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Do you think so pirate? I tend to think life is life and death is death. Death is simply the complete and permanent cessation of life. Death isn't some magical psychedelic journey to wonderland - death is when everything stops. I thinik we're best off enjoying life while we can.
@ isemene: after reading your question to me, i began asking myself questions that led to me typing up the story behind what changed my view on where life goes when we die in this form. i havent told this story many times and certainly not to many ppl, but ive made an attempt to put it into words the best i can. i apologize as its along post; just not sure if this belongs in trip reports.. as although i was tripping, there is a lot more to it than that. im in my 30's now; i was 17 at the time. well here it goes; hope it makes a little sense at least..
^^Well, i guess thats where our belief systems differ..and thats ok; actually it's refreshing to hear other ppl's takes on the grand finale. for most of my late childhood/ early adolescent life i was what i supposse one would call agnostic for lack of a better word, and then i had my first plus four. this experience actually came to me through overdosing on GHB accidently( i was tripping and rolling really hard amongst other things and was past panic.. some douchebag gave me what i found out later to be over 5 doses worth) i had never done it before, and being young and trusting, foolishly trusted everyone around me and didnt question what he gave me; i just drank it.
we were at the city park on a sunday afternoon after a huge wherehouse party..after i took it, i remember sitting down under a tree and leaning back, i could slowly begin to feel what i guess i would call my soul being pulled out of me quickly. i would try to shake it off and stand up but eventually told myself to give in, and from there is what has come to define my life belief system.
i saw myself hovering over the park, and then a flash and up i went into the blue sky. another flash and everything went black. what i "saw" from there i can best describe as a model of the solar system. i saw and felt myself as part of this small circle of light which was in rotation of a larger massive circle of light. there were rays coming from it into me; i was a projection of the larger central circle of light, or energy. things began to flash faster each time i was further away. each time i saw more and more similar masses of energy with other projections of energy rotating around them..and then it appeared to be a molecule, which then became a series of flashes of light that began to take formation and color each time until everything came together and i jumped up gasping for air and saw everything around me, which was what the whole experience was progressing into. i had ppl standing all around me and my bud standing over me; they were administering CPR; they said my lips turned blue and i had stopped breathing; i remember as i was up in the cosmos or whatever you choose to call it, thinking this is as far as i go, and as i realized the meaning behind all of it that i had a choice as to whether or not i wanted to continue; but i also knew that time began to tick the moment i understood and that id better not hesitate or i would lose my ability to "flash back" from energy orb inside of a single molecule that paired with all other energy to make up all that is. it wasn't like a train of thought like i am attempting to explain it though, more like an instant realization, like an autmtic respose to something, almost like a reflex.
after that, i became a very spiritual person and still am to tis day. i dont go to church or read passages from the bible although i have read the bible but just as a book, not a guide to worship. i dont worship anything but life itself and the fact that i was special enough to be given this brief opprotunity in a long series of life to come as i rotate farther and farther around the circle...maybe i end up a part of one of the other circles, and become a projection of it. perhaps i radiate my own energy and project it onto my own circle of life. i=regardless, i remain part of the grand design.
it is clear to me and i believe with all my heart that we are all just portions of energy, almost like wheels and cogs inside a machine, that make up a super machine that keeps everything running and continuing to move into the infinite. i realized that once we leave this vessel that we occupy as human beings the energy that lies within us does not simply die off like a fire, where it goes, that i haven't a clue, but such is the beauty behind the mystery of life. i believe that we are forever part of something, and just as we were part of something else before we entered this world, we are part of something when we leave it as human beings. it just doesn't make sense to me any other way.
now i realize that surely everyone does not share these beliefs with me, nor do i expect them to. just as we are all individuals, i think deep down we all have our own subjective beliefs and ideas about what happens next. just as they say it takes all different sorts of ppl to run the world, i believe it takes all different sorts of ideas and concepts to keep the world turning and the universe expanding and so on. even though these sorts of beliefs are often too complex to properly put into words, i think the core idea is quite simple, and that even without spirituality, the infinite lifespan of energy that we are composed of has nowhere to go but up and away to help make something else whole.
again, sorry about the long post, but you asked me a question that is of great importance to me and although i feel i left alot out, i did my best to explain to you why i think when we die in this world we continue to live just in some other form. thanks for probing me and indirectly causing me to revisit this memory; its no doubt, by far, one of the most profound moments in my life to date.