Do you know any materialists that are now in the afterlife confirming it?

[EdmundJohnstone]

I always wonder how is the consciousness (assuming is not brain generated) or spirit (which are not atoms, because we can't detect them) connected to our atoms, since we are a bunch of atoms?

[JosephineB]

Originally Posted by EdmundJohnstone

I always wonder how is the consciousness (assuming is not brain generated) or spirit (which are not atoms, because we can't detect them) connected to our atoms, since we are a bunch of atoms?

Silver cord? I've just recently heard about this. It's in the bible btw.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by EdmundJohnstone

I always wonder how is the consciousness (assuming is not brain generated) or spirit (which are not atoms, because we can't detect them) connected to our atoms, since we are a bunch of atoms?

It's been suggested the brain may be a receiver of sorts as well. Actually what keeps us alive has to do more with the subconscious then the conscious. Such limits in open knowledge would indeed be for survival and have to be hidden where we can't access it for safety. There are levels of (first) thought that surface before they even reach conscious level of thought based on awareness with being conscious of it. We might not even know! I'm just thinking we can't access it without trying (experiments/study). Is and was that known to avoid any conflict. I happen to think the life we have here is brain driven and based on conscious memory and consciousness is as self a self referring system that always comes back to itself. The pattern of life but I have heard consciousness is not the same energy we know. This would be a great field of study to work in.

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

Another blast of synchronicity! That was made clear to me the other night while meditating
and I related the experience in my 'This will probably sound crazy but...' post

Yup, we are exactly where we're supposed to be!

[Miss Hepburn]

Originally Posted by Unseeking Seeker

***
Eben Alexander M.D. has written a book ‘proof of heaven’ where unlike other NDE his neocortex
was dead and yet he came back with deep knowledge of the after life.

I found this youtube way better than his book...
maybe he realized a few more things, I dunno...but way more interesting and informative.



https://www.google.com/search?client...xander+youtube

[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Altair

I believe we reincarnate and are ultimately on an individual journey. I am sceptical about ''channelling'' and doubt many 'souls' would be interested in sharing knowledge with earthlings. It's what we want, it's about our *desires*. We exist here now, we are all where we're supposed to be. I doubt the 'dead' are all going to wait for us, because they have their own journeys to make.

How about 'the living' as a data source, Altair? Here's the first part of the 'Introduction' from Michael Newton, Ph.D.'s book, Journey of Souls reviewed here, which might induce you to explore the subject further:

ARE you afraid of death? Do you wonder what is going to happen to you after you die? Is it possible you have a spirit which came from somewhere else and will return there after your body dies, or is this just wishful thinking because you are afraid? It is a paradox that humans, alone of all creatures of the Earth, must repress the fear of death in order to lead normal lives. Yet our biological instinct never lets us forget this ultimate danger to our being. As we grow older, the specter of death rises in our consciousness. Even religious people fear death is the end of personhood. Our greatest dread of death brings thoughts about the nothingness of death which will end all associations with family and friends. Dying makes all our earthly goals seem futile.

If death were the end of everything about us, then life indeed would be meaningless. However, some power within us enables humans to conceive of a hereafter and to sense a connection to a higher power and even an eternal soul. If we do actually have a soul, then where does it go after death? Is there really some sort of heaven full of intelligent spirits outside our physical universe? What does it look like? What do we do when we get there? Is there a supreme being in charge of this paradise?These questions are as old as humankind itself and still remain a mystery to most of us.

The true answers to the mystery of life after death remain locked behind a spiritual door for most people. This is because we have built-in amnesia about our soul identity which, on a conscious level, aids in the merging of the soul and human brain. In the last few years the general public has heard about people who temporarily died and then came back to life to tell about seeing a long tunnel, bright lights, and even brief encounters with friendly spirits. But none of these accounts written in the many books on reincarnation has ever given us anything more than a glimpse of all there is to know about life after death.

This book is an intimate journal about the spirit world. It provides a series of actual case histories which reveal in explicit detail what happens to us when life on Earth is over. You will be taken beyond the spiritual tunnel and enter the spirit world itself to learn what transpires for souls before they finally return to Earth in another life. I am a skeptic by nature, although it will not seem so from the contents of this book. As a counselor and hypnotherapist, I specialize in behavior modification for the treatment of psychological disorders. A large part of my work involves short-term cognitive restructuring with clients by helping them connect thoughts and emotions to promote healthy behavior. Together we elicit the meaning, function, and consequences of their beliefs because I take the premise that no mental problem is imaginary.

In the early days of my practice, I resisted past life requests from people because of my orientation toward traditional therapy. While I used hypnosis and age regression techniques to determine the origins of disturbing memories and childhood trauma, I felt any attempt to reach a former life was unorthodox and non-clinical. My interest in reincarnation and metaphysics was only intellectual curiosity until I worked with a young man on pain management. This client complained of a lifetime of chronic pain on his right side. One of the tools of hypnotherapy to manage pain is directing the subject to make the pain worse so he or she can also learn to lessen the aching and thus acquire control. In one of our sessions involving pain intensification, this man used the imagery of being stabbed to recreate his torment. Searching for the origins of this image, I eventually uncovered his former life as a World War I soldier who was killed by a bayonet in France, and we were able to eliminate the pain altogether.

With encouragement from my clients, I began to experiment with moving some of them further back in time before their last birth on Earth. Initially I was concerned that a subject's integration of current needs, beliefs, and fears would create fantasies of recollection. However, it didn't take long before I realized our deep-seated memories offer a set of past experiences which are too real and connected to be ignored. I came to appreciate just how therapeutically important the link is between the bodies and events of our former lives and who we are today.

Then I stumbled on to a discovery of enormous proportions. I found it was possible to see into the spirit u]world through the mind's eye of a hypnotized subject who could report back to me of life between lives on Earth. The case that opened the door to the spirit world for me was a middle-aged woman who was an especially receptive hypnosis subject. She had been talking to me about her feelings of loneliness and isolation in that delicate stage when a subject has finished recalling their most recent past life. This unusual individual slipped into the highest state of altered consciousness almost by herself Without realizing I had initiated an overly short command for this action, I suggested she go to the source of her loss of companionship. At the same moment I inadvertently used one of the trigger words to spiritual recall. I also asked if she had a specific group of friends whom she missed. Suddenly, my client started to cry. When I directed her to tell me what was wrong, she blurted out, "I miss some friends in my group and that's why I get so lonely on Earth." I was confused and questioned her further about where this group of friends was actually located. "Here, in my permanent home," she answered simply, "and I'm looking at all of them right now!"

After finishing with this client and reviewing her tape recordings, I recognized that finding the spirit world involved an extension of past life regression. There are many books about past lives, but none I could find which told about our life as souls, or how to properly access the spiritual recollections of people. I decided to do the research myself and with practice I acquired greater skill in entering the spirit world through my subjects. I also learned that finding their place in the spirit world was far more meaningful to people than recounting their former lives on Earth. ...

[Miss Hepburn]

Well, then we have my buddy, Carl - oh my, a criminal attorney, single,
multi-millionaire (left it all to my girlfriend) - an avowed atheist.

Ha, when the Hospice nurse at his home his last 2 months wanted to say things about
passing - Man oh man, he stopped her so fast, "There is nothing after death, please stop."
And yet, the night he died, he fell unconscious 3 times - came back each time
startled and disappointed that he was back 'here' - cuz of how 'beautiful' and 'full of so much love', where he had just been was.
"I want to be there!!!!" And he was by 4:30 am.

Intellectuals will have a field day with that...guess ya had to have been there and known him.
Professional skeptics will always be professional skeptics.
And who cares! Ha...

[Altair]

Originally Posted by JosephineBloggs

Do you not believe each body has it's own soul connected to it?

I do, although I don't really want to get ''into that'' ~ because our body is also full of bacteria, so it's quite daunting to think about the implications..

Originally Posted by Josephine

Ps, sorry off topic. Altair, was it you that posted a link to a video of children in a church being told they were sinners? Just wanted it for another thread.

I think you mean the Jesus Camp video I shared in some thread? Don't recall where..

[JosephineB]

[quote=Altair]I do, although I don't really want to get ''into that'' ~ because our body is also full of bacteria, so it's quite daunting to think about the implications..


I think you mean the Jesus Camp video I shared in some thread? Don't recall where..[quote]


That's ok. But for the life of me I can't see the connection between bacteria and soul. For another time maybe.

Yes, that's it, found the video, thanks.

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I found this youtube way better than his book...
maybe he realized a few more things, I dunno...but way more interesting and informative.

He has a follow-on book titled "Living in a Mindful Universe -
A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness".

I haven't read it yet but as I understand it's the result of digesting all of his experience after writing his first book. Maybe some of that book is incorporated into his more recent talks?