Afterlife (Endings)

by dhw, Thursday, January 31, 2013, 13:25 (4312 days ago) @ BBella

BBella: As I said before, if in the future science proves when we dream we are not just experiencing dreams we are actually experiencing other lives, we would still only be who we are when we awake.-1) So at this earthly stage, I am still dhw, and the other lives are just dreams to me, even if they turn out to have been real. (See 2)-Dhw: Alternatively, if you're saying ALL of those identities were dreams, who is the "me" that remembers the dreams? If the afterlife "me" is not dhw but somebody else, "I" might just as well not have an afterlife!-BBELLA: Ironically, you are speaking from the life of dhw with his perspective (and not the perspective of your soul life -duh)so when you say, "I" might just as well not have an afterlife" - from dhw's perspective you are correct, because the life of dhw will no longer exist when you die. [...] The only difference in the way we see things, about the IBT, is I've imagined an eternal soul identity that when I die, I will awaken into and for whom this life on Earth that I've lived was only a dream for. -2) At this IBT stage, all other lives plus that of dhw are a dream, and the "eternal soul identity" or "consciousness" is no longer that of dhw.-There are two ways in which I can PARTLY latch onto this. Firstly, when I look back over my life, the past is certainly dreamlike. I recognize the child, boy, young man, middle-aged man, venerable gentleman as myself, but there's a distance between all of us. "Life's a dream" is of course a cliché, but clichés usually have some truth in them. It often does feel as if it WAS (though never IS) a dream. So life is one long sequence of soon-to-be-unreal experiences that subtly change us into what we "really" are in the present, which rapidly becomes an unreal past (Matt will like this.)-The second possible avenue is creative work. I think most artists and writers would agree that their prime source is the subconscious. I can "become" someone different from myself, and yet feel his/her reality so strongly that others may wonder how I can sense and convey that character's thoughts. A sensitive reader will have the same experience as they "identify" with a character. However, I remain myself, dhw, throughout the process, and so does the reader. This is not a new identity, but an ability to temporarily split the identity into real and imaginary selves (a process also vital to empathy). You say: "the subconscious is the go between of the soul identity and earth identity thru which we can be guided in our material life", which could suggest that my subconscious is actually reproducing past events or identities I don't remember. It does make sense, though I have to say it's anything but an ideal scenario for me!-I can therefore fully accept the continuous sequence of realities that turn into dreams as we move ever onwards. However, what still doesn't make sense to me is the idea of a dhw present in the IBT who is not me. You say "the life of dhw will no longer exist when I die", but it's the consciousness (not the life) of dhw that constitutes my identity/my soul, and I cannot see how MY consciousness and subconsciousness can move into an identity that is NOT mine. That makes me into somebody else's dream, and so I become his/her memory without any presence of my own. In other words, it's the gap between my current soul and this different, "eternal soul identity" that I can't bridge intellectually or imaginatively. Perhaps ... if I'm not trying your patience too much ... you could explain again what this "eternal soul identity" is comprised of, if it's not my own conscious and subconscious selves.-DAVID: [...] my partially psychic wife has had dreams of older relatives she's never met, but when looking at pictures realizes she has seen them. She has done geneology in recent years and that is when she realized what she had 'seen'. Is she experiencing existing souls, or past events that have enough energy to stick around?-Whatever the explanation, it must again be linked to the subconscious. It would be interesting to know more ... e.g. whether these are enjoyable experiences, and what sort of communication, if any, your wife has with these people in her dreams. Does she herself have any theories?-*****************************-BBella, I've just read your post of last night, with the remarkable account of your grandniece's phobia. You conclude that "the realm of consciousness is more than a simple development of the mind thru evolution, but more of a connection to a plane of existence that science has barely begun to explore." You said in an earlier post that our consciousness is limited by the material world, and similarly I'm not at all sure that science can explore this plane of existence. And since it's still incapable of explaining consciousness and all its manifestations, that is all the more reason why we should remain open to other avenues of approach to the unsolved mysteries of life. Once again, thank you for all these insights and personal experiences.