Life beyond the grave (and life beyond that...)

[Dunemeister]

What lies beyond the grave? Anything, or are we just food for worms? If there's more, do the dead have some sort of consciousness, or are they, as the admittedly poor metaphor goes, simply a drop in the ocean with no sense of identity apart from the whole?

If the dead continue to exist in some form, what are they up to right now? Can we who are still embodied have any sort of communication with the dead? How does that go?

What sorts of practices are appropriate with respect to the dead? Can/should we pray to them? For them? With them? Can/Should we honor them somehow with some sort of ceremony on the anniversary of their death? Or what?

Answers welcome from all and sundry regardless of theological point of view.

 

[whereismynotecard]

I don't think there is anything after death, but I try not to talk to my mom about it. She would be pretty sad to think that she doesn't get to see my dad again. From how she's been talking, I don't know if she really believes in god and stuff or if she just wants to. I don't think I should ask her. It might make her sad. I forgot what I was going to say. The first part though, that's what I think.

 

[Dunemeister]

I don't think there is anything after death, but I try not to talk to my mom about it. She would be pretty sad to think that she doesn't get to see my dad again. From how she's been talking, I don't know if she really believes in god and stuff or if she just wants to. I don't think I should ask her. It might make her sad. I forgot what I was going to say. The first part though, that's what I think.

Thanks. What about the other questions, especially the one about appropriate practices? Is it appropriate or just silly to commemorate the dead, and if you make some sort of commemoration, what form does it take?

 

[whereismynotecard]

Well, my dad died on saturday, and we had a funeral for him. it kind of made me sad, like it was sort of drawn out, but if you just said, "okay, he's dead; let's bury him and be done with it," it kind of would feel like we didn't care about him, like we are letting him go too easily.

At the start I would have prefered to just forget about it and not have a funeral, but of course I think it's good that we had a funeral, because then everyone who knew him could come and sort of say goodbye. The funeral wasn't for me though, it was for him, and all of his family and friends. That's why when the pastor talked about god and stuff, I wasn't offended, because most of my family is pretty religious, and it makes them all feel better.

I think that there should be funerals or some sort of good bye ritual, because right at first when someone dies you are still in shock, and it helps you realize that they really are dead.

 

[Charity]

What lies beyond the grave? Anything, or are we just food for worms? If there's more, do the dead have some sort of consciousness, or are they, as the admittedly poor metaphor goes, simply a drop in the ocean with no sense of identity apart from the whole?

If the dead continue to exist in some form, what are they up to right now? Can we who are still embodied have any sort of communication with the dead? How does that go?

What sorts of practices are appropriate with respect to the dead? Can/should we pray to them? For them? With them? Can/Should we honor them somehow with some sort of ceremony on the anniversary of their death? Or what?

Answers welcome from all and sundry regardless of theological point of view.

I guess the question of what lies beyond the grave would have a different meaning for each person, depending on how you believe. I believe there will be eternal life for the child of God. I believe this earthly body as I know it will decay, but that my spirit will live on. As to where it will be I don't know. I believe there is a place for the believer to wait until Judgement. I base this on Jesus saying to the thief on the cross that "thou will be with me this day in paradise"
As far as communication with the dead, and where the spirit remains after death I do not wish to speculate. There has been documentation of people who are about to die who have called out to or appear to be speaking to someone who they knew that is now dead. I have witnessed this while I worked in the medical field. I have often wondered if they come back to lead someone across to the other side.
When someone passes away, I don't think you ever forget the date of their death, but, I would rather celebrate their life and what it meant to me than to be concerned about the date of death. My belief is, when you die that is the end as we know it in this life. After death comes judgment.

 

[Dunemeister]

Charity, for interest's sake, do you identify yourself as Christian? What tradition (if any) do you fall under if so?

 

[sandandfoam]

What lies beyond the grave? Anything, or are we just food for worms? If there's more, do the dead have some sort of consciousness, or are they, as the admittedly poor metaphor goes, simply a drop in the ocean with no sense of identity apart from the whole?

I don't know what we are. But the point is we are. I cannot conceive that we can be anything else. I don't think consciousness is a physical thing, it exists before and after our bodies, I think physicality lives and dies, consciousness just is. I think we are part of the whole, yet distinct from it. An individual unit of consciousness if you will.

If the dead continue to exist in some form, what are they up to right now? Can we who are still embodied have any sort of communication with the dead? How does that go?

Others i.e the living, are just objects of my mind, people are to me, not as they are in themselves, but as they are to me. So it is with my dead, they are in my awareness.

What sorts of practices are appropriate with respect to the dead? Can/should we pray to them? For them? With them? Can/Should we honor them somehow with some sort of ceremony on the anniversary of their death? Or what?

I talk to my dead, I think of them regularly, we often meet in my mind. I think ceremony can be appropriate, it depends on the person. For example my Aunt was a very devout Catholic, although not Catholic myself and even though I disagree with the Catholic church about many things, I think it is appropriate to get e priest to say Mass for he.

 

[zenzero]

Friend Dunemiester,
The Dead has been been dead and buried.
That

 

[UnityNow101]

Your personality that you believe will be carried into the next life is nothing but the conditioning placed upon you from childhood to adulthood and does not exist in and of itself. So you may live on, but why would the personality, which was nothing but a mirage? It seems real to you at the moment and you are so caught up in yourself that you believe that YOU must pass on to a better life after death. This YOU is nothing but someone else's conditioning of the real you, which everyone seems to discard rather quickly. What is the real you? I have no clue. I wish that I knew the real me. If I did know, I may be the next multi-million dollar self-help guru.

 

[Darkwater]

The grave yard is just a state of mind.

There is no help,only self help.....combine & unify with your oversoul for greater understanding & perpective.
What are you?what is human?
Where are you from?
Where are you going too?
why are you going there?
How are you getting there?

know thyself,understand yourself,master yourself(and your destiny)

On as many dimensions as you can.It is ALL you.

 

[Dunemeister]

The grave yard is just a state of mind.

There is no help,only self help.....combine & unify with your oversoul for greater understanding & perpective.
What are you?what is human?
Where are you from?
Where are you going too?
why are you going there?
How are you getting there?

know thyself,understand yourself,master yourself(and your destiny)

On as many dimensions as you can.It is ALL you.

I'm not sure I understand your response. Do we continue to exist after death or not? If so, is there any interaction between the dead and the living? After we've died, is there anything to look forward to?

 

[Storm]

What lies beyond the grave? Anything, or are we just food for worms? If there's more, do the dead have some sort of consciousness, or are they, as the admittedly poor metaphor goes, simply a drop in the ocean with no sense of identity apart from the whole?

I believe that there is a divine and immortal seed of consciousness (rhys). However, the personality is intimately tied into the brain and cannot survive its death.

If the dead continue to exist in some form, what are they up to right now?

I believe in reincarnation, but also a period of rest and reflection for the rhys.

Can we who are still embodied have any sort of communication with the dead? How does that go?

It may be possible to contact the rhys, as other spirits, during its time of rest. As to how, your guess is a good as mine.

What sorts of practices are appropriate with respect to the dead? Can/should we pray to them? For them? With them? Can/Should we honor them somehow with some sort of ceremony on the anniversary of their death? Or what?

Any practices regarding the dead would, like funerals, be more for the benefit of the living. I don't believe in prayer, but if it works for you, go for it.

 

[idea]

Everything is eternal, changing from one state to another, but eternal. Laws of thermodynamics - conservation principles. You don't get something from nothing, and you can't make something into nothing. intelligence, conscious, spirit - whatever you want to call it - exists after we die and existed before we were born. A different form, eternally existent. There is a difference between being “eternal” and “eternally alive” though. To be alive, you have to grow from within – plant vs. rock – plants are alive because they grow. Once you stop growing, you stop living and start dieing. To be eternally “alive” you have to eternally progress.

 

[Charity]

Charity, for interest's sake, do you identify yourself as Christian? What tradition (if any) do you fall under if so?

Yes I identify as a Christian.....why do you ask, let's hear your description. What do you mean what tradition? and what is strange about it? You ask for life beyond the grave, how could anyone know whether anyone is right or not? The only way to know is to experience death, otherwise it is just speculation based on interpretation of the scripture.
Because you have different thoughts or ideas does that make you more Chirstian than me? I have always been a fundamentalist in my beliefs and have always said so, so take my post and let's tear it apart and see where we disagree, either I haven't made my self clear in my post or you have misunderstood something. I would like to know what prompted you to ask me such a question, don't you believe in eternal life for the Christian? I would like to find out your thoughts on life and beyond.

 

[blackout]

I am here to cast a design of self,
with the aid of the tools this physical realm has to offer.

It is very important to me
that I use whatever precious time I have left
to reach deep into the things I love most
to be-come the most beautiful and wondrous me yet.
To collect magical symbolisms, trinkets of meaning,
all VERY VERY personal, to who I am.

To take active steps in my dreaming,
erase, and re-cast myself
as I WANT to be, in the awareness of my eternal state.

Music & Magic,
Love, Laughter & Friendship,
and so many personal symbolisms of meaning
I will find there on the other side.
Because that is what I have lived out here,
in this "state".

For really, 'this side' and 'the other' are only constructs of the ONE anyway.

I am Purple and I Sparkle,
it has always been so,
and it will always be so,
as it is so, in eternity.
(Which is exactly where I live right now anyway)

~UltraViolet~

 

[Vasilisa Jade]

What lies beyond the grave? Anything, or are we just food for worms?

Of course not. I do not believe in heaven and hell, or eternal seperation from anyone. I believe there are varying and unimaginably vast planes of existance. There are slightly less, but still physical planes similar to this one, and as it advances they become less and less physical.

If there's more, do the dead have some sort of consciousness, or are they, as the admittedly poor metaphor goes, simply a drop in the ocean with no sense of identity apart from the whole?

I believe your soul or spirit or whatever, has had many many experiences and has much more knowledge than what we realize in such a physical existance here. --->The explanation for "platonic knowledge." When you die and a level of this physical-ness falls away you become more in tune with this part of you (if you don't somehow do it while you're here) and your conciousness become fuller and greater than it is now.

If the dead continue to exist in some form, what are they up to right now?

They are swimming and doing front flips down waterfalls. Hiking mountains. Playing with animals. Fighting wars. Learning and exploring. Etc.

Can we who are still embodied have any sort of communication with the dead? How does that go?

That I dunno.

What sorts of practices are appropriate with respect to the dead? Can/should we pray to them? For them? With them? Can/Should we honor them somehow with some sort of ceremony on the anniversary of their death? Or what?

As far as respect goes... I wouldn't pee on thier grave... ya know.

Everything else, I can't see what could be wrong with it.

 

[Aristilus]

The dead have been ritually cremated and buried since at least the late stone age. If it helped them to come to terms with the passing of a loved one, then why not us. I personally believe in some sort of afterlife. Definately not in a physical sense, but spiritually in some shape or form. As to living again, i hope so as i have a lot of things i still want to do.

 

[Darkwater]

Dunemaster,

through our connection to source energy we are connected to all things,everything is in *the current*,just resonating at different levels.

seek within,know thyself...I have some excersises I would be happy to share if you have blockages in identifying your self?

It would all be you...seek within,as it is within so it is without.

You looking for an enlightened guide?lulz.

In love

Andy

 

[Dunemeister]

Yes I identify as a Christian.....why do you ask, let's hear your description. What do you mean what tradition? and what is strange about it? You ask for life beyond the grave, how could anyone know whether anyone is right or not? The only way to know is to experience death, otherwise it is just speculation based on interpretation of the scripture.
Because you have different thoughts or ideas does that make you more Chirstian than me? I have always been a fundamentalist in my beliefs and have always said so, so take my post and let's tear it apart and see where we disagree, either I haven't made my self clear in my post or you have misunderstood something. I would like to know what prompted you to ask me such a question, don't you believe in eternal life for the Christian? I would like to find out your thoughts on life and beyond.

Forgive me, Charity. I didn't intend to challenge your beliefs or question your Christian credentials. I don't think your beliefs are strange. I was asking as a matter of interest because your profile (at least, the minimal information that appeared on the post header) doesn't include that information. I certainly wasn't tearing your post apart. I don't intend to question anyone's beliefs except to ask for clarification or background, which is what I was doing in my response to you. This is a discussion thread, after all, not a debate thread. So again, I apologize for inadvertently causing you such a disturbance.

That said, it's fair to ask me what I think of all this, and here are my answers to my own questions. I believe in a two-stage post-mortem existence. That is, I believe in life after death, and I also believe in life after life after death (which in turn motivates me to believe in real life before death, but that's a different story). My ideas are more certain with respect to Christians than those outside the Christian faith. I believe that for the Christian, at physical death, the body of course rots and the spirit/soul/whateveryouwanttocallit is whisked into the presence of God. The soul is thus fully conscious and capable of interacting with God. That's the "life after death" part.

After a time, Jesus will return to earth to judge the living and the dead. At that time, the dead will be resurrected (souls will be united to transformed physical bodies) to receive whatever reward or punishment they've got coming. Christians have nothing to fear and everything to celebrate about this moment. The whole cosmos will be renewed and glorified, fully infused with the life of God. Heaven and earth not only touch but fully and completely intermingle. As part of that, Christians are resurrected to a new physical life and shall enjoy life on a renewed earth for all eternity. I don't know the details, of course, but our new life will involve work of some kind or other and a fully embodied existence. That's life after life after death.

 

[Dunemeister]

Dunemaster,

through our connection to source energy we are connected to all things,everything is in *the current*,just resonating at different levels.

seek within,know thyself...I have some excersises I would be happy to share if you have blockages in identifying your self?

It would all be you...seek within,as it is within so it is without.

You looking for an enlightened guide?lulz.

In love

Andy

Hi, Andy. I think we're talking past one another a little bit. I wasn't asking about how one obtains any sort of enlightenment. Nor was I asking about the basis upon which we are connected with each other. Rather, I was actually asking about your views about what happens at death. When I die, can I expect to continue to exist in some form? If so, is it appreciably different from my current form? Can I expect that mode of existence to change later? (For example, some people believe in reincarnation. Others believe in resurrection.) That's the sort of information I'm looking for.