The Great Mystery of Death, Part 4

Afterlife?

Do we continue to live after we die? I ask on behalf of all the living.

That I ask confirms our not knowing.

I hear two replies: beliefs and silence.

Why do we even ask this question? Is it born from an innate drive the living have to keep on living? 

If we do live on after we die, who among us lives on- only humans, other animals, plants, the stones? 

If, as some believe, only humans live on, do all or only some live on after they die?

If we live on, how? Where? 

Do we ever live again on this earth?

If what is living inherently desires to keep on living, isn't it natural for us to create stories about how we continue to live after we die? Isn't it natural to create beliefs about living on and reinforce them with divine authority?

Rather than beliefs, I accept the silence.

We do not know what happens after we die. We do not know. 

The answer to this question is hidden from us. It's a secret. It always has been. It is one of the great mysteries.

What happens after we die? We do know one thing.

We decompose.

But then there are also those intuitions, dreams of the dead, ghosts, NDEs and other allusive experiences that leave us wondering. 

The Great Mystery of Death, Part 3

Death-like Experiences

Sleep, fainting, hibernation, being knocked unconscious, coma, near death experiences, orgasm: These are death-like experiences.

Sleep. We lie down and are dead to the world for a while. We humans spend a third of our life in the death-like state of sleep. 

Why? What is the purpose of sleeping?

Many of the living dream when asleep. Why? What are dreams? What is their purpose?

Hibernation: Many of the living self-bury and sleep like dead for months each winter to rise again in the spring. Why? What is the purpose?

Fainting: Something or someone takes our breath (spirit) away and we fall like dead to the ground. For a few moments we're dead to the world. Why do we faint?

Being knocked unconscious, coma: A blow to the head of almost any animal will render it unconscious. The effect of some blows is short-lived. Other blows induce comas. Still others kill. What a mystery the death-like state of unconsciousness is. While we're unconscious the living keep vigil hoping- or not- for our resurrection. 

Near death experiences (NDE): Heart, breath, and brain waves flat-line on the monitor. We see ourselves below. Through the tunnel we go toward the bright light. We experience love. Suddenly we back but not like before. We're transformed. Real? Hallucination due to a lack of oxygen? We do not really know.

Orgasm, the little death: It's a type of unconsciousness, similar to fainting but more fleeting. Induced by intense pleasure, it takes our breath, our spirit, away. It's a death we live for, a death we return to and rise from again and again. If not inflicted by another, we'll inflict this little death on ourselves. 

Do you know how many orgasms are happening right now? Why orgasm? What a wonderful and mysterious little death it is.

Note how resurrection follows all of these death-like experiences. That's what makes them death-like rather than death.

Are all these death-like experiences rehearsals for the real thing? Do the resurrections that follow make you wonder? I wonder if after death itself...could it be...that we...?