What Happens After Death

To ask this question assumes death is not the end of individual existence. Such an assumption would be reasonable. Thinking that it implies there is some eternal experience awaiting us wouldn’t. Gaps in knowledge opens doors to rampant speculation, so it is important not to lose sight on what we actually know or have sound reason to believe.

We don’t really know what the soul is, which leaves room for people to debate its existence. We do know matter is inert, which means whatever moves it ain’t it. No amount of ignorance makes self aware matter possible. 

That doesn’t imply the soul can survive without a body either. It simply means death doesn’t end its existence. Death doesn’t mean the end of our body’s existence, but our ability to see what happens to it after others die takes away any ability to make things up about it. We have no such curb on imagination when it comes to the soul.

We have every reason to believe the only way the soul can cease to exist is through a “return to God”. Since only the creator can be the destroyer, that is how anything ceases to be. With all the things we don’t know about the soul, the one thing we are certain about it is individual awareness and self interest. It is reasonable to believe that awareness ends when its existence ends.

We have no way to contextualize oneness with the infinite, so it gets imagined as an extremely brief moment that lasts forever. No one can come back from non existence, so we don’t have any personal accounts to tell us what it’s like. We don’t need anyone to come back to let us know none of the things we value can be with us.

From one perspective, such a prospect seems horrible. To be without any of the things you love sounds like torment. Emotional pain can be avoided or ignored, so in order make an impression of the agony, it get likens to fire that doesn’t kill. There can be no worse experience.

That is unless and until you can see that there are none of the things that make us value the good. There is no reason for fear or concern, no pain, no hunger, no pressing urges, and no time to make the sense of relief to end. Tales of access to abundance without the possibility for overindulgence are meant to give context. They are not meant for literal interpretation.

People get so hung up on the explanatory images that it is easy to doubt what we will be conscious of. Awareness being the defining characteristic of the soul makes such concerns unwarranted. Even if we’re completely clueless during that final moment, it doesn’t affect how we view the inevitability of death.

The ability to see the blessing in the most dreaded life event by finding heaven in hell improves life drastically. It unlocks the power of positive perspective and guides in the balance of enjoying life without being a slave to your urges. What happens after death isn’t as important as how your belief on the subject impacts life.