Do you believe in life after death? - If you post ...

This thread has made me cry.

I like to think there is, small comfort that one day I will meet my grandparents again as well as my pets.
I recall sitting with a friends elderly dad until she could get up from London to sit with him. He had had a heart attack and "died" in his hospital bed but they managed to resuscitate him. He told me the angels told him to come back it was not his time.
Put it this was if there isn't then we will never know will we.
I believe all the energy has to go somewhere. But then I guess that somewhere must be very crowded by now.

Well I don't know about what occurs after death but I was once in a traumatic life threatening situation and at one point there was a kind of seperation. I wasn't in my body but above it, looking down on what was happening and reviewing my entire life. It sounds trivial when I type it but it was the most sublime experience. No pain, only joy of a kind I have never,ever experienced before.. After I went back into my body, and the event was over, although I had severe physical injury, I felt only inner joy. It lasted about a month and I want(ed) it to come back. It makes me feel there is much to do with life and death that we don't know.

I really hope there is life after death.I would truely be in heaven if i was reunited with my mum.

willa45 - I think that you will find that, while our cells change over time, the connections between brain cells are maintained and it is those connections that supply our sense of self and our memories rather than the cells themselves.

I think that the sense that a recently lost loved one is communicating with us in some way is down to "brain lag." It can be equated to looking into the sun, then for a short time afterwards you can "see" the sun as a darker ball in your field of vision even when you have looked away. If your brain is habituated to the sounds and sight of a loved one over many years, it is not surprising that the brain visualises or hears them for some time to come.

Paddyann So sorry for the loss of your babyD Amazing tales you tell. When I was a child, I would get, like flash backs, of places & people too. As you get older you loose this ability, shame we don't learn to develop it instead of letting it go.

Imperfect So very sorry about your dear daughter & mum I certainly do believe that for a short time after death, they are still here with us, after that I'm not sure. Thank you for sharing.
Only read up to this posts, read more later...

Wow theGlovers1 that is amazing - I've never heard that before, the hair returning to its former glory.
It's true, Willa45 we do grow new cells all the time, and they have the memory of the previous cells. There are quite a few books on the market now that describe, or are written by people who have had transplants and have "inherited" their donors' memories and tastes.

I do not believe in life after death. I feel confident in asserting that the idea is a) a means of finding comfort in loss and fully understand the pain of having to face up to the death of someone one has loved dearly and wanting to believe that there is something more and a future somehow still together; b) more importantly, a means of enforcing "good behaviour" by whichever group is in charge of whichever religion. "Do what we tell you now and don't complain and you will have everlasting life with endless glorious reward".

I believe that I am some sort of biochemical accident along with the rest of the human race. I believe that if I have any sort of immortality it is in the memories of those I have touched and loved. I truly do not want a life in heaven or reincarnation or any sort of human-imagined life after death. One life is enough for me and when it ends, so be it.

For many years I worked as a nurse on night duty when patients tended to die. Many patients close to the end would call out to their mothers and I frequently witnessed them becoming calm and serene with the most beautiful smiles as they appeared to see something we could not. When my own mother died my sisters and I sat with her .As she died her hair changed from grey to jet black ,her original colour .It was so strange and something I had never seen before. There appeared to be a look of pure joy on her face. I like to believe she was met by her loved ones and taken off to another dimension .

I do, but I think it is way outside our human understanding. We are very complex beings and have a huge subconscious. I have not seen many dead people but the overriding impression is that the body is merely a shell, the person isn't there.

I'd like to think so but it would also make me fel incredibly sad as my loved ones have never "visited" me.

In a biology class many years ago, I learned that the human body is made up of millions of cells that are constantly dividing, dying and being replaced by entirely different new ones yet they are similar to their predecessors.

It is approximately a seven year process for several million cells in our bodies to replace themselves in their entirety.

So, if all the cells in our body are not the same ones we had seven years ago, wouldn't that in essence be the same as having a different body than the one that we started out with? (also consistent with the aging process). If we end up in a different body yet our memories and our sense of self remain intact, can it be that our conscious self preserves continuity in a body made up of cells that are finite? Think about the implications of that! (food for thought!)

un

Doh!

"un"explainable!

I think there is something more.

It would take me all night to recount why I feel as I do, why I believe we live on in spirit form. I have had so many experiences which lead me to believe death isn't the end.

I am not religious, nor do I see mediums etc. I feel there are charlatans who do exploit those wanting to believe.

I believe there is more because of explainable things that have happened to me.

Some years ago I had a "near death experience" it was as though I had just shrugged off my body like an old overcoat that I no longer needed and the spirit that was me felt so safe and happy as I looked back on my body. I do believe that our spirit lives on but of course there is so much we don't know or understand

I don't.
My DD was cremated.

By extension - are you suggesting that by being reduced to ash, the 'spirit' of the person is destroyed too? That there is nothing left to pass on? Would that mean anyone who died in a fire ... Where would the boundary lie?

When my DD died, the police came to our house to tell us there had been an accident and to take me to the hospital where she and my other children had been taken. As I went out to get into the police car, I had a strange experience. I had hesitated on the doorstep and looked up at the night sky .. it was a really beautiful starry night. I cannot adequately explain it, but I suddenly felt a hovering presence above my head and I knew it was her. I spoke to her and said 'Don't worry, we will be alright. I know you are dead. I love you.' Just as quickly as it had come, this sense of raw energy - that's what it was - moved away ...
I don't find it easy to share this - I think many people would say ' That is the shock / you imagined it' etc, etc. In my mind, she definitely came to say goodbye.

The point I am making is that whatever was the 'essence' of her - her soul, her spirit - that was already released and gone before she was cremated.

does anyone think or believe that it makes a difference (experiencing things) if the person has been cremated or buried.

Meaning, if a person has been cremated do people experience happenings or is it only with people that have been buried.

My dh was cremated just over 3 yrs ago now and other than dreams(and the robin visiting) I have yet to experience anything else...but I will live in hope...

It was mauraB's first post I was agreeing with not the pierced ears one.

Yes I do believe, and I have had MY proof!

Hello imperfect27 thank you. This happened a few years ago but I will never get over it. We just have to try to do our best. I am so sorry about your Daughter. Life can be so difficult at times. Terrible things can happen that we would never expect. Yes it was a huge shock for me and my family. I really wish he would just come back home but unfortunately that's not to be. My best wishes to you and your family.

rascal I am so sorry to read of your loss . I lost my daughter suddenly and was not able to say goodbye. This is traumatic for us and causes deep shock which takes time to pass. I think it also means that it can take longer for us to grieve. I hope you can be gentle with yourself and that others around you are supportive.

There are so many posts here about inexplicable experiences. Thank you for sharing.

I don't believe in life after death but something happened after my dear husbands very sudden death that no one can explain. My friend and I had come back from my Son's home where all our family were gathered for a BBQ it was a few months after the funeral. This was the first time I had been there without my husband. We all missed him vey much and felt he should be there too. I felt quite sad as all my family missed their Dad so much. We took pictures of our family gathering.
When my friend and I returned home we transferred the pictures on to my laptop so we could see them better. It was starting to get dark by then. I looked at them and said to my friend it's a pity my husband isn't in them too as he always was. A few minutes later we saw small sparkly lights above us on the ceiling. We couldn't believe our eyes. They were there for quite a while. My friend asked me if I had put something up on the ceiling, of course not I couldn't get up there. She said well if you haven't done anything I'm frightened. I felt frightened too. We had never seen anything like that before. I thought it was my beloved husband letting me know that he was with me. This happened several times in the same room in the evenings. But it hasn't happened again. I just don't understand how it happened or how it works but I now feel there must be something that can make it happen. You see my beloved died very suddenly without warning and he had never been ill. So we never had time to say goodbye. It is just so awful but I still feel he is with me which is comforting. I miss him so much and I always will.

mauraB Thankyou for saying what I couldn't put into words ...