Do you think there is NO afterlife?
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I do not believe in an afterlife, I used to hope for it to be true, I didn’t like the idea of my existence ending with my death. But not anymore.
Not believing in an afterlife used to make my life feels more precious to me indeed. It made me wanna live longer and enjoy life to the fullest. However, once my depression kicked-in couple of years back, thinking about it now, I find it rather comforting to just cease to exist.
Not believing in an afterlife used to make my life feels more precious to me indeed. It made me wanna live longer and enjoy life to the fullest. However, once my depression kicked-in couple of years back, thinking about it now, I find it rather comforting to just cease to exist.
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I know this story seemingly has nothing to do with the afterlife, but it has somewhat shaped my view on it.
I went to the creative writing society of my university last year and, shit, it stirred up some anxiety. The vast majority of the people there were talented, creative writing or english lit students, so they made my silly attempts at writing completely pale in comparison, and most of them seemed to know each other. I only had the courage to read out my work after one of the exercises, and the group's reaction was pretty much just "Mm, okay". I was riddled with anxiety the whole way through, regretting even showing up, and just wanted the thing to end. Needless to say, when I got out, I immediately grabbed for my cigarettes.
As I was smoking, I got really ill. Like... really ill and dizzy. My blood pressure, my anxiety, the cigarette... idk what caused it, probably a mix of all three. I just sat down on a bench on campus, in front of the store. Sat there for like half an hour and only got worse. Eventually, I thought I might be having a heart attack or a stroke or something. My mind and my thoughts were just fading away into nothingness. I thought I'd just slump down off my bench, and become a story in the next student newsletter about a student dying on campus. But nothing really happened, I just sort of recovered from it.
Anyway, not a literal near death experience but, that kinda made me feel like that's what death might be like. You just stop functioning, like a broken computer. At the same time, I've had other experiences, like remaining "lucid" while technically entirely unconscious with my eyes closed while I was a small child. So I don't really know. But I don't think I really believe in an afterlife anymore.
To be honest, I don't know if I'd even be comforted by one existing. Eternal life scares the hell (no pun intended) out of me, just as much as ceasing to exist. Reincarnation would be the only thing I'd be somewhat happy with, but even that is leaving behind everything you are in your current life to enter the next.
I went to the creative writing society of my university last year and, shit, it stirred up some anxiety. The vast majority of the people there were talented, creative writing or english lit students, so they made my silly attempts at writing completely pale in comparison, and most of them seemed to know each other. I only had the courage to read out my work after one of the exercises, and the group's reaction was pretty much just "Mm, okay". I was riddled with anxiety the whole way through, regretting even showing up, and just wanted the thing to end. Needless to say, when I got out, I immediately grabbed for my cigarettes.
As I was smoking, I got really ill. Like... really ill and dizzy. My blood pressure, my anxiety, the cigarette... idk what caused it, probably a mix of all three. I just sat down on a bench on campus, in front of the store. Sat there for like half an hour and only got worse. Eventually, I thought I might be having a heart attack or a stroke or something. My mind and my thoughts were just fading away into nothingness. I thought I'd just slump down off my bench, and become a story in the next student newsletter about a student dying on campus. But nothing really happened, I just sort of recovered from it.
Anyway, not a literal near death experience but, that kinda made me feel like that's what death might be like. You just stop functioning, like a broken computer. At the same time, I've had other experiences, like remaining "lucid" while technically entirely unconscious with my eyes closed while I was a small child. So I don't really know. But I don't think I really believe in an afterlife anymore.
To be honest, I don't know if I'd even be comforted by one existing. Eternal life scares the hell (no pun intended) out of me, just as much as ceasing to exist. Reincarnation would be the only thing I'd be somewhat happy with, but even that is leaving behind everything you are in your current life to enter the next.
I was dead for four hours when I was a baby because I had open heart surgery. That was how they did it at the time, they had to stop the heart. Sometimes I try to remember what happened to me during those four hours, but I don't think I'll ever know. It is like one big blank wall in my mind, even though I remember things as early as two, but I don't remember anything before those few memories that I had when I was two. And I remember my scar was really red for a very long time after that, but that's it, and sometimes I get weird things right that I'm not supposed to, like I started reading at an early age and I have diagnosed a few people with medical conditions that I wasn't supposed to know about, although they were just hunches, but still it happened more than once but I don't really know what happens after we die. I have read tons of books on the paranormal and Heaven.
I believe that the law of life is love and evolution. The Universal law of Karma or cause and effect decrees that everything has to return to its source, so it can be reborn into a different life experience that moves us - if only a little bit - forwards and upwards on the evolutionary spiral of life, i.e. reincarnation. Without this there would be no evolution.
I believe it's only our physical body that returns to Mother Earth and merges with her. The essence of our being is spirit and soul and they move on to the spirit realm, their true home, for rest and recuperation - until we are ready and feel strong enough to tackle another lifetime on the Earth. This cycle continues until our earthly education is complete and we are allowed to move on to lessons of a more elevated nature. That's the way I perceive it.
Even if the whole of the material aspect of the whole of Creation should one day disappear, the life of the spirit - the essence within in - is eternal and will never cease to exist. I believe it's quite on the cards that this could happen and maybe happened many times before, so that a fresh start could be made. Who knows?
I believe and hope that there is no afterlife. If there is an afterlife, I don't see any reason to believe that it would be eternal bliss in any case. Unless you somehow had an 'afterlife brain' that was only capable of experiencing absolute bliss, eternal life would always end up becoming eternal torture as you'd eventually experience everything that there was to experience and be bored out of your mind.
You can't really do any better than non-existence in any case, because when you don't exist there aren't any needs which need to be satisfied. So whilst you aren't experiencing bliss, neither are you feeling deprived of it.
I'm certainly not a nihilist, because I think that suffering is important and I'm ethically opposed to the creation of sentient life on that basis.
You can't really do any better than non-existence in any case, because when you don't exist there aren't any needs which need to be satisfied. So whilst you aren't experiencing bliss, neither are you feeling deprived of it.
I'm certainly not a nihilist, because I think that suffering is important and I'm ethically opposed to the creation of sentient life on that basis.
I think there is an afterlife but.. what baffles me is that people who've died and come back all have conflicting experiences :confused:
I believe there's an afterlife though because of strange experiences where I've felt the presence of invisible beings around me and from hearing other's 'paranormal' experiences.
I believe there's an afterlife though because of strange experiences where I've felt the presence of invisible beings around me and from hearing other's 'paranormal' experiences.
From what I've read, those who don't want to live an eternity choose to reincarnate and live another life. That would also advance them spiritually. However, many love the afterlife and never get bored even for an eternity. I am probably the later. I would rather stay in paradise than live another life. Someone who had an NDE (near death experience) said, "It's hard down there." (Earth.) She is right; it is.
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