Do You Believe In The Afterlife?

[Little Bird]

As a Buddhist, I believe in reincarnation and enlightenment into nirvana.

As there has been a discussion in another thread about musicians 'dieing too soon' it got me thinking about what others here believe about the afterlife and maybe even thoughts on death in general.

I know this may seem morbid but I believe death is a fact of life and must be embraced when it comes and not to be feared. But I know not everyone thinks like this so I was hoping to find out how JKF members feel on these subjects.

[Veilingmeat]

I'v always had mixed thought's on this kinda subject! its never just a straight yay or nay with me on this!?
This book i once read (cant remember who wrote it?) was all about the Deja-Vu theory...as well as about Death and the Afterlife etc..it explained all about why we have these so called deja-vu's, and the reason was best described, that we as humans have already lived another life! and the feelings we have of thinking we've done something similar before was a thought of another life that has already passed away...years maybe centries ago??? and the afterlife is just a quest within death, of finding out of who we really wanted to become in life, finding this new soul and becoming it or even failing..yada yada...!
I could explain it so more better if i had the damn book, let alone if i could remember the bloomin name and author :P its an amazing book to read...and at the same time makes you think. It certainly questioned my thoughts!
Despite the fact i'v also loved ye old ancient thoughts on it too..i.e; The Egyptians, Ancient Greek and especialy the Roman's theres has been used in so many films over the ages......like crossing the river Styx, paying a toll to the ferryman...which was seen as the relationship between god and man, acknowledging your debt to the gods and their protection and guidance to you, and of course the 3-headed watchdog Cerberus...amazing stuff.
Of course theres those old philosophical sayings "Death is certain..Life is not"........You know what...!? we'll only know when we get there i say ;)

[kjm030584]

afterlife... sounds sexy!

Well I don't have too mixed of feelings about this. First of all I don't believe in all that, "if your good you go to heaven and if not hell" stuff. I believe in life energy, the first rule is that to energize something we need to take energy from something else, which all goes back to the sun, but that's a long story. So when we die what happens to our energy? I believe that our energy simply runs out when we live to an old age and die of natural causes. But what about people whose lives are cut short? I think that sometimes their energy is just left, bodiless, but I wouldn't call these ghosts because they're just energy forces, they can't move around but they can definitely cause people who pass through these enrgy fields to feel some kind of emotional reaction. I believe that the more open a mind is the more susceptible it is for these energy fields to come into effect and drive people to do things that they wouldn't generally do.

anyway.. that's just my theory.

[Eibhlin]

i believe in life after death and what the Bible has to say, however heaven isnt based on good works but on the acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross

and no, i dont plan to enter into any arguments about it either :rolleyes:

[kjm030584]

*bites tongue* :P

Actually I admire people who can think like that.

[WhatWouldJewelDo]

i beleive that all my friends and i will go to heaven and all the people we hate go to hell :D



just kidding. but seriously.




****NOTE****** Kiera, you need to make a new smilie holding up a sign that says "Just Kidding!"

[Eibhlin]

:rolleyes: and since Bobby uses the phrase most, we can call it the Bobby smiley :D

[Little Bird]

Originally posted by WhatWouldJewelDo@Sep 17 2005, 04:36 AM
i beleive that all my friends and i will go to heaven and all the people we hate go to hell :D



just kidding. but seriously.




****NOTE****** Kiera, you need to make a new smilie holding up a sign that says "Just Kidding!"

I love where this conversation is going. It is great to see such diverse ideas on this subject and the respect for different beliefs.

Marc, I know that book that you are talking about. Funnily enough, it is similar (but not the same) as my idea of d?ja vu. Would love to talk more about that actually.

And Bobby...just for you! :jkid:

[Veilingmeat]

I guess the d?ja vu thing is a kinda hard subject to talk about...being it just random or lost thoughts in our mind, or something spiritual/supernatural maybe!?

A certain place can look so familiar, although you may never have been there before...(only within another body perhaps?)we've all had those, and its probably the most common amongst us i'd say. The way we try to pick and search our minds for some kind of progeny perhaps!!! or as to some kind of vision of ourselfs being there or doing something there before, but void of any answer!

[Eibhlin]

i think deja vu would fall more into the category of having had a premonition of things
ex.
several years ago, when i had enlisted in the Army, before i went away to b.c. i had this very strange and detailed dream about these different buildings, i saw all the details of the rooms and halls etc, though in the dream there were no people in the buildings, and i was like, what the heck was that about?
then when i was sent down to Fort Jackson and was going through all the medical exams etc, i noticed that every detail of the building was exactly like it was in my dream, right down to the way the sun was coming inthrough the windows, so as i was waiting in line for the eye exams i asked the person in front of me to look in the room we were about to enter and see if there was a black banner with a red diagram/graph on it and described what would look like, and sure enough it was exactly as i had described. she asked how i knew, since i had never seen it and i told her i had had a dream about it.
that sort of thing used to happen alot, i would dream about conversations with people etc, and then not long after the things would happen
so that's what i think of as deja vu
oh, and i ended up getting out of the army before boot camo due to medical reasons

[kjm030584]

A certain place can look so familiar, although you may never have been there before...(only within another body perhaps?)we've all had those, and its probably the most common amongst us i'd say.

Assuming that statistics from my psychology class 2 years ago about this are still relevant.. that is what most people associate as being d?ja vu. Actually what causes that, is your brain rapidly turning sensory impulses into longterm memory. Pretty much this means you recognize it as you see it; not you recognize it before you see it. I don't think that d?ja vu refers to dreams you have and years later actually experiencing them like in Andrea's case. Maybe she's a witch.. who knows! :muhaha: That's explained like this: after the actual experience thinking that you remember it as though it actually happened to you before but it's a hazy memory pretty much like the memory of a dream. The human mind is a really cool thing I think everybody should take a class about it.


Fascinating!!! :shock:

[Little Bird]

Not to get too bogged down on another subject but I don't see time as linear as such. More cyclic and I do feel that d?ja v? plays a part in past as well as future lives. I feel in some way that it is my future self, sending some sort of message back to a past life. I can't explain it properly and it runs deeper than this. You may all think I am nuts too but I have had very significant experiences similar to Andrea and in the future, almost remembering telling my younger self these messages. This works also with past & future lives, not just the same existence.

[kjm030584]

You may all think I am nuts too

hey, i didn't say anything... *good place for potato smilie*