Do you think there is an afterlife?

[kittypop]

I was watching a you tube seminar which was hosted by John Cleese. It was full of eminent psychologists and scientists who came from a sceptical point of view, however, following their research they have found a lot of information that supports the idea that there is something more. They talked particularly about near death experiences and reincarnation. It wasn't about ghosts and spirits. One particular topic was about people who had extremely bad dementia being able to be suddenly lucid and talk to their family as normal just before they died. These are subjects I have been interested in since | was a child. Anyway I was talking to DH about this last night and he told me it is all nonsense. I asked him if he had ever read any of the research i had. The answer was no but he said no credible scientist supports the theory of an afterlife. My AIBU is I think unless you have read the research on a subject that you shouldn't dismiss it - you should read, do your research and then make up your own mind instead of dismissing someone who has actually been reading about the subject their whole life.

Yes I believe, without doubt.

I think scientists are discovering more about how the brain functions before and during the dying process. Perhaps they will find function continues for longer than was thought but I don’t think further study will find conclusive evidence that function can continue long after heart and brain death have taken place and where all efforts of restoring or artificially maintaining function have been stopped.

I think unless you have read the research on a subject that you shouldn't dismiss it

I disagree with this. It's like saying someone's opinion on a topic is only acceptable if they've researched the topic as much as you'd like. You don't get to govern who gets an opinion.

I don't believe in an afterlife, or a God. I believe that all the goodness, love and kindness in your heart lives on in the people you've loved once you die. The moments you touched their hearts with yours, those are the only ways you live on. But what else, really, matters? I don't expect to stick around on a cloud watching my Great Grandchildren grow up. I don't expect to have a Patrick-Swayze-style moment where a hand reaches out for me and an angel sings. I find comfort in knowing that the important parts of me, my laughter, my ridiculous dancing, my artistic talent, my awful casseroles, my tendency to say inappropriate things after two martinis will all live on through my beloved family and friends.

My dh has a cardiac arrest and was resuscitated so was technically dead. There was nothing, no lights, tunnels etc. I’d like to think there’s something there but the logical part of me says there’s nothing after death.

Idontbelieveinthemoon - I'm entitled to my opinion too though, which when speaking to my DH was completely shot down in flames. My view is that if there is something other than this, great, if not I won't know a thing about it. I don't have a burning urge to live for eternity in an afterlife, but it would be lovely to think that I might one day meet my deceased loved ones again - who wouldn't want that? I just think it's a bit narrow minded to dismiss something without looking into it at all. By the way, my DH believes in life on other planets, alternate universes and the possibility of time travel

All I was saying was you shouldn't dismiss something that you have read nothing about.

OP, I completely agree! It's an annoying, small-minded trait.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/human-brain-conscious-heart-stops-beating-death-neurology-research-a8232921.html%3famp not a journal either but this is interesting.

ashtrayheart that is interesting. I think scientists are learning more and more about the body all the time. The thing I can't get my head round are the people that can look down on their body and recount details they could never have known from their hospital bed.

Idontbelieveinthemoon - I'm entitled to my opinion too though, which when speaking to my DH was completely shot down in flames

Absolutely. But your opinion was that those who have an opinion that differs from yours don't deserve an opinion unless they've researched the topic. That's not really how life works. In an ideal world, yes, people would research stuff and inform themselves thoroughly, but given that there's evidence to back up pretty much anything (as pp's have mentioned you could find research backing up Flat Earth theories if you wanted to) there's no actual evidence on this, just more opinions.

'It’s worth clarifying here how medical professionals talk about death. ‘Clinical death’ occurs when your heart, circulation and breathing stop. ‘Biological death’ occurs four to six minutes later, when your brain cells die and you can no longer be resuscitated. Death is a process, not a single moment where it all goes dark. Even before clinical death there is the drawn-out phase known as ‘active dying’ when the brain starts to shut the body down, preparing for the end.'

A quick google reveals a Dr Sam Parnia has researched the area extensively. I would think given the gap between clinical and biological death, this would leave room for these types of experiences you mention, in people who are brought 'back to life'?

ashtrayheart I've read reports of people seeing items which were near the ceiling of a room that they couldn't possibly have seen because they were lying on a bed. This is well documented. Even if there is no afterlife and we continue to live on after death for a couple of minutes it seems amazing that you can leave your body. I've even read of people who have been hovering over their relatives in the corridor outside the hospital room and can recount everything that was said. It's all a bit weird.

I have no doubt that we are eternal beings, which means of course there is an afterlife. The question for me is how to know what to believe about the various different belief systems there are out there.

Most world views come from a starting point of what you can do to secure your eternal future, except one. Jesus died to clothe us in HIs righteousness, if we believe in him. That means to trust he existed and was the son of God who came to take the place of judgement that we deserved because we have committed wrongs in our lives. You could argue one wrong is more right than another wrong (lying versus killing) and although that is true to a certain extent, both violate God's complete perfection and righteousness. So we can't ever come up to his standard as we can't be perfect. But he made a way for us to spend this life and eternal life in his presence, with complete peace and harmony, no more pain or sorrow.

The phenomenon of people being much more well before dying is very interesting. I worked in end of life care for a long timer and saw it happen an awful lot. I wonder if this is just all part of that final burst of reserves people have before they die? Sadly some people can interpret that as a patient improving but we always knew it was a sign the end was very near for them.

Being with people as they die is an incredible privilege and so very different than watching people fall asleep for surgery or in normal sleep. There is a strong sense of the person having 'left' the body. Hard to describe but staff felt it, whether they were theists or atheists. To me, this also adds to the 'evidence' that we are eternal beings.

I don't believe in an afterlife and I believe that the phenomena you describe can be attributed to processes happening in the brain leading up to death. We know very little about how the human brain functions.

I believe that when we die, the molecules and energy that make up our substance become part of the universe and end up becoming part of other things - many of them living. That's afterlife enough for me.