The mystery of the Afterlife
Have you ever wondered what happens when someone dies? Do they go into eternal oblivion? Or do a part of them, or rather an essence of them, stay on? Such is the mystery of the afterlife that thousands of intellectual people from time immemorial have tried to find out its secrets. Till date, the mystery of the afterlife continues to haunt the common man. Because almost nothing is known about what happens exactly after a person dies, the allure continues.
Many theories are there which try to define the afterlife and what happens when the body dies. The afterlife is also known as Next World, Hereafter and Life After Death. Those who believe in the afterlife are of the opinion that when the body dies, the soul stays behind. Some of them believe that the soul takes on a spiritual realm. Others are of the opinion that the soul stays on to take rebirth on this earth. This rebirth occurs several times, before the soul attains ‘eternal knowledge’ and gets reunited with its creator.
Some theories state that when a person dies, he faces a judge (God) who judges him on his life on the planet and sends him accordingly to hell or heaven. As one can see, afterlife is an extremely intriguing topic and has been featured in many a debate.
Study of the afterlife can be an extremely invigorating study and many an intellectual have devoted their lives to it. Most of the religions of the world too believe in the afterlife.
We have moved Afterlife.in to a new host and design yesterday and I though it would be a good idea to continue the old discussion here.
Just leave a comment at the end of the discussion and I will add your opinion as well.
Here are the comments submitted from other visitors
Name :
gaurav
Comment:
enjoy now dont care what is life after death
Name :
Toni
Comment:
Gaurav I disagree, if we don’t think about our life after death now we will not have any Life after death when we die. It’s time you understand who your saviour is and accept him as the same: Jesus Christ.
Name :
Greg
Comment:
God have mercy on my soul, for I am a sinner and I can not find my way.
Name :
Miraj
Comment:
Afterlife is based on your action. Every action has a reaction. So the hindu karma law does seem to be right. It is a very laughable idea that you do what ever you want to do and than at end of the life redeem yourself to go to heaven….sheer craziness and promotes carefree behaviour. You should be aware of your actions and every action will be having reactions. So if you killed animals in this life you will be th e one who will pay in next life. Miraj
Name :
confused buddah
Comment:
I am a Buddhist like Miraj is , but I became even suspicious about Buddhism. First of all, human eats anything you even eat plants, even if you havent killed a watermelon, you ate it, regardless of how peaceful your mind state is, the fact is you consumed it. The nature seems to me it requires victms, and having violent either peaceful emotion is just natural and you can have violent state of mind when you are killing animals or cutting plants. When I see Buddhists who try to meditate and focus on ONLY peace seems silly. And I see them failing at one point. I tried too, and I failed. My realization after that was I was trying to be unatural by overdoing meditation. And if you are trying to be so peaceful around people, you might bring temporary peace among them, but since your state of mind is always different, it is hard to socialize with people also.(It happened to me several times) Anyway back to the topic, I am definately sure scientists do believe there will be something will happen after death. I am pretty sure there are scientists who are testing it out. One of test , you can google, it shows how consciousness can continue afterdeath. I am not a scientist but I believe in this formula E=MC2. This formula can be explained in many ways, but one of definitions tells us that energy never disappear but it converts into other form of energy. So I think when our body dies, it will somehow converts into energies, such as the heat we have, or our potential energies that can be physically consumed by funguses or electromagnetic energy from neuron can be spread out to the air. Well I don’t know what will happen to those energies and light particles, but what I notice is this world is sort of chaos, there is no orders. Therefore those energies can end up getting on good spot or bad spot, regardless of how you lived your life.
Name :
angel
Comment:
death always worry me idk what to do sometimes i just want to stay like this forever, and can’t really acccpet that i’m going to do at the end. just to think about it makes me feel really bad, all those feeling kill me everyday, even i try to get my mind into other stuff but always before going to sleep it cames to me and can’t leave with it, need a answer is there life or no, is your body just going to shut down, and your mind will be black forever without thinking nor doing anything else, how will it feel will i be alone by that time.
Name :
kenneth ross
Comment:
i really believe that there’s a life after death..for me, wat am i doing now here in earth is a preparation for my next life..
Name :
sonnyweid
Comment:
This question’s been bothering me since I can remember Or maybe it’s only been since last December, But time is just time – and I don’t see its relevance So I’ll get right to the point as an act of benevolence The question I ask has been asked many times By thousands of people with differing minds But I’d still like to know just where do we go After we’ve died and paid for our crimes Yes, I know we have faith and a thousand religions And messages carried by carrier pigeons, Philosophers and thinkers, and people of reason Predicting afterlives like farmers do to seasons But really, c’mon I mean who really knows What happens when we die and where our soul goes? I’ve heard stories of people who’ve experienced “near death” Pronounced “Dead at the Scene” and come back – save your breath! They’re still walking and talking and breathing again Revamping their story to their gullible friends They’ve walked through the tunnel – but never got to the end Y’see I want to know about Life Ever After Is it eternal damnation or eternal laugher? So this is the answer I’d like to believe When my soul leaves this earth and in Heaven is received At the end of that tunnel that I mentioned before I imagine right there I’d walk through a door And I wouldn’t walk upon clouds in the sky No robes, no halos, no wings to fly I’d be just as I am – but my hair would be longer My eyes would see further and my arms would be stronger And music would be blaring! But not like music from church Bands would be jamming out high on a perch And people would be dancing, and singing, and praying And I’d know right away that I wouldn’t mind staying. And then I’d see Him – my God, my Master Jamming with Hendrix on an old Telecaster So I’d walk over to Peter, pay my ticket at the gates And say “I’ll chat with you later, right now Heaven awaits” Then I’d sing, and I’d dance, and I’d praise the Lord I’d do it forever and I’d never get bored This is the answer I’d like to accept When it comes to questions about life after death.
Name :
kristyn
Comment:
My grandmother died on December 10,2009 after a long batter with liver failure. She was diagnosed in 2008, so as you can see her batter did not last long, but her death was a blessing for her. She suffered far too long with her illness. In the two weeks before her passing, our family traveled from everywhere to be by her side. She went from being comptely normal one day to us waking up the next and she was comptly confused. We knew the time was near. This was one week before Thanksgiving of 2009. Her parents had too passed around Christmas 32 years prior. While she was going through the death stage for those two weeks, she would call out to people we could not see. She would wave at something at the end of her bed that only she could see, then she would turn towards me and smile. I would say “who are you waving at grandma?” she said she’s waving at me and she would turn back and wave again. Another night my mother and i walked into her room and we were standing at the end of her bed talking to her, she stared right past us and squinted her eyes like she was trying really hard to focus…we asked her who she was seeing, she said confused “i dont know” we said “is a male or female? ” she replied “two boys” so automatically we assumed she was seeing her two brothers who had passed earlier in life. At another time when my mother and i had entered her room again she asked “did you leave him behind?” we asked to whom was she referring to and then she said “richard”. Richard was her first brother who passed away many many years ago. She had barly known who we were anymore so for her to clearly state she was seeing her deceased brother was amazing. My mother and i looked at eachother with tears in her eyes and it was at that moment that we had both known she was going to be ok and that she had her family there to guide her home. In the moment that my grandma finally took her breath at 12:10 am on 12/10/09 we could intantly feel her around us, comforting us with a rub on the knees of the ones who mourned for her. Many of us have since had dreams about her…but they weren’t your everyday dreams, they were her coming to us for only a moment to tell us she was ok and goodbye. One incident that reasured us that she knew she was gone was this one very vivid dream my uncle’s girlfriend had. She came to her and was looking at her fingers very puzzled and saying that she could not figure out where her rings had gone. She also told her that she could feel everyone rubbing her head and it felt very good and we made her very comfortable. Alex (my uncles girlfriend) called me right when she woke up to tell me about the dream. Now here is the crazy thing, we my mother and i had taken her wedding ring and her other favorite ring off a few minutes after she died…that was something we had told no one about, especially not Alex. When she came and seen me, she rang my doorbell, i answered it and automaticaly said “grandma why are ringing the door bell silly, just come on in?!” she stepped in and said “i just came by or a couple moments to say hi” she sat on the couch, i sat next to her and she knew she was gone. I jumped up and went to the freezer and asked her if i could get her something to eat, she said “no im not hungry” i said what about water she said “no no honey im not thirsty, quit trying so hard” and she kind of chuckled. But point is she was trying to let me know she doesn’t need substance anymore. We talked for a moment and then she got up to walk out the door, i told her “oh ya, instead of burying your ashes, grandpa has decided to keep them until he too passes.” She said “i know he has already told me” Its just amazing how powerful spirituality is. I dont think you can truly understand nor appriciate it until you have expierenced the death of a loved one. There are many more storys of her visiting people following her death and i assume there will be many more.
Name :
LANA FROM PRETORIA IN SA
Comment:
I BELIEVE IN GOD,SO I WILL PRAY FOR YOU MY FRIENDS,READ THE BOOK OF THOO NAM AND MARY.K.BAXTER.
Afterlife or life after death refers to the continuing existence of the soul and spirit after your physical death. Deceased people are believed to go to a specific region of existence in the next life depending on their religion. They believe they go to Heaven, Hell, Limbo, Purgatory, Sheol, or some other state, place or even condition.

There are some that believe that afterlife is absolutely impossible and that when you die you just disappear and stop existing in any form.
There are two different types of views on the afterlife; one has claimed to be scientific and the other religious views. No matter if your religion is Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, or many pagans believe that the status of afterlife is a reward or punishment for their conduct during life.
With the scientific view of afterlife they say the only reason anyone believes in afterlife is because of the fear or desire to not become nonexistent after we die.That this is only comfort for the loved ones left behind to know that there is life after death. The scientific view only sees the material human body and the material universe around it. They say that “God” and the whole life after death is confined to the brain. The scientists are materialists and shout there is not afterlife and death is the end.

Christianity believes in Jesus and the Bible and that there is afterlife in heaven or hell. There is a living God that we put our faith and belief in and accept as our personal Savior and spend our eternity, life after death the God in heaven. Then on the other hand if we choose not to accept Jesus as our personal Savior we choose to live our life to please satan and his demons and then our afterlife will be spend in hell.
The Islamic belief in the afterlife is stated in the Quar’an. They believe that souls will not get to Paradise, which is referred to as jannat or get to Hell, which is called jahannam. These have different levels and the Islams do not get to there until after the Judgment Day. There comfort in the grave depends on their belief in the god, Allah, and hereafter plus their deeds during this life. There are 7 levels for Jannat and 5 levels for Hell.
The afterlife belief of the Hindus, Rosicrucians, Spiritists and Wicca is reincarnation, which is the transmigrating of human beings into animals, vegetables or even minerals. They believe in Karma or the consequences of actions taken in previous lives.
Buddhism believes that afterlife is just the process of rebirth into a continuation of the previous life. They believe in karma in the instance that if they died in a peaceful state of mind then they will ripen into a rebirth as a human or god; but if they die in a negative state of mind then they will ripen in rebirth as an animal, ghost or demon.
Even though the human body will decay, there is a long standing belief that death is survivable or there is afterlife. All the major religions are all in agreement in the teaching that humans are immortal and their spirit comes from a divine world and may eventually return there. This is the great promise and hope which the religions offer to their followers. So where will you go? Is there a Life after Death?