Do You Believe In The Afterlife?

[Libertine]

No. Don't worry, no haunting is going to happen.

In the early 90s I was filming on location in a Toronto jail. It had two wings, one modern and in use, the other Victorian and vacant but preserved due to its architectural history, having been built in the mid 1800s. A few guards from the modern wing had been assigned to the film crew as co-ordinators, and during one of the interminable breaks endemic to making movies one of them offered to show me the execution chamber, derelict and unused since the early 1960s due to the abolition of Capital Punishment in Canada. Naturally I agreed.

The following is compiled from a few Wiki entries:

"Starting with the execution of John Boyd in January 1908, twenty-six men were hanged on the jail’s indoor gallows. Previously, condemned men had been hanged on an outdoor scaffold in the jail yard. The indoor facility was seen as an improvement because outdoor executions were quasi-public and crowds had lined surrounding rooftops to watch. There were also three double hangings indoors: Roy Hotrum and William McFadden in August, 1921; Leonard Jackson and Steven Suchan in December, 1952; Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas on 11 December 1962. Chaplain Cyrill Everitt attended the final double execution and in 1986, shortly before his death, he revealed that Lucas's head was "nearly torn right off" because the hangman had miscalculated the man's weight." [and allowed too long a drop]

Anyway, I looked around the chamber, a smallish double height room with the usual heavily barred windows about three times as long as it was wide. The actual fixtures and fittings for the purpose of carrying out executions had been dismantled but evidence of the room's previous function still remained. At normal ceiling height on the two opposite short walls were brackets which had supported the beam to which the noose or nooses would have been attached. Below that was a long, sizeable rectangular opening in the floor where the trapdoors had been removed. The original position of the lever was obvious because the colour of the paint was different on the area of the wall where the mechanism had been bolted and the boltholes in the brickwork were still there. And in one corner was a square opening with a small staircase leading down to the drop room itself so the hangman could recover the body and prepare it for the coroner's certification.

The guard grinned at me and asked if I wanted to be alone there; I grinned back and said OK, so he left, slamming the door.

And I closed my eyes and waited there for a few minutes, and felt absolutely nothing.

 

[jhop220]

I think the idea of an afterlife was created by selfish people who thought they could achieve immortality.

When one dies; everything about that being ceases. Your mind which creates the comforting thoughts of an afterlife, and keeps you alive will be gone. You will cease to be alive which means your mind will cease to be active.

That is why I like to put emphasis on the life we have. It is why I want to make the most of it because I only get one shot at it. I don't care about what happens when I die because I will be dead. I cannot care because I will be dead.

 

[rhiannon]

And I closed my eyes and waited there for a few minutes, and felt absolutely nothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1awl3cqFYgY

😀

I think the idea of an afterlife was created by selfish people who thought they could achieve immortality.

I believe the idea of an afterlife was created by church to keep people small, dumb and obedient. "Oh, do how God tells you in this life, because no matter how miserable you are now, he'll reward you greatly in the next life - just don't oppose to us, we know what you have to do!" Yeah...whatever!

 

[Mitchell]

Thank you, Wabbit.

You mentioned that my mom led a long, good life. She had blessings in her life. Parents, sisters, and a son who adored her, and such. However, in my view, I dont think her life was particularly long. While I know there are people who pass away sooner, my mom was only 74 when she died. She was younger than both of her parents, one set of her grandparents, and a great, great grandmother. My internist told me last week that he considered my mom to be young when she passed.

As for the afterlife.. all I can say is that I hope she is happy, not suffering, and out of pain. As much as I miss her, if she's happy and not in pain, I know I have to feel relieved that she is at peace.

Mitch

 

[Bothersome]

This is going to be really blunt, and a little crude. I apologize in advance.

I do not believe there is any determinable 'afterlife'. There is no existing evidence that suggests that you can retain any form of consciousness outside of your physical body.

If there were a way to experience consciousness outside of our brain, the perfect time for this to manifest itself would be when we're asleep. As it stands, sleeping is a perfect example of what likely happens after you die. An eternity passes in the blink of an eye.

Aside from dreaming, you don't exactly remember your time spent asleep, do you? From your perspective, it's as if 8 hours passed in the span of a second, right? If there were any form of consciousness that were active when the brain was not, then it would manifest itself during the hours spent sleeping. We would almost certainly be able to... maybe not, 'think' per se... but we would be able to experience something. As it stands, we don't.

The only things we experience while sleeping are dreams, and those have already been reduced to chemical processes inside the brain combined with internal and external stimuli.

 

[Bothersome]

I'd actually like to comment a little bit on the idea of 'ghosts'

Do I think that it's possible for something like that to exist? Possibly. Not in the form that most people seem to agree on, though.

Most everything in the Universe can be broken down into energy. Human beings are made of energy, and we convert energy. Would it be possible for some residual energy to be left over after we've passed on? It's certainly possible.

I find it incredibly unlikely that any of this leftover energy would last longer than a few days at most, but I'm hardly an expert in the field of energy observation and study.

However, as I said in the above post, I do not believe it is possible to retain a consciousness outside of our physical body. In light of that, it seems unlikely that any leftover energy would be anything more than an afterimage.

 

[Mitchell]

Bothersome, your post was, in my opinion neither blunt, nor crude. You expressed your upinion in a civil manner.

Mitch

 

[Crazy Wabbit]

Thank you, Wabbit.

You mentioned that my mom led a long, good life. She had blessings in her life. Parents, sisters, and a son who adored her, and such. However, in my view, I dont think her life was particularly long. While I know there are people who pass away sooner, my mom was only 74 when she died. She was younger than both of her parents, one set of her grandparents, and a great, great grandmother. My internist told me last week that he considered my mom to be young when she passed.

As for the afterlife.. all I can say is that I hope she is happy, not suffering, and out of pain. As much as I miss her, if she's happy and not in pain, I know I have to feel relieved that she is at peace.

Mitch

I am not sure what the internist would consider a long life, but according the the World Factbook published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the average lifespan in the United States is 78.49 years of age, which would be around 4½ years longer than what your mom lived.

Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

I guess it's a matter of perspective, whether you see the glass half full or half empty. 74 would not be considered a long life compared to someone who lived until their late 80's to early/mid 90's. However, at the same time, it would be considered long compared to a lifespan of someone who suffers a serious mental illness, which is 51. If you want young, look at the most recent death of the NFL football player, Junior Seau. He committed suicide at the age of 43. He was only 2 years older than me.

 

[Mitchell]

I understand, Wabbit.

I read recently that the average lifespan for women is 81. That being said.. the average lifespan for women born in 1938, is 72, so, my mom either lived seven years less than the average lifespan for women, or two years more than the average lifespan for a woman born in 1938.

Mitch

 

[kis123]

I honestly don't know. From everything I know about biology, I don't believe there is such thing as a soul. I want to believe. I also want to believe in God, but I see too much crap that makes me doubt. I truly admire and envy people who deeply believe.

But, Mitch: this is really not a good time to ask a question like that. Not this short after a loved one died.

Actually, I think it's the perfect time to ask is when a loved one dies. Even in death we want our loved ones to be safe, free of pain, and still very much loved.

I have no guarantees that there is life after death even though I do believe it exists. I also feel that some spirits stay around awhile as they deal with their fate and learn to move on eventually. I believe in a lot of things that I've learned not to discuss in print around here because they don't get respect.....but then again, I don't put too much thought into what other people think of me.

My husband died suddenly after being sick for a short time. It's been almost 10 mos since his passing and I still occasionally smell a strong odor of cigarette smoke. Sometimes it's so strong it nearly suffocates me. Now, I haven't smoked in almost two decades and no one in my home smokes. I believe it's his way of letting me know he's still hanging around.

I know.......get the tin foil hat ready!

But my daughter sees him sitting at the end of her bed and he doesn't speak, just looks. She was the last one to speak to him before he got sick; he spoke to the emergeny room attendants and kept giving my name because the stoke overcame him-after that he never spoke to anyone else. My cousin had a dream about him from 3am-3:40am that showed him in bright light......he was pronounced at 3:41am. Lots of creepy coincidences? Maybe....but who really knows?

 

[coldneck]

In the early 90s I was filming on location in a Toronto jail. It had two wings, one modern and in use, the other Victorian and vacant but preserved due to its architectural history, having been built in the mid 1800s. A few guards from the modern wing had been assigned to the film crew as co-ordinators, and during one of the interminable breaks endemic to making movies one of them offered to show me the execution chamber, derelict and unused since the early 1960s due to the abolition of Capital Punishment in Canada. Naturally I agreed.

The following is compiled from a few Wiki entries:

"Starting with the execution of John Boyd in January 1908, twenty-six men were hanged on the jail’s indoor gallows. Previously, condemned men had been hanged on an outdoor scaffold in the jail yard. The indoor facility was seen as an improvement because outdoor executions were quasi-public and crowds had lined surrounding rooftops to watch. There were also three double hangings indoors: Roy Hotrum and William McFadden in August, 1921; Leonard Jackson and Steven Suchan in December, 1952; Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas on 11 December 1962. Chaplain Cyrill Everitt attended the final double execution and in 1986, shortly before his death, he revealed that Lucas's head was "nearly torn right off" because the hangman had miscalculated the man's weight." [and allowed too long a drop]

Anyway, I looked around the chamber, a smallish double height room with the usual heavily barred windows about three times as long as it was wide. The actual fixtures and fittings for the purpose of carrying out executions had been dismantled but evidence of the room's previous function still remained. At normal ceiling height on the two opposite short walls were brackets which had supported the beam to which the noose or nooses would have been attached. Below that was a long, sizeable rectangular opening in the floor where the trapdoors had been removed. The original position of the lever was obvious because the colour of the paint was different on the area of the wall where the mechanism had been bolted and the boltholes in the brickwork were still there. And in one corner was a square opening with a small staircase leading down to the drop room itself so the hangman could recover the body and prepare it for the coroner's certification.

The guard grinned at me and asked if I wanted to be alone there; I grinned back and said OK, so he left, slamming the door.

And I closed my eyes and waited there for a few minutes, and felt absolutely nothing.

I'm not even sure how to respond to this post, other than to say I was in an indoor "hanging chamber" in Boise, Idaho. They had the old-time prison tours with an old guy who was actually a *prisoner* back in the '50's when they still used it.

It was just part of the jail tour, but your post totally brought me back.

 

[ticklepamperer]

I think that there may be a sort of spiritual after life, or that we may come back possibly in a different form.
There could be other worlds we know little about,in the present time just enjoy what is available, make the most of it and hope for the best.

 

[P[a]pi]

I'm a Christian, so I believe what's in the Bible. Heaven, hell, the whole nine yards.

 

[Mitchell]

Papi, I often wonder about "Hell".

I want to believe there is a Heaven. I hope that my mom, grandparents, and all the people I loved are happy there.

As for "Hell". My mom believed in it, i'm not sure I do. She used to say, may she rest in peace, that she believed those who are/were evil are going to Hell.

If there is a "Hell", my mom certainly didnt go there. She was too nice of a person.

Mitch

 

[coldneck]

I often wonder about "Hell". I want to believe there is a Heaven.
I hope that my mom, grandparents, and all the people I loved are happy there.

Don't Heaven & Hell go hand in hand?
If you believe in one ... isn't the other a package deal?
It's like saying I believe in White but not Black. Yin but not Yan. Simon but not Garfunkle. Tango but not Ca$h.

As for "Hell". My mom believed in it, i'm not sure I do.

Okey Dokey. I believe Heaven cannot exist w/o Hell and vice versa.
It's basic physics. Nature abhors a vacuum and is in a constant state of flux and equalization. This is a proven scientific fact.
Spirits and Souls, Heaven and Hell. They are factually and scientifically unproven folklore to convince the living into thinking their loved ones are moving on to "a better place ... and we'll all meet up there one day".

La La La La laaaaaaaaaaaaaa La LAND.

The Nazis told the Jewish POWs in WW2 they were about to take a shower too.
Blind faith is a dangerous thing.

If there is a "Hell", my mom certainly didnt go there. She was too nice of a person.

Mitch

"Certainly" ?!? Come on, man.
How can you be certain of anything that happened to her "soul" after she died?!?
Mitchell, time for a reality check ... it's not up to you to decide what happens to her "soul".
It's up to your God.
If it makes you feel better to believe that, then go ahead, but nothing of that nature is "certain".



Here's my take, for what it's worth: Life is a chemical reaction.
It's a miracle, no doubt, but our life in these bodies are finite.
We have a birth date and an expiration date.
Our conscientious begins and ends with that chemical reaction.

Please tell me and the scientific community if you have evidence to the contrary.

This is the science and logic talking.
If you believe otherwise, that's your choice.
Spirituality and Religion are sciences that rely on faith, not scientific data and hard facts.

Any opinions on my above statements are welcome.

Thank You and Make It a Great Day!

 

[kis123]

Don't Heaven & Hell go hand in hand?
If you believe in one ... isn't the other a package deal?
It's like saying I believe in White but not Black. Yin but not Yan. Simon but not Garfunkle. Tango but not Ca$h.



Okey Dokey. I believe Heaven cannot exist w/o Hell and vice versa.
It's basic physics. Nature abhors a vacuum and is in a constant state of flux and equalization. This is a proven scientific fact.
Spirits and Souls, Heaven and Hell. They are factually and scientifically unproven folklore to convince the living into thinking their loved ones are moving on to "a better place ... and we'll all meet up there one day".

La La La La laaaaaaaaaaaaaa La LAND.

The Nazis told the Jewish POWs in WW2 they were about to take a shower too.
Blind faith is a dangerous thing.




"Certainly" ?!? Come on, man.
How can you be certain of anything that happened to her "soul" after she died?!?
Mitchell, time for a reality check ... it's not up to you to decide what happens to her "soul".
It's up to your God.
If it makes you feel better to believe that, then go ahead, but nothing of that nature is "certain".



Here's my take, for what it's worth: Life is a chemical reaction.
It's a miracle, no doubt, but our life in these bodies are finite.
We have a birth date and an expiration date.
Our conscientious begins and ends with that chemical reaction.

Please tell me and the scientific community if you have evidence to the contrary.

This is the science and logic talking.
If you believe otherwise, that's your choice.
Spirituality and Religion are sciences that rely on faith, not scientific data and hard facts.

Any opinions on my above statements are welcome.

Thank You and Make It a Great Day!

Well science and logic have absolutely no way to determine if there is a heaven or hell or even an afterlife at that matter. And thank goodness they don't.

People should be allowed to believe as they choose; trust me eventually we will all find out on our own one day......

 

[Mitchell]

cold, why dont you stop it with the fucking attacks already?

You're talking to me about "Reality check". I got news for you.. You couldnt handle the reality I'm dealing with right now, okay? I've been keeping myself contained, so as not to subject myself to the usual bullshit from you, that the mods will say is not an attack.

Ever hear of FREE WILL, FREE SPEECH? It isnt up to you to decide who believes in what, okay? Personal choice is what makes the world go around.

I'm not certain of anything, okay? For all I know, she is gone, and feeling nothing, okay. Fine. If thats what happened, then okay. As long as shes not suffering the way she was.

Jesus Fucking H Christ. If you were worth my being banned from this forum, I'd love to post what I think should really happen to you.

Mitch

 

[kis123]

cold, why dont you stop it with the fucking attacks already?

You're talking to me about "Reality check". I got news for you.. You couldnt handle the reality I'm dealing with right now, okay? I've been keeping myself contained, so as not to subject myself to the usual bullshit from you, that the mods will say is not an attack.

Ever hear of FREE WILL, FREE SPEECH? It isnt up to you to decide who believes in what, okay? Personal choice is what makes the world go around.

I'm not certain of anything, okay? For all I know, she is gone, and feeling nothing, okay. Fine. If thats what happened, then okay. As long as shes not suffering the way she was.

Jesus Fucking H Christ. If you were worth my being banned from this forum, I'd love to post what I think should really happen to you.

Mitch

Mitch, back away from the computer and breathe deeply and slowly.

You created a thread right? You opened the door for ANYONE who had an opinion right? He has his opinion and although I don't agree with it, he's entitled to it.

If his responses really bother you that much, enjoy the pleasure of the "ignore" button, but please for the love of Pete, stop letting people push your emotional buttons. It's not healthy for you.....

 

[Mitchell]

kis, thank you. He's on ignore.

My problem isnt that he disagrees with me., Every post he makes to me is a sniping, nasty, post, sometimes with evil predictions.

I said my peace.

Mitch

 

[kis123]

kis, thank you. He's on ignore.

My problem isnt that he disagrees with me., Every post he makes to me is a sniping, nasty, post, sometimes with evil predictions.

And you're giving it way too much of your time and attention....that's my point. If he's on ignore, keep it that way and stop taking him off and reading his posts. That's what the function is for; so that you don't have to read anything that has the potential to be disturbing to you. No sense of using the function if you're going to view the post and get pissed anyway, don't you agree??

I said my peace.

Mitch

It didn't sound too peaceful to me. Please let it go and let the wounds heal; you'll feel a lot better for it, trust me.

 

[smilingjames]

A few days after my aunt was buried, there was a butterfly inside the house in the kitchen. It stayed for a while until it flew outside. Same thing with my father. A butterfly hanged on the curtain from where his wake took place. It didn't leave until it fell off to the floor and died. I picked it up placed it inside the book I was reading. Same thing with my mother, a butterfly appeared in the plants she used to take care off. But my brother was different. A scary looking moth appeared before me after he was buried. Clearly, these were a demonstration that there is an afterlife and the dead would manifest themselves to their loved ones in another form.

 

[Jericho716]

You're talking to me about "Reality check". I got news for you.. You couldnt handle the reality I'm dealing with right now, okay?

And Mitchell, I "got" news for you too.

Even though losing your mom was terrible and it appears you'll never get over it since you can't stop posting about it, YOU couldn't handle the reality that many, many, many more people are going through that you are not. It's terrible when we lose loved ones, but there is much worse out there in the world. I could think of 10 ways everybody's lives would be much worse than they are now.

Pull back and be thankful that your life really isn't that bad. It's strange to be "thankful" that things are "bad" when they could be worse, but it's an interesting way to think about it.

 

[Mitchell]

Jericho, once again,.,. if you were worth getting banned, I'd post what I really think of you..

You're the maven, telling me when to "get over" the death of my mother? People who know far more than you, doctors, etc, told me you dont "get over" something like that. It merely becomes a somber reality of life.

If you knew anything about me.. you would know that I am thankful.

I have news for the people, Jericho and coldneck, who think you both know so fucking much!

MY FATHER, with all the problems I've had with him, told me that he feels very sorry that my mom left me with the mess to clean up alone. He also told me that no matter how old one is.. it doesnt stop them from mourning.

I just love how people on this forum think they can control how others feel. I;m sorry if I'm showing humanity, and am feeling it some on the first Mothers Day right after i lose my mom.

Memo to self: New life starting. Take a deep breath, and bail from the abuse on TMF. Right now, that is one of my biggest problems.

Mitch

 

[Leo tickles]

Another Mitch thread, another soap opera.

I laugh.

 

[Mitchell]

Tell ya what, Leo, I'll laugh too if you go through what I am, k?