To want to believe in life after death

[Jezebell]

Part of me really wants to believe in this. Part of me is cynical. I’m still grieving but comforted a little by hearing anecdotes where people’s lost loved ones visit somehow, in any form… Can anyone give any personal stories where they feel this might have happened?

My mom passed away 11 years ago in her final week we would sit and watch the butterflies and she would tell me about them, 2 months later my dad passed away also. At his funeral two pure white butterflies came down and fluttered around me then went off over the church.

A few month later I had a vivid dream where I was stood on a train station platform with them, they looked so happy and healthy. They said they would never stop watching over me but we're going away on their travels for a bit. As the train was leaving they shouted that they love me and a huge gust of wind came in from through the bedroom window and woke me up. I 100% believe that was them saying goodbye x

My great Auntie had a clock that chimed and it was a wedding present belonging to my Great Grandparents. Auntie never had any children and was close to my dad. She gave my dad the clock. As a child I had insomnia and couldn't bear to hear it chiming, so parents let it go flat and it lived on top of their wardrobe. Some years later, on the night of my Auntie's death, the clock started chiming from the top of the wardrobe. It gives me such comfort. Also, shortly before my grandad died, his deceased sister came back to visit him.

It does worry me on the prospect that there is just "nothing" after death. Just oblivion, and quote boring to be frank.

I'm not religious, but my belief is that after death, you re-manifest as another being. It could be a newborn and you become that newborn, with no recollection of your previous life. This is because you don't share any of the human tissue from that previous life. The new life would happen shortly after the death of your previous/current life i.e. you're on the same time line.

I definitely do but not the heaven/hell thing.

I strongly believe in spiritual energy and this is just one plane of existence we currently reside in. There's much more to the universe than we know.

Energy literally is everything

I’m with you OP, not entirely on life after death but we are all so unique and so individual with all this energy and experiences throughout our lives that’s I don’t believe we just cease to be and that is a comfort. Although working in nursing, death does not frighten me and it is just another part of life, I live my life now I want to be remembered and I’m the kind of nurse that I would like any nurse to be for me.

we underestimate the power of a touch, kind word and a smile (can’t remember whose quote this was)

^ THIS!^^

Absolutely, this!
And even if you don't experience anything of a mystical nature, I believe we experience our loved ones in so many ways after their death. They are not only in us and our memories, but I find myself knowing what they would say to me in any given situation... so they do still speak to me... I just have to listen for their familiar voice.

So many people say when they witness the moment of death ( and I have to say that's not something I have experienced personally) that the body is just a shell - it is no longer 'them'. So where are they? If their body isn't 'them' then what is? Their personility, their spirit, their energy? These things leave the body at death, but that doesn't mean they die as well. We can't see any of those things in life either. There is so much we don't know or understand. But it is a scientific fact that energy does not die.

So for me, personally - I still involve my loved ones in everything I do. The space between us shrinks rather than grows. I often find 'co-incidences' along the path. Some will say they are exactly that... but with my advancing years I no longer tend to believe in coincidence!

To people who think there's life after death what about dogs, cats, birds, bees etc do they have life after death? We are all animals on this planet after all.
Does the bird that died meet up with other birds in the afterlife?
I think it's a load of tosh and it's hearsay. It's never been proved either. People find it a comfort and that's why they say it.

Whole swathes of ancient civilisations would beg to differ! The belief in animal spirits helped to build entire societies and religions. Native Americans? Greek Gods? You have just thrown away the beliefs held by a millenia of civilisations in a single sentence!

I had a reading from a Medium less than 3 weeks after my DH died in a RTA. I’d never met her before, I didn’t live in her area, I only told her my first name. I was so desperate for info that I made sure I told her nothing, gave her no leads.
She gave me 20 facts which she couldn’t have known and at least 7 names. There was no guessing — no case of “it’s Jimmy, Joe, John, that sort of name.”

She told me his daughter Michaela , you have a daughter whose name begins with C , Who is Joanna who’s helping you at the moment ( bf , parked down the road in case I fell apart) Even gave me my dog’s name.

I’ve had so much evidence from this reading and many others that I’ve no doubt my DH has several of our pets with him and we’ll be together again one day.

I have seen my DH, just once, and only really saw his legs, standing in the garden watching me cutting the grass ( and probably thinking “ she’s going to fall off that bloody mower”)

I'd like to believe in it OP. My nan who died kept seeing my grandad in the weeks up to her death, telling her it was time to come home. She said she was too scared then the day before she died, she told all the nurses she was going home the next day and she died.
One evening I was really upset, I was so close to her, that I just asked her to see me. I went to sleep and had the most surreal dream and I heard her voice as if she was right next to me. I woke up with a jolt but I felt so happy. It's probably my mind remembering but I'm glad it did.
I've asked her and my other family members to help out with things and I always see a white butterfly the next day.

It does worry me on the prospect that there is just "nothing" after death. Just oblivion, and quote boring to be frank.

That's exactly why I have no fear of death and find the longing for some sort of afterlife completely bizarre. What do you recall of the time before you were born? Nothing. Because you didn't exist. You weren't sat around for all eternity bored to tears waiting to be born. The same happens after death. You won't be sitting around full of regrets, because you will have ceased to exist and gone back to the same non-state as before you were born. How people can't grasp that this is the ultimate, perfect 'peace' is baffling.

You have just thrown away the beliefs held by a millenia of civilisations in a single sentence!

Time, progress, and a better understanding of our universe does that by itself. It's no coincidence that religiosity prevails in the most backward parts of our planet. The more you educate people, the more they are equipped to realise that there is no afterlife because there is simply no reason for there to be one. The universe functions perfectly adequately without it. It's a figment of the human imagination, just like the gods, religions, and faiths that espouse it.

Not long after my mum died I opened my sunglasses case, not been needed for ages and there was a small white feather inside. I am not a believer in anything woo but I did cry and wonder if it was mum sending me a sign, i have no idea how it got in there and in a way its quite comforting.

I am enjoying reading all these posts . It’s good to get all points of view but I must admit I am particularly savouring the pro life after death stories! Please keep them coming…

The day my mum died I came out of the hospital and was sobbing, I got in the car to drive and shouted 'where are you mum!' A few seconds later a white feather floated onto the dash, I still have that feather. The day after I came up behind a car with my mums name on the number plate. I get things she said she'd send me before she died. Coincidence who knows but it brings me comfort to think she's still with me.

Time, progress, and a better understanding of our universe does that by itself. It's no coincidence that religiosity prevails in the most backward parts of our planet. The more you educate people, the more they are equipped to realise that there is no afterlife because there is simply no reason for there to be one. The universe functions perfectly adequately without it. It's a figment of the human imagination, just like the gods, religions, and faiths that espouse it.

And yet here we are in the capitalist, western, oh so progressive world, arguably being the very civilisation which will destroy ourselves with our own behaviours. Progress you say! As for religions prevailing in the most 'backward' (as you so beautifully put it!) parts of the world, did I miss the part where we are the very people who have tried to take 'religion' to the heathen masses.

I find it fascinating @Butitsnotfunnyisititsserious that several people report their loved ones being visited by deceased relatives before they died. I’ve read about it elsewhere too. Of course , it could be argued that it’s hallucinations caused by drugs / medications or an ailing mind BUT there does seem to be plenty of cases where the mind is perfectly lucid. I’d love to know if my mum received any visits before she went. She didn’t say she had, but then I doubt she would have spoken about it.

OP, Jesus came back from the dead to prove that there was an afterlife. He promised that “I go to prepare a place for you.”
The Bible tells us that “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying.”

I am a science based, retired doctor, and a Christian. The two are not incompatible.
I look forward to the day God reunites me with my much loved husband, who died 30 years ago.

My mother saw my father in the corner of the room a couple of days before she died - he’d died 4 months earlier.
Personally I’m with @XDownwiththissortofthingX ,; I lost my faith years ago and really don’t understand how you apparently will meet up with those who have gone before you, whether or not you liked/loved/disliked/avoided them in life?! The thought of being stuck with some people I have strongly disliked and avoided, for eternity, just horrifies me.

Logical part of me doesn't believe but I really hope there is . I would love to see my nan again and friend who sadly ended his life.

Does that mean when I die I can meet up with my cat again.

What if don't want to see my cat again.
I don't buy it. Our brain is switched off when we die we are no more.
We didn't know anything before we were born either although some ppl will probably say they lived in a past life. More hearsay. No hard scientific fact.

I like to believe in an afterlife as I cannot believe that someone as complex and vibrant as a human being can just end - we are all made up of so much energy and emotion and feeling, it can't just disappear. Yes the body might stop but everything else must go somewhere.

I do believe in reincarnation as my middle child at the age of 2 gave very detailed details about when he was big and his grandfather and grandmother and falling off a boat but not being scared under the water as he knew he was dying but would be ok.. He also mentioned eating pigs trotters when he was 'big'. It was SO freaky hearing all that coming from a toddler! He was so matter of fact about it too!

Western civilisation is hardly unique in destroying itself through vanity or misadventure. History is littered with civilisations and empires that engineered their own downfall. Religion played an active part in some of those, so it hardly ensures that a dutifully observant people will somehow persevere where the godless will fail.

As for our own evangelism; well yes, but I think you can make arguments for that being both positive and negative, it is what it is and of it's time. Seems to be a bit less zeal for it now thankfully, though as we are becoming less and less concerned with the divine I wouldn't be surprised to see it happening in reverse. I suppose we already get it to a degree with the US conservatives pushing regressive agenda, but there is already plenty of totally unjustifiable church involvement in things that should be entirely secular in the UK as it is, and I'd like to see that consigned to history first.

Does that mean when I die I can meet up with my cat again.
What if don't want to see my cat again.

Ah, but the question is, does your cat want to see you again?

Likewise.

I can't see the attraction of an eternity lumbered with people I've spent most of my life doing my best to avoid. On top of that, what the hell are you expected to DO for all eternity? Everything gets boring and unattractive after a while if you do it often enough. It sounds very much like what 'hell' is supposed to be.

Human lifetime is plenty, thanks very much. It's a crumb of comfort to know that it is finite.

I like to think it's true as it means I've got a shot at seeing my mum again. I have had very vivid dreams in which she's come to visit me and we've had long chats and hugs, we've talked about the kids, then she's said goodbye and I've woken up. My heart would love to think it's a genuine visit, but my head knows it's just a longing my brain has turned into a dream.