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How To Choose An Afterlife?

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Anonymous

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What to do?
Heaven seems far too dull and I doubt any of my family or friends would be there. The idea of being consumed by love for eternity is also undesirable; most people who subscribe to that view leave me feeling nauseas in a matter of minutes so eternity really is too long. Hell seems the best bet as most people i know will be there however may be eternally painful. I’m not big on reincarnation, a good idea in theory but there are certain periods of life I have no desire to relive and coming back as a gnat or something doesn’t really appeal to me. The poltergeist seems to be the best, still around after death and able to physically alter the world instead of just appearing faintly in photographs or manifesting as the odd cold spell.

Any ideas on how to become one?
 
Choose your own afterlife? I'd like my afterlife to have some sort of meaning, some fun and the change to explore stuff at the quatum level...
I'd like to argue with whover god is, Come down to Earth occasionally for a bit of a laugh and scare the living S***s out of friends. Then maybe fly around the cosmos and see what the other sentients are up to. Maybe even get real close to a black hole or something quasi stellar.

Come back as another species? I'd love to spend a few millenia as a single cell something-or-other. Even maybe a fish, something deep dwelling..

Karma? Crikey!
:D
 
Valhalla always seems a good one, the beer, the feasts... the women.
 
I know how you feel, my first contact with religion was JWs and their idea of heaven sounded singularly unplesant, pretty flowers and gamboling animals sort of thing.

Also they told me there was no books...

The Islamic one seems a lot better, being a classical islamic garden with silk carpets and members of the opposite sex.

(no information as to books)

reincarnation might be a plan.

In Cammile Flammarions `Lumen` he describes an afterlife in the cosmos trying out new alien bodies and enjoying interlectual gratification.

More like it, methinks
 
According to Hobbes, you play saxaphone for an all girl cabaret in New Orleans. Probably be my choice. 8)
 
Also, read 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go' and the other tales of Riverworld by Phillip Jose Farmer. Pretty cool.
 
I think you probably get labelled and put into storage after you die.
 
GNC, for some reason I just got an image of Marty Feldman and a large jar (with me in it) labelled Abe Normal :D
 
:bump: It's an old topic but a good one (I was searching for something else and this came up)

I have come to believe that the first place we go after we depart is pretty much designed by us, if you think you are going to hell that's where you will go, or bucolic pastures with golden cities and choirs or even quaint little cottages with roses growing around the doorway this accounts for the so many different versions you read about, you believe in Valhalla that's where you will end up. For a time at least (or time may not exist) and then you will move up to rejoin the comic consciousness

Of course I also believe that some are reincarnated, it does look like those that are reincarnated have had their life cut short (normally by some violent means)

Just some ponderings on what's next
 
Seriously, I think discussions like this are interesting, not because of what is said about people's belief systems, but how they feel about life itself.
Not necessarily negative feelings, but me - I care more about my 'living' life, and how it can be improved. After all, whatever the Afterlife is, it's not as if we have a choice ... or even able to dodge it.
Though, I like the idea of reincarnation - but only if it means my spirit can roll it's incorporeal sleeves up and whisper "Right ... now let's try and get it right this time, eh?" :)
 
Stormkhan said:
Seriously, I think discussions like this are interesting, not because of what is said about people's belief systems, but how they feel about life itself.
Not necessarily negative feelings, but me - I care more about my 'living' life, and how it can be improved. After all, whatever the Afterlife is, it's not as if we have a choice ... or even able to dodge it.
Though, I like the idea of reincarnation - but only if it means my spirit can roll it's incorporeal sleeves up and whisper "Right ... now let's try and get it right this time, eh?" :)
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From all reports it does seem to be all about your belief systems, you get what you believe you will get for a while anyway

What comes next is the greatest mystery that we face, a journey to we know not where, a large part of this forum has something to do with survival after death
 
Robbrent said:
From all reports it does seem to be all about your belief systems, you get what you believe you will get for a while anyway

What comes next is the greatest mystery that we face, a journey to we know not where, a large part of this forum has something to do with survival after death
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I would argue that a large part of this forum is to do with the nature of reality...
 
In any given night of sleep, I noticed that small details within dreams often develop into major story plots in the next / following dream.

If life is but a dream, what comes next might be just that. If anything personal comes next, of course, which is not guaranteed.
 
This is one of those topics where one is swimming in water with lots of sharks to bite.

First, I am sure some people look at death according to their personal or religious beliefs.

But death is a mystery.

Death strips us of all are human emotions like pride or the opposite humble and makes us all equal.

I personally would like to think there is something after death, and seeing unexplained paranormal over my life time gives me hope there is something after death.

Can one control the afterlife, I don’t know ?
 
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I would love it if I could spend an afterlife being nosy. I want to see how the planet, and indeed the universe, progresses - what happens next? That's about the only regret I have about shuffling off this mortal coil. I wish I could be an observer of my loved ones in their futures and that they don;t detect my presence beyond a nice feeling that I might still be popping by sometimes.

Although I am a practicing Christian like several other members here, I have no preconceptions of 'heaven' or 'hell' and what may lie beyond our earthly lifespan.
 
I'd like to think there was something but I'm beginning to think that it is all down to us not being able to conceive of the universe without us. Our view of the universe is ultimately down to what we perceive personally or vicariously.

The only consolation being that while that might worry or disturb me now it won't when I'm dead, 'cos well, I'll be dead.

That being said I wonder whether the dying brain is not constrained by time (as it seems not to be in dreams) and that the last few seconds become subjectively a long, perhaps almost infinite dream like state.
 
Tunn11 said:
That being said I wonder whether the dying brain is not constrained by time (as it seems not to be in dreams) and that the last few seconds become subjectively a long, perhaps almost infinite dream like state.
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This concept has been explored in literature and drama beginning in 1890 with Ambrose Bierce's astounding 1890 story 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', which continues to influence artists.

Quoting myself'ere again -

I won't describe it because it's such a great read. If you haven't read it give it a go, and then think of all the times you've come across the same central conceit without knowing it. Terry Gilliam's Brazil? TV's Life On Mars and, yes, Holby City? Mind-blowing. All the previously-mentioned yarns derive from it.
 
My extended family hold a belief that one does indeed make one's own afterlife.
When a much-loved family member died young, he was pictured by the relations enjoying an endless holiday on a white sandy beach with palm trees and a rustic-looking bar...

Suddenly the blue sky would become overcast, the sea grey and the air a little chillier with a stiff sea-breeze.
A string of donkeys would amble past, followed by Granddad with his trousers rolled up and a knotted hankie on his head, carrying two ice creams. He'd hold one out to his grandchild and they'd laugh and wander off together along Blackpool sands.

Whoever thought up this little yarn was a genius. It was a comfort when we lost two beloved people in a short time and some of us could hardly function.
But it was still a yarn. :wink2:
 
escargot said:
This concept has been explored in literature and drama beginning in 1890 with Ambrose Bierce's astounding 1890 story 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge', which continues to influence artists.

Quoting myself'ere again -

I won't describe it because it's such a great read. If you haven't read it give it a go, and then think of all the times you've come across the same central conceit without knowing it. Terry Gilliam's Brazil? TV's Life On Mars and, yes, Holby City? Mind-blowing. All the previously-mentioned yarns derive from it.
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Brilliant, thanks. I'll have to track that down I've only got his wonderfully cynical "Devil's dictionary".
 
Mythopoeika said:
Yes.
And there's no sex, either.
Choose your afterlife carefully.
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My father believed he'd be transformed into being of spirit as per his family's beliefs.
After his death we all dreamed about him walking around naked.

One of my dreams was of him appearing at the funeral directors' when the family were discussing the arrangements.

I challenged him, whereupon he proved that he was no longer a thing of flesh. :omg:
 
This exact conundrum is currently being discussed on BBC R4's The Archers. :chuckle:
 
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