Life after death belief

[factseeker88]

Last night I dreamed about my parents again, as I have done countless times since they both died in 1978. I knew they were dreams so when I woke I didn't think much of it.

I wonder what ancient people thought when they had the same kind of dream, and didn't have my knowledge. Would they think their parents were still alive in a mysterious place, a place where they would go after they died, and pass it on to their next generation, a long chain of generations up until today, If so, that could explain why most believe they have a another life in an other place after they die.

​

“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO.” John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

This moment is your life. Omar Khayyam

 

[Shiranui117]

Having a dream and encountering your parents who live on after death are not mutually exclusive.

 

[George-ananda]

I want to chime in with pro after-life thoughts but don't think I should in this Christian DIR.

Are the non-Christians above welcome to post here? Our Hindu DIR would have swatted this down but maybe we're a more contentious bunch.

 

[swamplizard]

Greetings,

There is a source of all, what happens to an individual's personality after passing is pure speculation.

JMHO
best,
swampy

 

[Cardboard]

Well said, but it has nothing to do with -- why do most people believe in an afterlife?

I have no idea if there is or there isn’t an after life, and honestly, I don’t think you do for sure either.
But I do hope there is, I hope that this existence isn’t as finite as my blink of a life, maybe, it could be as simple as that. Hope of an afterlife, in contrast to the possible futility of our short existence on this earth. this may be what carries the Belief, expounded by generations and religious dogma.

 

[George-ananda]

Hey, If Mud is in, I am too.

Then I'll jump in too, to say 'I believe the afterlife exists' and I'm not resorting to faith to make that statement. I have studied a wide variety of paranormal phenomena suggesting life after death and I don't see how the physical-only hypothesis can possibly be correct.

There is a website I like that discusses the depth and breadth of this evidence.

Afterlife Evidence


I understand the common sense appeal of believing only what we can perceive with our senses (and perhaps physical instruments) is real. And because the afterlife has been so entwined with religious thinking, and people can point to poor examples of religious thinking, that they are just turned off by the whole subject.

 

[HonestJoe]

"Ancient people" weren’t stupid. They'd be perfectly capable of understanding the concept of dreams since they, like us, would dream of people who were alive and well as dead and they'd dream of things they knew weren't real as well as things they knew were.

I'm sure they would sometimes interpret dreams as having some kind of practical meaning in their real lives but plenty of people still do that today. It actually wouldn't surprise me if ancient people didn't have enough free time to obsess about such things and didn't worry about them half as much as many people do now.

 

[Cardboard]

Hey, If Mud is in, I am too.

Then I'll jump in too, to say 'I believe the afterlife exists' and I'm not resorting to faith to make that statement. I have studied a wide variety of paranormal phenomena suggesting life after death and I don't see how the physical-only hypothesis can possibly be correct.

I am sure with all of that "evidence" and those testimonials that the James Randy foundation would give out that million!!!

 

[George-ananda]

I am sure with all of that "evidence" and those testimonials that the James Randy foundation would give out that million!!!

You can't even qualify for the million for having an NDE or any spontaneous experience no matter how much evidence you have. A lot of interesting things can't be subjected to repeatable tests.

 

[Cardboard]

You can't even qualify for the million for having an NDE or any spontaneous experience no matter how much evidence you have. A lot of interesting things can't be subjected to repeatable tests.

That is because there is no possible way with reasonable and proper controls to test these things.

I worked in ER at a university hospital on and off for years , I remember in trauma 1 trauma 6 ,in 2 of the OR’s and I think some of the cardiac rooms, they had face up pictures in the room by the ceiling , they changed them out every month.
A friend of mine over the micro lab, kept up with it, never a positive recognition on any of them, ever, in that hospital. But of course that is just my own personal experience.

 

[factseeker88]

You can't even qualify for the million for having an NDE or any spontaneous experience no matter how much evidence you have. A lot of interesting things can't be subjected to repeatable tests.

All experience is spontaneous in this cause and effect uncontrollable world.

:yes::yes::yes:

“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fate leads him who follows it, drags him who resists.” Plutarch[/FONT]


“[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]My life has a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot.” Ashleigh Brilliant[/FONT]

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Last night I dreamed about my parents again, as I have done countless times since they both died in 1978. I knew they were dreams so when I woke I didn't think much of it.
I wonder what ancient people thought when they had the same kind of dream, and didn't have my knowledge. Would they think their parents were still alive in a mysterious place, a place where they would go after they died, and pass it on to their next generation, a long chain of generations up until today, If so, that could explain why most believe they have a another life in an other place after they die.​

“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is WHAT WE DO.” John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)
This moment is your life. Omar Khayyam

Noah's great grandson Nimrod - Genesis 10:8-9 - set up false religious-myth worship in ancient Babylon which was Not what the Bible really teaches.
As those ancient people migrated out of Babel they took with them their false religious ideas and practices and spread them worldwide throughout the world.
Globally spread their false religious ideas into a greater religious Babylon or Babylon the Great.
That is why we see so many similar or overlapping religious ideas in today's world Not in harmony with Scripture.

The hope Jesus' gives for your parents is that you could see them again in the resurrection on resurrection day, meaning Jesus' millennium-long day of governing over earth.
All the resurrections which Jesus performed while on earth brought people back to healthy physical life on earth. Jesus resurrected No one to heaven.
That was a small preview, or coming attraction, of what Jesus will be doing on a grand global scale during his millennial reign over earth, or over earthly subjects - Psalms 72:8

Jesus did Not teach ' after life ' in the sense that the dead are alive, rather Jesus taught the dead are Not conscious - John 11:11-14 - but asleep in death.
Jesus was well educated in the old Hebrew Scriptures which teach unconscious sleep in death:
- Psalms 6:5; Psalms 13:3; Psalms 115:17; Psalms 146:4; Daniel 12:2; Daniel 12:13; Ecclesiastes 9:5

Since we can Not resurrect oneself or another we need someone who can do that for us. Jesus can and will - Revelation 1:18; Psalms 49:7; Psalms 49:15
So, the majority of mankind will Not awaken from death's sleep until Jesus begins his 1,000-year governmental rulership over earth.
That is why Acts of the Apostles 24:15 uses the ' future tense ' in saying: there ' will be ' a resurrection.......

So, as the dead Jesus went, Not to some mysterious place at death, but Jesus went to the temporary grave - Acts of the Apostles 2:27; Psalms 16:10; Acts of the Apostles 3:15
The Bible's hell or hades, is simply mankind's stone-cold grave, the grave where the unconscious dead sleep in death until they are resurrected out of the grave.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

I have no idea if there is or there isn’t an after life, and honestly, I don’t think you do for sure either.
But I do hope there is, I hope that this existence isn’t as finite as my blink of a life, maybe, it could be as simple as that. Hope of an afterlife, in contrast to the possible futility of our short existence on this earth. this may be what carries the Belief, expounded by generations and religious dogma.

In Scripture there is No ' afterlife ' teaching but ' resurrection '
Afterlife seems to indicate that a person is more alive at death then before death.
Whereas, the Bible teaches the dead know nothing - Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalms 115:17; Psalms 146:4; John 11:12-14
The dead are un-conscious ( as a sleeping person is Not conscious of the passing of time while asleep )
So, the hope for the 'sleeping dead' is to be awakened on Resurrection Day ( Jesus' millennium-long day of governing over Earth for a thousand years ). That is why the ' future tense' is used at Acts of the Apostles 24:15 that there ' is going to be ' a resurrection.... That future resurrection is what the prophet Daniel looked forward - Daniel 12:2,13

We originally were Not intended to have a short or limited existence on this Earth.
Since we are innocent of what father Adam brought upon us, Jesus' paid a ransom price of his life for us - Matthew 20:28 - so that we to can gain permanent 'everlasting life on Earth' as originally offered to Adam before his downfall.

 

[Clear]

Factseeker88 said in the OP : “Last night I dreamed about my parents again, as I have done countless times since they both died in 1978. I knew they were dreams so when I woke I didn't think much of it. I wonder what ancient people thought when they had the same kind of dream, and didn't have my knowledge. Would they think their parents were still alive in a mysterious place, a place where they would go after they died, and pass it on to their next generation, a long chain of generations up until today, If so, that could explain why most believe they have a another life in another place after they die. “


Hi Factseeker88 : I think there are many interpretations and worldviews about death, I like the early Judeo-Christian teaching that much is happening during sleep (and death) as a time of active communication.

For example, the Jewish Talmud refers to sleep as 1/60th of death [Be’rachot 57b 5th paragraph] and dreams are referred to as 1/60th of revelation. Rabbi Greisman explains the early Jewish belief that during sleep, the spirit is free of (and less distracted by) worldly concerns and thus it is able to discern and is subject to "higher" revelations that cannot happen when a person is awake.

This concept explains the Jewish tradition regarding why the Jews slept well the night before being given the Torah through Moses. In this tradition, when the torah was given by Moses at Sinai, the Jews slept well the night before (and in fact, God facilitated this by preventing mosquitoes from biting the Israelites…). The Rabbinic speculation is that the intention of the Jews in going to sleep was that they were hoping that through their sleep they would be able to reach a level of holiness that would be much greater than they could reach on their own accord during the day. (Thus, they would have greater revelations than when awake.)

The concept that “I sleep but my heart is awake… (Song of Solomon 5:2), is partly supported by the traditions of prophets receiving revelations in dreams. The dream/revelation Jacob has (we call it "Jacobs Ladder"), Abrahams multiple dreams, Joseph (Mary’s husband) receiving revelatory warnings in dreams to go to egypt, and to return, etc. These, and more, were revelations, given in dreams, thus the early Jewish concept that dreams were a time of revelation and communication. This early belief concerns the concept that, while the body sleeps and with it the cares of the physical body “sleep”, the spirit itself is awake and sensitive to the spiritual inclinations.

In both early Islamic and early Jewish thought, during sleep the soul is refreshed and healing and strengthening occurs and a portion of the soul rises to its source (though in Islamic thought, there is a judgment of the soul during sleep). Thus, when told that Lazarus is “asleep” by Jesus, the disciple responds that it was a good thing.

The Talmud has many interesting and wonderful stories about the dead and their communications with each other that both mirror the early Christian teaching that the dead are cognizant as well and which reflect their worldviews regarding communications that take place among spirits whose bodies have died and who are not yet resurrected.

I think this early Judeo-Christian doctrine is as rational and intuitive as the later interpretations that later Judeo-Christian movements adopted. These early worldviews also avoided some of the moral complaints that the later interpretations became subject to.


Good luck in you journey Factseeker88

Clear
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