Afterlife....Do you believe?

[ZOOTB]

I had this in the "Lemonade Stand" and just realized it should be here. Didn't get a reply on this there so maybe people are afraid to discuss such a subect or just that it was in the wrong forum? Anyway, I would love to know if anyone here has had any strange experiences or your beliefs in the matter.

I think this would be an interesting subject as I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on this. Do you believe in the afterlife? Had any unusual experiences before? I never have, but I do believe there is more to just dying and being non-existent. The best book I ever read on this was "What Dreams May Come". If you saw the movie, there is no comparison. The movie was nothing like the book. I read the book first and was actually very disappointed when I saw the movie. Another good book is "Proud Spirit" by Rosemary Althea (a spiritual medium). I do believe that she has the ability to communicate but I don't buy into John Edwards. He is never direct enough. Anyway, thoughts anyone?

 

[Spiral_Staircase]

I do believe in an afterlife, but my views are based on what the Bible has to say on the matter. I don't believe that it's possible to communicate with someone who has died.

As far as unusual experiences go...I never used to think much of people who said they had some strange vision or saw a light during a near-death experience. I always chalked it up to some sort of biological event in the brain. Now I don't know what to think of it. A good friend of mine died of cancer this past summer, and as he was laying in bed at home, he realized he was close to death and called his whole family in. They talked for a while and then he went silent. Then, in his last moment just as he died, his face "brightened" (I don't know how else to put it) and he clearly said "unbelievable...unbelievable..." and then he was gone. I don't know what he saw, but maybe I'll find out someday.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Wow...Spiral, that is amazing what you said your friend experienced.


I have no idea if an afterlife exists, but I certainly hope it does.


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My scream got lost in a paper cup...

 

[IvanClaytonJnr]

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.. i don't know , i can only guess , i still found no evidence or proove of Afterlife , probably it goes with so much pain during death that ... Bible is like a good SCI/FI- philosophy book to me , i just can't believe in all those fairy-tales .. But who knows.... , who knows.... . It seems to me , people are just not that smart to answer or find a solution to this quest .
One thing is true , when one man is born , his death is born too , and we will know the secret at the end , i suggest we just wait ...and see what's going to happen ???!!!

 

[STING2]

YES, of course!

 

[bono-vox]

sometimes i do believe and sometimes I don't, somethings which do make me believe that there is some sort of life after death are these 2 stories


Story 1

- when i was about 3/4 i was in my bedromm playing and my dad was in the bathroom, he said i was talking to myself and it was strnage because i was asking questions and there was a pause like i was listening to another person-but he knew there wasnt anyone in the room with me because my mum was watching t.v. and nobody else was in the house, when he came in to ask me who i was talking with i said oh just my grandad but he doesnt have time to speak with you he said hes away to the pub! my dad was REALLLY white and shocked according to my mum because my grandad died when i was 8 months old and i never knew him and he always said Im off to the pub and my parents never talked about the pub infront of me so they are convinced i had spoken to him.


Story 2: One night my mum woke up and saw her uncle in the proch in our house, this was at 3 in the morning and she heard someone knocking the door...when she saw him she rushed down the stairs and opened it to let him in but she was really stunned cus nobody was there, that morning her mum phoned her and told her that her uncle had died at 3 in the morning..so i think that there may be an afterlife but sometimes its pretty hard to believe it....we'll just have to wait and see i suppose

*sorry for talking so much in this thread

*

 

[unforgettableFOXfire]

After skimming over what Ivan said, my opinion is as follows - Im a person who tends to hold to what I know, and not to believe what other people say about something until I can validate it for myself. Im not a greatly religious person by any means, do I think theres soemthing after death? Yes. Heaven? Who knows. Hell? Probably, but life is its own hell at times. There must be something, I try to assure myself of that, that my life is not simply a breif flicker only to be taken away as a universal spite against me. However, cant tell till it happens. I think there must be something. My personal theory is that life as we know it is simply a purgatory (for lack of better term) between non-existance and existance, and how well we fare as people in this willowisp of a world determines our placement elsewhere. But I have nothing to back that up, nothing by which to validate it. Just try and parallel it to a Valhalla sort of idea, what we do in this life we do in the next. I digress... people certainly dont want to hear my mindless mianderings about nothing of relevance...

 

[hotasahandbag]

hi, i have no scientifically or scripturally(i have no religious affiliation) defendable position. however, i have a strong sense that there is a spiritual world that includes those that have passed through ours. i am a nurse and did hopsice care for several years which solidified my belief. i witnessed many deaths and many of the patients saw and interacted with loved ones who had died. i could tell stories for days. i also have people that i trust close to me that "see" spitits-not in a cooky madame cleo kind of way. but just as a matter of their otherwise totally normal lives. so, in a totally objective sense i don't know, but in my soul, i know they're there. peace, lynn

 

[mad1]

Wow Bono-vox...u sayin that about u being 3 talkin with ur Grandaddy reminded me yeeeeeaars back when I was at school, I used to hang with this girl, Catherine, (whom might I add if all the boys here at Interference saw how she turned out in the now-life, u would all be fukin climbing over each other desperate to marry her!!!!!

.)......anyway, she and I had a night downstairs, like a sleepover thang, and she said when her little bro was born, he never got to see his granny as she died like before he was born and that later when he was 2 or 3, she paid him a 'ghostly' visit in his room...............being younger it used to send shivers up my spine........*ugggghhh* *shiver shiver*

I dunno, its hard to know, esp if U dont actually have experience,,,,some girls at our school used to mess round with the bible, sticking a key into the Revelations and askin questions, like Ouigy.....but that could be a power of the mind ting, ya know, has u convinced?

anyway, one ting which really spooked the shite outta me was this.........apparantly, after my dad died in hospital.......the night before the funeral, mum had such creepy feelings that he was in the room watchin her.....she said she felt so frozen on the spot and whispered 'Derek if ur there, go away, please go away'......she said she never turned round towards the door once..........
then on the mornin before the funeral a few hours away, while I was still in bed, (we had a cocker spaniel then called Lady) and mum was up early and just as she was leaving her bedroom, she said Lady was at the top of the stairs, like growling and barking a bit and appearing very 'unsure' of going downstairs, mum looked over the banister but there was no-one at our front door...so Lady was like this for around 5-10 mins, and her tellin me that literally shot shivers up my spine tinkin that there was a possibility my dad mighta visited the house and the dog sensed it, its hard to know, I dont know what to say....i find it quite haunting and creepy......spooky..I never saw my daddy in hospital before he died, Im glad I didnt cause he looked a mess, all jaundiced, etc from alcohol, so perhaps it was best not to have a last image of that............plus we used to have a caravan and he used to sleep down their when marriage was on rocks, and in the end the owner of the site took the caravan onto the beach and burnt it, without consulting us first to get anything outta it, because rent wasnt being paid, and mum and Granda went down and I still feel sad and 'Nanda discoving a charred wooden horse on a stick that he made for me.......

..........for a long time after I had so many nightmares of this site and how we all were there, and daddy lying sleepin on his own.........etc. really doing my head in.......so in the end mum and Rodney said best way to overcome and stop this was to visit and confront, did so, had a little cry and the site has changed so much, but havent had nightmares since..........

 

[mad1]

the other story is, my Granda took a stroke and was in hospital (Bono-vox, the Royal

) and mum visited a lot as her bro was in America,...........mum said one time days before he died she was alone with him and he just had his eyes closed, constantly........she kept sayin 'Dad open ur eyes, come on, open ur eyes'....but he was like saying 'No, Im too scared to' with a smile on his face..............................sometimes I relate that to one of the above Interferencers story, he mighta discovered something inside his journey to death and saw things, like bright lights or something, we will never know....................

*sigh*
but never have I experienced it.....

 

[Diamond The U2 Patriot]

I would encourage all those interested to read this non fiction book..
"At Peace In The Light"
By Dannion Brinkely.

You can check it out at the library or buy it in paperback.

Diamond

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"...The big guy is made of STEEL." - Bono as we stood together on stage at Boston #4, June 9th, 2001.

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[RavenStar]

I dont believe in afterlife, souls, god etc im not an athiest but my religion is a pretty athiest religion.

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Please,
Evil
Acts
Can
End

 

[Discoteque]

i do believe there is an afterlife based on what the Bible says (it actually spends more time telling us about hell than heaven, in order for us to listen up). I don't believe you can talk to the dead (the Bible warns against following in mystics and mediums), and I get very angry when I see stuff like that John Edward's show 'crossing over' because I think it's fooling people into believing in something that isn't true.

I have also heard stories about people who are dying/or have had near-death experiences, both good and bad...it's the 'bad' ones that are so frightening...people saying that they saw demons and fire and all sorts of other horrors. I would think that would be enough to make one believe in an afterlife and DO something about it in this life so they don't go THERE!!

 

[mug222]

Originally posted by Discoteque:
i do believe...what the Bible says

Originally posted by Discoteque:
I get very angry when I see stuff...fooling people into believing in something that isn't true.

Needless to say, as I find these to be completely contradictory statements, I believe it fundamentally unknowable to know what occurs after death. I hold infinitely more stock in science than religion, however, so I'm leaning towards nothing.

 

[Achtung Bubba]

Originally posted by RavenStar:
I dont believe in afterlife, souls, god etc im not an athiest but my religion is a pretty athiest religion.

Pardon me for asking, but how are you then not an atheist?

Originally posted by mug222:
Needless to say, as I find these to be completely contradictory statements, I believe it fundamentally unknowable to know what occurs after death. I hold infinitely more stock in science than religion, however, so I'm leaning towards nothing.

Thing is, science doesn't - and probably CAN'T - say anything about what happens to our consciousness when we die. As you say, the subject is fundamentally unknowable.

Sure, you can believe in no life after death, but I wouldn't say science is a very good reason to think so.


As for me, I do believe.

 

[Saracene]

I don't have any beliefs so I guess I'll have to find out as I go along... although sometimes I think that maybe we humans have an inflated sense of our own importance and some of us simply can't possibly imagine that our little flame of existance can be extinguished forever with nothing beyond it.

 

[Vorsprung]

No

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Vorsprung durch Technik

 

[Lemonboy]

I don?t believe but one can only hope!!

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"Master of sexual innuendo"

"PLEBA Mansion Bootler"

"Proud member of the U2 gender"

 

[Peaseblossom]

I know I've shared this somewhere else before, but my grandfather, who I was VERY close to died on my 13th birthday, just as I was cutting my cake. Because he was wasting away from cancer, I was not allowed to see him for more than two weeks before his death. I was also not allowed to go to the funeral, so I never really had closure. This was something that tormented me for almost 10 years. Last year, I had a dream that he came to get me and took me to our favorite beach, where we sat all day and talked about all the things he wanted to tell me about life, and love, and who he wanted me to be. It was all very real, I could hear the waves, and feel the sunlight on my face. Then it got very cold and dark, and I was with my grandfather while he was on his death bed. I sat with him while he was dying, and he told me not to be afraid, that he's always with me, and then he died. I woke up feeling more refreshed than I had in years. Now I smile when I talk about him, rather than break down crying. I really believe he came back to say goodbye to me.

 

[unforgettableFOXfire]

In a personal yet breif response to bubbas final statements... I agree, it is true that science cannot currently prove there is no life after death, and I agree that just because science doesnt think so isnt a very good reason to believe that once you die there is nothing. However, to that same tone, just because religious writings say there is life after death doesnt necessarily make that true either since there is nothing to substantiate it. It just depends on what you choose to believe. People choosing to believe there is nothing, may not necessarily be doing so strictly because of science, and people believing that there is may not be doing so strictly because of religion. Theres always going to be give or take in these conversations for anyone who isnt devout to religion, or 125% faithful to science - which is waht makes it so much fun

And now a round of applause for me, for being so adept at pointing out the obvious in my last sentance. LOL...

 

[RavenStar]

Achting bubba, I am an atheist in ways because of my disbelief in god, souls, etc but I am part of an organised religion. Most people in my religion are atheists in that way.


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Please,
Evil
Acts
Can
End

[This message has been edited by RavenStar (edited 02-10-2002).]

 

[mug222]

Originally posted by Achtung Bubba:
Thing is, science doesn't - and probably CAN'T - say anything about what happens to our consciousness when we die. As you say, the subject is fundamentally unknowable.

Sure, you can believe in no life after death, but I wouldn't say science is a very good reason to think so.

It's true, actually, and that's why I hold no strong convictions on this matter.

Science does answer the question, however, by saying that there is no difference between conscious and brain. Whether this is true or not is impossible to know. By the lack of an alternative feasible in my eyes, however, I'll take this viewpoint.


[This message has been edited by mug222 (edited 02-10-2002).]

 

[U2Bama]

As brettig would say:

It's atheist...

 

[RavenStar]

Originally posted by U2Bama:
As brettig would say:

It's atheist...

whatever


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Please,
Evil
Acts
Can
End