A Supposition and A Question

[kentauros]

The supposition is a "what if" scenario. In this case, "What if there is life after death..."

The question, then, relies on your participation in the idea that this is a "truth", whether that truth is truly that for you, or just a fantasy and a fun time playing "What if..." It's a simple question, with a likely simple answer :)

~*~
Question: Would you be happy?
~*~

My own answer would be a resounding 'Yes!' as it would mean the beginning of a great adventure beyond the one I left behind. An adventure into the unknown and into a reality on the order of a lucid dream. That is, where anything is possible. So, I do believe I would likely be very happy indeed! :D


So, simple rules.
Play nice.
Have fun :)

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. All is an illusion. And the road goes on forever and the party never ends

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

[kentauros]

7. I concur

[skygazer]

2. It would depend on the quality and the content of that life

If it is a life that includes reuniting with my beloved dog Dixie, then I would indeed be happy.

[MorningGlow]

3. Hey you

IOU an e-mail don't I? Yes I do. But of course I'm mucking about in teh Lounge instead of using my brain for more creative/intellectual pursuits. Typical of me. Well, at the very least I could respond to your supposition and question while I while away the few minutes before I fetch MG Jr. from school. But I promise an e-mail before the end of the week--howzat?

To answer your question: Abso-frickin-lutely I would be happy. To be in a place where there is no drama, no strife--nothing but unconditional love, a place to hang with my soul group homies and not have to deal with anybody who doesn't totally love me and I them...? Hellz yeah. And there, I wouldn't be battling my tummy bulge; there, I would be a statuesque, svelte goddess. With great hair.
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[kentauros]

6. Yeah, I do look for emails from time to time

even when my computer isn't working :P
Whenever you can get to it, MG :)

Lately, I haven't been thinking so much of my pastry-roll as I have of what's left of my teeth. It will be nice to not have to think about them and to have a perfect bite again :D

[TZ]

4. What if life after death was the worst possible type of hell?

Life can be unpleasant. I think the assumption that if there is life after death that it would be enjoyable is a HUGE assumption.

[kentauros]

5. "What if" is a huge assumption, too.

;)

[MorningGlow]

8. .

:hug:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZbWHHkcBOM&feature=PlayList&p=3D256A72B81829C9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=40

[Lyric]

9. Here's a "what if" that's made ME shiver a few times.

What if we're wrong about consciousness? What if, after death, something "shifts" and our consciousness continues in a disembodied way, but with absolutely no sensory input--nothing to see, hear, smell, taste, feel--because we no longer have bodies? No way to connect to anyone else, ever. Just blackness and your own thoughts for eternity.

Imagine spending eternity aware, but deprived of all sensation, and with the knowledge that every other person you've ever loved is either already suffering, or is GOING to suffer, the same thing.

THAT is a nightmare to me. The idea that energy is never destroyed, only transformed, does not always give me comfort.

[TZ]

10. Thats kinda what I was getting at...

To me thats the worst kind of hell.

[omega minimo]

20. Are you familiar with lucid dreaming?

Are there any other studies of human potential and/or consciousness that would interest any skeptics?

[kentauros]

11. Or that particular 'What if' is just part of a transformation,

that of the loss of the ego, of identity and of full integration back into the Universe. With the lost of identity, you won't know that it's not good to have no sensory input. Although not "Nirvana" it would approach that, if not go beyond it. Your scenario reminds me of how that existence was portrayed in the BBC show Torchwood. Exactly the same.

I will say that I have, in recent months, realized that the flipside to life after death, that of nothing at all, isn't so scary either. With no mind, you don't exist. You can't be frightened because 'you' are no longer there ;)

[omega minimo]

12. You mentioned lucid dreaming

which is dreaming awareness of the dream and potential interaction/direction of the dream.... so I take the OP "what if" to suggest awareness unshackled to do what it will.

From the Robert Monroe books comes images of what might be "circles of Hell," groups stuck together in keeping with the level of consciousness they (all similarly) had at death. Bushco has it's own circle. Toxic asset salesmen will forever play musical chairs.............

Have your read or listened to Eckhart Tolle? He talks about the illusory nature of the ego. The underlying stillness (formless awareness) is "who you really are."

He says, reincarnation won't help you if you come back and still don't know who you really are.


Ting!

[kentauros]

16. I know Tolle talks all about the ego, but his books never really interested me.

Some of the new age books I know have good subject matter, but are either badly presented or just don't hold my interest long enough for me to attempt. Monroe's books (and their Gateway Experience series) held my attention as the subject matter (OBEs) was of high interest to me ;)

He may be "right" about how ego should melt away in the next life, but I don't necessarily agree that reincarnation won't help if you still haven't figured out who you are. What about those that come back simply because they like the experience of physical life? :D

And yes, I did mean to make a parallel comparison between an unlimited 'afterlife' existence with the unlimited feeling one gets in being able to do what you will in a lucid dream. I can think of so much I would want to learn, explore and just have fun with if it were all so unlimited. For example, getting to experience




:P

[omega minimo]

19. oh

[InternalDialogue]

14. You just described something that, from time to time, terrifies me.

We're so used to thinking of life as our collection of 20 or 60 or 90 years or whatever. That's our frame. And we perceive the universe with our senses. Those are our tools.

Without our brain and our bodies, what becomes of us if our consciousnesses or souls continue on? And for me it's not just realizing that that kind of "life" would be nothing like what we know, but also that it would go on literally forever, no time frame, no milestones to look forward to, no passing of time, nothing that we currently know to structure our experience. And it never ends.

No one I've ever described this to had any idea of what I'm talking about. How it might terrify me.

[kentauros]

15. There's a key to defusing your terror within your own statement.

Specifically, "no passing of time".

If you are not aware of the passage of time, you don't know how much time has passed, if any. There is no sense that there is Time at all, so how can you be terrified? We only know linear-time in this life, because that's how it works for us. The alternate is to perceive Time simultaneously, or as the dimension it is, versus as an effect. Would understanding it and perceiving it that way relieve you of the sense of terror?

Although I understand some will only perceive the concept of the mind continuing on as a bad thing, the intent of this thread is to assume that it is a positive thing and if you would perceive that as something to be happy with, content with the knowledge that there is a good 'life' after this not-so-entirely-good physical existence :D

Everything I know on this subject is as OM suggested with the mention of Robert Monroe's discoveries of those that hang onto what they know at the end of life and carry those fears and preconceived ideas with them, tainting the next existence to only what they know and expect. The "what if" here is meant to suppose the possibility that you can change those preconceived notions and end with something that makes you happy, or keeps you that way. Don't we all just want to be happy anyway, no matter what our physical existence throws at us? ;)

[InternalDialogue]

18. You make a really good point about being wedded to our current ability to perceive.

And I understand that too, that our concept of eternity is something we can compare only to our understanding of time. And in that sense, my fear is probably comparable to a child's fear of change, not being able to wrap my mind around a wholesale shift in existence to something else.

I appreciate the comments in your last paragraph, about the possibility that our perspective and context are not going with us, so our fears have no basis. I think deep down I am not only aware of that but rather intrigued by whatever the passage will be, after this life. And since I believe that our pain and fear and despair are wrought by the pressures and trials of our human lives, I know it gets dropped at the door, as it were, when we exit.

[Orrex]

21. In envisioning that possibility, you're in good company

No light; but rather darkness visible
Served only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end

Cheery, isn't it? :P

[Inchworm]

13. What if you never die at all

and each is is the perciever of his/her own universe where people die around you.

:wow:

:D

[kentauros]

17. Then obviously 'you' wouldn't be happy

;)

However, the "what if" is to assume that the next 'life' is a happy end to this one, although how you perceive it is up to you. Would you be happy as it is being presented to you, or would you hold on to only what you know and refuse that happiness? ;)