So, if you do not believe in an afterlife, does life really have any purpose?

have you ever stayed up for so long and then go to bed and wake after a deep deep sleep? where you cant even remember sleeping that long or remember ever having a dream while asleep? I think thats how death is, a long long long long deep deep deep deep sleep.

Sniffing Paint again? :1orglaugh

Sadly so. Live it up men, theres life in us all...

Please do.....

Atheist here

spiritually or Physically

i have no idea.

Atheist here also...what sucks is that being so rationally-minded can make you depressed when you think about death, and the fact that there really is nothing after you pass.

Religion was created because of fear of death(among other more nefarious reasons). People with faith are probably less afraid of death, because they believe they're going to heaven. Santa Claus and the Tooth fairy are there too.

Why? Because you dont like that thought? Theres really nothing hard to believe about it.

You'll never know til it happens

Does this mean you're immortal? Or that you just don't think about things?

Orly? Thats pretty deep. Did you have to think long to come up with that?

Yeah I would agree with it. Before we all were born we knew nothing about ourselves, we were not conscious of our exist, altho we probably were in some other form of matter and energy.
It's hard to tell what happens after we die, but I am pretty certain that our energy gets back to essence and we actually continue to exist just we are not aware of it, but our atoms and molecules still float around :) It's just like that...

Oh and I'd recommend you one book that is actually about this subject, the book is called "What dreams may come", read it, it's a good one ;)
:thumbsup

OK... Well, in all honesty, Im pleased to be able to say, that a lot of the very long part of my explanation has actually been said, in the YouTube clip of the movie waking life, posted above. Its at 1.08 mins.

You see as life slips away, at that split second between life and death, your brain goes into a 'System Dump' mode, and kinda discharges all the memories and other crap, that's inside it... But it does so in way that can only be described as an extremely long, and complex dream... A dream that in my opinion, would last (To you anyway) for 'eternity'...

This isn't as far fetched as it may sound, simply because of the amount of times that you hear, 'My Life Flashed Before Me'... Because it does. That's exactly what happens...

Now if you have had a 'good' life, been happily married, raised kids etc etc, then the majority of your memories are 'good happy memories' then that's what this brain discharge will mostly comprise of.

And to integrate with popular thoughts... That would constitute 'Heaven'

Alternatively, if you have had a 'bad' life, committed a murder say, and spent twenty years in a jail... Then that would be the majority of your brain dump.

And constitute, 'Hell'

That pretty much sums it up. As I said, the youtube clip covered it fairly succinctly...

Finally you might be wondering 'How' I died... Well it wasn't anything 'exciting'... Back in 1996, I had a disease called Encephalitis, (Akin to meningitis' which cause swelling and inflammation to the lining of the brain. I was in the hospital, being treated anyway, and all of a sudden, I had the mother of all dreams... Must have lasted (to me) almost a year!

I really cannot explain the intricacy's and complexities of that dream, for you to fully comprehend it... But that's what happened. It was like an alternative life. It consisted of actual days, and nights, and going to sleep, and having dreams within the dream etc... The hospital never came into it, until 'one day' literally, There was a huge white light, and I was suddenly totally disorentated on a hospital bed...

Then I discovered, (A few weeks later) that I had been clinically dead for nearly three minutes...

Believe what I say, or not as the case maybe... But I know that if I were to die tomorrow... I wouldn't be scared of death...

Yup, same thing here.
When you die, it's done, period.

The only thing good about religion is that it helps some people to deal with their problems/emotions.
And it used to be a good way to keep people in line ... gotto give them that.
No offense to those who believe, but I personally hate all that religious stuff.

I imagine its like the best nights sleep, ever..

Check this site out.

http://www.near-death.com/

If you think about it, Jacob's Ladder could also be in line with this theory. Look away if you haven't seen the movie *****SPOILER****..........


Basically, he was living out an entire(albeit freaky) existence in his mind as he died. I can really subscribe to an idea like this, because there seems to be so sense of time in the dream world.

I had this dream once where I was watching a rocket take off, but it exploded on the launch pad. The explosions went on for what seemed like 5 minutes, and when I woke up, there was very loud thunder outside, which was what I was hearing in my dream.

The weird thing is, there was a very long set up in the dream which led me to the whole launch pad scene. I assumed that what seemed like hours of dreaming happened in the millisecond I heard the thunder, and my mind threw together and played out this whole fucked up dream to go with the sound.

It's not hard to believe that you could experience an eternity in your dead during one real second, if you believe in this theory.

I think we get less restrictions and psychic abilities for sure.

I'll share with you why I think so:

When I was living down in Vegas a couple of years back, my little brother committed suicide. He was only 22 years old and his wife had left with the kids and so he was extremely depressed. One night he took one of my dads guns, went to the park, and shot himself to death.

The night before I found out about the sad news, same night of the suicide, I was prepping for bed. Out of the corner of my eye there was a small, shadow colored, weird shaped object right next to me but it wasn't on the wall it was in mid air about 5-6 feet off of the ground. As soon as I looked at it it startled me and dissipated quickly. I stood there for a good 5 minutes trying to figure it out and then went to bed. The next morning my dad broke the news that the night before my bro had committed suicide. The following night I sort of put the two together.

Same sort of supernatural event happened two more times within a few months of his passing. Typically I would be laying in bed and for no reason wake up, though I didn't remember how exactly how, and would be staring directly at it. It took on the shape of what looked like a giant spider, it had several legs and a body. The other time it was smaller and more momentary slowly dissipated into the wall. Always looked like a mist and the movements were jerky and fast, also dark in color, like a shadow. I know I wasn't dreaming because I would wake my wife in the middle of each event.

I say fewer restrictions because if it was my bro, timing would indicate it, he was able to find me the same night of his suicide even though we were 18 hours apart. He wasn't restricted to our laws of physics.

I say psychic abilities because he was able to find me even though he didn't know where I lived at the time and had not seen him in years yet he was able to find me and fast.

I'm not sure how long life after death is but those experiences happened for a few months after his passing.

Ghosts are real IMHO and experience. Most will be skeptical including myself until it happened to me.

Perhaps we are not supposed to know about life after death until it happens. This could explain the shyness of him in this form.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...87197364769612

From what I have seen, You turn into food for something else...(eg. worm food, Flies, maggots...That is all.

I think Buddhism would agree with that theory, that is, if you have really bad Karma!

hmmm...my dad died once too, and was brought back to life by medical professionals. it was before i was born...it was due to a heroin overdose. today, he is a christian.

in my opinion, he traded herion in for christianity...or just switched addictions. i don't believe most of the stuff he preaches to me. but just because organized religion and religious zealots have gotten it all wrong (in my humble opinion), it does not mean there is no afterlife, or divine power. Headless, if you get a chance, read a book called The Great Divorce.

So cremation is the ultimate act of human selfishness ??

go to heaven with the playmate bunny's

go to heaven with the playmate bunny's

I mirror yours and bronco67s sentiments.

How much drugs were you on during your time in hospital. I think a lot of what you remember now has more to do with other things than dying itself. You dont even was aware you "died". You only started realizing it a few weeks later? Nice story but i dont buy it.

There are so many explanations for that shit. A ghost should be the last thing you should come up with. But ofcourse its the most easy one and in case of death often a comforting one. We all want to see the ghost of a relative or friend who died.

Seriously, do some research instead of HOPING this ghost crap is true. Its pathetic really.

of course my family will suffer because im the bread winner. :(
hope it won't happen to me this early i don't want my family to suffer and i want to help them.

I have done research. One of the best theories out there is this one:

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/

The man behind it is a real anesthetist. Perhaps consciousness exists at the most fundamental level of the universe and not in our brain.

Angels part the clouds and float down with trumpets blaring and little cherubs are dancing around like gays. It's magical. They take you up through the clouds to the pearly gates where St. Peter lets you in to enjoy the rest of eternity with your deceased relatives, and Joseph, Mary, the long eared donkey and the talking walnut.

ill second that. Your like a computer. When your off, your just off. the big sleep.

Well I certainly wasn't on any other drugs (IE Illegal ones) other than the drugs that the doctors had given me to relieve the pressure on my brain.

The dream I had that lasted the year in my mind, and the 3 mins in reality, was a lucid realistic dream, so much so I wasn't aware that I was dreaming in the least. Looking back now, I can see it was a dream, because for example I was living in the house that i lived in with my parents until I was about 10, but in my dream I lived there as an adult and my parents were not there. At the same time, other people I had known, but had died or moved away (only existed in my memories) often made appearances in the street or called me up on the phone... It really was a hugely convoluted version of some alternative reality. Caused by, or happening at the exact time I died...

Now the reason I say I didn't know for two weeks, was that with the pressure on my brain, I admit i was in a somewhat confused state anyway, and extremely physically week at the same time... So, it was two weeks into the recovery from the encephalitis, until I was told by a doctor that I had actually died...

You say nice story, but you wont 'buy' it... Well fair enough. Up to you, but remember this. Im not trying to 'sell' it!

In other words, Im not posting here saying 'Look at me ! I hold the answers to life and death'...

Im just recounting a true story, which actually happened to me...
That's all Nothingmore, nothing less...
Peace :)

You decompose and return to the earth, which helps fuel other types of life.

Dont get me wrong. I believe what you typed. But like i said i think it has to do with other things rather than just dying.

There ya go that's it :)

just like Mr. Hanky sings about...

http://www.tv.com/uservideos/?action...QwnzD75bkLszDa

Fair enough :)

When you die nothing will happen. It will be just like before you were born.