Meeting My Death with Peace? (without using beliefs)

[Miss Hepburn]

Gee, Louisa, I have read 100 NDEs and some from self-proclaimed
creepy or really bad people...some committed suicide and were atheists...
Not that that is bad, ha!

They came out like a rose...had a loving experience on the Other Side.

Nameless, Sylvia's best book was The Other Side and Back and I give it out
So often...I pick them up at Goodwill.
Another good one I gave to a friend that expressed so much fear about death was
Ruth Montgomery's " A World Beyond".
She has told me over the yrs how it still has made her unafraid after reading it 25
Yrs ago.
Hope Louise can find it.
Really Arthur Ford, medium, wrote it thru her thru automatic typing every Tues at 11 am...
When Ruth wasn't drunk or hung over..*wink*...so it is said....

Ford was only one to "break" Houdini's coded message from the Other Side.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by norseman

The Cycle of Life is Death, Renewal, and Rebirth. Hell, damnation, judgement and the Devil are christian fixations !

Got THAT right!


(Why cap devil and not Christian, tho...rhetorical)

[norseman]

Christ merits upper case but christianity doesn't ! I call it churchianity.

Pagans dont use "Devil"! The name given is Lucifer, Lord of Light and Lord of Darkness, aka Pan or Kernunnos, the spirit embodiment of Yin-Yang. Some argue that Christ also Lord of Light and Lord of Darkness. Something for christians to think about

I understand both Billy Graham and the last Pope admitted hell was a fiction
invented to intimidate people.

There is only one destination, yet ones life does affect what kind of experiences one finds there. What one experiences there is only meant to lead us to greater love, rather than to punish.

Our trials on earth are difficult enough. The afterlife is meant as a healing experience, regardless how we've lived.

[Louisa]

Maybe my fear of death is a product of religious belief after effects, although the theory of karma seems to make a lot of sense. But even then, I can see it as useful, teaching me what I need to know, perhaps sometimes in ways my human mind couldn't understand. Maybe what I should try to do is to live without beliefs unless there is enough evidence to really, seriously believe. Be motivated by things outside of beliefs. I do shy away from really looking into beliefs, except in desperation to find something that might work. I respect others' beliefs and their usefulness, but beliefs have let me down way too many times.

But beliefs can help one think outside the box, at least. As long as I don't cling and assume, and keep skeptical, they can be helpful.

I will look for those books, Miss Hepburn.

Yeah, norseman, Lucifer mythology is interesting. I've looked into it at times.

Henri, I agree that I don't think permanent hell is likely to exist, and that heavenly realms do exist.

Hellish earthly lives strike terror in me, because I've already been to those realms. But even that, I just have to accept what I can't control and live in the moment while I'm here, influence what I can. I do believe there are benevolent, helpful realms, so it gives me some hope for some meaning to be found, beneath seeming disorder and misery, in some life, even after many lives, looking back or between lives. I've experienced the help of Spirit firsthand, it is one of the few things that keeps me sane.

[Louisa]

I think it is the burden of guilt and perfectionism and wanting to know how to do everything right, even those things beyond my conscious understanding. How silly! But good for me to see it for what it is. That must be a big part of it.

Looking for some magical formula that will keep suffering from taking over again. I know that I was innocent as a child, it still overtook me. No longer a child, but I've seen it overtake adults beyond their control as well. I don't believe I've found the way to defend against it. It is karma or just the cruel fate or spirit teaching me a lesson I can't currently understand. It is beyond my ability to find the magical formula to keep this from ever happening.

Best thing to do - let go, use a little constructive denial. And try things that might make me less susceptible to being destroyed by suffering. But some suffering cannot be prevented, even total destruction of self and ongoing agony.

Maybe I could even formulate feel good beliefs that can't let me down, because they don't promise impossible things nor lead me to act in self-destructive ways. And if I can actually get myself to believe them without compromising my rational thinking too much. Which has been a problem before - I'd believe a feel-good belief, through numbing my skeptical logic, and then I'd think, well, if that might be true, then why not this (self-destructive) belief over here? It makes just as much logical sense, I have just as much evidence for it.

Then (what is it? Evil spirits? Spirits trying to purify me of false belief? Law of Attraction) - things come in and give me all this subjective, concrete experiences to verify the self-destructive beliefs - signs and synchronicities, divination that tells me horrible things, things that are way too odd and unique to just be coincidence.

Belief hasn't been a good friend of mine, so far.

[Belle]

Yes. Let go of the guilt and perfectionism. Discard your beliefs which are holding you to a place of not being able to move forwards (handcuffs). Throw yourself out there. make mistakes. Get it wrong. And laugh at your mistakes and learn. But start living to the full. There's an immensity waiting for you - enjoy it.

One way to look at death, from the perspective of an atheist or what have you, is "the big sleep." I forget who coined the phrase, but the philosophy behind it is that we endure a lifetime of hardship and are rewarded with an eternity of peaceful nothingness. Maybe this approach will appeal to you. I personally find it over-simplistic.

Look at your options: impermanence vs eternity. The first step is to become comfortable with the idea of either.

A lot of people, examples lie in this thread, are going to want to throw the definition they have concluded for life at you. Take their words with a grain of salt, do your own research and mental experimentation. This is what life is all about. In the end, no one has all the answers, all anyone can do is accept the beautiful mystery life is and explore it.

[Tobi]

Louisa, honestly, don't worry about "believing".
I never "believed" anything...but I found out some things and know some things now, and as I live I find out more. That'll do.
It's a cliche to say "today is the beginning of the rest of your life", but in fact every breath we take, every second that we live, either in this World or the next we are capable of making conscious choices. We all have history. None of us is perfect. But as soon as you tread into your life, viewing every second as precious, and offering an opportunity for new-ness, that will occur. It will begin to be created. And change is something that is happening all the time, everywhere, throughout the dimensions. Nothing stands still. Nothing ever is as it was.

Of course there will be habitual patterns of thought and tracks of emotion which we will notice in ourselves. But it's easier than you think to start to re-direct them if we want to. To keep them on track takes discipline, but it's worth putting some effort into it.
You'll be OK.

[Louisa]

Thanks, chilly, yes, I think I believe in the afterlife more than not so, but I just need to find a belief or approach (without beliefs, perhaps) that will give me relief and integrity in my life.

Tobi, I think you are right. I don't have to have beliefs, just values, truths, integrity, and faith in action, based on experience. Thank you.

I think I will try meditation (if I find a bit of time), and affirmations or some regular devotional type of activity to try to keep me on the right path here. And trying connecting more with the benevolent spirits I've sensed, to have more faith and guidance in my life. I think my mind running wildly astray is a bit of the problem.