What Happens To You After Your Body Dies

[Eternal Entity]

I guess that idea comes from the pagan as well......as it definitely does not come from the biblical scriptures

Do you think that all the things Jesus spoke about that were not recorded in the Bible, means that those things he spoke about were pagan?

 

[Eternal Entity]

No. I'm saying we are our brains.

Are you also including consciousness?
My question has to do with self identification. If we are the brain why do we say we have a brain?
And without consciousness we cannot say we are anything. So, if we are to say we are the brain, we should be saying the brain is consciousness.
Yet we know that the brain is not just the thing inside the skull. It is also the whole nervous system which allows for consciousness to have a human experience - not a brain experience.

To say "I am the brain" is like getting into a vehicle and identifying as the engine and all the components that make up the vehicle.

You get into a car. You turn the key. The engine roars. The wheels turn. You drive across the country, seeing mountains, oceans, deserts, and cities. You have experiences. You feel joy, wonder, fatigue, and peace.

At the end of the journey, you step out of the car. You stretch. You walk away.

Would anyone say you are the car? Would anyone say the car had the experiences?

Of course not. The car was the vehicle. You were the driver. The car enabled the journey, but it did not have the journey. You did.
And so it is with the human body. The human body is dead, It is the spirit that you are (consciousness) experiencing it.

 

[quietthinker]

Do you think that all the things Jesus spoke about that were not recorded in the Bible, means that those things he spoke about were pagan?

No

 

[Eternal Entity]

No

And do you know what those things that Jesus taught which were not recorded?

 

[quietthinker]

And do you know what those things that Jesus taught which were not recorded?

I think the trajectory of his teaching which we do have recorded, set the tone for the things he said which aren't recorded. From that I think we can reasonably accurately assess when Pagan views are at odds with the views of Jesus.

 

[NotTheRock]

My understanding is that Godly people are immediately welcomed into the Kingdom while others require chastening before they can enter. The infernalists believe that Jesus fails to persuade all beings to follow him and so then Jesus tortures them forever in a torture chamber that makes Auschwitz look like a Girl Scout day camp.

 

[Lambano]

And without consciousness we cannot say we are anything. So, if we are to say we are the brain, we should be saying the brain is consciousness.

I don't know how the miracle of consciousness works. It seems to be somehow tied to the brain. I've experienced the effects of alcohol on the consciousness, a good Christian brother I know will testify of the effects of certain psychotropic drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms on consciousness, and I've unfortunately witnessed up close the effects of glioblastoma brain cancer on consciousness before it finally (to my limited ability to observe) snuffed it out.

 

[Jericho]

Using a commonly held view to make a point does not validate the commonly held view.

That goes both ways, and saying the same thing over and over again doesn't make something true.

I agree. Honestly, how can it be anything else? We are our brains. But for some reason, many Christians believe that they aren't their brains, and are somehow a soul or spirit that is stuck in a body that magically escapes upon death.

That's an opinion, but science has yet to prove it. At best they can map brain activity, but that only shows there's a relationship between the brain and consciousness. The hard problem of consciousness remains. Also, there's nothing magical about it. This is an area where people have to expand their thinking. Many things can be resolved once you start adding extra dimensions. Just because you can't see something means nothing. It is impossible to perceive anything beyond our three spatial dimensions. Something could exist a mere millimeter away, and unless it intersected with our dimension, we would never see it.

What interests me is that the sleeper soul idea mean that one could argue - "where is the sleeping soul" stored? Is it somehow still attached to the body? Does it remain with the rot and eventual dust in a suspended animation state? Or do GODs assistants have some kind of storage facility where these souls can be retrieved from and some mechanism by which these can be reanimated. What is the exact process?

You're asking the right questions. How is the identity of a person, their personality, memories, inner self, etc., maintained after death and until the resurrection? Jehovah Witnesses try to provide an explanation, but I find it unsatisfactory. I would argue you can't. The only satisfactory answer is that there has to be a continuity of the self that exists in an intermediate state until the resurrection. And why wouldn't it? The mind is immaterial. Thoughts have no physical substance. How can something that is immaterial be destroyed? Even the laws of physics say energy is never destroyed; it only transforms. Death then would be the transformation from one state to another state.

 

[NayborBear]

I don't know how the miracle of consciousness works. It seems to be somehow tied to the brain. I've experienced the effects of alcohol on the consciousness, a good Christian brother I know will testify of the effects of certain psychotropic drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms on consciousness, and I've unfortunately witnessed up close the effects of glioblastoma brain cancer on consciousness before it finally (to my limited ability to observe) snuffed it out.

I posted the "sad" icon because my wife had that very same giloblastoma brain cancer. Hers was behind her right ear. That's, I think, the NASTIEST type of cancer one can have! 9 months and 2 surgeries? She was gone! That was in '05.
Far as her "consciousness" goes? She was alright although getting weaker and weaker, until she slipped into a coma. Even now.......Can't remain back there for long. She, I guess "willed herself" to remain "with us", until I got back from taking her sister back home. Funny, I guess how people can "stick around", or Perhaps is God's grace or mercy that allows one in "finalizing" all that one wants to see and say before the silver cord is severed!
That's IT!
Can't stay there!
Ya see? Grief is an emotion that when it happens to YOU? Ya NEVER REALLY get "over it" as the saying goes! Ya just have to either "Push on?" Or? As in the cases or reasons why married couples that have been together for a long time so oft times (how can I say) "follow" the other one. Which? IMHO is what happens when the grief CONSUMES you. The "loss" leaves TOO LARGE a hole in one's "reasons or reasonings" in "carrying on", so to speak. Or? The "WILL, or even WANT" of "pushing on?" Just isn't there any longer!
Everyone is different!
Took me about 4 years er so!
Know what's even "stranger?"
Is that my Mom died (from diabetes) 30 days before my wife died!
I guess God KNEW, by giving me the opportunity to try and reconcile things with my Dad in our relationship, as it wasn't really very good when we both were younger! (ya see? I was the only hell my Mama ever raised ......oughta be a song....)
And from all accounts I heard about, and from my Dad as well? He sowed "his share" of wild oats too! That is, until he married my Mom! So? We kind of "held each other up" so to speak. And our relationship improved DRAMATICALLY!
Until he died in '14 (Congestive Heart Failure).

I do and don't apologize for injecting this into the discussion. But having read this post?
HAD to SAY something! As it hit rather "close to my heart" so to speak.
K.......I'm "over it!"
So.........?
Carry on!

 

[NayborBear]

That goes both ways, and saying the same thing over and over again doesn't make something true.

According to Hillary? (employing the "gaslighting strategy?")
"Saying the SAME thing (only) THREE times?"
"Makes it TRUE!"

 

[Riven]

Are you also including consciousness?
My question has to do with self identification. If we are the brain why do we say we have a brain?

I am. I believe consciousness is an emergent property of the brain itself. That's why it disappears when the brain is destroyed. You can make the argument that conciuousness isn't local, and that perhaps the brain acts as a sort of receiver for consciousness. But I don't see any evidence for it.

That's an opinion, but science has yet to prove it. At best they can map brain activity, but that only shows there's a relationship between the brain and consciousness. The hard problem of consciousness remains. Also, there's nothing magical about it. This is an area where people have to expand their thinking. Many things can be resolved once you start adding extra dimensions. Just because you can't see something means nothing. It is impossible to perceive anything beyond our three spatial dimensions. Something could exist a mere millimeter away, and unless it intersected with our dimension, we would never see it.

Sure. We can solve many problems by adding extra dimensions and multiverses. Just ask Marvel. But I prefer trying to keep things grounded in reality, or at least what we can observe.

I think that in order for there to be a soul that exists independent of the body after death, it requires a supernatural explanation.

 

[Eternal Entity]

I think the trajectory of his teaching which we do have recorded, set the tone for the things he said which aren't recorded. From that I think we can reasonably accurately assess when Pagan views are at odds with the views of Jesus.

That is one argument but how do we know that it is true. Jesus did said things (that are recorded) and those things challenged those who had strict (dogmatic views) and some could not bear to hear them - so how do you know what is pagan (through dogmatism) and what is not?
The Pharisees and Sadducees had their own trajectories. They had their own traditions. They were certain they understood the scriptures. And when Jesus came, He overturned their assumptions.

• They believed the Sabbath was sacred. He broke it.
• They believed the Messiah would be a warrior king. He was a suffering servant.
• They believed the dead would be raised. He said the dead are raised and that God is the God of the living.
• They believed in a strict division between clean and unclean. He touched lepers and ate with sinners.

If Jesus challenged the dogmatic views of His day, how do you know He would not challenge the dogmatic views of today?

---

• Systems can be wrong.
• Traditions can be wrong.
• Interpretations can be wrong.
• But the Father who speaks is never wrong.
• The Son who reveals is never wrong.
• The Spirit who guides is never wrong.

If Jesus in secret showed his followers so many things - mountains more than what the bible contains - and those things were never recorded how would one access those mysteries and why would one assume that those mysteries won't cause one to have to rethink what they have been taught through a religion which only has access to a bear minimal and which discourage their members from delving deeper?

What is the difference between someone who cannot bear the many truths (John 16:12) and so are not told, and those who seek to find out?

Why do you suppose or believe that it is a paganistic teaching that we had a prior existence and knowingly chose to experience being human and in doing so, temporarily forget that prior existence?

 

[Eternal Entity]

My understanding is that Godly people are immediately welcomed into the Kingdom while others require chastening before they can enter. The infernalists believe that Jesus fails to persuade all beings to follow him and so then Jesus tortures them forever in a torture chamber that makes Auschwitz look like a Girl Scout day camp.

Thousands of NDE reports witness to experience which generally are heavenly (nice) but occasionally are hellish.
Many of those reports from those who experience such, say that they understood implicitly (they somehow just KNOW without a doubt) that what they experienced was a product of their own making NOT of GOD being the one creating the experience for them but GOD being the one allowing them to create their own experience for themselves.

 

[Eternal Entity]

I don't know how the miracle of consciousness works. It seems to be somehow tied to the brain. I've experienced the effects of alcohol on the consciousness, a good Christian brother I know will testify of the effects of certain psychotropic drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms on consciousness, and I've unfortunately witnessed up close the effects of glioblastoma brain cancer on consciousness before it finally (to my limited ability to observe) snuffed it out.

Yes. The KEY for the observers is that they have only their own perspective and that perspective can be enhanced through study of this subject.
I have experienced OOB a couple of time - very briefly and I did not visit any alternate reality - it was more like an expansion of this one - or perhaps a type of superimposing of two similar realitis converging.
But even the very briefest experience changes one's perception of reality (as taught) and one's understanding and subsequent identification of SELF.

 

[Eternal Entity]

I am. I believe consciousness is an emergent property of the brain itself. That's why it disappears when the brain is destroyed. You can make the argument that conciuousness isn't local, and that perhaps the brain acts as a sort of receiver for consciousness. But I don't see any evidence for it.

DId you check out that video I linked?
I sat an watch it all the way through. There is heaps of evidence.

Sure. We can solve many problems by adding extra dimensions and multiverses. Just ask Marvel. But I prefer trying to keep things grounded in reality, or at least what we can observe.

What we can observe even in this reality is only a fraction of what this reality is.

I think that in order for there to be a soul that exists independent of the body after death, it requires a supernatural explanation.

No. It does not. Would you call consciousness "supernatural" even if it turned out to be something using the brain rather than being something the brain somehow creates?

If so, why?
For more on this, read the thread

The Coherent Causality Argument

 

[Riven]

DId you check out that video I linked?
I sat an watch it all the way through. There is heaps of evidence.

No. I don't like AI videos.

What we can observe even in this reality is only a fraction of what this reality is.

In your opinion.

No. It does not. Would you call consciousness "supernatural" even if it turned out to be something using the brain rather than being something the brain somehow creates?

If so, why?

No. I think if the brain acts like a receiver for a remote conciuousness, then I think I would classify that as supernatural. But if the brain itself is creating conciuousness locally, then I would classify it as natural.

I believe that if there is a soul inside the human body somewhere, and it leaves the body upon death, and it is able to experience existence without a physical body, then what's the point of having a brain or body at all?

 

[Gray_Joy]

1. The Materialist View (The "Extinction" Model)
In this view, "you" are your brain. Your consciousness is like a flame, and your body is the candle. When the candle is destroyed, the flame does not go somewhere else; it simply ceases to exist.

• What happens to "you": Nothing. You don't experience blackness or emptiness, because there is no "you" left to experience it. Your legacy continues through your DNA, your impact on others, and the physical atoms of your body that recycle back into the earth, ocean, and atmosphere.
• The scientific hook: The 2023 gamma-wave surge study is fascinating here—not because it proves an afterlife, but because it may show a final, frantic burst of neural activity that acts like a "life review" or a vivid dream-state right at the cutoff point. After that burst fades, the lights are out.

2. The Dualist / Spiritual View (The "Continuation" Model)
This perspective argues that "you" are not reducible to brain chemistry. Whether you call it a soul, spirit, or pure awareness, the "you" that is conscious is inhabiting the body temporarily.

• What happens to "you":You separate from the physical form. Common narratives include:
  • Near-Death Experiences (NDEs): An out-of-body sensation, moving through a tunnel toward a bright light, encountering deceased loved ones, and a life review.
  • Reincarnation: Your consciousness or karmic energy transitions into a new living being, continuing a cycle of growth and learning.
  • Ancestral Continuation: As seen in many African and East Asian traditions, "you" become a spiritual presence that remains involved in the lives of your descendants, offering guidance or watchfulness.
• The philosophical hook: This view grapples with the "Hard Problem of Consciousness"- why do we have subjective, first-person experiences at all if we are just biological machines?

3. The Panpsychist / Information View (The "Recycling" Model)
A growing minority of neuroscientists and physicists propose that consciousness is not produced by the brain but is filtered by it - like a radio receiving a signal.

• Dr. Edward Kelly (University of Virginia): In a podcast interview, Dr. Kelly discusses the "filter theory" of consciousness, a concept championed by pioneers like William James. He grounds this theory in decades of research combining neuroscience, quantum physics, and philosophy. (1)
• Peer-Reviewed Research on Neural Filters: A 2025 review in a peer-reviewed journal examines studies suggesting that "conscious or mental awareness is constrained by our neural filters." It explores how reducing the activity of these filters - for example, during near-death experiences or deep meditation - might allow the mind to access a "wider awareness" beyond the five senses. (2)
• What happens to "you": When the radio (your body) breaks, the signal (consciousness) doesn't die; it just isn't localized anymore. Your individual identity might dissolve, but your fundamental awareness returns to a universal field of consciousness. In this view, "you" in the ego-sense fade, but "you" as a drop of water returning to the ocean persist.

Ecclesiastes 9:5-6
For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.

In the verse here our bodies are the dust.
This is according to our creation in Genesis 1. Adam,the first human, was made by God from the dust of the ground.
This passage talks about what happens to our flesh,the dust, after death.
Ecclesiastes 12
7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.


Myself and other Christians I know ,are going to be cremated.

 

[Jay Ross]

What happens to you after your body dies?

You have to wait for Christ's return.

 

[NayborBear]

Sure. We can solve many problems by adding extra dimensions and multiverses. Just ask Marvel. But I prefer trying to keep things grounded in reality, or at least what we can observe.

Science has (how can I say) "Proven?" That we as walking, talking, thinking, acting, Reacting, diagnosing, creating, building, repairing, destroying, etc. etc...........WITH the (how can I say) "Brain Power" we use CURRENTLY?
Is ONLY about 7% of TOTAL "Brain MASS!"
That being said? Is there MORE going on within all this "Grey Matter" betweenst our ears then that?
Oh YEAH!
Ya see? Because that's ALL "science" is able to observe and "Measure EMPIRICALLY!"
And this presents quite the dilemma for them! Because their "agenda/s" are in their ability of RECREATING REPEATEDLY the (how can I say) "Goings On" with the 93% they can "OBSERVE", yet? Unable to "IDENTIFY!" Save for their claims: "Yep?! It's THERE!" ALL 93% of it!
"Why IS it there?" "What IS it DOING there?" "Why can't we as educated and smart people have, or even gain access to the "Goings On" with it?
If you can "PICTURE" this 93% our brains, like the Angel guarding the "TREE OF LIFE" in the garden of Eden? To which LORD GOD in HIS GLORIOUS Counsel:
Genesis 3:22
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Genesis 3:24
So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
So THIS is the WHY and WHO "Keeps Man from ACCESSING" the 93%!
Believing and ACCEPTING Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the ONLY CORRECT "path" (if you will) in just the "BEGINNING of this JOURNEY!"
John 14:2
In my Father's house are MANY mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Now! Having said all this? There WERE, and still ARE those seeking to gain access by means of implementing (how can I say) "psychotropic" means and methods, or methodologies!
To the which I was told in more than a "stern manner?":
"The Father does NOT like "SHORTCUTS!"
Which is why those who don't learn nor listen, nor turn back away from these means?
Generally end up worse off!......Or?......DEAD!