even if I wasn't there. And there is enough historical evidence too in my opinion.
 
FazeFour said:
I don't believe in a heaven or hell, but I do think that consciousness has its own *life* (for lack of a better word), and that it may be eternal. I have seen a person who died. I saw only his hair and his legs at first - his lap, actually - as he squatted down beside me. It was a curious and rather chilling sight. Then I saw his arms as he embraced me. I couldn't feel his arms, but saw them, and I felt comforted. I sensed very strongly that it was my brother-in-law, who had died of a drug overdose about 3 months earlier. He no sooner embraced me then I fell asleep. Had I fallen asleep already, and dreamed this? It's possible, but I don't think so. I remember being awake, because I was crying. And I didn't grieve his death. We were friendly, but not close.

I can't say I have a strong opinion on the matter, but, especially after that incident, I remain open-minded regarding afterlife.
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I have definitely seen a spirit and it almost scared me to death! It was when I was about 17 years old. I was sleeping in my bed and I woke up to the pages of a magazine being turned and someone sighing. When I opened my eyes at the end of my bed I saw a tall slim shadowy body of a man. I was so scared I wanted to just scream but when I opened my mouth to do that...nothing would come out. I watched him walk over to my chest of drawers and pull open the drawers and sift through the contents like he was looking for something he couldn't find. Then he finished that and came and stood at the end of my bed just looking at me again. Finally my vocal cords unlocked and I said to him: "What do you want?" And as soon as I said that he seemed to slowly go backwards until he faded into the doorway. The minute he was gone I got out of bed and ran out of my room and got in bed with my sister. Later on I saw a picture of my dad (who had died when I was 12) when he was a young man and he was tall and slim just like the spirit in my room that night.

I also saw my Mom's spirit for a very brief moment the night after she died. I was trying to go to sleep on the couch in the livingroom of her mother's suite in our family home and I looked toward the bedroom in which she had passed away. There is a little hallway leading to that room and right in the doorway of that hall was my Mom in spirit form. She just stayed for a brief moment and then was gone....and after that I was able to go right to sleep.
 
I am Wiccan Wicca is a religion focused on living. When someone dies, if we mourn, it is for our loss, for the loss of the person to the world, us, their family, and for what they could've done. Few Wiccans mourn the fact that a person has died, only the loss of that person to the Living. As to reincarnation I believe the soul flies apart at death, where it becomes part of the divine energy of all life, some part of these souls are divided into wisdom given to the living.
 
Arachne said:
I am Wiccan Wicca is a religion focused on living. When someone dies, if we mourn, it is for our loss, for the loss of the person to the world, us, their family, and for what they could've done. Few Wiccans mourn the fact that a person has died, only the loss of that person to the Living. As to reincarnation I believe the soul flies apart at death, where it becomes part of the divine energy of all life, some part of these souls are divided into wisdom given to the living.
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I've always said that Wicca and Taoism share many traits ...
 
I believe I am an eternal being. I believe death is closing one door and opening another. Heaven will be seeing those I love again and all my pets too.
 
I believe just about anything is possible. I think everything alive has some kind of spirit. I highly doubt there is a hell but there could be some kind of heaven. I think reincarnation is a possibility. Also as Buddhists believe, rebirth: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/dharmadata/fdd47.htm It is not the same as reincarnation which came from Hinduism.

I am most drawn to Buddhism but I studied and practiced Paganism before. Buddhists do not have the arrogance to say they are the only true way and they are fine with other's beliefs. You can take the Buddhist practices you find most helpful but still be a Catholic, Jew, Muslim. Buddhism has no deity.

When asked what I am I simply say I am unlabeled.
 
I have felt passed souls. I have had four encounters with past souls in my lifetime. The last time was when my youngest son died two years ago. I had to make the decision to take my son off life support, and I knew what my son wanted, so I knew what I had to do wether I wanted to or not. As I crawled into Young Michael bed so that I could hold him, I felt my oldest son holding me, (he died in '93), and I felt as if he was letting me know that his brother wouldn't be alone, wherever they are.:praying:
 

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