Explorations in Life, Death and the Afterlife

Explorations in Life, Death and the Afterlife

Fiona BowieSt. Lukes Church, Tutshill, 2015+1Fiona Bowie28th April 2015

1. Journeying through death+2Water Bugs and Dragonflies

+3NARRATIVES OF TRANSITIONELISABETH KBLER-ROSS: Knowing how to die well.T.E. LAWRENCE: Dying unprepared with no knowledge of the afterlife.GALEN STOLLER: Dying suddenly but with an effortless transition.EDIE & PAT: Helping those who die in at sea.

+4Common themes in many accounts

The moment of death is not traumatic; the person or soul simply leaves the old body behind, finding itself in a new one.Each one is met or accompanied by a loving presence, although if unprepared it may take a while to recognise this.There is an initial life review soon after the moment of transition.People may not realise they have made the transition, and in some cases are eased into their new life very gradually.The place one finds oneself in will depend to some extent on how one lives and what expectations one has. Communication between people is much easier and largely telepathic.

+5Religious views of death and dying

+6Ancient Egyptian views of the afterlifeAncient Egyptian life was based on religion. Belief in death and rebirth drove funerary practices.Death was a step in the process of life. A continuation of life was assured through piety and leading a just life. The goddess Maat weighed the souls of the dead against a feather to see if the deceased had led a righteous life, or one filled with evil deeds. Humans consist of three components, the ka or energetic physical double, part of which remained in the tomb, the ba, represented as a bird, which moves between the worlds of the living and dead, and akh, or spirit, which can travel to the world of the gods. Mummification helped preserve the ka so that the ba would continue to recognise and return to it. The afterlife is similar to this life, but happier and more pleasurable.

+7 African relations with the deceased

The dead want to maintain relations with the living and play a part in their lives as revered ancestors. They offer help when asked. Ancestors need to be remembered by name and fed. If not they may fade away. To remind their descendents to fulfil their duties, ancestors may cause them harm. A diviner can diagnose whether illness or misfortune is caused by an ancestor spirit.To become an ancestor you need to die a good death, which means in old age, with grandchildren. If you die a bad death by violence, suicide, young or in childbirth, you may become an earthbound or haunting spirit. Funerary rites are focused on ensuring that the dead move on to the proper place and dont hang around to bother the living.+8Norse MythologyThe Norse was a warrior tradition and their view of the afterlife consisted of halls presided over by gods, where those who died in battle (regarded as a good death) could continue to feast.The main halls were Valhalla, presided over by Odin, and Folkvangr, presided by Freyja. Each were entitled to take half of those slain in battle.It is possible that these halls were thought to have a physical location (in this world), like the afterlife realm of some Pacific peoples.

Freyjas hall of the dead+9Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and IslamLife as a pilgrimage, school or trial, followed at death by a divine judgment. Thinking about death can help one to lead a good life.Where one goes depends on the outcome of this judgment. There is a heaven or paradise (a Zoroastrian notion, a garden), in which the just live in the presence of God and other spiritual beings, and a place of torment or hell for the unjust. The outcome is final, although there may be a period of purification (purgatory) before one can enter into the presence of God.Entry may be immediate or follow a prolonged period of sleep. Communication with the dead and notions of reincarnation are recurrent themes, but are often repressed in official teachings.+10Eastern religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, JainismLife is cyclical, in Hinudism this is known as samsara or wandering (across lives). The soul can take on many different forms in different lives (reincarnation). The ultimate (or in Buddhism, immediate) goal is to recognise that this world is illusory and to reach a place of permanence. There are many levels of existence, including some that resemble heavens and hells. There is a notion of ascent through these levels over many lives. The law or dhama is one of righteousness. All our thoughts and actions accumulate kharma, a law of consequences, that determines the path we take through these worlds and lives.

+http://www.neatorama.com/2007/03/23/heaven-and-hell-according-to-various-religions/

Very brief summary, over simplified.11Theosophy

There is no religion higher than truth+12Journeying through death

Wishful thinking, possibility, or fact?Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917)

Evolutionary sequence from animism to polytheism, monotheism and science.+13Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

Bridging anthropology and psychical research. Society for the Study of Psychical Research (SPR), founded 1882.

+ 14Near-death experiences

One of the best examples in which evidence can be gathered for non-local consciousness, and by means of which we can look at the relationship between universal and cultural elements in accounts of death.

+15

Tibor Putnokis near-death experienceEvidential information gained when dead

+16Pam Reynolds NDE

There are thousands of such accounts, including a famous one of an American singer-songwriter named Pam Reynolds. In 1991 she underwent brain surgery and after the operation was able to accurately describe the process as seen and heard from outside her body, despite being unconscious with her eyes being covered and white noise playing into earphones over her head. +17Typical features of a near-death experienceAn altered perception of time and spaceBeing out of the bodyExtrasensory perceptionTravel towards a light or being surrounded by lightA life reviewMeeting departed relatives and/or beings of lightFeelings of joy and peace, of coming homeReaching a boundary and being told to returnRemoval of any fear of deathBecoming more loving, more spiritual and caring+18Could it be that religious ideas of the soul or spirit, of heavenly or enlightened beings, of life after death in a beautiful realm, of unconditional love as the highest and truest value, are based at least in part on these experiences?

19The true companion of dyingAre you really ready to die?If you were about to die, what would you miss?What would you miss, if it would die?Death is just the transition for birth into a new structure, new composition, and newly created energy (Elisabeth Kbler-Ross)

+20