Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

Some recent threads about heaven/hell. But I'm not sure what continuity we're supposed to assume between earthly consciousness and eternal consciousness.

Do we still have our memories? What about the huge % of our consciousness that is composed of chemical affective states? Does it make sense to talk about emotional gratification without social conditioning and human context? Does it make sense to talk about "pleasure" without nerve endings and a functional cerebral cortex?

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

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Some recent threads about heaven/hell. But I'm not sure what continuity we're supposed to assume between earthly consciousness and eternal consciousness.

Do we still have our memories? What about the huge % of our consciousness that is composed of chemical affective states? Does it make sense to talk about emotional gratification without social conditioning and human context? Does it make sense to talk about "pleasure" without nerve endings and a functional cerebral cortex?

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I would think not - I think any afterlife is non-physical and pretty much inconceivable to us.

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

Who needs a cerebral when you can use ***magic***.

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

Difficult to say without confirmed experimental evidence leading to a solid model for the process of continual existence after death.

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

Most religions assume that there is an essence to self. I.e., a soul. I think most religious people believe that this essence is what continues on to the afterlife from life.

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

only one way to find out....

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

I sort of imagine our consciousnesses hovering in some dimension, and interacting with each other in some way that's impossible to understand. No real way to get pleasure, but also no burdens either. The entire condition is a more pleasurable one. Maybe even the more content you are with your animal life, the more pleasurable your condition will be. But that's just my comforting little theory based on absolutely nothing.

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

Watch Casper. Should answer most of your questions.

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

No more sex? Why God, why?!

Re: Continuity between life and afterlife?
 

Not sure if this is necessarily a reply to me, but just to be clear, I do not believe in a "God." I just think dying has to be OK for some reason. Maybe it's just that the experience is so pleasurable. But I think the idea that our consciousness "graduates" to some new state (which we can't fathom in our current condition) is at least possible. It's irrelevant to think about, but I think it's possible.

And you wouldn't need sex if you were in a constant state of euphoria.