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Life After Death, One UU’s Perspective
We have a bumper sticker which reads, "Militant Agnostic, I don't know and you don't either." Much the same could be said about the afterlife. I don't know, and you don't either.
What happens after we die is one of the ongoing questions humans have been wrestling with since before we began scratching our history on rocks and cave walls. Why were we born? What is the meaning of life? How do we make meaning of this life and is there another existence beyond this one? Responses to these basic issues are at the core of most religions and ethical/philosophical systematical ways of thinking. But lofty clinical theories mean little when you are sitting with a dying person, or with devastated grieving parents planning a memorial service for their child and trying to help them come to some kind of terms with what has happened.
When we consider the vast amount of information on the subject of death and the afterlife, and the numbers of perspectives from which we might address it, I can tell you first off that I don’t know much, but I'll tell you what little I do know and, I'll tell you what I believe. From a scientific point of view, I know that we are composed of matter and energy. The matter is mostly water, carbon and traces of elements that came to us earthlings courtesy of evolution and the Big Bang theory. We share this chemical/biological composition in differing proportions with every other living entity on the planet.
The soul or spirit energy of a human being, according to our knowledge so far, does not have an electrical charge or chemical construct but there are few who would deny its existence. There are some researchers who point out that a person weighs a tiny bit less immediately after death than just before, and claim the difference in weight is the caused by the release of the soul.
From a humanist and/or scientific approach thinking then, a human being is composed of matter and energy, which science tells us can never be lost, but only transformed. So I am comfortable believing and saying when asked, that when humans die, the physical body is transformed either by natural decomposition or cremation, and the soul energy or the sprit is released from the physical body and remains somewhere with us in our earth's atmosphere in it's altered state. What happens after that is not quite anybody's guess, but popular theories and conjectures are most often based on religious/theological belief system, direct experience, private hopes, dreams, fears, and most likely, a combination of all of the above.
One way some people think they might know what happens after death is in those hundreds and thousands of personal accounts of near death experiences. I read them and found them similar in nature, sensations of floating and looking down on themselves, of seeing a great light and feeling an all-encompassing love. But then, I discovered in further reading that in the process of dying, the human body produces certain specific chemicals or hormones in the brain that create the sensation of seeing light, of floating and looking down on themselves and seeing deceased family members welcoming them, and being given the choice to go towards the light or to return to human life as we/they know it. Reading about it is one thing, But it is hard not to believe there is something beyond this life when you talk to someone who has had or witnessed a near death experience.,
When doctors came out of her husband's room to tell my first mother-in-law he had passed away, she shoved them aside, ran into the room, touched his cheek and called him back to life. Everyone is in agreement that our hearing is the last to go. This man, my children’s grandfather, pronounced dead by the medicine men, was still able to hear the woman he loved, and was able to come back and after over ten months in hospital, began to improve. The attending doctors had no explanation, and agreed, they had witnessed a miracle. He lived, drank, smoked and played golf for another ten years.
There are some religious traditions and ethical/philosophical ways of thinking which say that there is no further existence after death—that all we have is what we make of our lives in our brief time on earth, and when it's over it's over. Most Jews do not believe in heaven or hell but believe that all will be raised on the final Day of Judgment. In the meantime, until that day, Jews keep the spirit of loved ones alive with family photographs, by telling their stories and by naming their children after those who have gone on before. We all know that Ancient Egyptians were convinced that the afterlife would be much like their earthy life and spent years and fortunes making preparations for the next stage of the journey. Medieval Christians accepted a miserable earthly life because they were convinced that if they endured these hardships and followed the dictates of their Roman Catholic Religion, they would be welcomed into heaven by God and the saints for all eternity. I don’t need to talk about what would happen if they didn’t play by the rules. Too many of us sitting right here spent our childhood living in deathly fear of hell and eternal damnation. Unitarian Universalists may not be clear or in agreement on what will happen after we die, but I think I can say with some certainty that the concept of a fiery furnace with a red-faced devil dancing attendance is not in the eternal equation/construct.
Many of you know my friend and mentor, UU minister, Dick Fewkes. Dick believes in reincarnation, and believes that we can, with the proper guidance, access our past lives and learn from them. He does past-life regression work with people who have asked his assistance, all parties involved seem to benefit from the experience. When I first knew Dick, this was one of our sticking points, and we simple had to agree to disagree. Twenty years later, I can’t say I’ve done a complete reversal on that subject, but I've had too many experiences to dismiss the idea of reincarnation or some sort of existence beyond life as we know it. Add to that, over half the world's population believe that the soul/spirit continues to be re-born in human form so that we may continue to learn the lessons we are supposed to learn before we can be ultimately re-united with the Eternal ONE, or in some special cases, be given the opportunity to return to life on earth as a bodhisattva a teacher or a prophet ordained to enlighten others. I don't think that many people, over those thousands of years can be entirely wrong, and taking that into consideration, it's not hard to think that the life I am living now, may well not be the only existence I have or will experience. Time will tell.
Speaking of experiences. Most of you know that Chris and I have a rental property. What you probably don?t know, is that one of them is haunted, and that several people, tenants, workmen, and my husband, have had encounters with a restless spirit who inhabits the house. The first to note the presence was Dot Packer's Son-in Law, Jeff Thompson, who was working on the furnace. He told Chris, we had a ghost in the house, and thought it might be an old plumber who didn't like strangers messing around in his cellar. Chris nodded politely, as you do, and went on about his business, but soon began to notice his tools often seemed to be in places other than where he had left them, and he would hear doors slam or the sound of footsteps in the next room even there was no one else in the house. A roofer and his crew, doing some work for us, complained of a "spooky feeling" in the house, and said the TV would come on and change channels by itself.
A little research revealed that in the 1930's a plumber had committed suicide on the property. One day, Chris felt something pushing against the other side of a door he was trying to open. He got annoyed and told the ghost in no uncertain terms to "cut it out, and to get out." After that, we heard no ghostly complaints and rumblings for about four years. Fast forward to a new tenant, who said one day, "Judy, do you know you have a ghost in the house?" I muttered and mumbled and finally said, "Well, yes, but I thought we'd gotten rid of it." "Well he's back," she said laughing, "At first he bothered me, and I know it's a he," she said, "he seems to want to hang around my son. Keeps moving his tools."
Her son is a plumber.
I asked her if she wanted us to get rid of him. She said no, that they had gotten used to him and he could stay. She has given me permission to tell this story, and Holly Nadler will use it in her next book about "Ghosts on Martha's Vineyard."
I know my mother came to me at the time she died. The funeral director estimated the time of her death to be between 12:30 and 1am--the time I had the unmistakable experience of her presence in my bedroom. I think many of us here could tell similar stories. My husband can. So what does all this mean? What do I say to a person facing death when asked, "What's going to happen?" "What do I tell myself?"
When I think about some sort of existence after the physical death of the body, I can no longer say with certainty there is nothing after death. I?ve had too many personal experiences and heard too many stories to the contrary from intelligent caring, sensible, practical people to say--"When it's over, it's over." I don't know the specifics and you don't either. I do believe that we, as individuals, need to consider for ourselves, the information available to us, and then decide what we want to believe and then do it. We need to believe in what gives us comfort and hope in an uncertain world.
I can tell you one thing for sure. I know that love does not end with Death. Love is a spiritual energy which connects us to another when we are living, and does not end because that person is no longer physically present. 40 years after her death, I still love my grandmother, and to this day, her unconditional love continues to sustain me. Love can, if we let it, connect and sustain the soul spirits of us all. (I wish some of our world leaders would consider this.) Some us will decide to go further in our thinking and ascribe that greater and all encompassing love to a deity, or a higher power or, -- to your co nnection with all humanity and the natural world. Ultimately, what you eventually decide to believe can only based on your own experience coupled with what you choose to cherish and want to believe.
I do believe there is something beyond the final curtain. I know that when the physical body dies, its matter and energy will be transformed and recycled somewhere into the very air we breathe. More than that, I can't say. I believe there is something greater than us, connecting us and uniting us, but not directing us in the old, God as the great puppeteer in the sky concept. Call it the planetary eco-system, call it the balance of nature, call it, as the Navajo do, "The beautiful way", the interconnected web of all existence,call it the power and manifestation of love. I don't need a name for it to know I am part of that whole and as long as we foolish humans don?t totally blow it, the Eternal ONENESS will continue, and will continue to evolve, and eventually, we all will be transformed into another state of being and continue to evolve with it.
"Life is the greatest gift of all" say the words of Hymn #331, "so treasure it and measure it with deeds of shining worth." Its all we have, at least for the moment. Blessed be.
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