Mysteries
Part III
Questions From The Spiritual Seeker
Question Thirty-Two
Is There Life After Death?
The short answer is yes. We could just leave it at that but this is an important question and deserves some comment.
If you don’t believe in life after death you are in the minority. Polls show that somewhere between 70-80% of the U.S. population believe in some type of afterlife as well as the majorities in most nations of the earth.
What’s more, a belief in an afterlife has been growing in recent years. Part of the reason for this is the popularization of near death experiences. People have had near death experiences since history began but it has only been in recent decades that these experiences have been published for mass distribution.
Near death experiences used to be seen as a rare anomaly, but now they have received such publicity that people feel more comfortable talking about them. They are not so afraid of being seen as being a crazy person as in the past. Researches figure that about a third of the people who have a significant close encounter with death have a near death experience.
Some researchers try and explain these experiences away saying that they come from a part of the brain which remains intact after the heart stops beating.
But this does not explain two things:
(1) Many describe the experience as being extremely vivid with a reality of greater intensity than life on earth. It is so vivid that many non-believers have been converted by the experience.
(2) Many have reported leaving their body and overhearing conversations and witnessing events that were verified as being true and accurate. Sometimes these events took place in the hospital and other times accurate information was retrieved from a significant distance in time or space.
The many witnesses of these experiences give powerful evidence to the fact that life not only continues when the heart stops, but one can leave his body and continue with conscious existence.
In addition to the near death experience there are numerous current studies of supernatural experiences of people who are approaching death. Perhaps the most famous in recent times occurred with Steve Jobs.
One of Steve’s sisters, Mona Simpson, gave this account of the moment of his passing. She said, “Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.”
After looking at something in the background he exclaimed, “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.” Then he passed and went to that amazing place he saw.
There are many other accounts of those on deathbeds seeing relatives standing beside them, often even talking to them. Still others have died for a few moments, came back and comforted loved ones with accounts of the beautiful world they are going to and then leaving again.
Perhaps the greatest evidence of life after death will come to the person who reflects on his own existence. Try to visualize not existing. It is pretty difficult to do. We may think it would be something like sleep, but even in sleep we live through dreams and when we are not dreaming we still have an awareness of existing and a sense of the passing of time.
Now imagine this. If you ceased to exist at death it would then be as if neither you, your loved ones, planet earth or the universe ever existed. Life would have no meaning because as soon as you ceased to exist everything in the universe would cease to exist also. There would be no you to verify the existence of anything. It would be as if existence never was.
This is indeed a strange thought when you consider it and runs contrary to the essence of the life that dwells in us.
What is life, but intelligent energy? Since energy cannot be destroyed then skeptics ought to bet on the idea that the energy which is you and me will continue. Ahh, even if we are in illusion, life is so much better when we see ourselves as continuing to exist after the body that houses us wears out. Fortunately, the reality of continuing life can be sensed by something within us that does not die.
Copyright 2014 by J J Dewey
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