reincarnation, heaven/hell, another world, or nothing?

[erynae]

What do you believe happens when you die? I believe in - it's rather complicated - but I believe in something in the middle off reincarnation and another world. I believe that you are reborn into a living creature, it doesn't have to be a human, and you stay in this world, but it's all to do with time. I believe that when you are reborn into this world, you aren't nesscarily reborn in the same day and hour as you died. Say I could drop dead in 2004, and I may be born in 1253 or something like that, and through these lives, we learn not about our mortality, but our immortality - that is, our soul. In each life we fufill one destiny, but there is a Universal Destiny (which sounds weird, I know), one in which we all must together fufill together. The "Universal Destiny" contains all of our destinies, but there is only one for each soul. Once we have fufilled that Universal Destiny, our souls will rest in eternal peace in a place quite like Heaven. There will be no Hell, for every soul is not purely good, but when we go to this Eternal Peace, we will meet those few whose souls did no bad.






I bet that probably sounds like a whole lot of codswallop to you, but what do you think will happen/s?

[Flash05]

There is no real answer to this b/c to some people belive in different thing. I belive in heaven and hell. People how prclaim that Jesus is our saivor unless they never had a chane to know about Jesus they will go to heaven. All the people whop don't belive that he is our savior and a chance to grt to know Jesus thruogh some one else or just going to church one day will be jugde to go to hell.

I don't have any answers thats just what i belive. Umm and i can't say your wrong because i'm am human not God.

I hope this answered your Question or spread some light on the subject.

[chocolate brown]

I believe in reincarnation.
I believe that there is an immortal soul in every each one of as and when we die we go to another world (some people would call that heaven) but heaven doesn't exist.
There we can choose when to be born and as what (a human, a bird, a cat,etc.) but we can't choose what our life will be like. It's kind of like in LOTR, we all like adventurs, and we all go and take those adventures, except in LOTR there is a last adventure, and in the real world (when you're reincarnatied) there is no "last adventure". :angel:

[danfan4ever]

I believe in Heaven and Hell. You go to one or the other depending on the way you choose to believe...

[busy91]

I believe in reincarnation & karma. Our future incarnation depends on what lessons we learned in our previous life. One can live an entire lifetime and not learn the lesson planned for them to grow and eventually become an enlightened being. One person can reincarnate several hundred times before they learn every lesson needed for their enlightment. I believe those who have had many lifetime have been each race, religion and gender, have held many different types of jobs, wealth status and intelligence. I believe we carry our 'baggage' from one life to the next and if we are lucky we can clear our old stuff in our current life as well as grow in it.

I believe there is a place we go, somewhat like a rest stop. This place we review our former life, and decide what we are going to work on and be in our next one.

When people have deja vu, dreams from another time and such, that is their past life talking to them.

[Crystallia]

I believe very much the same as busy does. I believe in reincarnation and that through each life we live we learn lessons which enable us to reach enlightenmeant and escape the cycle of rebirth and be whole with the universe. I believe that you can progress in your learning as well as lose touch with what you learn. I use to believe in a resting place between lifetimes but I know longer believe that.

[ComicBookWorm]

You die. That's all there is. It's all over folks.

[Byrum]

Mmm thats what I beleive but it makes me sad, absolute nothing for all eternity. But there's nothing I can do about it and if everyone else can go through death then so can I.

[Wandering Bard]

I don't believe that there is anything that comes after death. Therefore life is something to celebrate and ccherish. Better to die than exist forever.

[Byrum]

I'd want immortality, if everyone else could have immortailty with me. That's why I feel so sorry for Arwen in LOTR and the choice she has to make, but I think after Aragorn dies she goes into the West with Legolas and Gimli anyway.

[Wandering Bard]

I couldn't think of anything worse. Forever is a very long time, life would become a prison.

[ComicBookWorm]

I don't know why the idea that you don't live forever is sad. If you're dead you won't know that you don't have eternity. You won't be feeling or knowing anything. That's why people should enjoy life to the fullest. This is the only chance you are going to get.

[Byrum]

I'm not saying it will be sa at the time it is just sad for me to think about, 80 or 90 years we get out of the countless billions that will eventually happen. I'm not angry at death or afraid of it I just would like more time to spend with my family and friends etc and learn stuff about the universe that people in the future will know but I will never get to. Oh well I guess it can't be helped.

[GryffindorGr]

You know I’m beginning to consider a little about this entire reincarnation thing, although not solidly convinced. But what I think is more appropriate for reincarnation and which perhaps is due to my interpretation of how I touched on some religions from reading, interaction with people, and awareness. Is that reincarnation is possible if one does a suicide or their lives were cut off prematurely, very prematurely. Maybe aborted babies from later stages could go into this. I am not wholly convinced about reincarnation in the form of living through an entire life and then repeating it in another time frame in which memories are forgotten of your past life. Then there are those who say that if there were no reincarnation, just think how crowded it would be. Is it really crowded? They say that there are countless stars out there, more than we can even dare to count. Could they as classic writers would say, be representative of each human soul?

Maybe it’s not so deep like that and I’m inclined to believe this part of what CBW says here:

That's why people should enjoy life to the fullest. This is the only chance you are going to get.
Definitely.

I recalled mentioning before that I knew this person who would say that she hated her current life, because she felt she wasn’t pretty enough, charming enough, personality interesting enough, and goes on about it, then says it’s okay because she’s just going to live her life to the end and wait for reincarnation and hope she is a male in the next generation. Telling her to live her life to the fullest was falling on deaf ears. So personally to me, living life to the fullest at your current life is a must. But naturally you can’t tell others that if they refuse it. I think maybe they feel a huge security blanket at the knowledge in their head that there is such a thing for reincarnation—being cheated in this current life in which they feel.

[Byrum]

But is she going to wait for the rest of her life, and then who knows how long, and then try to be happy in the next life she has. One where she won't even remember that she was unhappy in the first place and that she has to try and make her current life better? I think you should tell your friend to try and turn her current life around, at least tell her to try and build up some positive karma for her next life. Nothing wrong with building up a little positive karma, and it might be a way to get through to her that she shouldn't waste this life.

[GryffindorGr]

But is she going to wait for the rest of her life, and then who knows how long, and then try to be happy in the next life she has. One where she won't even remember that she was unhappy in the first place and that she has to try and make her current life better? I think you should tell your friend to try and turn her current life around, at least tell her to try and build up some positive karma for her next life. Nothing wrong with building up a little positive karma, and it might be a way to get through to her that she shouldn't waste this life.
:lol: Yeah, you would think. *ahem*
You got it. If reincarnation existed, then having another life in the next life would be starting a whole new life with the past life completely erased. No memory of it conveniently. But the theme of reincarnation is to be good to others and keep morality high. This would ensure of the top pillar of achieving the highest honor of having a grand life in the next life.
Oh she was just someone who was an acquiantance so I dont know how she's living her life now. Hopefully it's for the better in positive thinking.
There is however something in karma though. I think it has to do with our connection to other human beings, in a deep subconscious manner.

[Byrum]

I always thought of it as like on the sims, where you have that bar on your head and everytime you are practicing a skill it goes up. That's what I imagine karma to be, because in Buddhims there are different levels of heaven and hell and even life, like being reincaranted as a human or a toad. Whe you did something good the bar goes up, and you may reach a new level. When you do something bad the bar goes down and you may be sent to the demon world (I think that is what Buddhiem has) or reincaranted as a really low life form.

[beagles]

Look what the Bhagavad Gita, the most important hindu scripture, has to say about this matter:

Verse 20, chapter 2:

The soul is never born and never dies. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. The soul is unborn, eternal, permanent and the oldest (primordial). He does not die on destroying the body.

Read more about it:

http://www.ramakrishnananda.com/books/article.php?aID=1602&bID=205&cID=301&LangID=2&Limit=0

[busy91]

But is she going to wait for the rest of her life, and then who knows how long, and then try to be happy in the next life she has. One where she won't even remember that she was unhappy in the first place and that she has to try and make her current life better? I think you should tell your friend to try and turn her current life around, at least tell her to try and build up some positive karma for her next life. Nothing wrong with building up a little positive karma, and it might be a way to get through to her that she shouldn't waste this life.

Only the lucky (or unlucky) ones can recall parts of their former life. It is an awful burden to know what happened in a prior time around. I have been able to recall a former life (w/o regression) well actually just the last moments, and I wish I didn't.

I want to be happy in my next lives, and I want to be happy in this one too. Yes you are right, Karma, Karma, Karma!!

[thethirdman]

What do you believe happens when you die? I believe in - it's rather complicated - but I believe in something in the middle off reincarnation and another world. I believe that you are reborn into a living creature, it doesn't have to be a human, and you stay in this world, but it's all to do with time. I believe that when you are reborn into this world, you aren't nesscarily reborn in the same day and hour as you died. Say I could drop dead in 2004, and I may be born in 1253 or something like that, and through these lives, we learn not about our mortality, but our immortality - that is, our soul. In each life we fufill one destiny, but there is a Universal Destiny (which sounds weird, I know), one in which we all must together fufill together. The "Universal Destiny" contains all of our destinies, but there is only one for each soul. Once we have fufilled that Universal Destiny, our souls will rest in eternal peace in a place quite like Heaven. There will be no Hell, for every soul is not purely good, but when we go to this Eternal Peace, we will meet those few whose souls did no bad.


I bet that probably sounds like a whole lot of codswallop to you, but what do you think will happen/s?

I'm kind of like you, except I believe time is constant. You can't die in 2004 and be reborn in 1736. You can die in 1736 and be reborn in 2004, or so I think. I do believe in reincarnation. I think souls start out young and immature and must grow before they can reach their full potential or enlightenment. The more lives a soul has the more it learns. You know how you'll meet a child who possesses an understanding and a consciousness greater than many adults? I think those children have old souls. Their souls have gathered enough experience that the meaning of life and universal truths are old news to them. Once a soul fully matures, it's removed from the cycle and enters Heaven...though I don't have a Christian view of heaven. I think of it as a place of happiness, but not one where people have no desires becuase of their unity with god. I believe in a sumpreme being who allows us to shape our own piece of eternal happiness. Mine has lots of food and endless MST3K...and other stuff too.

[busy91]

I'm kind of like you, except I believe time is constant. You can't die in 2004 and be reborn in 1736. You can die in 1736 and be reborn in 2004, or so I think.


I used to think this until I realized that time is man made and isn't constant. 1736 and 2004 exist simultaniously so one is not actually going backwards in years because time doesn't exist outside of this universe. I once read a great book that explained this plainly enough for even me to grasp. The best I can do is to describe a string. The string is not laid straight out and we walk foward, the string is thrown down and the pieces overlap and we walk straight and land on whatever piece is next.

My next lifetime could very well be in 202 bc, although I hope not.

[Byrum]

I used to think this until I realized that time is man made and isn't constant. 1736 and 2004 exist simultaniously so one is not actually going backwards in years because time doesn't exist outside of this universe. I once read a great book that explained this plainly enough for even me to grasp. The best I can do is to describe a string. The string is not laid straight out and we walk foward, the string is thrown down and the pieces overlap and we walk straight and land on whatever piece is next.

My next lifetime could very well be in 202 bc, although I hope not.
To me, though, that makes no sense. People would forever be jumping back and forth and there would be no definate 'reality' as history would forever be being re written. Time has to be a continous flow, because the world just can't work without a progression of time. What if everyone ended up dying and going back to 202 BC then the future they originally came from wouldn't exist, or it would be devoid of people. I don't think that overlapping times can work, but then, Idon't beleive in reincarnation either.

[busy91]

To me, though, that makes no sense. People would forever be jumping back and forth and there would be no definate 'reality' as history would forever be being re written. Time has to be a continous flow, because the world just can't work without a progression of time. What if everyone ended up dying and going back to 202 BC then the future they originally came from wouldn't exist, or it would be devoid of people. I don't think that overlapping times can work, but then, Idon't beleive in reincarnation either.

In a way you are right, but people are not supposed to remember their past lives. Some people do and some retain residual memories. Memories from the future.

Where did the idea for the phone, the lightbulb, the internet, airplanes, trains, cars, TVs...etc. come from? Residual memories of something they learned in a past (future) lifetime. These people in fact DO re-write history, they just don't know they are doing it. But not everyone retains residual memories that cause them to invent.

[Byrum]

But not everything in human history can be memories, it must have happened at some stage otherwise there would be nothing to remember. I'm going to have to go on beleiving that time is (basically) linear, for the sake of my sanity mostly. If you and any others can wrap your head around this, then kudos to you :clap: , you are all obviously a lot smarter than I am :lol:

[busy91]

But not everything in human history can be memories, it must have happened at some stage otherwise there would be nothing to remember. I'm going to have to go on beleiving that time is (basically) linear, for the sake of my sanity mostly. If you and any others can wrap your head around this, then kudos to you :clap: , you are all obviously a lot smarter than I am :lol:

I wish I could explain it better, but I'm not as smart as those inventors. Anyway, it is just a theory, one of many floating around!

[Byrum]

Everything makes so much sense up in the head but when you try to get it down so others can understand...nothing :no: at least thats what happens to me anyway

[Holly is Short]

Ummm...I think...there is nothing. Some days I think otherwise but today its "nothing"
This is going to sound incredibly corny but--"You just go to sleep and never wake up" Everything fades...I personally would hate to be reincarnated cause who wants to go around again? Not me!

[Byrum]

Well you wouldnt know you were going around again, only the possibility that you might be. But yeah I wouldn't like reincarnation either. I pretty much think its off to eternal sleepy town for all of us in the end.

[busy91]

I really want to come back for another go. Of course I probably won't remember anything about this lifetime. But I'm all for spirit growth and learning lessons. It is too bad we cannot remember much of our past lives, it would help the growth process a great deal, but I suppose that is too easy.

[Senna Wells]

Wow. I feel depressing. I'm going to have to go for the "nothing" vote. I just don't feel like there's anything over on the "other side" waiting, at least for me.

[Byrum]

Wow. I feel depressing. I'm going to have to go for the "nothing" vote. I just don't feel like there's anything over on the "other side" waiting, at least for me.
Lol don't sell yourself short, if there is nothing for you there is nothing for all of us! Besides I would prefer nothing than being reincarnated as a pus on the back of a toad or something, I mean how do you get your karma going after that :) ?

[erynae]

I'd want immortality, if everyone else could have immortailty with me. That's why I feel so sorry for Arwen in LOTR and the choice she has to make, but I think after Aragorn dies she goes into the West with Legolas and Gimli anyway.

Nah, Aragorn dies, she says farewell to her children and she sets out for Lothlorien. She arrives there to find it completely deserted (they've gone into the West), and then she dies alone. Rather sad.


When I try to describe what I think about the afterlife, words just can't describe it. So I guess my desription I gave was pretty much it

[Byrum]

oh, well I guess I got that wrong. But why wouldn't she just go into the west, gee now thats ben ruined for me it is really sad. But how does she die, she's immortal.

There is definately a down side to immortality, especially when everyone else doens't have it.

[bradford]

From a scientific point of view...the human body that ''is'' is a series of intricately patterned cells in the central nervous system that determines our thought, actions and consciousness. Therefore...once death ensues it is logical that we cease to posess these qualities and essentially ''die''....and feel, think or act no more.

However...that is an extremely pessimistc view. Although I study neuroscience and believe everything I have been taught about biological death...I certainly hope the soul or whatever it may be lives on....who knows......and extremely philosophical debae but totally necessary!!!!

[Byrum]

I wouldn't count it as pessimistic, because if it happens it happens and there is nothing you can do about it. I is pessimistic in the sense that there are so many other theories out there that suggest a more 'positive' outlook on what happens after death but they are only 'positive' because of our humanity and what we humans desire above all things, to be perpetually happy for eternity, i.e heaven. No view of what happens after death is pessimistic, it is either the truth or it is not and either way it doesn't matter, if there is a heaven great if there is not noone is going to care because you will be unable to think about it.

[badbad87]

Well, this topic is very much on my mind this evening. A close friend of mine lost his father today to a heart attack and I've been thinking about death a lot as a result.
Although it is an incredibly sad time time at his house and it's really hard, well, especially hard on him and his siblings, there was such a feeling of hope that existed there. His family, like me, are LDS and as such we share the same views on death.

I believe that when we die, our souls are separated from our bodies and we enter a "probationary" stage. Not necessarily in the sense that we're being punished. I just think that there's a stage before we move on to what is considered Heaven. We will be with our family that have gone before us and when Christ comes to the earth again, we will all be reunited with those still living. I believe that we do live forever, but not in this situation. Life will be perfect. We'll be with our loved ones and we will be doing the things that mean the most to us.

As hard as it is to see him go, my friend has such hope because he knows he'll see his dad again.

[Bunny]

You die. That's all there is. It's all over folks. Hear Hear.
Heaven and Hell are just religious propaganda.
If there is anything (???) how about floating about in the mists of time in the universe. Its as good as anything else I've heard.

[Byrum]

floating around would be okay but only if you had other people to float with. Then we could go and watch humanity and mock their progress, or go to other planets and make fun of how funny their life forms look. Yep, floating would be sweet.

[EmperorStaleek]

I believe that if you have consciously or unconsciouly chosen to do the will of God, you will be resurrected on one of the Mansion Worlds (depending on how good you were) and ascend to Paradise in a long journey of training and attaining perfection. I think the first part of the afterlife is mostly training, so I guess it's a little like the LDS stuff. This is all Urantia Boook stuff.

[Byrum]

First there is the test of life, then training in the afterlife. SOunds like applying for a job rather than a life or death situation to me.

[ArtemisiaDax]

To answer Byrum's question from far up this page, Arwen gives up her immortality and becomes human in order to be with Aragorn. Plus, since there are separate afterlives for Elves and Men in LotR, she wants to be with Aragorn after death, so she chooses mortality to remain with him forever. Here are the relevant passages of dialogue between Aragorn and Arwen:

"I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: either to repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but no more than memory; or else to abide the Doom of Men."
"'Nay, dear lord,' she said, "that choice is now long over. There is now no ship that would bear me hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence."
...
"she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth [in Lothlorien]; and there is her green grave..."
from Appendix A: The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen

I believe in an afterlife; I believe that there has to be something more after death, that the material world is not all that exists. (It's not provable, but I do have a bet going with an atheist friend that he's going to be really surprised when he dies. It's a really great bet, because if I lose, I'll never know.) ;)

I've always loved this quote (again, from The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen):
"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! We are not bound to the circles of the world forever, and beyond them is more than memory."

[Athina]

You know how they say heaven must be like a blind man seeing for the first time in his life? God I hope there is an afterlife, evertime I think about there not being one I have a panic attack. If there is no afterlife, then our lives have no purpose, do they? Still, I'm afraid that religion and a belief in afterlife was invented by humans to make death easier to handle.
I'm still going to look for an excuse to believe life goes on and we have eternal souls.

[busy91]

You know how they say heaven must be like a blind man seeing for the first time in his life? God I hope there is an afterlife, evertime I think about there not being one I have a panic attack. If there is no afterlife, then our lives have no purpose, do they? Still, I'm afraid that religion and a belief in afterlife was invented by humans to make death easier to handle.
I'm still going to look for an excuse to believe life goes on and we have eternal souls.

If you worry about living instead of what comes after then your life WILL have a purpose. Make the world a better place for your decedents and once you are dust whether there is a heaven or not, you will be remembered through the ages. Just remember, all life serves a purpose.

[Byrum]

You know how they say heaven must be like a blind man seeing for the first time in his life? God I hope there is an afterlife, evertime I think about there not being one I have a panic attack. If there is no afterlife, then our lives have no purpose, do they? Still, I'm afraid that religion and a belief in afterlife was invented by humans to make death easier to handle.
I'm still going to look for an excuse to believe life goes on and we have eternal souls.
I used to think like that, but you have to look at the bigger picture. Everyone dies. Everyone that has ever existed and ever will exist has died, and you will too. You are facing what everyone in the human race will face so you are most definately not alone and it should not be feared because everyone goes through it. That reasoning helps for me anyway, I will just do what the whole human race has done.

[GoddessThalia]

Does anyone know the story of the Hall of Souls/the Guff? I know I've heard the story somewhere when talking about the bible. I seem to remember talk about how the hall of souls was recycled... I don't know. I've never been big on the bible other than talking in purely literary terms. But I think it's fascinating that a story of reincarnation could reside in some biblical text since most of my christian friends believe in a definitive heaven where you stay there for eternity in bliss. Or perhaps it's a Catholic thing? Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Does anyone know the story?

Anyway, as for me, I thoroughly believe in reincarnation. I am not a subcriber in the Tabula Rosa theory that we're born without pre-existing knowledge. Every now and then, I catch myself in utter deja vu which either means I'm psychic (not probable) or I've done something similar before. You know. And then... if we're all made of energy and matter, and matter can neither created or destroyed, then some of us must have been recycled at one point in time? Ok, I'm confusing myself.

[Aubrey]

I believe there is a heaven and a hell. I think you choose where you are placed after death by the kindness you show to others on earth. But, in the end, I believe God has the final say.