Today I have been pondering the afterlife, as you do! Whether you are an Atheist or a firm believer in life beyond the veil, it’s certainly fascinating to ponder all the possibilities that may await us when we meet our maker.
So, what are some of the commonly held beliefs that people follow?
Heaven and Hell
Many who follow faiths such as Christianity, Mormonism or Judaism to name a few, believe that our afterlife is a direct a result of how we lead our lives. While some of the details may differ somewhat, many of the big religions believe that if you follow the Commandments of the Bible/Holy testimonies and carry out God’s will that you will go to Heaven and experience Utopia. On the flipside, if you sin (the definition of which is exceedingly arbitrary in modern times, depending on which texts you follow) you might find yourself in a lake of fire or in purgatory. There seems to be little differentiation in levels of proposed sinning so some may say “you may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb.”
This blog isn’t an exploration of morality and how we should live our lives, but a look into what people believe so I’ll steer away from moral judgments. How people live is up to them.
Atheism
Atheists tend to believe in evolution and that when you die, you die. Nothing more to see here, you are just part of nature’s cycle and become food for the plants and insects. I’m not an atheist myself, but if the Atheists turn out to be right, I won’t know about so it won’t be a major loss.
Reincarnation
This can be broken down into various subsets, depending on whether you follow Hinduism, Spiritualism, Buddhism, or another belief system. I am by no means an expert on religion so please do feel free to comment and add your own thoughts after reading my blog. I’m throwing up questions for you to consider, rather than making any assumptions myself.
Hindus and Buddhists tend believe that reincarnation is directly linked to Karma – that your next experience of reincarnation depends on whether you have accrued good or bad karma. The overall goal is for your soul to evolve over many lifetimes until you are free of Samsara (the cycle of reincarnation).
Some Spiritualists, however, believe that you can be reincarnated as a human or animal of your choice or that you pass over into the spirit realms to assist those on the dense matter, material planes. Spiritualism seems to be a lot more fluid with various possibilities debated and no one specific school of thought.
Other religions believe that when you die you will be rewarded with 72 virgins if you lead a good life. Whether you believe this to be a satisfactory reward or not is down to your own personal beliefs, but 72 inexperienced people who have no clue how to indulge? No comment! It’s not for me to say who’s right – next!
Multiple universes/Alternative Dimensions
This is where it starts to get a little deep. Many well-respected scientists have theorized about the possibility of other realms or parallel universes. The common thought is that when you die in one universe that you switch timelines and carry on in another, being none the wiser! For all we know we’ve swapped timelines multiple times! With my tongue firmly in my cheek, I would proffer that this would explain a lot!
Holographic Universe
The holographic universe theory is becoming increasingly popular and believers (which include many scientists and thought theorists) believe that the Earth is a holographic light projection. Again, there are various theories surrounding this. Some theorize the Earth died years ago, and we are hooked up in a lab somewhere experiencing an alternate reality. Others believe that it’s a more spiritual experience and that we are part of a thought collection of universal cosmic energy (often referred to as the Source) and that our minds create an experience that correlates to this. Manifestation has become a huge buzzword over the past few years with many practitioners suggesting that we can alter our own reality by keeping our thought processes and actions positive.
Whilst it might sound far-fetched and like something from a science fiction movie, it’s not entirely implausible. The Double slit experiment showed how a photon can exist as both a particle and a wave. This interesting thing was that the particle changed to a wave under observation. This suggests that merely in the presence of our consciousness, a particle changes how it behaves. Are we able to affect the universe around us with our conscious thoughts?
See a bite-sized version of the experiment here:
www.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQ1YqgPAtzho&usg=AOvVaw3ZnHoifu89qytDPS8UGjLH
Do You Create Your Own Reality?
Perhaps you create your own existence after death? Could this mean floating around as an orb, or a fragment of dispersed energy seeing all of time and space in no chronological order? Maybe creating your own universe or even something else that the human mind is simply unable to fathom. If this was the case, then in fact all the above religions and beliefs could be correct! Imagine that? A flash of light encompasses you as you pass through a vortex as space collapses around you. A John Cleese-type character steps out and bows in greeting. (For others he might appear as Gandhi, Allah, Jesus, or who knows, maybe Donald Duck!) You’ve always had a million questions in your mind, but one of the first questions you might ask (other than where are your family) might be, “So, who was right? What’s this all about.”
He chuckles to himself, sticking out one bandy leg and rubbing his chin. “Funnily enough, you all were!”
“What?”
“You all were. You become what you believe. Ha! Quite funny really, yes….!”
“So, all those wars…the fighting…?”
“Yes, yep, completely unnecessary! Ha! Oh, we do look down and laugh sometimes…”
“What? But why don’t you teach people?”
“Yes, we tried that, many times. The thing is with humans…..well, most of humanity start off their soul evolution as absolute idiots. They won’t listen, think they know best. We decided just to leave you all to it, really.”
“Well, that’s fair enough, but what about the children? The babies?”
“Look at it this way. How you feeling right now.”
“Pretty relaxed actually, it’s a bit bizarre but, I feel a strange sense of calm.”
“What do you remember?”
“Faces, events, smiling, but to be honest it’s a bit of a blur.”
“Exactly. You are in the welcome dome. All of your fears, worries and neuroses begin to fade away. None of that actually matters.”
“Ok, what next?”
“Well, we do a life review next. I’ll be passing you over to my colleague in ‘Debriefing and Placements’ for that, as I couldn’t give a damn either way. Based on how you feel it went, you then decide whether to go back again and who as, or you might want to stay around a bit longer and decompress first. Be careful about how much guilt you lug in there with you as you might just accidentally wish yourself into an even more ghastly existence next. Pretty funny how that works. Your choice ultimately, based on how you really feel about yourself Anyway, chop, chop let’s move you along, more new arrivals to get through.”
“But what…”
“Move along now please.”
What about aliens? Do they…?”
“Byeeee! See you in another hundred years of so.”
“What, how can you know…”
“Oops, I’ve said too much, tally-ho!”
‘POOOOOOF’. The Greeter disappears in a flash of light.
Come back Mr Cleese! What now? What happens next? Where am I? Which turn do I take?
Well, if this is the case it won’t seem too unfamiliar because it won’t be all that different from this life, so many unanswered questions, puzzles, and predicaments. Perhaps it’s all just one big game and the sooner we realise this, stop worrying and be kind to each other, the better.
Well, if this is the case it won’t seem too unfamiliar because it won’t be all that different from this life, so many unanswered questions, puzzles, and predicaments. Perhaps it’s all just one big game and the sooner we realise this, stop worrying and be kind to each other, the better.
What are your thoughts on the afterlife? I would love to hear them! Please share in the comments below or on my timeline at www.twitter.com/PrincessKaz_Dom
This fascinates me.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to meet those people and pets we so miss in a Utopia where they’re all in their prime as we remember them?
I’m not religious and I’m not therefore really a believer in an afterlife or in reincarnation but I’d certainly love to be proved wrong.
A lot of people believe they’ve lived previous lives and some claim to have memories of those lives. I’m sure we’ve all been somewhere we’ve never visited before and thought, “hang on I’ve been here before.” Is this proof of a previous life? Or is our consciousness able to leave the sleeping body and visit other places occasionally leaving memories that are triggered when the waking physical body visits those places?
Most likely as has been proven the mind is so open to suppositions that these memories are of places seen on tv or online and then triggered when visited.
Also people lived such hard, short lives in the past they needed to cling to a belief in an afterlife, ‘there must be something better than this,’ or “did I do something wrong previously to deserve this?”
G.