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?

Don't use Ouija boards, they really aren't safe

I think suggesting ludicrous explanations is dismissing them. An earthquake! Really? What on several different occasions and only in my living room. Unless the poster that said that is crazy then, yes, they are dismissing my experience or else they think I am lying

So arrogant to "know" ghosts don't exist. I know they do. Come back to me when you can come up with a sensible explanation for my clock. Don't know is not a reasonable sensible answer because something made the clock move and no it was someone playing a practical joke, nor the wind nor an earthquake (what a bloody stupid suggestion).

I also had another incident with the electric meter cupboard but, as I said before, I am not prepared to tell it and be scoffed at by you. That was even weirder than the clock

If its arrogant to know ghosts don't exist then it's arrogant to know they do.

Thanks fiddie, I understand that x

No less ludicrous than ghosts.

Funny how you call others arrogant and then insult anyone who disagrees with you.

It's just their thoughts. Nothing has ever been scientifically proved as we know. It's like religion It's all hearsay.

Theologians have been working on the answers to MasterBeth's questions for centuries and I will address a tiny fraction of it at some point.

Just a tought I've had (apologies for quoting another film!) but what Gandalf says to Pippin during a battle has always stuck with me:

Lovely descriptive prose. Of course Tolkien was a Christian like C S Lewis.

Much to the disgust of Philip Pullman. Although the latter believes in all sorts of marvels himself ; they just don't include God.

Yes, love C.S.Lewis, his book The Screwtape Letters is well worth a read. Don't get me started on Philip Pullman.

Also, there was a post a while ago about someone's experience in Savernake Forest at night, they wrote:

'I got the sense of something - or somethings - moving but just sinuous deeper black shapes against the blackness and always on the periphery of vision. (The hairs on my arms are standing up again just remembering how completely and utterly terrified I was. I have honestly never known a feeling like it).
At this point the dog sank right down, still growling, hackles up and refused to budge. I muttered something like "Jesus, you have got to be kidding me" and this ugly gurgling inhuman sort of voice hissed, right up close as if someone was right next to me "don't say that name". At the same time there was a horrible snickering sort of laugh. I can't express how utterly petrified I was. I can't remember having any coherent thoughts apart from the word "evil".

If you believe the account to be true, it's interesting that whatever it was out there didn't like hearing the name Jesus.

'arrogant'? Seriously?

I'll tell you what's 'arrogant'. The sheer pomposity of some human beings who appear to believe that human civilisation is somehow 'special', and favoured by the universe in such a way that permits us, some of us at least, to circumvent fundamental and universal laws, and enjoy some sort of nonsensical, irreconcilable, post-death state.

The universe does not give a single shiny shite about humans. We are literally an utterly pointless species of talking monkey that evolved by quirk of biochemical accident. This idea that we are somehow 'privileged' or 'special' is the absolute height of arrogance.

On top of that, we are all pretty much of a muchness physiologically, so why is it that only a minority of individuals claim to experience paranormal events, and why is it that only a tiny minority of our relatives and loved-ones ever appear to choose to adopt this post-death state and display that to their still living relatives? I mean, it doesn't say much for them as people if they just decide to stay quiet when they can allegedly communicate with us from beyond the grave.

The only thing 'arrogant' is the belief that you are special, when there's absolutely nothing of any substance or credence to suggest anything of the sort.

Why can’t people just believe what they want to believe?

I don’t understand why people need to argue about it.

I believe in an afterlife where everything is wonderful and happy. I don’t care if someone else believes we die and then there is nothing.

Their belief doesn't affect me at all so what do I care if it’s different? And why do they care about mine?

Tell you what though, if I ever come back as a ghost and get troubled by a psychic, I’m not going to be all vague, giving names of someone who works down the co op and talking about something that may or may not have happened 20 years ago.

I’m going to be right in there with my full name, national insurance number and 5 years previously address history.

Yvette Fielding won’t know what’s hit her.

Exactly Pavlovascat, live and let live (or should that be die 😋).

And Darwin never actually said humans were descended from apes, he proposed all living humans have a common ancestor with all living chimps that lived millions of years ago and no longer exists. In fact, science tells us that every human alive today shares a common ancestor in their family tree. We all have the same Great, Great, Great...Grandma who lived in Africa between 150 and 200,000 years ago (called Mitochondrial Eve). At one point in time there were only about 10,000 of us on the whole planet.

We are currently on a huge chunk of rock, spinning around an enormous burning star, in the great vacuum of space people - surely anything is possible.

As an aside, Charles Townes (Nobel laureate in physics) once said, "Intelligent design, as one sees it from a scientific point of view, seems to be quite real. This is a very special universe; it's remarkable that it came out just this way. If the laws of physics weren't just the way they are, we couldn't be here at all. The sun couldn't be there, the laws of gravity and nuclear laws and magnetic theory, quantum mechanics and so on, have to be just the way they are for us to be here".

Why would anyone place any credence in someone else’s thoughts without some kind of evidence or reasoning?

I could tell you my thought that cats have souls but dogs don’t, that ginger-haired people go straight to Heaven but South American people will live in Purgatory for exactly half of Eternity, and that our life force is drained by repeated exposure to magnetism and soft cheese, and I guess you would choose not to believe me.

What makes @Vincitveritas’s claims any less ridiculous?

Only if you get a splinter.

Thank you MasterBeth, that did make me smile. 😄

This.

Thought I'd share a sermon from the Archbishop of Canterbury (bear with me!) from Easter Sunday 2021, on the subject of death:

Death is the greatest and most devastating liar. The lie that the final breath is the end, there is nothing more. The lie that we will always be separated from those that we have loved, ultimately losing those we love for ever.

We all know the finality of the death of a friend or family member. When something special happens our instinct is immediately to tell them, to call them. Then we remember. They're not here.

Of course death matters. It is brutal, terrible and cruel. But it lies when it claims to be the final word.

Easter calls time on the lie. The women in Mark's gospel had believed the lie - going to the tomb to anoint a dead body. Yet all their fears were based on a false assumption about the power of death and an inadequate understanding of the power of God.

Instead, right there in the grave were signs of resurrection. The action of God was revealed through angels who greeted them, reassured them and told them that Jesus of Nazareth had been raised.

...The truth sets us free. Lies bind us, enslave us. And no lie binds more tightly than the lies of death. If death is telling the truth then we may as well live for ourselves. Then the last year is yet another cruel period of history taking from us those we loved, ending lives cruelly and tragically.

But because Jesus who was dead is alive, death is a liar. The truth of Christ is the reality, we have certain hope and a changed future. We will be reunited with those we love. We are offered forgiveness and freedom to live God's new life as a gift - to be taken or ignored.

...We are each and all invited to accept that new reality, welcoming the living dynamic presence of God into our lives; allowing the one who conquers the greatest lie to give us the greatest life.

...Death deceives. Christ is the truth, for He is risen indeed.

I think the elements composing our bodies return to the universe and we will live on in the stars, the trees, the wind, the sea, earth etc. I think the universe has one consciousness which we are part of, but will only be fully aware of when we die. Then we will be free of time and space and be able to be everywhere, all at once, to be in everything.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX I've come up with a few theories over the years as to why only relatively few people seem to have communicated with their dead loved ones. They are:

1. A scientific/physical explanation like faulty electrical wiring, the wind, earth tremors etc.

1. Coincidences such as constantly seeing robins/feathers/numbers/ butterflies etc. Known as the frequency illusion.

1. Severe shock and/or grief causing hallucinations or the mind playing tricks.

1. Vivid or lucid dreaming.

1. Wishful thinking and a wild imagination.

1. Diseases such as Dementia, mental illness, sleep deprivation or drugs - all of which can cause hallucinations *

1. Actively inviting actual spirits through the use of occult practices such as a Ouija board (very uncommon).

• These could be things you see, hear, smell, taste or feel and can also be brought about by intense fear.

I forgot about number 8 - being somewhere the said practices have taken place and spirits have effectively taken up residence (though most of the time they are not who they claim to be).

But what is the point of that? You know your dogs name, who Joanana is? Why do people who die waste their time telling mediums this? Be honest, mediums get lucky.
And what about family you don't get on with , how does that work after life if we all get back together?
I think it's depressing to think that we die and then hang round watching snippets of our alive loved ones that we can't properly communicate with or have a life with. At least of you believe in heaven then you know you're going to be happy forever after death.
Personally I think death is like when you're asleep, except no dreams because your brain stops functioning.