Anglicans of the Anglo-Catholic tradition generally also hold to the belief. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in an intermediate state between death and the resurrection of the dead and in the possibility of "continuing to grow in holiness there", but Methodism does not officially affirm this belief and denies the possibility of helping by prayer any who may be in that state. [55] Orthodox Christianity [ edit ] Fourteen-year-old Susie Salmon is already in the afterlife when we first meet her. She mysteriously disappeared in 1973, and her story hasn’t yet come to light. After death, humans will be questioned about their faith by two angels, Munkar and Nakīr. Those who die as martyrs go immediately to paradise. [72] Others who have died and been buried, will receive a taste of their eternal reward from the al-qabr or "the grave" (compare the Jewish concept of Sheol). Those bound for hell will suffer " punishment of the grave", while those bound for heaven will find the grave "peaceful and blessed". [74] Main articles: Plan of salvation (Latter Day Saints), Exaltation (Mormonism), and Degrees of glory Plan of Salvation in LDS Religion

If you want to take a deep-dive into near-death experiences (NDEs), The Near-Death Experience is essential reading. Its collection of NDE cases and stories provides a wide range of perspectives. It helps readers think about the phenomenon through many different lenses. After death occurs, a person's body goes through several significant changes. While these changes may not occur instantly, they do happen over a short period of a few days.

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In this nonfiction work, Evidence of the Afterlife , Long presents one of the most compelling arguments for the existence of an afterlife yet. Susie Salmon, who is 14 when we first meet her, is already in heaven. I don't know what happened to her in 1973, and I don't know what happened to her. There is a view based on the philosophical question of personal identity, termed open individualism by Daniel Kolak, that concludes that individual conscious experience is illusory, and because consciousness continues after death in all conscious beings, you do not die. This position has allegedly been supported by physicists such as Erwin Schrödinger and Freeman Dyson. [139]

The afterlife played an important role in Ancient Egyptian religion, and its belief system is one of the earliest known in recorded history. When the body died, parts of its soul known as ka (body double) and the ba (personality) would go to the Kingdom of the Dead. While the soul dwelt in the Fields of Aaru, Osiris demanded work as restitution for the protection he provided. Statues were placed in the tombs to serve as substitutes for the deceased. [14] While we may not have concrete scientific data on what happens during near-death experiences, we do have a pretty good understanding of what happens when you die. Here is what occurs just before death, during the dying process, and immediately after a person is pronounced dead. Before death Like the Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven,” many people who have near-death experiences report feeling like they’re climbing a brightly lit stairway. As they climb the stairs, they might recall the experiences they had during their life. The top of the stairway is usually covered in bright, blinding light.

Evidence of the Afterlife by Jeffrey Long with Paul Perry

Past life regression is a method that uses hypnosis to recover what practitioners believe are memories of past lives or incarnations. The technique used during past-life regression involves the subject answering a series of questions while hypnotized to reveal identity and events of alleged past lives, a method similar to that used in recovered memory therapy and one that, similarly, often misrepresents memory as a faithful recording of previous events rather than a constructed set of recollections. The teachings of the Baháʼí Faith state that the nature of the afterlife is beyond the understanding of those living, just as an unborn fetus cannot understand the nature of the world outside of the womb. The Baháʼí writings state that the soul is immortal and after death it will continue to progress until it finally attains God's presence. [91] In Baháʼí belief, souls in the afterlife will continue to retain their individuality and consciousness and will be able to recognize and communicate spiritually with other souls whom they have made deep profound friendships with, such as their spouses. [92] Alice doesn't believe her mother left her. Instead, she spends a lot of time looking for her mother on the internet. She pores over her mother’s journals for clues. Jenna's memories of her mother start to match up with the events that happen in the journals.

Though research is still ongoing, those who experience clinical death sometimes report interesting findings. Some people don’t see or feel anything at all between clinical death and resuscitation. On the other hand, many people have some sort of experience during these moments between life and death. While death is inevitable for all of us, the way we think about death is deeply individual and personal. Your unique concept of an afterlife is just one of the things that make your experience of death special. The Upanishads are the first scriptures in Hinduism which explicitly mention about Afterlife, [100] The Bhagavad Gita, a famous Hindu script, says that just as a man discards his old clothes and wears new ones; similarly the Atman discards the old body and takes on a new one. In Hinduism, the belief is that the body is nothing but a shell, the consciousness inside is immutable and indestructible and takes on different lives in a cycle of birth and death. The end of this cycle is called mukti (Sanskrit: मुक्ति) and staying finally with the ultimate reality forever; is moksha (Sanskrit: मोक्ष) or liberation. One should note there was a near consensus among Muslim theologians of the later periods that punishment for Muslim grave sinners would only be temporary; eventually after a purgatory sojourn in hell's top layer they would be admitted into paradise." [85] Prior to that, theologians of the Kharijite and Mu'tazilite schools insisted that the "sinful" and "unrepentant" should be punished even if they were believers, but this position has been "lastingly defeated and erased" by mainstream Islam. [86]Sheol, in the Hebrew Bible, is a place of darkness (Job x. 21, 22) to which all the dead go, both the righteous and the unrighteous, regardless of the moral choices made in life, (Gen. xxxvii. 36; Ezek. xxxii.; Isa. xiv.; Job xxx. 23), a place of stillness, (Ps. lxxxviii. 13, xciv. 17; Eccl. ix. 10), at the longest possible distance from heaven (Job xi. 8; Amos ix. 2; Ps. cxxxix. 8). [29] Annie Kagan isn’t a medium, but she has communicated with the dead: her deceased brother, Billy. In The Afterlife of Billy Fingers , Annie shares the true story of how her brother started speaking with her, weeks after his untimely death. However, the mechanism of rebirth with Kamma is not deterministic. It depends on various levels of kamma. The most important moment that determines where a person is reborn into is the last thought moment. At that moment, heavy kamma would ripen if there were performed. If not, near death kamma would ripen, and if not death kamma, then habitual kamma would ripen. Finally if none of the above happened, then residual kamma from previous actions can ripen. [98] According to Theravada Buddhism, there are 31 realms of existence that one can be reborn into. According to these, 31 existences comprise 20 existences of supreme deities (Brahmas); 6 existences of deities (Devas); the human existence (Manussa); and, lastly, 4 existences of deprivation or unhappiness (Apaya). Kagan’s story is one of the most detailed and compelling after-death communication (ADC) stories ever recorded. The story goes beyond the near-death experience to tell Billy’s story of a vivid afterlife. In Hinduism, heaven is considered as Svarga loka. There are seven positive regions the soul can go to after death and seven negative regions. [12] After completing its stay in the respective region, the soul is subjected to rebirth in different living forms according to its karma. This cycle can be broken after a soul achieves Moksha or Nirvana. Any place of existence, either of humans, souls or deities, outside the tangible world (heaven, hell, or other) is referred to as otherworld.

On Life After Death provides expert, in-depth research on life after depth, as well as Dr. Kubler-Ross’s personal thoughts opinions about the topic. When one leaves the physical body at death he appears in the court of Lord Yama, the God of Death for an exit interview. The panel consists of Yama and Chitragupta – the cosmic accountant, he has a book which consists the history of the dead persons according to his/her mistakes the Lord Yama decides the punishment is and Varuna the cosmic intelligence officer. He is counseled about his life, achievements and failures and is shown a mirror in which his entire life is reflected. (Philosophically these three men are projections of one's mind) Yama the Lord of Justice then sends him to a heavenly realm ( svarga) if he has been exceptionally benevolent and beneficent for a period of Rest and Recreation. his period is limited in time by the weight of his good deeds. If he has been exceptionally malevolent and caused immense suffering to other beings then he is sent to a hell realm ( naraka) for his sins. After one has exhausted his karmas, he takes birth again to continue his spiritual evolution. However, belief in rebirth was not a part of early Vedic religions and texts. It was later developed by Rishis who challenged the idea of one life as being simplistic. Though these are deceased relatives, there is no fear. It’s simply a source of peace, knowing that you’re surrounded by those you love most. In her book, What If This Is Heaven? , author Anita Moorjani describes feeling close to her deceased father after slipping into a coma. 4. In the presence of angels

During the Age of Enlightenment, theologians and philosophers presented various philosophies and beliefs. A notable example is Emanuel Swedenborg who wrote some 18 theological works which describe in detail the nature of the afterlife according to his claimed spiritual experiences, the most famous of which is Heaven and Hell. [53] His report of life there covers a wide range of topics, such as marriage in heaven (where all angels are married), children in heaven (where they are raised by angel parents), time and space in heaven (there are none), the after-death awakening process in the World of Spirits (a place halfway between Heaven and Hell and where people first wake up after death), the allowance of a free will choice between Heaven or Hell (as opposed to being sent to either one by God), the eternity of Hell (one could leave but would never want to), and that all angels or devils were once people on earth. [53] The Catholic Church [ edit ] According to Edgar Cayce, the afterlife consisted of nine realms equated with the nine planets of astrology. The first, symbolized by Saturn, was a level for the purification of the souls. The second, Mercury's realm, gives us the ability to consider problems as a whole. The third of the nine soul realms is ruled by Earth and is associated with the Earthly pleasures. The fourth realm is where we find out about love and is ruled by Venus. The fifth realm is where we meet our limitations and is ruled by Mars. The sixth realm is ruled by Neptune, and is where we begin to use our creative powers and free ourselves from the material world. The seventh realm is symbolized by Jupiter, which strengthens the soul's ability to depict situations, to analyze people and places, things, and conditions. The eighth afterlife realm is ruled by Uranus and develops psychic ability. The ninth afterlife realm is symbolized by Pluto, the astrological realm of the unconscious. This afterlife realm is a transient place where souls can choose to travel to other realms or other solar systems, it is the soul’s liberation into eternity, and is the realm that opens the doorway from our solar system into the cosmos point of view. [110] Heaven is often described as a "higher place", the holiest place, a paradise, in contrast to hell or the underworld or the "low places", and universally or conditionally accessible by earthly beings according to various standards of divinity, goodness, piety, faith or other virtues or right beliefs or the will of God. Some believe in the possibility of a heaven on Earth in a world to come. In Dream of Scipio, Cicero describes what seems to be an out of body experience, of the soul traveling high above the Earth, looking down at the small planet, from far away. [25] Mainstream Spiritualists postulate a series of seven realms that are not unlike Edgar Cayce's nine realms ruled by the planets. As it evolves, the soul moves higher and higher until it reaches the ultimate realm of spiritual oneness. The first realm, equated with hell, is the place where troubled souls spend a long time before they are compelled to move up to the next level. The second realm, where most souls move directly, is thought of as an intermediate transition between the lower planes of life and hell and the higher perfect realms of the universe. The third level is for those who have worked with their karmic inheritance. The fourth level is that from which evolved souls teach and direct those on Earth. The fifth level is where the soul leaves human consciousness behind. At the sixth plane, the soul is finally aligned with the cosmic consciousness and has no sense of separateness or individuality. Finally, the seventh level, the goal of each soul, is where the soul transcends its own sense of "soulfulness" and reunites with the World Soul and the universe. [110] Taoism [ edit ]