Can the Afterlife Change People?

Let me start by saying I am not a big paranormal proponent / believer, so this is a bit of an odd post for me. However, recently I've had a couple dream events occur which made an interesting question come to me. It's kind of hard to set the stage for this post without just jumping right into the story itself and then letting the details, and questions, come to light there. So, without further adieu....

Over the past couple of months I have had a couple of very vivid dreams. These dreams weren't about the usual random dream stuff, but rather very specific dreams about specific people. In my case, two of the recurring dreams were about my father who passed in 2014 at the age of 90. The details and subject of the dreams is not important other than to say they were interactions between me and my father which would have occurred had the subject of the dream ever taken place, but with some notable exceptions which is the point of this OP.

One of the most recent dreams was so vivid it made me wonder if one of the mechanisms for people in the 'afterlife' (should something like that even exist) to visit the living might be through dreams? This question is kind of an anecdote to the point of the OP. The dream was so vivid and realistic, down to the tiniest detail, that it was unlike any I've ever had before. When I woke up I was able to recall every detail. The problem though (and what made me post this OP) was that the interaction between me and my father was completely out of character compared to something which would have happened in real life. Nothing super-human, but rather just completely (other end of the spectrum) different from something which would have occurred between he and I.

This led me to my 2nd question. Many times we make the assumption an interaction with a loved one in the afterlife (were this possible) would be similar to an interaction which would have happened if the person was still alive. In other words, that the 'dream' version of the person would be the same as the real-life living person. That was not the case for me, and the dream version of the person (my father) was completely different. So, my 2nd question is...could the afterlife change a person's personality? Could there possibly be other influences on an afterlife personality which would cause them to be a different person personality wise?

When people get older often their political views will shift to the left. This makes sense because the needs of the elderly are more dependent on others, and more out of pocket cost conscious, after retirement and into their golden years. Oddly, I wondered if this same shift might continue to occur in the afterlife too.

In life, my father and I had a great relationship (from my perspective). As a kid, I idolized him. Throughout my formative years and adolescence this relationship continued. After college and in my professional life we gradually drifted apart, not so much because he changed, but more because he increasingly didn't understand what I did professionally (He was a Civil Engineer, and I am a Physicist). But over time, especially in his very elder years, I did notice some of his values changing from conservative to more liberal in nature politically. This shift was very strange to me, but I would come to understand it in time (I think). In any case, that whole evolution is subject for another post; the point here is...

If the afterlife did in fact exist, is it possible this afterlife could change people to be different than they were in real life?

Thoughts and comments welcome and appreciated.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

If you've watched some of the YT vids about "life after death," the one thing that emerges--but few people pickup upon is that there is no material in the "afterlife," it is all, spiritual, a non-material existence...and even that "existence" may be entirely the wrong way of trying to describe it.

If there is an afterlife, one would hope it would allow for continued growth and learning. It would be truly horrifying to be stuck as the same person eternally with no ability to change or adapt to the new information an afterlife would give, no matter the form of that afterlife.

a reply to: balrathamir

I both agree and disagree. Yes, it would seem tragically unfulfilling to never be able to change, so on this front we agree. However, in the same breath, it seems to stand to reason, if a person is reduced to an energy state (i.e. spiritual, ghost, whatever), they would be able to channel as much, or as little, of their energy into whichever personality they wanted to be in any given moment.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I was always leery of the paranormal and spiritual until we moved to South Carolina in 2017. I have had several things happen that I wont get into but I will share what I now believe. Saw my 1st UFO in 2018. Met my Twin Flame in 2021.

I believe in: ET the aliens, UFO's, God, Reincarnation, Past Life, Twin Flame, Spirit Demons and we live an as energy after death on earth.

FYI I prayed to my father for guidance on a significant situation in my life this past May 2023. He died in 2020. Before May 2023 I never had a dream of him however in 2023 he now speaks to me while I am dreaming. I prayed to him and this has happened. I just dreamed of him again last week.

There is an afterlife for some but that afterlife is yet to come. Those that have already passed from this reality have either entered into a state of suspension, biblically referred to as Sheol. The New Testament indicates that sheol/hades is a temporary place where souls are kept as they await the final resurrection, or they are discarded/cast into the eternal pit.

There is no bridge between this reality and the afterlife. None. The dreams you have of your father are solely the manifestation of your subconscious mind manufacturing the dreams you had. The only spiritual entity able to communicate across the spiritual divide is God. Any other claim to such ability is the practice of witchcraft and sorcery.

But you don't care to hear this, do you?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Time is likely an illusion, the energy which constitutes your current incarnation has existed since the beginning and will endure to the end. To me there's no before or after, only relative perspective in the moment.

An observer 50 light years away with powerful enough optics could theoretically see my dead relatives live out their lives, yet from my perspective they died long ago. Which perspective is "real"?

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I was raised in a very religious environment at home when I was young ,no cooking or television, radio or any kind of work on the Sunday they would not even touch money on a Sunday the television was a luxury growing up turned on to watch the news then turned off , I went to work one Sunday as a 17 year old and came back to find my bags packed at the door
So I just moved in with my 26yo girlfriend lol.

I am the most unreligious person you will ever meet in life ,But I have had events happen to me while living in older properties that really make me wonder about life and what is out there .
Decades ago I buried a old sheep dog I had as a kid and 2 nights later as I was lying in my bed I heard his unmastakable bark right from the spot where he was buried and living in a old farm cottage where things really did go bump in the evening. and at night have changed my outlook on death somewhat

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Where to begin? Physics? Quantum physics? The laws of thermodynamics, ie. energy. The structure of the brain? The brain as opposed to, and in relation to, what is the "Mind"? The relationship of "mind" to "consciousness"? The relationship of consciousness to what is referred to, oftentimes, as the "Soul"? What connection might exist between the material, living, brain and the almost ephemeral mind/consciousness/soul, and what, if any relationship exists between these and the underlying Quantum reality(?) that supposedly gives rise to the reality we experince?


"I Sing the Body Electric"


Where do the memories and "personalities" of returned "grannie-bots" go when the humans they have nurtured and "loved" for years finally grow up and move on with their own lives?


Could something similar await us after "death"?


A great "rejoining" of pure thought-energy returned to the quantum state to combine and share in timeless harmonies creating the music of the spheres...

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yes, I think if there is afterlife, inevitable it would change one's perspective and thus personality. Given that it is a different environment all together...

Yes, it could be the afterlife.
It could also be that someone is currently behaving like tour dad in the dream and your brain is using his image, because its close fitting emotion wise.

My parents both passed decades ago, I loved them so much, yet I sometimes dreamt that their characters were nasty.
Nothing they would have ever done in life.

It was upsetting, but I kind of now think this is how my brain ciped with my sister, who would totally react like that.

All the dreams were incredibly real and detailed. So much so that I once slapped my husband when he woke me up from one of those as I looked distressed.
I was kind of still in my dream and did it, believing somehow it was my Mum, who has never been nasty to me and nwver smacked me, let alone me smack her.

So after many years, I figured out they were placeholders for where my sister should have appeared.
Since dealing with it, I haven't had another dream like it.

It's just my perspective.

I also hope there is no afterlife. When I'm dead, I want oblivion, not more lesson learning or tests or achievements like in life.
That sounds like a nightmare.
I'll go where the animals go. Wherever that is.

a reply to: Hecate666

I am on the same page once here is enough , but just to be on the safe side I am going to leave everything I own to me in a will , you never know

a reply to: Hecate666

Maybe we don't HAVE to come back?

I have the exact opposite feeling as I grow older. I feel like I cant wait to get on the ride again. And I'm already thinking about where I want to come back to and who I want to be.

It's so weird because I haven't had a particularly hard nor easy life. Ive had my ups and downs. Victories and disappointments. Good relationships with some and terrible relationships with others. But over the years and particularly with a marriage and one of my children, I think I was here to assist them with something their soul was working out. Like it wasn't my karma that was involved, but like something has had to be completed in the dance with them. Very challenging relationships where others have fit like a glove.

Another funny thing, I've always known significant people in my life at first sight. And it hasn't always involved love.

I want to come around again to continue my own advancement, or path.

I just cant shake this idea.

Life is not static, it seems logical that whatever could exist as afterlife is also not static. What changes a person in life? a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Is it possible that your father didn't change his opinions/personality so much as he expanded his opinions/personality?

For example, if your father was racist, perhaps on the other side he realizes that his racial concerns on earth are not important in Heaven, where souls have no race?

Or, perhaps if he was homophobic, he now understands that how we love others is more important than who we love?

I could be totally off base. But this is what came to mind with your question.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Change is the only constant.

In afterlife dimensions/levels, there is typically a lot less influence of qing (sentiment, overly strong emotional ties), so an interaction might very well not be so "close", but more pragmatic and on point, but overall more compassionate if that makes sense. Otherwise, there are so many levels and dimensions that is impossible to generalize what might occur in one circumstance vs another.

Also, the concept of how the relationship dynamic is could very well be different. In other words the concept of father, brother, etc. to you may not be as clear depending on the relationship of your true being (soul). It may come across very different than you would be accustomed to in this life with him.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Energy can neither be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred from one form to another.

Quantum mechanics tell us that matter is energy. Every point of that energy connected, unified and in constant communication with every single other point of energy in space and time. Buddhist have been saying that since 500BC. But its nice to have science confirm that fact. Thus the nature of reality be our nature.

Man that's whacked.. 🙄😕😖😣😩😫😵


a reply to: LittleJake

originally posted by: LittleJake
The dreams you have of your father are solely the manifestation of your subconscious mind manufacturing the dreams you had.

Not all dreams come from the subconscious - "all kinds of visions and dreams." (Daniel 1:17) "Nor is every presentation which occurs in sleep necessarily a dream." (Aristotle) classics.mit.edu... Some dreams may be telepathically shared between two individuals, typically a mother and her child or a husband and wife, regardless of physical distance. Some dreams may be glimpses of events experienced by another person in one's life.

originally posted by: LittleJake
The only spiritual entity able to communicate across the spiritual divide is God. Any other claim to such ability is the practice of witchcraft and sorcery.

Theologians assert that the raising of Samuel's spirit was accomplished by the power of god, and yet 1 Samuel 28:6 & 15 makes it abundantly clear that Saul's had ceased to hear from god. The chapter neglected to ascribe the feat to god, as in the case of Joseph's interpretation (Gen. 41:16, 25). YYet it's also certain that the medium was a fraud and that Samuel was not speaking through her, seeing as how she cried out in terror at the sight (v. 12) and had listened to his voice and words. Then by what means, by whose power was Samuel raised?

"The inner-sense in man, is the burning light—the spirit; which, however, cannot always shine through the thick husk of the body, but, like the internal fires of the earth, can only break through at certain points; that is, only in certain men—not in the whole race." (Ennemoser)

"For the spirit that comes to men from the gods is present but seldom and in few, and it is not easy for every man to share in it or at every time. Thus it is that the prophetic spirit has ceased among the Hebrews also, nor is it maintained among the Egyptians, either, down to the present." (Julian)
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originally posted by: LittleJake
There is no bridge between this reality and the afterlife.

What happens in this world spills over into the hereafter, and vice versa.

"If the battles grew so powerful in the world of spirit and the physical battles were forgotten... all people of all nations would perish and the world of spirit would be held accountable to the Creator." (Tom Brown, Jr., Rev. 20:13)

"The day will come, when the whole earth will be lighted by its internal fires; so will man cast off his thick husk, and be dissolved in the universal light." (Ennemoser, Rev. 20:14)
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originally posted by: LittleJake
Those that have already passed from this reality have either entered into a state of suspension, biblically referred to as Sheol.

According to Justinus Kerner, a man who has highly cultivated his soul and spirit "cannot, after death, fall into this heavy and impotent state". And he adds: "even in these powerless spirits, except when completely given over to evil, the heavenly spark is not wholly extinguished; these seek always to draw the soul to them, till it is at length purified, then they become wholly spirits."

Two Dreams (neither NDEs nor astral projection):

old.reddit.com... - i.imgur.com...

•I saw another - spirit, I guess - that looked the same, and felt us both reach out to each other. We stayed close to each other for a bit, but the pull was too strong and eventually we were dragged away in opposite directions. That was the only piece of warmth or happiness that I felt there, until I started to feel an enormous presence like that one but magnified a thousand-fold. I could start to see tons of lights just like mine all together, and reached out for them. That's when I woke up.

•I looked left and right and saw all these teeny tiny little orbs of warm light popping out of tunnel ends all around me. So, I realized, oh, I must be a tiny orb of warm light too. All of us tiny orbs were just stationary until some of the orbs moved ahead and joined into the outer band of light. There was definitely a strong pull to the orb so eventually and cautiously, I do too.

From the magnet/lodestone, Thales of Miletus regarded soul as a "motive force". The Christian apologist Minucius Felix paid homage to him. "A higher and nobler account of water and spirit than to have ever been discovered by man. It was delivered to him by God. You see that the opinion of this original philosopher absolutely agrees with ours."
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originally posted by: LittleJake
But you don't care to hear this, do you?

Anything that promotes and furthers expansion, research & inquiry into consciousness is good (Matt. 20:31-33). Anything that hinders it is a stumbling block (Matt. 19:14).

John 9:32 “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” Yet he gave sight to many who were blind (Luke 7:21).

This verse can only hold true if it meant he expanded their natural sight & awakened their clairvoyance.

John 1:49 “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Several Anecdotes:

•Apollonius interrupted his argument and said: “A boy has slipped who was carrying some barley in a bowl, and after carelessly gathering together what was fallen, he has gone off, leaving much of if scattered about it in yonder alley, and this sparrow, witnessing the occurrence has come here to acquaint his fellows with the good luck, and to invite them to come and eat it with him.”

•At one point, Brown interrupted himself in mid-lecture to exclaim, "God, wasn't that a splendid herd of deer that passed this morning!" Not one student had seen them. trackertrail.com...

"My sight and hearing were always extraordinary. I could clearly discern objects in the distance when others saw no trace of them." (Nikola Tesla)
Tesla also mentions how his hearing was amplified.
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poemsintranslation.blogspot.com...

“He brushed mine eyes and they grew bright,
Opening unto prophecies,

“He touched mine ears. Then noise and sound
Poured into me from all around:

archive.schillerinstitute.com...

“Take away the bloody vision,
Take this wretched clarity,

“Give me back my darkened senses,
I'll be gladly blind by choice...

[Job 7:14-15]
“Then You frighten me with dreams,
And terrify me by visions,
So that my soul would choose suffocation.