Five Kinds of Afterlife

[godBoy]

I find it odd that atheists would give reincarnation such a large probability of being right.
For me I'm about 99.268 percent sure it's number 1. Too many times has it been right in my past experience.

[MidGe]

[ QUOTE ]

For me I'm about 99.268 percent sure it's number 1. Too many times has it been right in my past experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess we are talking a very small sample. LOL.

[Peter666]

The only choice for all of you:

[Bataglin]

Lol - picture from the annual SM-convention? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Regarding the afterlife-options: My choice is #3, followed by the interesting dark horse #4.

[TomBrooks]

I'll go with 4, minus the heaven or hell. The afterlife heaven and hell thing is just a myth to advise/cajole/scare people into being good. The Bible also says "Heaven is within you." I think that's closer to the truth. I'm not sure if you retain an individual consiousness after you die though.

[Shandrax]

[ QUOTE ]
3. A realization, upon death, that your human brain was just a receiever for the real you that exists elsewhere all the time, perhaps in another dimension (See the last chapter of Poker Gaming and Life).

[/ QUOTE ]

Believe it or not, but I had the same idea a couple of years ago (even before Matrix) and I think it is something that we can expect in the near future. One day the human brain will be decyphered and the soul will be seen as nothing but a very complex algorithm based on an individual neuronal net. Scientists we will be able create an interface between the human brain and a computer and they will be able to save some sort of data and one day there will be a virtual world where the brain-code of dead people will be allowed to "live" forever or at least until someone or something pulls the plug. There will be a world of the living and parallel virtual world of the dead. Btw, I'd call it "HADES" which stands for something like "human-after-death-emulated-society" as a reminder of greek mythology).

The only downside is that "living" forever in a virtual world could turn out to be extremely boring....after a couple of million years and maybe some of those people will eventually wish that they could end their existance once and forever. The debate of the future will be if this should be allowed or not.

[carlo]

1,2,3,and 4 all have elements of truth in them. #5 is difficult and false.

How about pre-life, doesn't anyone talk of this state?

carlo

[benkahuna]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3. A realization, upon death, that your human brain was just a receiever for the real you that exists elsewhere all the time, perhaps in another dimension (See the last chapter of Poker Gaming and Life).

[/ QUOTE ]
If this were true, taking LSD would not alter our consciousness.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree. I think the experiences are likely similar in a number of ways so LSD could alter consciousness in a way similar to events at death.

LSD should not be confused with killing or almost killing a person. The only potentially deleterious physical effect LSD has is in vitro chromosomal breakage which is not known to cause any physical problems and this effect also occurs in the presence of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and to the same extent. I'd be quite surprised if it were less significant with LSD b/c the effective dose is 3 orders of magnitude (in the 1000X range) lower than that of aspirin.

If you read Rick Strassman's clinical research articles, you'll find close relationships between ketamine and near death experiences. Ketamine has a fair number of experiential similiarities with more classic tryptamine and phenethylamine psychedelics. Additionally, Strassman has written a bit about DMT and its relationship with a 49 day life/death cycle, though that writing had a more spiritual slant to it than his ketamine studies.


I have no idea what happens when people die. The person's body falls apart and we lose the more obvious connection to a person's consciousness. Clearly there are some biological happenings during near death experiences that occur in some people. Since that's all we have to go on, I feel presumptuous in guessing. I'm more of a wait and see what happens kind of guy.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No, randomness is good when you have an infinite number of trials. It assures that everything possible will eventually happen infinitely many times.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can it not also make the number of possibilities infinite?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is why I was not very specific about "that which makes my consciousness me". I know it's not my DNA, for if I had a twin, or I was cloned, I would not experience the consciousness of that twin or clone.

Is it my brain? I can't make an exact copy of my brain, yet the atoms making up my brain are constantly being exchanged. Also a surgeon could cut out some parts of my brain and I would still feel like the same self. But perhaps this "self" is just an illusion of the memory and awareness functions of my brain, and the idea of reincarnation makes no sense.

[maurile]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
3. A realization, upon death, that your human brain was just a receiever for the real you that exists elsewhere all the time, perhaps in another dimension (See the last chapter of Poker Gaming and Life).

[/ QUOTE ]
If this were true, taking LSD would not alter our consciousness.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree. I think the experiences are likely similar in a number of ways so LSD could alter consciousness in a way similar to events at death.

LSD should not be confused with killing or almost killing a person. The only potentially deleterious physical effect LSD has is in vitro chromosomal breakage which is not known to cause any physical problems and this effect also occurs in the presence of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), and to the same extent. I'd be quite surprised if it were less significant with LSD b/c the effective dose is 3 orders of magnitude (in the 1000X range) lower than that of aspirin.

If you read Rick Strassman's clinical research articles, you'll find close relationships between ketamine and near death experiences. Ketamine has a fair number of experiential similiarities with more classic tryptamine and phenethylamine psychedelics. Additionally, Strassman has written a bit about DMT and its relationship with a 49 day life/death cycle, though that writing had a more spiritual slant to it than his ketamine studies.


I have no idea what happens when people die. The person's body falls apart and we lose the more obvious connection to a person's consciousness. Clearly there are some biological happenings during near death experiences that occur in some people. Since that's all we have to go on, I feel presumptuous in guessing. I'm more of a wait and see what happens kind of guy.

[/ QUOTE ]
You've totally lost me, but here's the point I was making.

If the human brain were just a receiver, and the real center of your conscious experience exists somewhere else (as in Poker, Gaming, and Life), then you could not affect your conscious experience by doing things to your brain -- like exposing it to LSD or a jackhammer or whatever.