Folks, you couldn't be more wrong. (And this is not coming from a religious fanatic - lord knows, I havn't been to church in years). For arguments sake, I will assume that you agree with the statement "I think therefore I am (I exist)" For practical purposes outside the world of academic debate, three clinical tests commonly determine brain death. First, a standard electroencephalogram, or EEG, measures brain-wave activity. A "flat" EEG denotes nonfunction of the cerebral cortex - the outer shell of the cerebrum. Second, auditory evoked potentials, similar to those [clicks] elicited by the ear speakers in brain surgery, measure brain-stem viability. Absence of these potentials indicates nonfunction of the brain stem. And third, documentation of no blood flow to the brain is a marker for a generalized absence of brain function. The link below is a summary of an article published in a peer-review medical journal of an NDE in which the subject satified the three clinical tests for brain death and yet, continued to think, observe, remember (she continued to exist) http://www.near-death.com/reynolds.html If you firmly believe that death is final then objective evidence probably won't budge you. But, I'll bet you a pint of Guinness, that as you exhale your final breath, your going to have one hell of an epiphany. Believe def.: to be convinced of something with out proof. to have faith. P.S. rent the video "Contact" for a better analogy
Near Death experiences!! Yes your brain may function for awhile after you've died, however it will not last, once the light goes out, once the sensation stops. YOUR DEAD!!. This is why it's called death! it's finito. Your consciousness, and subconsciousness will seise to function, you will not feel, will not hear, will not see anything!. There's no other dimension, you plainly seist to exist!. Non-existence!. It is the fear of death in which the church thrives, false promises of a heaven, crap!!. To live in other dimension of bliss? common! The Egiptians thought the same, that's why they were mommified, with all there treasure and servents. So they can have all their belonging in the afterlife. See the idea of life-after death is not of judeo christian origin it's actually borrowed by other religious cults of their time.
No, no, no, no!!!!!! You do not read very well what I write to you. We materialize our own projections.The reality of , for instance a tree, is the way you look at it. You look at the same tree I do, but in a different way, your reality. Everything is Energy, even in a stone is Energy, I do not know how to explain. So people 'make' themselves, from astral/cosmic energy, you get what I mean, please? If you think very hard you have to come to the conclusion, this has to lead anywhere, this being on Earth. So dying is part of the process, you just lay off your human body because it is over with that body. It has to go, back to 'star'dust, where it came from. In your Earth bound body, there is a 'soul', for I prefer Deeper Self. That is always with you, in every lifetime. Scientists have proven that the body weighs 68 grams lighter, if some one is out of his/her body. When the person's Deeper Self, what was gone out of the body to travel, came back in the Earth bound body, the person had his 68 grams back, strange, isn't it. It can make you think. An out of your body experience is not so unusual as most of you think. More and more people have the ability to do so, they don't tell so much, because people always have their judgements. It is hard to live like this if most of the people are so cruel and hostile towards one another. It should be better if people listened a little harder and fighted a little less, a whole lot less. Near death experiences come close to out of body experiences. They seem to enter the same dimension, in another way. Person's with near death experiences see the people they expect , like jesus, or family members, just in what the person believes, for it's the reality of this person that counts here. I don't know what to write now any more, if I read it back it is a mess. I let it be here, maybe you do understand what I mean, if not, say so. Don't be rude, please. Thank you. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But I know your life doesn't stop when your body does....
While I find this subject rather fascinating and would be delighted to know the true answer, I do not believe it is available to us right now. We can only speculate, and observe the viewpoints of several spiritual systems, and draw our conclusions from there. It has recently occurred to me that it might not be meant for us to know life after life or death. After all, is not the purpose of life to live? While you are unable to serve men, how can you serve spirits of the dead?... While you do not know life, how can you know about death? Confucius
"Scientists have proven that the body weighs 68 grams lighter, if some one is out of his/her body. " I've heard this claim time and again but no one has ever at any point produced any peer reviewed studies to this effect. Your life, you, by definition, stops when your body dies.
You live too far away. Come over here, then you can weigh me and make it a scientifical proof. That is what you scientists want isn't it? Pity, no one works along with them. Poor scientists. All they have is nothing, only words..... Let it be that way, no guinea pigs!!! or what do you call it in english.
Here is some interesting speculations for those who have faith. The new theory on brain suggests that brain works on a quantum computing lvel when the answers are needed that is too complex for normal neural computing. Now recent IBM research indicates that signals can be generated at a quantum lvel without wires at the atomic level (reported elsewhere in the forum). Another DOD research is working on a quantum communication and encryption. Adding all these developments (admittedly a long stretch...) it may be possible for the conscious to pass from physical body to a quantum state into a subatomic layer of existence. I think we will know a little more in about 5 to 10 years when we have a better understanding of the quantum world. Until then, keep the faith....
It seems to be an individual basic decision, whether afterlife is feasible for you or not. If it is not feasible you, like for Godless, you will stick to a purely materialistic view, which is still respectable and there is no way to argue against it. On the other hand, when afterlife is feasible for you, like for Banshee and for me, you are not restricted to irrational beliefs, but you can develop your view in a rational manner quite a lot. During the last 100 years our capability for imagination has gained quite a lot. E.g. in Easting religions the cycle of reincarnations are regarded as pain aiming to overcome it, which corresponds to the limited horizon thousands of years ago. Today with the knowledge of the universe and of the evolution, we can imagine an endless development of the individual souls, where reincarnation on earth could be a great chance for. As explained in more detail on my website I can see the total world scenarios as a combination of three processes - recycling of matter - biological evolution and an endless individual development. I would be interested to learn about other imaginable scenarios, which are finally more satisfying.
This is why the sci forums are so ok. Everybody can say what they think is good, from their point of view. That is the way it has to be. So many people, so many different meanings. It is easy to say for me that I am certain of reincarnation. But who am I to say so to other people. Why should they believe me? This is such a difficult item, I do know what I myself have experienced. There for I can't speak for any one else. I can only say, that I hope people know they don't have to be afraid of dying. It is a normal process, just like in Nature, a circle of life after life......... You learn, in every life, you learn and you grow to more wisdom and more knowing of why it is we are here....... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
"Even if you have no belief in the soul the ultimate outcome of existence is to return to the universe. We bury our dead or scatter the ashes of a loved on and attatch a loci to their being. But when you look at the big,big , big picture, once our sun goes nova all end up scattered into the universal stuff once again. Return from whence we came. Even our physical being becomes as one with the big U, so eventually we're stardust. Which is why I'm gonna be creamated (ease the transistion)". sorry man... our sun is too small to go nova... it will however consume the earth in its red giant phase...
From your death there can be life, true. Just you have to work out what incarnation you would like to be: would you like to help increase the worm's geneload through being buried, become a preportion to the make up of lichen and the humble fly. Mold is another important one, you should know now why it tends to appear on anything damp. If your cremated then you could be sprinkled around a tree and help increase the nutrients within the soil. A sea burial will mean the fish and plancton will have something to nibble. If you leave your body to science, your appendix could have a new life in a pickling jar in some college, or your body could be left outside in a forest as apart of a forensics test to see how your body disentigrates over time. Sorry about that I could resist carry that out until the end... or should I say.. the beginning? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The post I wrote previously Banshee was just explaining my understanding of "Life after death" or life after life if people don't like to say they are dead. Of course people can continue believing what ever they want, I was just being a bit cold as it was getting late at night and my body was telling me to sleep. Anyway it's a well known fact that Energy never truly is excerted it just changes form.
There you are right. Energy changes its form all the time. You are energy yourself. In fact you are materialized energy. All living thigs, all you can see, hear or taste or whatever. It is all just energy materialized into what you see. You understand what I mean?? My english is not that good with subjects like these, I am sorry. So it is not a very good moment to write about this now, with all that dead people in New York. In fact everybody goes back to the place we all belong, where we 'live' where our home-front is, our real home-front. We always go back there after laying of your Earth-bound body. When you are done with that body here on Earth, you lay it off and your Deeper Self is going back to there where we all come from, the Cosmos. I don't have more time now. You want to know more?? Let me know, I will try to explain, but I make mistakes like any other..... And I am not, really not, all knowing. Like a member of the forums seems to thinkPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Random thoughts on life after life and memory: Is your memory physically encoded in your brain? Is it embodied in a hypothetical soul? Perhaps both? It seems to me that if your memory is part of your physical body, then it ceases to exist when your body breaks down. If it is embodied only in a soul, then how does the physical manipulation of a brain affect memory? If both, then why? And what mechanism synchronises the two?
My theory is that the brain maintains a separate energy matrix (soul) with a quantum connection so that there is no physical connection. When your body dies, the soul still continues onward with all the memory of the quantum connected host. It is like a store computer whose information is backed up constantly to the corporate computer. You can turn off the store computer the next morning, the previous days detail transactions still can be found at the main computer memory. In a lot of religions, they talk about the soul. In Hinduism, they talk about soul (atma) that can not be destroyed and "akashic records" that are records of detail transactions of all happenings in time and space. Just a thought....
Yes Kmguru is right. Your Deeper Self (or soul if you prefer) always remembers all the lives you have lived. It is with you always. When you die, you lay off your Earth-bound body and your Deeper Self goes to the home front, Bardo as the Tibetans call the home front, we all go back to when we pass over from this world to our home Dimension. Then you have to deal with your Carma, but I do not know how this works exactly. There is no such place like hell, it simply doesn't exist. All that exists is the Cosmos and we are all just energy from the Cosmos who learn how to live our lives on Earth, learn that it is not the material things what matter, but other, much more important 'things'... And that is what is important for your Deeper Self, the knowing how to live your life well.
