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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To believe in life after death?

104 replies

organictwat · 13/06/2011 21:26

I've been doing some reading around the subject of near death experiences lately and am fascinated. Although I'm agnostic I believe the 'soul' lives in after physical death, aibu?

OP posts:
cherryburton · 15/06/2011 12:03

Am so fascinated by children who talk about their past lives. I wondered if either of mine would ever say anything, but unfortunately not. Sad

There's a saying: For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't, no proof is possible. I'm still dangling somewhere in the middle most of the time but I have had a few experiences that make me aware that there's more to life than meets the eye...

JudysJudgement · 15/06/2011 12:06

derren brown debunks psychics - he says they are fake

he is a magician, a psychologist - never has once said there is any more to it than that

exoticfruits · 15/06/2011 12:07

I never mentioned it as a DC but a feeling used to spread over me, almost as a panic that I was in the wrong life. It wore off over the years. I can only surmise that if I had a past life I died young and suddenly and had dependents-but it was probably nothing to do with it at all!!!

tigercametotea · 15/06/2011 12:17

Bluemoonrising, is "soul" another word for consciousness now? What, as in, they can be used interchangeably? Are they equatable in meaning? Consciousness as I understand it, is a state of mind experienced when you are alive (and you could be unconscious too when you're alive so just because you are alive doesn't mean you are conscious). If "soul" is consciousness as you say, I don't see how someone can still be conscious when they are dead, or indeed, still have a "soul". My own understanding of "soul" in the context of what OP is referring to is a non-physical entity which exists separate from the physical human body, and I do not believe in that.

BabyYoureAFirework · 15/06/2011 12:27

I rarely get involved in these kinds of discussions, as you can imagine. But I'm a spiritualist medium, and have been for about 20 years. I have NO DOUBT at all that there is life after death.

I have a question of my own for you non-believers Grin - if I've never met someone before, or know any of their family, friends, history, whatever - how do I know the things I know? How can I name their relatives, their children, their friends? How do I know how they passed? Because if this isn't spirit, then what is it? Because I genuinely don't know the answer otherwise.

That said, I'm a proper shit judge of character Grin

tigercametotea · 15/06/2011 12:40

Me personally, I don't believe in mediums or superstition.

SpringchickenGoldBrass · 15/06/2011 12:46

You can (any of you) believe in whatever you like. But other people are equally entitled to believe it's a crock of shit. Whether you're on the rational side or the superstitious side, people are going to be wrong disagree with you and it's better, in a social setting, to just walk away from such a discussion when it's annoying you. Unless the other person is being really annoying about it, or unless you think the person is vulnerable to being conned by some or other fucking charlatan (as all money-taking 'psychics' are).

SpringchickenGoldBrass · 15/06/2011 12:47

BYAF: A mixture of you being a good natural-born cold-reader and a lot of lucky guesses (people generally ignore the mistakes you make if they want to believe).

Triphid · 15/06/2011 12:49

There's $1m up for grabs for anyone who can prove the existence of the paranormal.

perfumedlife · 15/06/2011 12:56

I never really believed or gave it much thought until I moved into the house from hell seven years ago. Almost the second I walked through the door I felt ill, uneasy. Ds was newborn and as I bf him in the night, a woman would walk about the hall way. Freaked me out but was so exhausted put it down to tiredness.

Then my brother lost his partner suddenly, early forties. Devastated, he asked me to see a psychic and the psychic, immediately upon meeting me said ' I hate your house, you must sell that house, there is bad energy and it's making you ill'. He came and tried to cleanse it, free of charge, and confirmed what the neighbours told me, that a man hanged himself from the attic. His last words to me were ' please get out of here, as soon as you can. I would say August is significant, try to leave sooner'

31st August I am bleeding, close to death after a routine op went wrong. After emergency trachy, without drugs, am whisked to theatre again and a handsome nurse with blue eyes holds my hand and tells me he was finished his shift but heard about the emergency. Did I want him to stay with me while they operated? And he would be there when I woke up. I did, he was amazing, and he came and had coffee with my parents and dh when I was recovering. Two weeks later I return with a gift for him. And he doesn't exist.
The hospital, which was small, a private hospital that mainly did plastic surgery I think, had no man by that name, no record, nothing. The doctor said I would have been in such shock I could have imagined it. But not my parents?

I really believe now. And oddly, don't fear death. Didn't, even when I was close to dying , I just wasn't ready to leave my life, my family.

swanker · 15/06/2011 13:04

I don't believe there is anything after death- OP you may believe what you wish, the only thing that's certain is that we'll both find out! Grin

I have been very close to death twice- there was no light or tunnels or angels or whatever, it was quite dark actually. I do not fear death at all (though obviously worry for those left behind) and I believe that for life to have meaning you have to live a good life, and be decent whilst you are alive. I love the Christian Aid slogan- 'We believe in life before death' - says it all really.

My DH used to believe in re-incarnation (as a buddhist) but over time has ceased to believe (he has become more and more atheist as he has been with me... oops.

blondes - I am very sorry for your loss. I understand why you need to believe something, and I hope you find some answers and peace wherever that may be.

Bluemoonrising · 15/06/2011 13:04

tiger, consciousness is used in different ways, only one of which is the equivalence of soul, so they can't really be used interchangeably for that reason.

tigercametotea · 15/06/2011 13:07

Bluemoonrising, that's right. How confusing. People can define what soul means according to what they believe. The meaning of "soul" is vague. But you can believe what you want. If you believe that your mind "lives" after you're dead, then I have no problem with that. I just don't believe in that.

Bluemoonrising · 15/06/2011 13:14

I'm just going with the science of existence. Everything that exists now has existed since the dawn of time, in some form. There is nothing that exists now that isn't formed from something that has always existed since time began.

DorcasBouvier · 15/06/2011 13:31

I believe that your soul/spirit/self/whatever you want to call it is much more than just electrical activity in the brain. I think that when our physical bodies die, the essence of us still exists somewhere. Regarding mediums, I don't doubt that there are some people who are very good at cold reading, but I think that there are others who can genuinely tap in to the "essences" around us, a bit like tuning into a radio.

sittinginthesun · 15/06/2011 14:00

Blondes - sorry for your loss. x

I am not a churchgoer, but happened to be speaking with our local vicar shortly after my most vivid experience (seeing a bright ball of light, watching it float above me, and KNOWING it was a late relative, as clear as if they were standing before me), and asked what she thought. She said that this is where the phrase ..."has seen the light" comes from. There is no logic, no science, but if it happens to you, then you just have to believe.

Hasn't turned me into a churchgoer, and I'm no more "religious" than before, but I just have to believe now, because I saw it, and there's no other explanation for it.

Bluemoonrising · 15/06/2011 14:04

I had a light experience too, sitting in the sun. I had a big decision to make, and I had three main options. I was lying in bed nulling them over, and when I thought of one particular option I was bathed in white light. I was a bit taken aback, so I went through the options again, and the same thing happened again.

sittinginthesun · 15/06/2011 14:16

Did you know who it was, Bluemoon?

FilthyDirtyHeathen · 15/06/2011 14:34

My mother had cancer and died in 2000. I was with her every day in the last 6 weeks of her life. She told me one morning that she had seen her own mother (long dead) in the night. Her mother told her that she was going to come back again the following Friday and this time she would take her daughter with her. The following Friday my mum died.

Since then I have found it very hard to continue believing, as I had always done, that I came from oblivion and to oblivion I would return. That was how my parents raised me so when my mum had her 'vision' I was stunned.

MorrisZapp · 15/06/2011 14:45

If mediums (media?) are real, then how come they never say 'I've got Frank McGonnigal here, from Acacia Avenue in Stevenage, he died three years ago and wants to leave a message for his sister Brenda Smith'.

All they ever say is 'I'm getting a Peter, does anybody know a Peter' etc etc.

They just say stuff until it sticks.

MorrisZapp · 15/06/2011 14:45

I mean, if they are able to say stuff that 'nobody else would know' then why can't they give names and dates.

bruffin · 15/06/2011 14:48

"I have very little time for people like Derryn Brown and John Edwards,I am sure it's all made up for the TV."

Not sure you can utter the two in the same breath. John Edwards makes claims to be a psychic and has been proved a fraud. Derryn Brown makes no claims whatsover and shows how the likes John Edwards do their "tricks"

JudysJudgement · 15/06/2011 14:59

interesting thread

bruffin · 15/06/2011 15:06

MorrisZapp google "cold reading" there are plenty of explanations on the web on how it is down

Blondeshavemorefun · 15/06/2011 16:42

thank you everyone for your best wishes :)

what is even weirder is that my brother went to see a show last night with a man/psychic called tony stockwell - and my dh 'came' to him and again said so many things that there is no way tony would know that i feel that there is life after death

Mark keeps telling people that he is at peace now - i obviously want him to be - but i need to hear it for myself - so roll on july 8th

my brother said he was being filmed last night so hopefully he can get a copy of the dvd or find out if will be shown on living etc

rinders would you want to see a psychic and see if richard speaks to you?

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