I was raised a Jehovah's Witness and like most are aware, they presently belive that by and large everyone who dies ceases to exist. I accepted this fate for most of my life and I guess I still do for the most part, but now that I do not go to the meetings what am I to accept death to be, as I will die as well as my friends and family at some point. I think that idea of being in Gods memory made sense to me as I have excepted it for forty five of my fifty years of being alive. As I read the posts in here I see that there seems to be a firm conviction in many that there is a little flock that goes to heaven, though that has not made sense to me over the years cause how can you really know for sure with out thinking your insane or something it seems a rather important choice to make based upon a hunch. Anyway does anyone have some good resonable ideas as to what happens to us after we die? For this was the basis of my being and remaining a Jehovahs Witness over the years, they gave me what seemed to be a resonable ansure. Shane,
What do you belive happens to us after we die?
by Singing Man 59 Replies latest jw friends
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RAYZORBLADE
Singing Man, it's important to live in the moment, because that's all you have; or anyone of us have.
Now (the present).
That's all any of us have, or have had; past tense for some.
Chances are, most of us, will be around to wake up for our morning coffee/tea.
No worries Singing Man. Enjoy the moment, whatever it is that you may be doing at any given time.
Best wishes.
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Vivamus
Well, I believe something happens to us .. altho I am not exactly sure what.
When my grammy died, she saw her daddy and two brothers. Tho not her husband, my grandaddy, and those two were in love till death departed them. Weird ...
So, after talking to many people, I came to the preliminary conclusion that when people die, they either move on, or stay here in some sort of form.
Tho I might be completely mistaken
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Blue Bubblegum Girl
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AlanF
When we die, we rot away to nothing.
That's it.
No JW-style resurrection, no going to heaven.
Zip.
Comforting when you think about it.
AlanF
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Oxnard Hamster
I believe in an after life, though I'm not sure how it works.
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AlanF
I believe in an afterlife too. It's just lived vicariously, through bugs.
AlanF
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Oxnard Hamster
Bugs gross me out.
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Lost Diamond
I tend to believe that our souls move on. Our physical body dies, but our soul goes on and on....later to comeback as somebody else, perhaps (not too sure about that). I've done quite a bit of reading on this subject since I left the JW's, because I too felt there has to be more than being born just to die later. I feel there has to be a reason for our existance here on earth. I tend on believing that we all have a purpose and a set path that we follow that has been predetermined before we came to exist on earth. We were all JW's for a reason and that experience has made us who we are, and it has allowed us to follow our path and to grow from our experiences. Again, I may not be totally right but these are my own personal beliefs and that is what brings a lot of joy in my life. I experience things that happen to me as they do and I just enjoy the moment believing that it's all part of the "plan".
Just my own thoughts on this subject.....
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Sirona
Shane,
I understand that the death question is a biggie for someone coming out of the JWs. My fiance had a lot of difficulty accepting that he will grow old and die because he truly believed them when they said that would never happen. Its a scary prospect.
I personally firmly believe in the afterlife. I've posted this before and got lots of critisism for it. I've seen ghosts many times. I admit that hallucination is a possibility, however when the experience seems backed up by external events, and other's experiences of the same phenomena, it becomes harder to rationalise it as pure hallucination.
I believe that when we die, we experience what we expect to experience. I believe that energy follows certain rules and that *where* you end up depends somewhat on your personal energy. I believe that some "ghosts" are not conscious beings who are stuck on earth - they are some form of energy left over by the person's presence in years gone by. I also believe that some spirits who appear conscious are not actually the spirit of a dead human, rather they are some other type of spirit. There are elemental spirits and other beings. Of course, this is what I believe based on my own experience throughout my life, and I'm not saying I'm right because I guess I'll only know that in future (if ever!).
IMO, there are just too many things that point to an afterlife - so I don't think we disappear and there is nothing left of us. It makes sense to me that just as things in the natural world are recycled, so are we reincarnated.
Sirona
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TheOldHippie
I'm with you on this one, Sirona. Colin Wilson's books just have too many strange stories in them to make me believe there is nothing more than this physical life. But then, these beings might be just that - beings of other types and sorts and dimensions - and have nothing at all to do with us human beings. Wilson refer to some occurences where sounds of "ghosts" have been heard from empty houses, over generations - and if something very similar takes place over say 150 years in a house where few or none lived in these years, that is rather convincing ..... He poses the small, half-funny question about What are the "ghosts" doing when nobody is watching them? That's a rather interesting one.
Your ways of putting things, AlanF, is not so polite; these questions are such that one can easily be offended or frightened. The thought of an indifferent universe makes me afraid. I'm not into the "my life has got to have a sense, a meaning" - stuff, but it's the thought of these other beings that makes me wonder. Fairies and ghosts and poltergeists and goblins and who knows what. I feel watched when picking berries in the woods, and always leave some - for these other ones.
Though remaining "inside", I have never bought the "death ends it all" - thing; and near-death experiences - I find the attempts at explaining them lame. Similarly, that some scientists managed to "create" a "ghost" by some electric currents does not explain a thing, it just hints at how these other beings might use natural forces to create images or communicate.
SOMETHING can be learned from supernatural experiences, but what? It's slipping thru our hands, and yet they are perhaps the most important things taking place.