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?

If someone is certain because they have seen a ghost or had something happen that really cannot be explained then, no, I would not think them narrowminded.

If someone is certain but has never had any sort of experience I would not really say they were narrowminded but I also could not see how they could be certain unless they were religious.

I think we should be open to many things being possible from life after death to life on other planets/aliens.

None of us know for sure but to totally rule something out is being narrowminded

You are not at all unreasonable to want to believe in it. It's a form of comfort that has driven all kinds of religious beliefs across centuries.

I also think it's reasonable to consider that there is no evidence for it and to look for ways to process your grief which acknowledge that.

I'm really interested to know how and why you believe this stuff about, for example, pets and aborted babies?

Who told you that this is what happens? Who told them? How do they know? Where does this knowledge come from?

. I think the point whatislove123 was trying to make is to not believe in life after death is to live without hope.

And it's an extremely insulting and patronising point. Just because you can't see anything inherently good about life doesn't mean nobody else can.

But if someone sees a ghost and is certain that there's an afterlife then they're closing their mind to the possibility that what they saw wasn't really a ghost. If people certain there is no afterlife are narrow minded then people who are certain there is one are too, regardless of whether they think they've seen a ghost or are religious or whatever.

I’m really not sure, I have had experiences that have no rational explanation. Maybe they are memories of energy as you suggest?
My mother was the daughter of a 7th son of a 7th son and as such purportedly would have psychic powers. She certainly saw people soon after their deaths and before she’d been told they had died but nothing else.
My experiences were of inanimate objects moving or being hidden, noises that couldn’t be explained. My DH definitely saw a ghost dog, which scared him silly - he’s a non believer in every sense, and a shaking Christmas tree that terrified the cats.
Who knows?

@BusterSword Please read the whole post before commenting. This life is inherently beautiful and should never be taken for granted. I have a rich, varied life and certainly not looking to leave it anytime soon.

@MasterBeth Sorry, I don't have time to post the answer to your questions at the moment!

My beloved cat died a year ago. He was an ex-feral, neutered late in life and a chronic sprayer.

My daughter's cat came over to our house to be cat-sat while her house was flea bombed. I went to let him out of the cat carrier and both DH and I smelled cat spray. Took cat out, DH took the cat carrier to give it a wash as we both thought he had peed in the cat carrier out of fear.

Nope. Cat carrier was clean, there was no cat spray smell in my room and the cat didn't smell of cat spray either.

I also think it's reasonable to consider that there is no evidence for it and to look for ways to process your grief which acknowledge that.

@MasterBeth I hear you and am doing that but one can seek comfort too . Can see no harm in reaching out and I am naturally fascinated anyway, by what is ‘out there and beyond our dimension’ as I’m sure a lot of humans are. I am reading all these posts avidly.

I did read the whole post, and I still think saying that people who don't believe in an afterlife live sad lives without hope is incredibly offensive.

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it, but I think you're focusing on the wrong thing. People waste so much time being chronically offended. Open you're mind and you'll be happier for it.

*your!

My dad died very suddenly 8 years ago.. literally dropped dead of a heart attack at home. It was very sudden and very shocking.

The night he passed I stayed with my mum as he had died in their bathroom, and I obviously wanted to be there for her as she was in total shutdown/no visible emotion shock.

I went to bed eventually.. she said she wouldn't be sleeping so not to worry if I heard her moving about.

Three things happened that night.

Firstly a lightbulb in my brothers old room suddenly exploded. Really loud bang and shattered glass everywhere.. shorted out all the lights so I was scrabbling about in the fuse box trying to get the power back on. I have never experienced a lightbulb blow as violently as that.

Secondly my OH who was back at our flat across the other side of London with our v young DC was aware of a constant banging coming from one of our wardrobes. He investigated several times and found nothing. He is in no way a fantasist/woo etc. He said whilst odd he didn't feel freaked at all. It stopped about halfway through the night never to be heard again.

Thirdly my sister and her exDH Who lived in another city had a knock on their door late the same night from the Police saying a 999 call had been received from their home phone. My sister was still in shock re my dad, and obviously had not rung them. Police asked who else was in the house, which at the time were their 2 DC.. one 5 and one 3, both of whom had been in bed for hours and hours. Police left eventually, my sister was freaked.

Now I don't know if any of it had any significance, possibly just an evening of strange events following a traumatic incident earlier in the day ( think body bag/coroner's, CID officers on the scene etc).

I do wonder though if my dad hadn't been ready to go. There were signs he had tried to grab objects on his way down.. broken soap dish, towel on the floor. Maybe he needed to let us know.. I dunno. I have had grief counselling in the past, and I'm not sure if any of it makes me feel better or worse.

People get offended when people spout offensive igorant and insulting shite.

I have to believe in it.

Mainly because my life has been monumentally shit.

The thought of heaven and all your dead pets and people you liked being there and no more pain is one of the things that gives me hope to continue.

My closest friend is from a religion that believes in reincarnation. Fuck that shit, I wouldn’t want another go round at life again.

And I have had a couple of experiences.

One being that I swear to God, my mum who died when I was young, flickers lights in anger when I am saying something that would anger her or slagging her off.

I tell her to get lost and it stops.

Freaks my husband out no end.

@crwnhgow I'm not getting into a mud-slinging contest.

Its not a mudd singing contest. Someone said something offensive, I responded.

I’ve remembered something a bit weird (or not) … just a day or so before she died , we had arrived back home in the evening from the hospital after visiting my mum. We didn’t know it, but we’d had our last conversations with her. As we were leaving I could tell she was extremely tired and weak . I’d sent her some text messages later but she never replied. Anyway, that evening we had a power cut in the home ( my parents home) . No other house in the street was affected. It didn’t last long as we flicked the fuse box and it re-started. The next morning we had a call from the hospital saying my mum had declined. We arrived and she was losing consciousness. She died the next day. I have since wondered occasionally if somehow if the power cut and her decline were linked… like a goodbye , possibly.

It is better to have an open mind than a closed one.

Some peoples' experiences just cannot be dismissed. Just read some of the stories on here. It is not just about thinking you have seen a ghost. What about objects moving?

I would find it difficult if not impossible to say I don't believe in life after death after my experiences whereas before I was not sure.

so how did my clock move? Not just move, not just topple off the sideboard but literally looked as though it was being thrown

I don't know. I wasn't there so I don't have any information to go on with which I could even hazard a guess at what might have caused it. Regardless, I'm comfortable in not accepting that it must have been a 'ghost', or a 'spirit', because no such thing exists.

You can't explain it and you know you can't.

I have no idea why you think this is some sort of 'gotcha' because I've repeatedly stated that I can't explain it, and that it's nonsense to conclude that absent of an immediately obvious explanation that it can only be down to the paranormal. My point is, and always has been that 'I don't know' is a reasonable, sensible answer. 'A ghost did it' is not.

Suggesting there may be an alternate explanation for someone's experience is not dismissing them.

It's hypocritical to tar all non-believers as closed minded and not believers.

It's in no way 'narrow minded' to expect some sort of credible evidence before you accept the existence of something.

The reason I do not believe there is any such thing as the paranormal, life after death, ghosts, or spirits, is because despite all the accounts of things that lack obvious explanations, there is still absolutely no indication whatsoever that there is any basis to these things or any sort of proof that lends credence to the claims. There is not even a credible hypothesis that would explain the existence of such things that does not irreconcilably contradict what we do already understand about the universe.

You are of course, free to claim that scepticism is 'narrow minded', however, I'd argue that accepting the existence of something as fact despite a total absence of evidence, and no credible explanation, is not 'open minded' but gullible and foolish. I am totally 'open minded' to the existence of things where there is some credible suggestion that they might exist. Hence why I don't not rule out the possibility that extra-terrestrial life exists, even though the chances of us every encountering it are infinitesimally small. We know planets exist because we have observed them, the same for black holes, and we know for a fact that rudimentary space travel is possible, therefore it's not entirely outlandish to suggest that alien life might exist and they might either be advanced enough, or one day develop to the point where they are advanced enough to travel through space. If I told you invisible aliens were responsible for 'paranormal' events, I'd rightly be laughed out of the room, but on evidence that is still far more plausible an explanation than 'spirits'.

Do you also believe in Santa Clause, the tooth fairy, 'magic', and angels? If you don't, I ask you to consider why that is, and ponder what the difference is between those and the 'paranormal' that you are willing to accept as fact.

do not rule out

Ignore the 'don't not' double-negative, it's a typo

To all the people who've had a paranormal encounter after the death of a loved one, did any of you see a Psychic Medium/use tarot cards or a ouija board etc?