MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: what's your take on the afterlife

I used to think about things like this all the time. I was baptized Catholic, and raised for 9 years in a Lutheran school. I never could quite buy into the whole religion thing 100%. Years later I feel there could be some truth to some of it, in every religion out there.

One thing I do know for certain, we don't see things as they really are. The whole "Image you are a 2D being in a 3D world" exercise really opened my eyes in that regard.

One thing I don't know for certain, but strongly believe, is that your spirit DOES live on in some fashion. It could be a physical thing, or something as simple as other peoples brains wiring up a "remembrance" section of you due to the emotional trauma of loss.

I've had 2 times in my life where I without doubt should have died. One was a 'near car accident' where I spun 5 times through 3 lanes of rush hour traffic on a wet roadway @ 65mph. I should have hit a dozen cars EASY. I spun from the far let lane, to the far right shoulder, untouched. A couple of drivers stopped afterward to see if I was OK, and one used the words, "I can't believe what I just saw. Someone was looking out for you on that one."

He was right, IMO. I had a dream the night before, where I walked into my kitchen and saw a piece of paper on the counter. It was a death certificate with my name on it. As I looked up I filled with fear, and then I caught a glimpse of my great uncle who had passed 2 years earlier. The minute I saw him tears flowed so hard I had to look away. Each time I looked at him I was filled with what I can only describe as 'every emotion I have ever felt, all at once'. Looking away, I heard him speak. "I won't let this happen to you, it's not your time." I woke up soaked in tears.

That alone would have been enough to carry me a lifetime of believing in a spiritual afterlife of some kind, but it happened again a few years later with a different situation. Same deal, with a warning the night before.

I also just recently posted a story about being super late for work one morning, like something was keeping me from getting out the door until a certain time. I ended up helping out my brother that morning right when he needed someone most a few miles from anywhere I should have been that morning. It wasn't the most life changing moment, but enough to say it was a little more than chance that I was there.

Call it the result of divine intervention, call it my brain interpreting a sense I don't understand. Call it the result of quantum spin, call it whatever you want. I call it a pretty good hunch that there is ~something~ beyond what we perceive.