how many of you really believe in an afterlife?

I would like to believe in reincarnation, as I feel that energy never truly disappears, and we are all made of energy, as is every other thing in existance. I like the idea that we recycle.

I believe that heaven and hell are what you make of this time on earth, and that all talk or promise of afterlife promoted by any religion is simply a carrot on a stick to get you to conform to living the way "they" say you should.

For example, the Muslims promise you (if you are a man) many virgins in heaven.

Christians promise forgiveness. Personally, I say big whoop.

I try to live as if this one life is the ONLY thing I have coming to me, and I plan to continue to make it a good one. Already, if I were to die tomorrow, I think I've lived a good life and happily could let go into nothingness, if that's all there is.

I don't, actually. I think the television show House summed up my thoughts on the matter perfectly: I want to believe that this life is what matters, that it isn't all just a dress rehearsal for something else (something better, something worse, whichever). I want to believe that the life I'm currently living is what's important and not just the staging ground for the next life.

I also don't like the concept of ghosts. How sad is it that we believe our dearly departed loved ones are just hanging around, hoping we'll notice them at some point?

I think when you die, you die. That's it, end of story. I don't find that sad because I'm hoping that the life I live now is meaningful enough that my death won't just be a "nothing." I'd love to believe that I'll be reunited in some kind of heaven with all my loved ones, but I just don't.

Wow this is a good discussion. I will try to say what I believe as simply as possible. I do believe in an afterlife. I do believe reincarnation is possible. I do not think the same thing happens to every single one of us when we die. Some are reincarnated to finish their purpose or learning. Some of us go to heaven. I do not believe in Hell. I also believe animals have spirits and souls. I have read through the bible 3 times. I believe in the bible but I also believe it was written by humans and cannot be perfect. I have had way to many personal experiences with God to not believe in him.

Originally Posted by Bella713

I found this quote: "I'd Rather live my life as if there's a God, and die to find out there isn't, than to live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is."

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I love this quote!

Originally Posted by Dragoriana

No no no, i didn't mean you!!!

i just meant people i have come across. I know everyone here knows their kitties have souls

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i was raised southern baptist and i remember asking that question, and the teacher told me no, at that point i knew the teacher did not know as much as she thought. (i think i was about 11)

Originally Posted by oregon

You know, heaven, hell, reicarnation and retribution. I am really leaning for nothingness right now. One lifetime is enough.
Or is it possible that each person get the afterlife they believe in?

What do you all think?
& of course if there are no cats or dogs in heaven who'd want to go?

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I think that everyone only gets one chance! Im not key on reincarnation or organized religion! I do believe in a higher power, I just don't believe in religions (at all)! I lean more towards agnostic then anything else! I hope there is a heaven otherwise its going to be one dark and lonesome eternity 6 ft under! I definitley would be destroyed if I never got to see my passed animals in the so called "after-life"... If it even exists! I figure we are here for some purpose and didn't just appear from nothing and for no reason! I'll wait until my time comes to get some real and legit answers!

Originally Posted by theimp98

in norse, the underworld was home, to cowards, people who broke oaths

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It was also for anyone who didn't die an honorable death in battle and all that.

Originally Posted by theimp98

i dont doubt the poem the guy got the idea of the rainbow bridge from that.
but does not really matter?

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Nope, not really. Just randomly wondering.

Originally Posted by Mirinae

I also don't like the concept of ghosts. How sad is it that we believe our dearly departed loved ones are just hanging around, hoping we'll notice them at some point?

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Neither do I, it's not logical in the least. I certainly believe that not everyone or thing is just hanging around... sure would be crowded if they were! Some stuff isn't really something there, it's more or less energy being recorded onto an area that can reply over and over, it can even be from someone who's still alive.
Then you get into, was it even human ever, at all. Is it good? Bad? Neutral? Just really darn creepy?

Originally Posted by Dragoriana

I get dejavu ALOT! I sometimes think im going crazy. And not just the familiar feeling, but something might happen, and then i've realised i had a dream about it happening, the same people, situation, place etc.

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The same thing happens to me all the time. I would say I get about 10-15 dejavu's a week. It's so weird to just all of a sudden have a feeling like "wait a minute. I've seen this before."

Also, I personally believe in reincarnation. There is more scientific evidence to support reincarnation than any other form of an afterlife.

Originally Posted by ClaireBear

I'm not religious. I don't like to think about what is going to happen after I die. I'm just going to wait it out and see.

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I like that - aren't we all!

I believe in the afterlife and also reincarnation (maybe because I want or need to). I don't believe in the Bible per se since I personally believe it to be a book written by man and we all know the kind of poetic license man has taken in literature. Besides if I believed in the Bible, I'd have to believe in incest (who else would Cain and Abel have married but their sisters?). I even sometimes wonder if John Travolta and Tom Cruise may not even have something there in their faith. I think there is a lot we don't know and a lot of unexplained happenings that can't be explained in the Bible.

What a great discussion! Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s such a credit to the group of people in this community that we can have an open-minded discussion about something as personal as spirituality without it descending into something negative. I find myself, once again, immensely grateful for such a wonderful online community of wonderful people!

That said, I personally believe that there is a higher power of some sort. I believe that most of the worldâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s religions are, in actuality, centered around it. There are many similarities in very basic beliefs whether the religion is Christianity, Wicca, Muslim, whatever. The major differences come in around the traditions of HOW those beliefs are carried out. I think that people adopt the system of traditions that best suit them. I consider myself a Christian because I was raised Christian and thatâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s what I know. I believe that Jesus lived and died and had a number of very valuable things to teach the world (though I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t believe in a literal translation of the Bible or the story of Jesus...like Yosemite said, it's a book written by man). I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t believe that a adherence to any particular religion is necessary…the manner in which you live your life is more important than the group you belong to. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve known a lot of people who attend church every Sunday, but would walk past someone in need without thinking twice about it. I also donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t believe that anyone else is wrong for choosing to adopt a different religion…thereâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s something to be learned from each of them.

I do, very strongly, believe that there is some sort of afterlife, though Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not sure if itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s really a heaven/hell as itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s thought of in Christian beliefs. I have felt spirits…I know without question that my cousin was standing right next to me on my wedding day. I also agree with the others who have said that energy canâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t be destroyed…it has to go somewhere. I believe that whatever the afterlife is, weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ll be somehow reunited with the people and animals we loved in life…because I also believe that love is like energy and cannot be destroyed.

while I was raised catholic, that religions and worse yet the puritans or islam are very punitive to "souls" in the after life. One could argue that some schools of buddhism are just as bad with their hell realms, gosth realms. Etc.

It seems that if you die and don't get somthing right while you were alive, or did something mildly bad to did something really bad. Like the A#$H*)(& in virginia you all go to hell. A co-worker of mine had his young teen son commit suicide.
I still don't see why he should be sharing the same hell as a murderous shooter or eventually GWBush.

Any ops on that?

I often think about this. I was raised by a Catholic mother and a Hindu father, and so was exposed to different beliefs from an early age. I'm not currently religious, but I loosely believe in karma and the idea that everything is connected. I also think the nature of space/time is poorly understood, and that these concepts have a lot to do with the "spiritual realm." Basically, there is more to this universe than what we know...so in that sense, yes, I believe an "afterlife" is possible.

Pat & Alix --You said you believe in evil because you've felt it, and I realized that I have, too -- I think maybe we just define it differently. But I did feel a sudden, overwhelming sense of dread and grief and horror when I stepped (unknowingly) into the spot where many people believe the real shooter stood and took aim at John F. Kennedy... and when I walked through the prison at Alcatraz, I felt a more nebulous sense of rage and misery all around. So whether evil is an entity or not, it does leave its mark -- on that we agree!

Strange Wings wrote, "I don't need promises of punishment or reward to make me be a decent moral person." Yes! Exactly!

Skippymjp wrote, "I don't know," and that may be the bravest thing any of us has said on the subject!

Several people brought up deja vu as evidence for reincarnation, which it could be. When I have a deja vu, though, it's very specifically of this life -- a series of tiny, insignificant events that lasts only a few seconds and feels just like I've hit rewind on a VCR. There's a theory that this kind of deja vu is simply a misfire in the brain: the current moment being processed electrochemically as if it were a memory, creating that sense of deja vu.

I think that's different from memories of past lives, which can be very convincing and may indeed suggest that reincarnation is real. Either that, or maybe we somehow tap into a sort of communal memory at times and perceive it as our own past experience. Either way... wow!

GingersMom wrote, "if I were to die tomorrow, I think I've lived a good life and happily could let go into nothingness, if that's all there is." That's wonderful! I hope we can all achieve that sense of wholeness before we pass.

Mirinae -- I don't think our departed loved ones have to hang around all the time. I think time may even become meaningless once you pass, and what may seem like a constant presence to us may be the blink of an eye to them. Or maybe they appear in our lives only when we especially need them, as Fwan's lost sister seems to have done. I truly admire your strength in rejecting the idea of an afterlife -- but I've had experiences that give me great hope for one, and I do cling to that, I admit.

Strange Wings also mentioned that some ghosts may not actually be active spirits, but simply "recorded" energy that replays over and over. That makes perfect sense, and there's a lot of evidence for it.

Yosemite -- According to an investigative report I saw some years ago, the secret core beliefs of Scientology (revealed only to long-term, high-ranking members of the "church") have to do with long-ago aliens stuffing the souls of their criminals into volcanos on our planet, and the evil of those alien souls being spewed out when the volcanos erupt, thus filling our world with turmoil. It's almost impossible to believe that anyone would buy into such an idea, but maybe after years of indoctrination, it seems more reasonable to them...

Oregon wrote, "A co-worker of mine had his young teen son commit suicide. I still don't see why he should be sharing the same hell as a murderous shooter or eventually GWBush." Well, I admit that GWBush certainly makes me wish I did believe in Hell! But I don't, and even if I did, I would never buy into the idea that a person who has suffered such torment in life as to be driven to suicide should continue to suffer after death. Surely they of all people should be greeted with loving compassion in the afterlife.

And of course there is no doubt in my mind that animals have souls, and that the loved ones we will, I dearly hope, be reunited with in the afterlife will include our beloved pets.

Tari wrote, "What a great discussion! It’s such a credit to the group of people in this community that we can have an open-minded discussion about something as personal as spirituality without it descending into something negative. I find myself, once again, immensely grateful for such a wonderful online community of wonderful people!"

I couldn't agree more. You folks are just the best.

I was brought up Catholic too, but argued so much at my convent school that I was eventually asked to leave. To me, none of it is in the least logical, and has never been proved. I think Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and many other great religious leaders were great and good men, and if we follow any of them then we will be better people and behave properly towards our fellow men. But most of the evil that people do is done in the name of these leaders, and religion has been responsible for so much misery in the world. I do not know if there is a 'God' in the sense of a creator - science is explaining more and more but has still not got to WHY there was a 'Big Bang'. But I do not believe in a personal God who is monitoring me and I think that once we go, we go. Yes, energy is conserved according to the laws of physics, but we help conserve the planet when we die as all living matter does, that is all. I think our own personal conscience is all we really need, and the example of those we admire, be they religious leaders, moral philosophers or just people we know or read about.

It must be very comforting to be able to believe in afterlife, and think you'll go to Heaven / see your loved ones / move on to another life etc. I don't believe in anything but returning to the Earth to go on as a part of some other lifeform. It's sometimes, like when Timotei died, depressing, but to me it's the only intellectually honest answer.

Ok, let me see if I can make sense on paper (well, cyber-paper) of my beliefs.

I was raised Catholic. We went to church school religiously till we were Confirmed (roughly 12 yrs old) After that, we got lazy and made church maybe once a month. In college, I took a religion class and started realizing my personal beliefs were so far from the true Catholic religion, it wasn't Catholicism any more. I named it Universalism cause there was something powerful running the Universe. There was a heaven, and a hell and reincarnation. If you didn't learn what you needed to learn, or if you had something to finish, you came back.

I am now a pagan. It's funny, the pagan tradition fits my "religion" better than anything else I've read up on. I am not out of the broom closet to everyone. My sister's first reaction was that I've gone over to the devil. Sorry, can't do that...the devil is not recognized by the pagans. He is a Christian belief!

Originally Posted by oregon

It seems that if you die and don't get somthing right while you were alive, or did something mildly bad to did something really bad. Like the A#$H*)(& in virginia you all go to hell. A co-worker of mine had his young teen son commit suicide.
I still don't see why he should be sharing the same hell as a murderous shooter or eventually GWBush.

Any ops on that?

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Originally Posted by whuckleberry

I'm not currently religious, but I loosely believe in karma and the idea that everything is connected. I also think the nature of space/time is poorly understood, and that these concepts have a lot to do with the "spiritual realm." Basically, there is more to this universe than what we know...so in that sense, yes, I believe an "afterlife" is possible.

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Since both of these apply... again, this is something I agree with without making the leap to having the religion that's behind the terminology. I believe in "karma" as far as.. well, you reap what you sow, do unto others as you would have done to you.. the golden rule.. etc. The full definition of karma though, is probably a little more religious than what I can personally say I believe. I do completely think though that if you're involved in bad, hurtful deeds, or being duplicitous.. stealing, etc.. you eventually get what you deserve. I can't say that I tie into the belief that there's some greater power sitting up there saying, oh, you did this, this is your just desert..I guess it's more of a new agey thing for me and if you project bad energy, you attract bad energy...

And there are others that I see posted, but I'm too lazy to go about quoting from everyone else so... I agree that ghosts are energy.. whether they're a stuck spirit or the remenant of energy from a living person who had some sort of significant trauma to leave an imprint.. I don't know.

I think the same could be said for the spots where tragic or significant events occurred. I imagine there's some sort of imprint of energy..

If I was to haunt any place at all I would like to be a well stocked bookstore, preferablly one that has a cat or two.
Cheers all

hate typos. I would not like TO BE a well stocked bookstore. But to haunt one, if I was to haunt anyplace at all would be ok. & I would be a nice ghost, chat about books & all.