Theories of Death

Death Tarot Card from The Rider-Waite Tarot deck

I was going to attempt to write something for this post some months back, but I kept procrastinating and then when I needed to have something ready to post I didn't have enough time to work on it. I also try to avoid controversy here on my own blog. The subject of death often leads to deep philosophical or religious discussions.

I was planning on using the images below from the Family Guy trading cards for the heading of the post but decided not to. They are too funny cartoony not serious philosophy.

 2006 Inkworks Family Guy: Season 2: Autographs: A8 Adam Carolla Voice of Death

Still I wanted something that wasn't too morbid. Ha good luck with that. Oooh yeah Tarot cards.

So the subject of death scares many people. In fact most people are scared of it even though it is a natural part of the cycle of life. There are those Negative Nellies that say death is the end and that is that. The old "fade to black" theory embraced by many an atheist. It is the most negative and most scary of the theories of what happens to us after we die, or what we experience at the moment of death and beyond.

I was born into a Christian family, United Methodist to be exact. I'm not sure if the church I grew up with was typical Methodist or not. Methodists tend to be sort of Baptist Lite. At an early age I was indoctrinated into the Heaven and Hell belief so it is sort of hard to shake off. As a kid at first it was you went to Heaven, unless you killed someone. To me it was never about sitting on clouds and playing a golden harp, maybe at the very first until around age 7 or 8 then it was more just about being with God and Jesus but in spirit form. Similar to our current bodies, but not physical. That is until The Rapture and Jesus' Return new bodies etc. Then in my pre-teens, teens and early 20s I backslid a bit, but still the basic Christian beliefs were there.  I looked into New Age during my 20s but didn't embrace it or take it too seriously. It seemed to be sort of a modern variant of Christianity for the versions that believed in a Christ figure anyway with a bunch of ETs added for good measure.

Over the years arguments from atheists that were not the silly "Who created God?" type questions made me question some religious things and think harder in some areas. Especially when it comes to the whole eternal Hell thing. I have never been what I consider "religious" and often just more spiritual than religious. Organized religion always bored me.

In recent years due to reading up on Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and other afterlife books I tend to lean toward some kind of reincarnation or eternal spiritual existence in peaceful settings. With God being more a spiritual force rather than an actual "person". I also read a book that studied spiritual encounters people have had that are similar to NDEs but the person having the encounter was NOT dead. Sometimes they were even wide awake. They called them After Death Communication (ADC). They usually take place anytime from when a loved one dies to a few weeks or even sometimes months or years later. That book leaned more toward Christian religion and the survival of the soul after death. After a while all the encounters started sounding alike and the Christianity forced into them.

Onward, in my opinion here, in no particular order, are the main theories of what happens to us after the moment of death:

1. Fade To Black: Cease To Exist:
2. Reincarnation:
3. Heaven Or Hell:
4. Other:

These next sections I will go into further detail about a specific theory.

Fade To Black: Cease To Exist:

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that perhaps the scariest theory of death is the one held by many atheists. It is the fade to black and cease to exist. OK so clinically and biologically when the human body shuts down; the heart stops pumping blood, the lungs stop circulating air and the electrical synapses stop transmitting signals to the brain, the human consciousness stops and shuts down as well.

When we sleep we go into a sort of shut-down mode. Our consciousness rests and we shut out the outside world. We relax, close our eyes and eventually "fall asleep". During our sleep we are unaware of the outside, our thoughts are not focused on one tiny thing like when we are awake and conscious. During this time since we are ignoring (for lack of a better word) the outside we don't see anything, our eyes are closed. We might hear things until our focused consciousness totally relaxes. It is only when we awake the next day, or a few minutes to hours later that we are aware that we had even been asleep and often only remember blackness or an emptiness. Apparently people who are blind from birth have no true concept of colors so their "blackness" is just more non-images. Some describe blindness by asking you to imagine trying to see out of your elbow, or the back of your head. Well you can't see out your elbow of even imagine how that works. It isn't "blackness" it is just no image what-so-ever. Occasionally upon awakening we remember our dreams (aka visions) from our sleep. It is said that we always "dream" but we don't always remember having them.

The fade to black death belief often says that death is like sleeping except we don't have dreams. Our vision shuts down, our hearing (which is said to be the last sense that goes) stops, and eventually brain function (thoughts) stop as well. So the idea of total shutdown equals non-existence.

For this theory the scary thing is the non-existence. After having existed, the thought of no longer existing is extremely creepy. For me much like falling from a great height. I discovered it isn't the falling that scares me it is the sudden hard impact of stopping and splattering the scares me. So I am no longer afraid of falling just the sudden stop at the end. I am also no longer totally scared of death, it is the actual transitioning from life to death that scares me, and the pain that is felt during that transition.

Reincarnation:

Many of the older Eastern religions have some kind of reincarnation belief. That is that we are spiritual beings that travel from life time to life time. The concept that we have an eternal spirit or soul that is separate from our physical body, but is also a major part of who and what we are. The Judeo-Christian religions also have an eternal spirit/soul belief, but not the reincarnation bit. Most religions or belief systems that do believe in the soul-spirit believe that the ultimate goal is to reunite with the main source or god and that during our lifetime we are trying to raise our awareness to a higher level or frequency to reach that highest frequency the creator source. Each lifetime is expected to get us that much closer to our eternal goal.

Some reincarnation beliefs state that our spirit can inhabit any physical body be it plant, animal, or human. What we do during our physical lifetime determines what type of body we will inhabit in our next life. You live a nice decent life you return as a human, you do some bad things you return as some kind of animal for a few lives. Conversely there are reincarnation beliefs that state we only inhabit (I prefer the word embody) human bodies, not animals or plants, or rocks even.

Reincarnation beliefs often include some kind of Karma system. Again it is what you do in your life time determines your future life or lives. If you tend to do good decent things you will have good karma and your next life will be fruitful and rewarding. On the other hand if you are a heartless scum of the Earth you will have hard dark black bad karma and you will suffer greatly in your next life.

Many modern NDEs indicate there is a reincarnation system of some kind in place. One that includes a sort of paradise or a world, or rather existence where whatever we desire or wish for will appear or come to us. Again there is the idea of some kind of desire to connect with the creation source and though our various lives we get closer and closer to that source.

Heaven Or Hell:

Several of the religions that believe in an afterlife or continued existence after physical death believe that based on what one does in one's life determines one's eternal destination. It is a one or the other belief. Either you live in eternal peace with the creator, or you suffer eternal torment in Hell. There is no in-between and once you arrive at your destination there is no going back no switching to the other place.

So the concept of Heaven is eternal Peace. Often in the company of the eternal father the creator god.  This destination is for those who lived the perfect good life according to the tenets of faith and what the holy god says. Hollywood has incorrectly implanted a vision of sitting on clouds in long white robes and sandals with wings on our backs and playing handheld harps. Oh and a golden ringed halo magically held above our heads. About the only thing of that vision that many of the religions do believe is wearing the comfy white robes with the sandals.

Depending on the religion what paradise is will be whatever one desires.  You "think" it and it is or appears. Everyone you have ever cared about or for is with you or can be with you. Provided they had the same faith and also lived a super perfect life according to what the creator god demands of his followers.

Hell on the other hand is very dark very hot and smells of burning and rotting flesh. This is reserved for evil people and those who did nothing but bad things in their life (some even believe those who only thought about sex will be there as well). Some even believe if you didn't believe in god or the right god Hell is your eternal home. Mean Ugly monsters and demons poke, skewer, cut, burn, eat, smash, crush and do all other sorts of mean and nasty things to the people in eternal damnation.

Once a tortured soul has been burned, mutilated, pulverized or whatever they magically "heal" only to be burned, mutilated and pulverized all over again, and again, and again, and again.

The concept of an "eternal" hell to me doesn't make much sense if there is a truly "loving" god. Being punished for all eternity for a very finite thought or action. That is like being sentenced to prison for 1 Million years for stealing a candy bar as a nine year old. Punishment overkill.

Other:

I don't know how many other theories there actually are. There might be several that don't fit into what I have mentioned above. Some people separate Heaven and Hell into two separate theories since they are two different destinations and there are some that believe one way or the other not both. Plus some divide the various Reincarnation theories into 2 or 3 separate ones but I kept them together since the basic core belief was the same. In this "Other" category I have heard about this Simulation theory I give below.

Computer Simulation AKA: The Matrix: 

One of the more bizarre and fairly recent death theories is that we are actually living in a computer simulation and that what we think of and call "reality" is actually a computerized matrix. I just think this one is really hokey and tend to dismiss it as a pure fantasy. I have only heard about it being a theory I can't imagine what sort of details have been thought up about it. OK so where exactly is this computer that is creating the matrix and has our code data? Who made the computer and programmed it? Are they still monitoring their program? Why even bother making it in the first place? So are we just memory data in the computer and when we "die" our data is lost or used up? Do we "wake up" in whatever is outside this computer that runs this matrix? I still don't fully understand this particular theory.