Life after Death

I have always considered myself a spiritual person. I'm not religious at all, but I do believe in the concept of one's spirit, or soul, and that our physical existance is not the only thing we experience.

But lately I've been thinking a lot and I'm having doubts. If we all have souls and spiritual selves, and after we die our spirits live on in another form of existance, what happens to other living things? Are humans unique in this sense, or do plants and dogs and cats and other animals also have spiritual existances that live on as well?

Where does it end? What about bacteria? Bugs? Fungus? These are all living things too, and there is nothing all that special about humans because ultimately we all come from the same place. Some might laugh at the concept of bacteria being on the same spiritual level as a human, but really the differences between us are purely biological.

What about the Orca? Some would argue the Orca (and dolphins in general) are the most intelligent beings on earth aside from humans (and even then, some might argue!). They have shown to be one of the only animals on the planet besides humans to actually carry out "revenge" in the sense of tracking down and killing predators that have eaten their children. And it isn't straight killing either...They torture and torment their prey if what they are looking to do is exact revenge. All dolphins have shown to be self aware...Again, besides humans they are some of the only animals that will recognize themselves in a mirror (as opposed to a dog, for example, who will just think it's another dog).

Do Orcas have spiritual selves? If not, then why? They are super-intelligent animals that could be on par with humans if not for biological differences.

The more I think of things like this, the more I start to doubt my spirituality and my belief in the afterlife. Does anyone else feel the same, or have some insight to share?

reply to post by DazedDave


The force of life is an energy. An electromagnetic impulse common to all living organisms. At death, this energy is released back into the life stream to eventually form a new life.

I have had the same line of thought. I like to think that people are 'special' and therefore have souls and something that could survive death, but it really doesn't make any more logical sense than the existence of "heaven" or many other stories of faith we hear. We are just an animal, like the rest. The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to the conclusion that the thought of an afterlife is just wishful thinking.

I will still likely think that there is the possibility, but I don't feel as certain as I used to about some kind of existence after death.

reply to post by DazedDave


Ever heard of Kirlian photograhy?

Kirlian photography refers to a form of photogram made with voltage. It is named after Semyon Kirlian, who in 1939 accidentally discovered that if an object on a photographic plate is connected to a source of voltage an image is produced on the photographic plate.[1]

Kirlian's work, from 1939 onward, involved an independent rediscovery of a phenomenon and technique variously called "electrography", "electrophotography" and "corona discharge photography." The Kirlian technique is contact photography, in which the subject is in direct contact with a film placed upon a charged metal plate.

The underlying physics (which makes xerographic copying possible) was explored as early as 1777 by Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (see Lichtenberg figures). Later workers in the field included Nikola Tesla; various other individuals explored the effect in the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

Kirlian said that the image he was studying might be compared with the human aura. An experiment in evidence of energy fields generated by living entities involves taking Kirlian contact photographs of a picked leaf at set periods, its gradual withering corresponding with a decline in the strength of the aura. In some experiments, if a section of a leaf was torn away after the first photograph, a faint image of the missing section would remain when a second photograph was taken. The Archives of American Art Journal of the Smithsonian Institution published a leading article with reproductions of images of this phenomenon.[specify] James Randi has suggested that this effect was due to contamination of the glass plates, which were reused for both the "before" and "after" photographs.

Link to source

From things I have read about this type of thing, moods can effect this bioelectric field that appears around your body.

The thing I find interesting is that every living thing does have an bioelectric field that disappears upon death, given that experiences and feelings appear to affect it, maybe that is a form of what we are at the core but then comes the question of where does it go after death.

If we do have something inside that is in essence ourselves and it leaves the body upon death it would be pointless for it to simply vanish into nothing.
Im just throwing an idea out there, not necessarily my own belief but a topic I have been reading recently (gotta keep an open mind...right)

From the light we come, and to the light we return. The light is a river of pure ecstatic life.

We are self-aware which by nature cuts off our awareness of the river of life that everyThing makes up. Everything is alive, and everything has different levels of awareness. To be born is to die and to die is to be born. If a dog who has a very limited awareness is born, it is very far from the river of life, but when it dies, it is aware of the whole that is the river of life. When we are born, we are aware of ourselves mainly, but when we die, we become aware of all that is again. Everything goes back to the alpha and the omega. A concentrated point of everything. We are pure awareness focused into self-awareness.

Why does your example of the orca make you doubt your spirituality? It reminded me of a video I once saw that depicted dolphins interacting with a mirror. I searched YouTube and found it here: www.youtube.com... (sorry about not embedding!). To me, it shows pure consciousness, with self-awareness thrown in. I can't watch them "making faces" at the mirror and not think of children doing the same thing. It reminds of that "something special" that we share and should delight in. Thanks for the reminder and for the 5 minutes of joy that the video provided me!

Well, I'll be darned. It looks like I somehow managed to embed the video without even trying!

Well

reply to post by amaster


I tend to agree with this. Have you ever had a moment where you sat and thought you lived before, a deja vu situation you had no idea it was supposed to be for?

Thats your energy from your previous energy thats used to manifest your current energy that makes you have a living soul.

I have seen too many paranormal phenomenas now to say there IS INDEED 100% an afterlife. The reason being is I used to not believe, I went into the feild to disprove, I worked up the ladder and got in with some of the worlds best paranormal researchers learned the trade and gathered evidence from science I must add( which usually denies any divine powers) and with that science time after time I have found rock solid human energy at large amoung us.

I am a spirtual person myself, I choose to believe in a creator and not follow one specific religion, I just pray to GOD, the king of all religions. I have my doubts, I would not be human if I did not. But I always have my evidence that has been looked through soo many times and not even close to being debunked.

I have also found that animal spirits do live amoung us as well, as I have caught them in sessions. I know it sounds crazy but it is true the science with the technology I use to eliminate any coinencidence or outside interference.

But to the original poster, I don't know about bacteria or fungi, but I do believe GOD ( when I say God I mean the Earth) does not waste anything, everything has a purpose and deserves respect for it's short stay on this beautiful planet.

reply to post by DazedDave


If there is life after death then there is no death.
So the question should be…is there death?

And spiritually speaking…
Only the dead are concerned with death.

So if you are spiritually minded…the subject is moot.
If not, then look around…death aplenty

Heres the embedded version: