the end?

statements are the views of the individual participant on the question "where do we go from here?"
this is an open forum and visitors and participants are kindly requested  and encouraged to post their comments, opinions or views to the statements.
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stephanie

a hold over from my previous life as a kitty cat. i hope to return to my original bad ass kitty state but this time on tv.

merilee

the part of myself i am most familiar with is my flesh. i experience life via this information transmitting machine. when it dies, all my experiences die with it. the part of myself i'm most unfamiliar with, my soul or spirit, or life force - what ever you want to call it, is all that will live after my body has died. what happens to that soul, my soul? i don't know. i do have hopes for it though. i hope that my soul/spirit is rejoined to god - what ever god is.the longing , the emptiness, the yearning my body feels fro this god-being is constant. it's what drives me to wanting to experience ecstasy of the flesh. i think because on some level, i know that's what being re-united with god feels like, like bliss, like an orgasm that never ends. if nothing like that happens, that's ok, too. all my speculation and imagination don't mean shit in the end, as i will be dead and gone and will probably have no recollections of ever being baffled by the big conundrum of life after death, and hell! do souls even exist?

kelly

where do we go from here? at the end of my journey i expect i will find another exciting journey where i fall into a rabbit hole, sail away with pirates , swim with turtles and live with monkeys in neverneverland.

bernard

i think when we die we all go to a big waiting room and a large black man in a nurses uniform comes out after a few millennia and says god will see you now and he checks your rap sheet and if you've been good you get a cookie and an everlasting supply of hookers and yoohoo. if you've been bad you have to listen to old anson williams outtakes with ricky martin's family.

sarah

regarding an afterlife, i believe that what we see is what we get. our bodies decompose or get incinerated and that's the end of it - no soul or spirit.  all genius, grace, and beauty- which people are quick to attribute to a 'soul' or 'higher power,' is just normal human behavior.  i think that in order to have any sense of 'afterlife,' you must have formed enough strong relationships with other people to keep your memory alive after your body is gone. instead of mourning my impermanence , this belief inspires me to live more fully now.

aaron

i do not presume to know what dreams may come when we shuffle of this mortal coil. i leave presumption to the mind of god, for our thoughts are not his thoughts, nor are his ways our ways.

nick

we are the sum of our bodies, thought, memories , personality, etc. many people lose these before they die, and the rest of us lose them when we die. or there could be some magical thing but i would put the chance at less than 1%. the concept of the afterlife is potentially very coercive because if you tell someone they have to do certain things to ensure a good afterlife, they have no way to verify it.

n.n.

i think that when our bodies die we exist in another dimension that the living can access through dreams. after you die you walk around in your "dream body" to find the city of the dead where you can wait around to be reborn.

doyle

i believe the entirety of everything is infinitely small and large, and that all things are ultimately interwoven and one. this synergy includes the material and spiritual realms. when we die our material body regenerates into the material world and our spirit either floats away free of body and void of perception or it unites to the body of god, the entirety of all things (which is heaven). god's love and invitation is always available to us. it's up to us to receive it.

sebastian

i think it all depends on what were you thinking the last time before you died. what mind of thinking and ideas did we or i tried to learn in my life. i will go back to the ground , just to become a beating root. i think on mother nature.

rebecca

i believe in the spirit realm and that our souls may be reincarnated. recently i heard a new story about a young toddler who began telling stories that would only have come from the mind of a WWII fighter pilot. at first his parents tried to shrug it off, but after a number of years, as the stories became more detailed and elaborate, they realized there could be no other explanation than reincarnation. eventually they discovered the identity of the pilot, and that he had died in a fiery crash. i believe we are all connected on a cellular level, to each other, the earth and the universe.

ron

home.

emily

i believe after death spiritually we place ourselves in imperant trinkets. for example i am wearing a necklace that was so dear to my grandmother. whenever i take it off, i don't feel her presence around me. but whenever it is on me, i feel her around me.

crystal

home.

john

 

back to the beginning.

carrie

my mom recently died after a long and truly awful battle with cancer. to me, after death is freedom from the pain, oppression and confusion of a shutting down body, that is what i believe out of wanting it for my mom. what i hope for myself is infinite go-arounds, reincarnations, the chance to live from every possible opposite point of view.

kay

i truly believe that the next life is just around the corner from this one. another place to think, live and laugh. spirits are not something to be afraid of, welcome them warmly.

jacob

permanent dirt nap.

ciaran

when we die we cease to have concept of the self and become part of our environment. "every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you" - walt whitman, leaves of glass.

carrie

we go down the slippery slide to old age, aching joints and bad smells. if we are lucky we go with a snap and a gasp rather than a moan and a groan. hopefully we leave behind smiles and sinful living, thinking outside the box and not placed in one.

bobby

mark twain said he didn't want to go to heaven because they wouldn't let him smoke his cigar, and hell was unnecessary because with all the preachers here it was a pre-served sentence. i think that since we are all figments of mutual imagination and time only exists due to intermittent awareness, we jump back and forth without any memory except dna. cucarachas are more spiritual because they don't need churches , except to steal communion wafers.

sara

there is not a specific story that i believe in, no explanation that i cling to. i think the question is one of ultimate importance to many. i , however, really enjoy the ambiguity surrounding our existence after death.

dorian

i am unsure what will happen after i die, but i anticipate that my death, like every event in my life will be a potentially valuable learning experience (as paradoxical as that may seem to some).

jonathan

the universe is so surreal and full of awe, that is ridiculous to think that death is the end. i don't believe in heaven or hell, but i believe that death is not the end, but a beginning.

cressandra

the closest i feel to death the more i believe in the after life, and heaven. but day to day i believe this is it. and that heaven is a man made concept based in fear.