ARE YOU ALIVE? - the existential blog project

When the mass evolves, there is massive evolution. Or at least that's the hope.

Here's the idea - what if comments made to a blog posting were about something OTHER than reality tv or Paris' new boy toy.

What if thousands of people from across the globe opened their minds and shared their personal insights to questions
that no one individual can answer.

That's exactly the inspiration for : "Are You Alive?: The Existential Blog Project" We'll feature a total of eight existential question that hundreds of people can weigh in on. All participants get a free copy of the compiled E-book. Raw thought encouraged.

As we all add comments, our collective insights soar. Take a minute and give us your two cents....personal thoughts, opinions, facts, religious answers whatever you feel compelled to say.

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Question week one ::  What happens to you after you die?
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Upcoming Weekly Questions :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

1. What happens to you after you die?
2. What's the best proof that your God is real?
3. Why are are we all here?
4. How does one obtain true peace?
5. Why are so many people depressed?
6. What are we all so afraid of?
7. Is current religion serving its purpose?
8. Do you think we're somehow “all one”?

 

 

Questions from and inspired by the independent film Oneness (www.onethemovie.org)

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Comments

[Robin]

When we die, we shuck off our body like we shuck off an old coat. Its job is complete, and we bid it a fond goodbye.
We ourselves go on: the individuality and the personality continue forth in a plane that wasn't obvious to us while we were 'alive', but is around us now all the time. A vast society of people, creatures, animals and higher beings exist in that place, and we find our own place in it.
After a time, the individuality shucks off the personality, and bids it a fond goodbye. Then we spend a much longer time in an even higher 'space' of perfect happiness. This is the state that is usually referred to as heaven.
After that, depending on our karma, which consists of causes we set up ourselves in previous lives, we are reborn in a physical body. Could be as a boy or a girl, depending on what sort of lessons are most necessary for us to learn.

[Lainy]

It is hard to answer this question without trying to fully define what death is. I know that most people define it as the moment our physical bodies can no longer function and all of our systems shut down, "turn off".

But doesn't it seem that the idea of death can manifest itself in other ways during our lives. For example, I think of the saying, 'you are dead to me,' doesn't this statement feel like a termination of one's compassion?

It's hard to imagine being compassionate towards a mass murder, but why not. Maybe somewhere in his or her life someone somehow stripped them of their ability to understand, forgive, love, and feel passion. I would imagine if one lost these abilities, one would become 'dead' to the world, so why not murder?

To be totally devoid of compassion… That is much more scary to me than my physical body ceasing to function.

Who knows what happens to our bodies after our systems fail. Does it really matter?

[Incognita]

Keep in mind, as someone posts a comment, their byline is actually UNDER the message that they posted. It may appear that the name at the start of the comment is theirs, but it is actually the name under the broken line that is the author.

[achmedhashem]

The world goes on as if you never existed.
sorry bu true

[daphnegoldfish22]

I get asked by God whether I want to go to Heaven right now or hang out on Earth to do some traveling and haunt some friends and relatives first and then come on up later. I choose the latter...

[Yuen]

You're about to cross the road. Either side of you are parked cars, so you don't have a great view. Peering past, both ways, careful as you can be, you see that nothing is coming. You decide to cross the road, and step out beyond your little spot of tarmac. For no apparent reason, an itch on your shoulder, you pause.

An effing large van tears right past you, beeping and swearing. The driver shouts something about a white stick.

"Damn if there isn't an angel looking out for me."

An angel is the moment just gone,
The moment where nothing went wrong.

You cross the road. You cross it that day, the day after and the hundred series following that.

One day, your company demands you have that medical before they post you out to Paris. So off along to the doctor's you pop.

"I don't know how to say this to you..." she says.

Cancer. That's what you have. So now you cry. Cry and celebrate all that you have ever known. All those you've loved, who've loved you.

And then you die.

Death is the moment just past.
The moment we go to,
To understand why it went so fast.

[NotAnother1]

Interesting to read all of these comments. I personally believe that scientifically and spiritually, we are energy and energy recycles itself. So many look at God as having all of these human characteristics, which I think is the fault of religion. God is greater than man, no? Then wouldn't (he) be bigger than to judge? I see him as a parent, loving, feeling hurt when we don't choose what is best for ourselves or each other, but certainly not damning us for our choices. When we die, we rejoin the energy we came from--we are all connected and know all there is to know. And then come here again (or go somewhere else) to do it all over and see what happens THEN. :)

[Justin Rock]

Nothingness.

[lynnxe]

Your body releases all of it's gasses and fluids. In other words, you crap all over yourself.

You won't care though, because you'll be dead. For once it will be someone else's job to clean it up.

[Andrea S]

If we are unlucky we get buried in a wooden box and over the years we rot away until some vermin manages to finally scratch it's way through and finish off whatever you didn't sign to donate away to somebody else. The End. If we are lucky we get cremated and flown off into the great blue yonder. In either event we cease to exist either physically, mentally or spiritually. I don't beleive that there is an afterlife or a heaven or a hell. We just cease. Our brains cease to function and therefore so do we, well after a couple of weeks when everythings stopped growing like nails and hair. It pains me that even if I shave my legs before I die that I will be hairy within a fortnight of being buried!

[Michelle G.]

Read or listen to Josheph Campbell. He will expand your horizons. I agree with his belief that when our physical body wears out the energy or soul/spirit leaves it, where it ends up is the great unknown isn't it? I'd like to think we join with the collective energy that makes up everything. Or perhaps we are reinserted into another physical being. It is not for us to know.
Life, as we know it, is the heaven or hell you make of it and if you can't change your reality, you can change how your perceive it.

[Eric]

It seems that Heaven is an easy idea for us to embrace, but that Hell is hard to accept. I admit that I have a hard time believing in / understanding Hell. It seems so unlike the character of God to let someone suffer eternally. But that is probably because we like to think about some of God's characteristics, namely Love and Forgiving, more than others -- Holy and Righteous.

God gives each of us a lifetime to choose to love him or not. Within our lifetime, we choose to love him and be with him forever or we choose to do things our own way and to be separate from God. I believe that when we die, we will be judged.

"His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Luke 3:17)

and

"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Mt 25:31-46)

I believe that going to Heaven is not merited by our good deeds. You can do plenty of good deeds and not let God into the center of your life. Or you could be a huge sinner but ask for God's mercy and forgiveness. Jesus paid the price of admission to Heaven, but if you choose not to accept his mercy, how will you get in? Why would God invite someone who has spent their life rejecting him to spend eternity in communion with him?

[TheresaSc]

This question reminded me of an adolescent question I used to ask, just to mess with ones head.
If there is a god, and you committed a sin like that of taking your own life (suicide) on the exact day and time that god intended for you to die, would you still have truly committed that sin and go to hell?
To answer the question of this blog I think we are part of the cycle of life, we simply are recycled back into the earths ecosystem. If you literally interpret some passages from the bible it even confirms it. "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." From the early burial section of the First English Book of Common Prayer (1548-1549).

[Shadow]

After your heart stop beating (in case of natural death)the being (the spirit)leaves the body, taking with him old pictures which he will attach to the new body. The life and the personality are going on. The spirit hangs around for couple of days to see that body has been taken care off and goes into Between Lives Area which continues for around 60 days. There are some locations on Mars, Saturn and Earth where he is electronically implanted (brain washed or more correctly mind washed with false concepts and artificial purposes in a malicious attempt to control him)and given amnesia so he will not remember the previous lives.

Don't go to the light. It is a road to the implant station.

Choose a location on Earth that you really like and familiar with and go there. Resist to go into the light. When you are there go to the local hospital and pick up baby's body and start new life!

So it will be wise to plan your next life now, like you will plan your trip to Hawaii :-)

You are as a Spirit infinite and just doing time on Earth (this Galaxy's prison for non-conformists)until you graduate through development of your Awaraness to a point where you can be stably out of the body and go anywhere you want in time and space or outside of this Universe as there are other
Universes that are waiting for you to bring your wisdom gained in this sector as a unique Explorer Race infinite singularity.

We are all Gods in training so dying is only the transition to much more interesting existence.

Happy journey!

Shadow

[Mary Ledwith]

death, I really don't know. But I remember as a child around 10, I was thinking about God while I was up in my room. One thought went to another and then my mind sort of floated out the window. I could see myself and I went somewhere and all of a sudden I knew things, about God, spirituality, a great peace and things I did not know before and then I got scared, stopped in mid thought... and said " Hay I'm a kid, I'm not suppose to know this stuff!" and I was back in my body in a nano-second bam! I knew then that I would not be afraid to die.It was a great place. That there was something outside of this earth for us. Even while we were on earth we could get glimpses of it...

Years later when I was in my 20's and visiting my mother she said she had run into a religion teacher of mine and the teacher said to her she wanted to appologize to me. "Why" I said? "Because" she said "when you were around 10 year old you were in her religion class and asking questions and knowing things she did not and she was damned if she was going to let a young kid show her up.... and she was sorry for that"

I want to believe we go on... connect with the peoples energy in our lives again that we loved...but I don't know that....but I know there is a power and energy out there. I can feel it. My spirituallity is me now, and when I die.

[Chris]

What happens when we die? Dang! You sure have to do a lot of defining before you can arrive at THAT question. Like what is the difference between life and death itself? For me, ultimately it's a matter defining limitations and boundries. Perhaps death is merely a lifting of a spatial and temporal veil at a supra-conscious level. Like many boundries in "life", perhaps it is all in our "imaginations". There seems to be layers and layers and layers to "what is" and "what isn't". We haven't even decided if the physical Universe is really made of "matter" yet. The once indivisible atom seems to become more and more a rope lost in thin air the more we learn about the Quantum nature of the Universe. To imagine death I suppose one has to accept the very truth of existence as interpreted by the five senses. It's the tale of the blind men and the elephant. It's all very subjectively interpreted.

[Michael]

You become Jean Paul Sarte.

[Amare]

I don't know what happens after you die but I know what I would like to believe. I would like to believe in a continued existence, something perhaps as strange and beautiful and terrifying as this world around us. I would want to believe in nearly anything other than in the utter end of self.

[Cinder]

You can answer what happens to us after we die if you can answer why we are all so fascinated with this question.

Perhaps we go on...or we surrender into oblivion. Personally, I think a person has died once they stop asking questions, seeking answers and have surrendered to whatever theory they've been handed.

[jane]

when we die, we inescapably will become part of the earth again. if you are buried, your cells decompose into the ground, or are eaten by the worms that will reprocess your flesh back into the soil. if you are cremated, your ashes will be scattered throughout the air, or to the ocean. it seems our bodies become the elements.

[Bridget]

what happens when u die? I think that we have the opportunity to just chill within nothingness fo as long as we like.. I think the choices beyond that are as boundless as the nothingness we (our souls?) exist within.. Wether we just rest, become a vessel of divine intervention, or decide to come back & exist immedietly 'in time' is completely up to our own free will. I think that eventually everyone does come back, again & again.. If for nothing else than the richness of experiencing the experience(the good & bad) that the sticknness of living here, in time, brings us..

[Tianne Pearson]

What happens when we die? Well we do just that – die. Nothing happens to our souls or our minds in my opinion. We are not sleeping, for that takes brainpower. We are like a television that was on, and the cord has been pulled. Some believe that many sinners will go to Hell. I however, choose not to subscribe to this theory. I have been told, and believe that God is a loving God. I have been told and believe that he loves us as his children. Well, as a mother, I could not imagine imposing a sentence of eternal suffering on my child. No matter what she did or didn't do, it just wouldn't be very loving. Perhaps, the "punishment" for not leading a proper life is that you cease to exist after death for all time.

Disclosure: I was invited to weigh in on this topic-- to offer an opinion. This is my personal opinion. If you do not agree, please do not send me nasty messages. Please do not write to me to "help me". I appreciate people's passions when it comes to their religion, but this was a statement not an invitation to converse. This is a "comment and run" if you will.

[C]

You wake up someone, somewhere ... under stranger circumstances... and continue doing like there was no interruption.

[Amy]

I think that death is an ending. Nothing mystical or magical happens whereby we can see or hear what transpires past our demise. I also don't think we are transported to some heavenly locale to be reunited with our deceased loved ones. I find the religious or mystical explainations of an after life of any sort to be fairy tales meant to calm our fears about the inevitable, and to soothe the grieving of the bereaved. The only afterlife we can hope for is to live on in the memories of those we knew.
My feelings on this matter may seem harsh, but in contrast I see it as a call to action. To love family/friends, to live a decent life and to LIVE life while it's here.

[Kelly Courtney]

When we die we return to the big Whole - the big everything all at once - no positive no negative - those are concepts of this reality/dimension. Time is static - everything is happening all at once. We are just moving through. We retain our memories upon death but then we will retain EVERYONES memories. There is no hell. Sin, and judgement are concepts of this reality/dimension not the next. There is no final judgement. All is accepted. Our choices and actions both individually and collectively are merely the Divine Whole experiencing itself through his/her creation of free will beings.