Please help me; Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, why, if not... (page 2)

Double Edge

I am reading the ADC website now and I find that my first knee-jerk reaction was to think of Englishman's fear of demons thread because of the JW indoctrination that anyone thinking they were communicating with the dead were communicating with demons

That's understandable with such strong indoctrination. However, keeping things simple (which Jesus ALWAYS did), when you think about it, overwhelmingly whenever someone has an ADC experiences it is positive in the fact that people are comforted, they are given hope and they can move on. How can such positive and "good" experiences come from any adversary or "demon"? That would be the opposite of what they would want you to feel. IMHO

Mulan

As for Syliva Browne, she is interesting to watch, but I would not bet the rent on what she says.

I totally agree with you, but the things she says about where the dead are now, are very comforting. I've heard her say lots of things that are kind of bizarre, but she nails it sometimes too. One man came back to Montel, to say his wife got pregnant the month Sylvia said she would, after years of infertility, and it was a girl, just like she said it was. Could be coincidence, but I don't rule anything out anymore.

The bottom line is, we just can't know for sure.

Fleur

That's understandable with such strong indoctrination. However, keeping things simple (which Jesus ALWAYS did), when you think about it, overwhelmingly whenever someone has an ADC experiences it is positive in the fact that people are conforted, they are given hope and they can move on. How can such positive and "good" experiences come from any adversary or "demon"? That would be the opposite of what they would want you to feel. IMHO

That's a good point there.

Something of a side point that just occurred to me, I have never feared dying myself, or worried about where if anywhere I would go afterward. It's just this overwhelming need to know what has happened/will happen to my Grandmother that is overwhelming.

Still reading on the websites, I know it will take me a long time to read, ponder, and sort out my feelings. I still expect her to call me up on the phone, the reality that she's not coming home hasn't really sunk in yet.

Frannie Banannie

Essie, a few months ago, I posted an experience that happened a few years back that totally laid to waste some of the WT teachings about life after death, etc.....It's contents are:

Some years back, I "adopted" the cat my daughter left behind when she moved out of her dad's house.....I was living here by myself with "Misty" and she was a truly sweet cat that seemed to love me dearly.....she always would get up in my lap, whether I was trying to read the paper or a book and insert herself between whatever I was trying to read and my face, purring and "kissing" my face and nuzzling my neck all the time.....One night I went to work (I'd NEVER taken her there)....and about 11 PM I was turning over facing the back of the sofa at the patient's house to catch some "Z's" when I suddenly felt something "plunk" down between my chest and the sofa back....I opened my eyes, but could see nothing there....however, I heard a loud purring sound.....the sound continued for approx. 60 seconds or so.....and I could feel the "cat" nuzzling my face and neck.....then it slowly faded......the next morning, when I arrived at home, I went in expecting "Misty" to run up to me meowing and wanting to be petted and fed.....she didn't appear and I went all through the house calling her.....I finally located her on the floor in the back bedroom.....I had no idea "Misty" was ill....but she had passed away during the night and rigor mortis had already set in.....I've read that cats can read our minds....that they know where we are and when we're coming back, though they haven't "been there" with us.....and I figured that the JW's have their heads up their butts on this "life after death" issue, because as sure as God made little green apples, "Misty's" departing spirit visited me.....at work......at the time of her death....to let me know she loves me and to say goodbye.....

In light of this experience, Essie, I have to conclude that surely our own spirits survive death and perhaps return to the one that gave them a body to exist in.....to be "recycled" into another body in the near future perhaps.....which is probably why people claim to find their soulmates from one professed lifetime to another.

Hope this helps,

Hugs,

Frannie

Preston

I read your post and it made me think about a lot of things: heaven, hell, and everything that possibly comes in between. There's a part of me that believes that the concepts of what we see in the bible are pretty accurate regarding heaven and hell, but as for a heavenly universe where we fly around and glorify a heavenly father, I think its romanticized far too much than it actually is. I think we merely inhabited the world that we do right now, just at a different frequency....we can hear, smell, taste things...just in a different world than we do now...

Double Edge

I think we merely inhabited the world that we do right now, just at a different frequency....we can hear, smell, taste things...just in a different world than we do now...

Preston....

I think along the same lines.

target

Mulan

I didn't mean that everything Sylvia says cannot be believed. She does quite well, it just seems that in recent years she is slipping from time to time. The Bin Laden thing was a big one. She said he is dead. I do buy many of her books. She told in a couple of her books about how she came to know her spirit guide. Two completely different stories. She is in her 70s. It would be expected that she might be slipping.

Frannie

I have heard many stories of animals, especially cats, doing what you said. I have also heard about live cats reacting to the spirit cat.

Sylvia has said that animals do not recycle. She also maintained for 40 years that angels did not have wings. Now she has changed her mind.

So what I am saying is that it is good to see what different ones say and then go with what feels right to you. I watch Syvia whenever I get the chance because I am always open to learning. But no one is always right. Including me.

Target

Mulan

Well put. My opinion is the same.

The other thing she says that puts me off is when she tells people to pray to Jesus to tell the holy spirit something or other. What the...........?

Narkissos

Fleur,

I gave up believing in an afterlife long before I gave up believing in God.

The main question to me is, what are we? We didn't invent sunshine or rain, nor did we invent smile or tears. The words we're using were used before us and will be used after us. Yes everyone of us is a unique and temporary combination of humanity with a unique history. But we are made of all people, living or dead, who happened to give us something of themselves -- from the immediate care and love of a parent or friend to the mediate feelings of long-dead writers. We already survive ourselves in the heart and mind of people we have given something of ourselves, even when we did not notice it at all.

So my take, fwiw, is that your grandma is in the best possible place: in your heart, mind, memory, gestures, expressions... As Rabindranath Tagore once said to a mourning window: wait for a few weeks and you'll see her again. She's not left, nobody leaves if s/he was ever there.

Tashawaa

Sylvia has said that animals do not recycle. She also maintained for 40 years that angels did not have wings. Now she has changed her mind.

Jeehober is giving her "new light".

I do enjoy her writings. Take the good, leave behind the rest.

Please help me; Do you believe in an afterlife? If so, why, if not...

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