The Roman philosopher Boethius believed that the thought of death was worse than the lady with the scythe herself. It is difficult to judge how true this statement is, but for sure many will agree that thoughts about death are the most frightening, terrible, paralyzing. Moreover, most people are frightened not so much by the thought of death, about the process of dying itself, as by the thought of what will happen after that. Meanwhile, all of us will someday die, and therefore the question of what awaits a person in the afterlife and whether there is such an afterlife at all, worries very, very many.
There are plenty of versions of what happens to a person after death. There is only one "but" - none of them will ever give a 100% guarantee that everything will be exactly like this. And the question of whether death means the end of all existence, or whether it is the beginning of a different, new life, is unlikely to ever be finally closed. What do ancient and modern religions, parapsychologists, doctors, as well as people who have experienced clinical death say on this score - read this article.
What did the ancient peoples believe in?
At different times, different cultures had their own idea of the afterlife. The peoples of deep antiquity, for example, did not doubt the existence of the afterlife, but they only imagined it as a dark kingdom where sunlight does not pass, where there is no place for joy. Such a fate awaited everyone without exception - children and adults, poor and rich, good and evil. Such, for example, were the afterlife of the Sumerians and Akkadians, who belonged to one of the first civilizations in the history of mankind, as well as the ancient Egyptians and Greeks at the dawn of their development.
At some point, such a system ceased to suit people, and another arose, which promised eternal pleasures to those who led a beneficial life, and eternal torment to those who did a lot of evil on earth. The Egyptians were the first to develop the idea that after the death of every person there will be reward for earthly deeds, they believed that the gates of paradise opened before souls who had passed the judgment of Osiris, who reigns in the other world.
It happened like this: on one side of the scale they put the human heart (the symbol of the soul among the ancients), and on the other - a feather, symbolizing the truth. It was believed that a soul, not burdened with sins, would literally be as light as a feather and would not outweigh a feather. For such souls the path to heaven was provided.
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Sinners of average hand could explain themselves before divine judgment and justify their evil earthly deeds. The same souls, which turned out to be much heavier than the feather of the goddess Maat, that is, were overwhelmed with evil and vices, the path to the afterlife was forbidden - they went straight into the mouth of a terrible monster with the body of a lion and the head of a crocodile. And there came for them nothingness, absolute emptiness - for the ancient Egyptians it was worse than any hell.
In general, the attitude to death in Ancient Egypt was the most reverent: they were preparing for it almost from the moment of birth, considering earthly life only a short moment of the night, and the path to the afterlife - a long-awaited exit to the light of day.
At the same time, it was believed that in the afterlife a person would live in the same way as on earth. For example, the pharaoh will remain the ruler, the priest …
The deceased were buried along with household items, clothing, jewelry, and even with wives, concubines, slaves and their animals - with everything that they might need after death. By the way, not only the Egyptians believed in this, but also many other peoples, including the Slavs.
Meanwhile, ancient Indian religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism were based on the belief that every living being is doomed to die and be reborn on earth until, through a thorny path of self-knowledge, he reaches metaphysical super-existence, or the absolute beginning - nirvana. Between being, the souls of sinners go through purgatory, in which there are several circles of hell - each one to come is worse and colder than the past.
Reincarnation is mainly determined by the higher world order. The dependence of rebirth on a person is partial. Rebirth again and again, by his actions he can worsen or, on the contrary, improve the conditions for the existence of his soul in the next incarnation, bringing closer or postponing the moment of liberation from suffering. At the same time, some details of this picture of the world in different Indian religions may differ, but they have the same essence.
About hell and heaven
Thanks to Christianity, heaven and hell have become clear-cut. About 2 billion people on earth believe that eternal suffering awaits sinners, for example, in fiery rivers and sulfur lakes. Someone awaits various reptiles and terrible demon tormentors. Christian hell is the most terrible. Hell was described in detail by one of the Italian poets. Perhaps you guessed that it is about Dante Alighieri in his "Divine Comedy".
According to Christian scriptures, the righteous and repentant sinners go to heaven - a place of serene eternal life.
For the true Christian, the heavenly kingdom is more important than the earthly existence. If we turn to the Old Testament, it will become obvious that death is better than birthday.
Consider the perspectives of the human soul in the Christian afterlife. Communication with angels and demons becomes available in it. The direction of development of the soul usually coincides with that during life.
The soul stays on earth for a couple of days. She visits places dear to her, and on the 3rd day she finds herself in paradise and for 6 days admires its beauty. After such a 6-day admiration, the spiritual essence gets to know hell and its inhabitants. The "excursion" lasts 30 days. Only on the 40th day God determines the further fate of the soul.
Catholics have long believed that apart from hell and heaven there is also purgatory, in which sinners are presented with the opportunity to get rid of their sins. Orthodox Christians do not believe in purgatory, but they recognize the need to tirelessly pray for the dead.
Or maybe there is nothing
Material essences of phenomena that were not known to our ancestors are constantly being revealed. This is one of the main reasons for the increase in the number of atheists and simply skeptical people who consider death a "finish" after which there is nothing. This part of the planet's population compares death with dreamless sleep.
At the same time, there are still many adherents of the idea that a thinking and feeling creature cannot disappear without a trace. There are also many who say that a part of a person after death remains with his descendants, in the works of art created by him, in the trees he planted …
At one time, the American scientist Carolyn Porco said that the atoms of an organism after death end up in space and become either mass or energy.
A similar faith was characteristic of the representatives of the philosophical doctrine, which is older than Christianity. We are talking about the followers of Epicurus, who asserted the complete disappearance of a person after death. By the way, the Epicureans did not deny the existence of the soul. Like, it breaks up into billions of atoms and disappears.
What does science say?
You will not find a scientist who can clearly explain what final biological death is. About 40 years ago, a new medical term appeared - “brain death”. In this condition, it is possible to artificially support the work of the heart and other organs. What's coming out? A dead body doesn't look like that. There are also known cases when, after the cessation of the work of organs, brain activity continues for some time.
Information about new cases of clinical death constantly appears, in which organs and systems are "silent", and the brain continues to function.
What do people who have been between death and life tell? Here are some examples: a tunnel at the end of which a bright white light shone, a meeting with deceased relatives, a vision of your body from the side.
A real case. American student Trisha Baker ended up in the hospital due to the accident. At some point, she felt that she was under the ceiling and looking down at her body and the doctors flitting around him. Then she found herself in the hospital corridor, where she saw her stepfather awaiting the doctors' verdict. The heartbroken man was buying himself a chocolate bar from the vending machine. This seemingly insignificant detail later became proof for Trisha that she had really been in the spirit world.
