Is there Life after Death? A question I am sure we have all asked ourselves and something I have personally pondered on a lot, especially with the recent passing of a loved one. My logical brain will tell me right off the bat, no, there is nothing after death, that our body dies and along with it, so does our consciousness and yet there is a another part of my brain that wonders, in fact not just wonders but 'hopes' that there is something more after death. My hope for a life after death is not necessarily for my own comfort or peace of mind but more for that of my loved ones, I would like nothing more than to know that my parents are reunited again in another dimension, if not physically then in some kind of metaphysical way. But this is where my problem lies because that way of thinking goes completely against my logical thought process and beliefs or lack of beliefs. So how can somebody who doesn't subscribe to the idea of the supernatural, even consider there being an afterlife? Well there have been a few things that had me thinking but it was this article I read recently really got my mind ticking over: http://www.christiantoday.com/article/theres.no.afterlife.says.man.who.died.twice/49121.htm The man in the article, Sasha Eliason was pronounced clinically dead, not once, but twice, over a period of a few months and after his experiences he now strongly insists that there is no afterlife just blackness and quietness. It is that description of blackness and quietness that got me thinking. Sasha Eliasson said the following: I had no idea, it was just black emptiness. No thoughts, no consciousness, nothing. My immediate thought was how he could remember something if there was 'nothing'? later in the article he says So yes and no. I experienced something, and that something was nothing. The Dictionary definition of Nothing is: 1. not anything; no single thing. So 'nothing' is no single thing and yet what the man experienced was two things, blackness and quietness. So let us have a look at the dictionary definition of 'experience' 1. practical contact with and observation of facts or events. 2.an event or occurrence which leaves an impression on someone. 'An event or occurence', how intriguing. How can Eliasson describe what something is like if he has no consciousness to experience it? In the following article Sasha Eliasson talks about being dead as like taking a short nap. A short nap with no dream, you wake up and it feels like you've been sleeping a long time, when in reality it's only been about 15 minutes Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2971466/What-REALLY-feels-like-dead-College-student-22-claims-died-TWICE-couple-minutes-passing-like-short-nap-no-dreams.html Surely you can only describe sleep by the mere fact that your brain is active, you dream and then you wake up to remember it. In order to describe what sleep is like I would propose the following must be true: 1. Your brain is active 2. You dream 3. You wake up If any one of those things is not true how can you describe sleep? When you sleep do you remember anything other than dreams? Do you remember blackness, quietness, emptiness? I am pretty certain I don't, if I remember anything at all it is because I have either been dreaming or because I was awake at the time and not asleep. Likewise, to remember anything after death I think the following must be true Your brain is active You have thought or dreams You wake up If any one of those is not true how can you describe what death is like? I propose that you can't. So the next question would be: Did Sasha Eliasson really die? If the answer is no then that would suggest that he still had brain activity and or consciousness and would explain why he can either a) completely remember and recollect the experience and describe exactly what he felt, seen, heard or b) not remember the experience at all and he is not remembering or recollecting anything but merely describing his own definition or understanding of nothingness and attaching that definition to something that he was told happened. However, if the answer is yes he did die which seems likely as the doctors don't generally pronounce people dead unless they are; then that would suggest one of two things a) he didn't actually witness anything and he is not recollecting anything but again merely describing his own definition of nothingness and attaching it to his death or b) that there is still some kind of brain activity or consciousness after death and he is genuinely recollecting and remembering that experience and that to me suggests an afterlife.
