Death is absolutely safe. It is like taking off an old shoe.
~ Emmanuel channeled by Pat Rodegast
Every culture has its unique life after death beliefs. I want to explore them and see what evidence there is that any of them are true. Christian share this delusion with thousands of other religions. It is so common, you might even define religion as the delusion that humans do not and cannot die.
I have been totally unconscious several times under anaesthesia. I thus have no difficulty with the idea I would be totally unconscious in death too. This is also my preferred end. The idea of doing anything for eternity sounds like a hell to me.
Priests like to control people through guilt. In the middle ages the practice was most overt, the selling of indulgences. People could sin safely if they paid the priests a fee. The fear of hellfire kept people in line, even when there was no one to watch them. The fear of excommunication kept people in line when the priest was watching.
The evidence that there is a heaven/hell is that there are both extremely pleasant and extremely unpleasant near death experiences. They can be triggered at will using a large centrifuge. The key seems to be a lack of oxygen and an excess of nitrous oxide in the brain. The experiences all happened with an apparently inactive, but at least intact, brain. Many people, myself included, have had out of body experiences. It is certainly possible to have the sensation of living without a body, even if there was a functioning body sitting elsewhere. To anyone who has had such an experience, it is easy to entertain the possibility that life without a body is possible.
Eventually you rejoin your ancestors and take part in activities much the same as you did in life. You have the ability to intercede on the behalf of the living.
The evidence for this is that Haida people matter of factly talk about routinely seeing these ghosts. In their culture, there is nothing frightening about them. They are just people.
The period between incarnations is a terrifying time when you imagination projects all manner of frightening demons. The goal is to remain unafraid and select a new incarnation wisely. Tibetan Buddhists read from the Book of the Dead to instruct the departed on how to proceed.
The evidence for this are the many stories, mostly in India and Ceylon, of children born with inexplicable intimate knowledge of some dead person’s life. The other evidence is the way enlightened people suddenly remember all the details of past lives.
This myth seeks to explain why such terrible things happen to good people. They did dreadful things in a past life they cannot remember and they are receiving current punishment. The problem with this belief is it leads people to passively accept great evils like disease, hunger and violence.
It is conceivable, though unlikely, man will figure out some way to destroy all life on earth.
Even if a supernatural being does not judge you, as your life draws to a close, it is natural to judge yourself. In my own case, I accomplished nowhere near what I imagined I would and I have felt quite disappointed and ashamed. I don’t have much energy left for future projects. My advice would be, if you want to accomplish anything or do anything, get on with it right away. Age, disease and other infirmities sneak up on you so fast. The productive part of your life is over in the psychological twinkling of an eye. My eighth birthday seems like yesterday.
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