What happens when we breathe our final breath? Do we cease to exist? Or do we continue on in another form? Do we become angels? Do we have a consciousness? If we continue on, then where exactly do we go? These are questions that have been asked since the beginning of human history. Now, in our modern era there is evidence that there is another world that is beyond our senses. It is a place where people live and go about their business just as we do here on Earth. There, the occupants are aware of us, but we cannot discern them. This world is known by many names such as, “Heaven,” “Paradise,” “The Other Side,” “the Afterlife” and many more.
BEYOND
The Afterlife
“Afterlife” is a general term used to refer to the continuation of existence after the physical body has permanently died. It is also referred to as “life after death.” It is believed by most religions and cultures to be the place where people go after dying. Says Bruce Moen, Author of the book series, Exploring the Afterlife, “There are specific areas of the nonphysical world that are inhabited by human beings who are no longer physically alive. These are the areas known as the afterlife.” The after life is a place of learning and growing. To dwell there, is a busy existence, with the goal of each spirit to evolve and grow spiritually. The more one grows spiritually the further one will evolve in the spiritual realms. Arriving in the afterlife means a time of rest for the spirit before journingy back into life. Others suggests it is a time of anaylizing one’s spiritul development and journey. While still others believe it to be a time to return home and decide rather or not to continue incarnating on Earth (or another world) or move on into the higher realms. Concepts as well as descriptions of the afterlife has been extrapolated from a number of sources including: 1) those who have had near death and out of body experiences, 2) religious figures, holy people and mystics who are believed by many to have special knowledge of life after death. 3) Those who have had visitations from enlightened beings, angels and from friends and relatives that have already passed on into the afterlife.
Religious Beliefs
Nearly all religions past and present believe in a spiritual realm. In fact, accounts of people visiting this realm and returning to tell about it have been told for over a thousand years. Stories of such experiences can be found in the Bible, the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Koran. One such account is even given by Plato in his work entitled, Republic (written 360 B.C.E.), in which he tells the story of Er, a soldier who on the twelfth day, while his body still lay on the funeral pile, awakened and relayed the things he had seen in the spiritual realm. The account says: “Er the son of Armenius, a Pamphylian by birth, was slain in battle and ten days afterwards, when the bodies of the dead were taken up already in a state of corruption, his body was found unaffected by decay, and carried away home to be buried. And on the twelfth day, as he was lying on the funeral pile, he returned to life and told them what he had seen in the other world.”
Today, because of mankind’s technological advancements in medicine, some clinically dead people are being revived by resuscitation techniques. Therefore, there are more of these accounts than ever before. There is even a name for them, “near death experiences.” Through these many stories coupled with writings from ancient prophets, scriptures, modern day psychics and afterlife experts, we get a look into what the great writer Shakespeare referred to as “the undiscovered country.”