I think that the real truth is that nobody knows the answer. People may say “I know the truth and heaven (or Jannah, or Nirvana, or Valhalla, or Elysium…) is real”. However, there is no demonstrable proof of this, just as there is no proof that end of life is end of all awareness. Personally, I lean toward the belief that after death, there is nothing. Somehow that seems more comforting than hoping that the religion I was raised in is the right one.
I died on the operating table in 1983. Al I know is that I could hear the alarm, telling the surgeons that my heart had stopped. I found that I could pass through walls. I looked in on the waiting room where my husband and sons were. One son wanted Cheetos, and I know he gets Cheeto dust all over his hands, mouth, and shirt. My thoughts were that my sons needed me. I floated back to the operating room where they were shocking me back. The next thing I knew, I was in pain and in recovery. My husband asked if the boys could see me as I wake up. I asked that the one son wash the Cheeto dust off of his hands and face. Everyone wondered how I knew the boy had Cheeto dust on his hands and face.
As a house maid, I was attending the bedside of one of my clients, who was near death. For years, she used to say that religion was “hogwash”. However, before she died, she said that her late husband (who had died a few years before her) was there and showing her a heaven. She died peacefully.
In 1994, my Sister-in-law was near death, as I sat by her bed. She kept saying that her mother (who had died 40 years ago) was there and showing her heaven. She also had the sinsation of being above her body, looking down on it as she slept.
My late husband had no belief in religion, or a God. He believed you just stop existing when you died. He went into comas before his death. With one coma, my family gathered around his bed. We talked to each other as we watched him in deep coma sleep. When he awoke, he said that he had been floating around the bed and knew everything the family talked about. Now, I know that a person in a coma can hear what you say. As he got closer to death, he said that his first wife (who had died 2 years before him) was there with him, and so was his mother, and sister (who had died) and they were showing him heaven. He awoke and told me that it did not matter that he never believed in heaven all his life. He knew he was going there. Then he died.
When that moment comes before your death, someone who has passed on will be there for you and show you what they need you to know about where you will be passing on to.
@ladybarbara
I believe people think (at the end) what they want to think, not necessarily what is really happening. Our minds go where they go.
You say you died, and I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but no one ever survives actual death.
I think that not knowing is the exciting part for me.
When I was younger I was raised to believe in heaven and hell. As I got older I realized that not any one religion is right in their end of life stage. I think its up to who we are as a person. Everyone can make mistakes but learning and trying to do better (no matter how small the effort) is something that would ultimately qualify as going to heaven. From what I think heaven isnt accessed through any one religion but actions of the heart and character of the person individually.
But in the actual of dying, hovering nearby the body watching the happenings. Then go to “heaven” (your idea of heaven so the possibilities are unlimited). I think that once the actual of dying is complete spirits can better interact in the space of all time as it wouldn’t be linear.
I have been watching Grey’s Anatomy. I’m at the part where Meredith has COVID and won’t wake up (but shes in a sort of limbo on the beach) anyway, some of the characters who died are explaining what its like to die and be able to be with us when they want, but they can’t really interact with us. They try to warn us about whats going on or yell when we make bad decisions but we can’t hear or see them.
I think that what greys showed is basically the same as I always felt happens when we die.
@fosheet I recently went through my father’s passing a year ago – he was 87 – and not religious/believing at all. My mom passed in 2019, so he lived with us since then.
I told him ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful if when you finally closed your eyes you got to see mom again?’ – even though I am not sure what happens.
Ah! I don’t know…there are so many different theories and beliefs out there, right? I think there’s definitely “something” that happens. I don’t think we just turn into startdust or whatever. I feel that all the ghost phenomenon and the memories of past lives is just too much to dismiss.
I happen to like this being alive thing. Sure, sometimes things go south and things can feel pretty shitty, but for me, I think it’s better than being unalive. I hope for reincarnation. The idea of a heavenly afterlife honestly sounds like an incredibly boring way to spend all of eternity.
I have faith that even if only in the dreams of our loved ones, our souls touch the living after we go.
Maybe there is some bardo semi-liminal semi-living space between life and death where consciousness exists, maybe it goes on well after, and maybe all we get is permanent dreamless sleep. Maybe all of the above are true for different people. Maybe existing according to the vedas permits reincarnation and according to the judeachristian tradition an afterlife remembered by your loved ones, but what are you gonna do after being dead for 10,000 years? Relate to people that never heard of you and live according to radically different principles?
Stargate SG-1’s Ancients/Artari are an interesting take on living forever as energy.
Personally, I don’t believe heaven and hell is something Christianity determines so much as our own personal beliefs interplaying with the beliefs about us in those that remember us.
13 responses to “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE?”
I think that the real truth is that nobody knows the answer. People may say “I know the truth and heaven (or Jannah, or Nirvana, or Valhalla, or Elysium…) is real”. However, there is no demonstrable proof of this, just as there is no proof that end of life is end of all awareness. Personally, I lean toward the belief that after death, there is nothing. Somehow that seems more comforting than hoping that the religion I was raised in is the right one.
I died on the operating table in 1983. Al I know is that I could hear the alarm, telling the surgeons that my heart had stopped. I found that I could pass through walls. I looked in on the waiting room where my husband and sons were. One son wanted Cheetos, and I know he gets Cheeto dust all over his hands, mouth, and shirt. My thoughts were that my sons needed me. I floated back to the operating room where they were shocking me back. The next thing I knew, I was in pain and in recovery. My husband asked if the boys could see me as I wake up. I asked that the one son wash the Cheeto dust off of his hands and face. Everyone wondered how I knew the boy had Cheeto dust on his hands and face.
As a house maid, I was attending the bedside of one of my clients, who was near death. For years, she used to say that religion was “hogwash”. However, before she died, she said that her late husband (who had died a few years before her) was there and showing her a heaven. She died peacefully.
In 1994, my Sister-in-law was near death, as I sat by her bed. She kept saying that her mother (who had died 40 years ago) was there and showing her heaven. She also had the sinsation of being above her body, looking down on it as she slept.
My late husband had no belief in religion, or a God. He believed you just stop existing when you died. He went into comas before his death. With one coma, my family gathered around his bed. We talked to each other as we watched him in deep coma sleep. When he awoke, he said that he had been floating around the bed and knew everything the family talked about. Now, I know that a person in a coma can hear what you say. As he got closer to death, he said that his first wife (who had died 2 years before him) was there with him, and so was his mother, and sister (who had died) and they were showing him heaven. He awoke and told me that it did not matter that he never believed in heaven all his life. He knew he was going there. Then he died.
When that moment comes before your death, someone who has passed on will be there for you and show you what they need you to know about where you will be passing on to.
@ladybarbara
I believe people think (at the end) what they want to think, not necessarily what is really happening. Our minds go where they go.
You say you died, and I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but no one ever survives actual death.
At least that’s what I believe.
@IceCreamMan You do survive when you are on the operating table with an expert medical team shocking you back to life.
@ladybarbara
My opinion is that you never really ‘died’.
I think that not knowing is the exciting part for me.
When I was younger I was raised to believe in heaven and hell. As I got older I realized that not any one religion is right in their end of life stage. I think its up to who we are as a person. Everyone can make mistakes but learning and trying to do better (no matter how small the effort) is something that would ultimately qualify as going to heaven. From what I think heaven isnt accessed through any one religion but actions of the heart and character of the person individually.
But in the actual of dying, hovering nearby the body watching the happenings. Then go to “heaven” (your idea of heaven so the possibilities are unlimited). I think that once the actual of dying is complete spirits can better interact in the space of all time as it wouldn’t be linear.
I have been watching Grey’s Anatomy. I’m at the part where Meredith has COVID and won’t wake up (but shes in a sort of limbo on the beach) anyway, some of the characters who died are explaining what its like to die and be able to be with us when they want, but they can’t really interact with us. They try to warn us about whats going on or yell when we make bad decisions but we can’t hear or see them.
I think that what greys showed is basically the same as I always felt happens when we die.
@fosheet I really think it’s like when the doctors ‘put you under’ for something. No memory, no dreaming, just nothing.
@IceCreamMan to me thats the most exciting part. Not knowing. Maybe because it’s a journey no one can ever goce their experiences on.
I also like your answer because it brings comfort without explanation being required.
@fosheet I recently went through my father’s passing a year ago – he was 87 – and not religious/believing at all. My mom passed in 2019, so he lived with us since then.
I told him ‘wouldn’t it be wonderful if when you finally closed your eyes you got to see mom again?’ – even though I am not sure what happens.
@IceCreamMan people see loved ones before they pass away. So really its possible. My condolences on the passing of your dad.
It’s just gonna be me & Jesus exploring an empty ghost-town type heaven.
Ah! I don’t know…there are so many different theories and beliefs out there, right? I think there’s definitely “something” that happens. I don’t think we just turn into startdust or whatever. I feel that all the ghost phenomenon and the memories of past lives is just too much to dismiss.
I happen to like this being alive thing. Sure, sometimes things go south and things can feel pretty shitty, but for me, I think it’s better than being unalive. I hope for reincarnation. The idea of a heavenly afterlife honestly sounds like an incredibly boring way to spend all of eternity.
I know I don’t know.
I have faith that even if only in the dreams of our loved ones, our souls touch the living after we go.
Maybe there is some bardo semi-liminal semi-living space between life and death where consciousness exists, maybe it goes on well after, and maybe all we get is permanent dreamless sleep. Maybe all of the above are true for different people. Maybe existing according to the vedas permits reincarnation and according to the judeachristian tradition an afterlife remembered by your loved ones, but what are you gonna do after being dead for 10,000 years? Relate to people that never heard of you and live according to radically different principles?
Stargate SG-1’s Ancients/Artari are an interesting take on living forever as energy.
Personally, I don’t believe heaven and hell is something Christianity determines so much as our own personal beliefs interplaying with the beliefs about us in those that remember us.