What Happens When We Die?

Contemplating life after death is probably one of the oldest questions in the history of humanity. Among the few constants in our existence is the assurance that one day it will end. When and how is for the most part a mystery, especially when you're young, but make no mistake - you're going to die.

That reality probably seems a bit grim to most people, and for good reason. I haven't spent a lot of time being dead, but I'm pretty sure being alive is a lot more fun. It is, nonetheless, a limited-time offer and when it's over, it's over. Or is it?

There are as many opinions about the afterlife as there are cultures, and into this mix we throw both religions and modern day scientific thinkers. Once upon a time, the latter would be limited to important looking people wearing white lab coats. These days, however, science is on the mind of just about everyone in one way or another. Of course, it's no secret that the intellectual crowd often holds spirituality in disdain. For their part, most religions are certain that such people will have a decidedly unpleasant afterlife.

When you come right down to it, there's no scientific evidence of life after death. Humans, like every other form of life on the planet, can be thought of as a biological machine of sorts. With proper care and maintenance it operates just fine, but eventually it's going to break down. When it stops working completely, that's the end of it. You can complain to customer service all you like, but that'll get you nowhere. All that's left is to dispose of it and make room for a new batch. We dig a hole in the ground, perform a few rituals, and that's the end of the story.

A thousand years from now, archeologists may dig up your bones and make some educated guesses about who you were and what your culture was like. If you're very lucky, they'll even put you in a museum. The one thing they won't do is try to talk to you, because from a scientific perspective it's clear that you're just a pile of bones, along with whatever swords or golf clubs you were buried with.

This raises an interesting question. Consider someone who dropped dead suddenly of natural causes, none of which were visible on the outside. If you consider the last minute before death and the first one after, the body looks exactly the same. This person could have been relaxing in an armchair. With no external signs of trauma, what's the difference between a live body and a dead one? All the parts are still there but a minute ago it was working. Now it's not. What's missing?

To the spiritually minded, what's gone is the soul. This mysterious concept is referred to in many ways but in general it can be thought of as some kind of consciousness, the life essence that operates the body. Many philosophies see life as a form of cause and effect, with the spirit being responsible for creating the body.

Scientists, on the other hand, dismiss the soul and any other such concept as being completely false. Many consider our belief systems to be little more than an internal echo chamber. No matter how strong our beliefs, they exist only in our minds, with no tangible evidence beyond our own internal experiences. We reinforce these feelings by gathering in groups, where we tell each other that what we believe is true.

Consequently, throughout history there has been great animosity between the worlds of science and religion. In many cases, this has even escalated into violence. If you've ever been at a party where philosophical creatures enjoy sitting down with a cup of coffee and contemplating the nature of the universe just for the fun of it, you might wonder why people get so passionate about this topic that they actually want to hurt each other.

It's really not that difficult to grasp. Death is scary. No matter what we believe, the end of our existence is unnerving at best. Religions have probably been around as long as humans for this one simple reason. If the thought of your demise is terrifying, you can certainly be forgiven for gathering with your friends around someone who tells you that it's all going to be okay.

This, in short, is what religion does for a living. Whether it's true or false in scientific terms is irrelevant. If people are afraid about something that they can't change and you're able to remove their fear, that provides every bit as much value as the latest technological gizmo that the scientific world gives us.

As a result, religions have been telling us what happens after death for as long as there have been people. The thing is, everyone believes. No one knows. There's a difference. In order for any spiritual leader to have scientific credibility they'd have to die, have a cocktail in the main lounge of paradise, then come back to life and prove in concrete terms it all happens exactly as they said it would. In a similar vein, you can paint as detailed a picture as you like of the afterlife, both good and bad, but you can't put it in a test tube or measure it with a computer. As always, in the eyes of science if you can't prove it, it simply doesn't exist.

This is further complicated by the fact that over the two million years that humans have been wandering around building things, countless religions have come and gone. At any moment in time, there are usually quite a few competing spiritual paths in vogue. Each is absolutely certain that they're right, and just as confident that everyone else is wrong. If you take a couple of steps back and look at it with a wide angle lens, what you see is a bunch of religions telling you that there's an afterlife. And yet, none of them can agree on what it is.

Western religions are often very binary in nature. You're born, you die and then you go to either paradise or eternal torture. One life and one afterlife per customer. Naturally, this is not the only notion of the hereafter. Other religions believe in reincarnation. As with the binary perspective your soul is immortal. However, instead of resting in a heaven or hell after death, your soul travels from lifetime to lifetime, constantly being reborn as a new person, perhaps to learn lessons and experience spiritual growth.

Just as it's difficult to invite a scientist over to your house, open a door and invite them into your afterlife, so too is it difficult to reconcile reincarnation. Perhaps the most compelling reason that many have for dismissing this concept is the fact that most people don't remember any other lifetime beyond the one they're currently navigating. Of course, there are those who do remember past lives. Depending on your personal belief system, such people are either interesting or crazy.

I've been chasing these concepts all my life. As a spiritual seeker, the hippie side of me wouldn't know how to turn off this quest even if I wanted to, and most days I'm pretty sure I don't. No one has any definitive answers, neither science nor religion, but it feels like there's more to it than meets the eye.

It seems like these mysteries are things that we're supposed to be exploring, just as the techies among us delve into the practical nature of science. I have happily sat and listened to any person who had thoughts to share about the hereafter, or any other such topic for that matter. Because I don't know with certainty what's true, I approach such conversations with an open mind, always eager to learn something new. Often I do.

Nonetheless, just as I can't stop looking for the meaning of life or the answers to death, I also can't turn off the analytical portion of my brain, because the other half of me is a professional geek. If there is only one life per customer and consequently one afterlife, why can't anyone agree on it?

Humans have been around for a couple of million years. That's a lot of people. Even so, over the course of countless generations we've continually come up with new versions of what happens after we die. And yet, no one has been able to offer any kind of proof, only that we should just trust them and have a little faith.

Earth may be a tiny place in the universe, but it's a pretty big one for a moderately sized mammal. Billions of people, who knows how many lifetimes in total even if it's just once around the block, and still nobody can offer any sort of tangible evidence that there is in fact a life after death. Wouldn't you think that something this important would make itself known in a more definitive way?

Trusting the religions that have come and gone during humanity's existence is pretty much the only option that we've had. However, the geek part of me that doesn't know when to sit down and shut up is quick to point out that from the days of ancient Druids to modern monotheistic religions, it's never the supreme beings who are telling us how things are. It's always a human, claiming to speak for the divine of course, but nonetheless just another human.

I've met a great many spiritual leaders over the years, and they tend to be really nice people. However, if there is in fact a supreme being in charge of all life on Earth, it would be much easier if it would just cut out the middleman and write the truth about the afterlife in big, bold letters across the sky. Without such a grand gesture, we're left to our own devices. Usually that ends up as science versus spirituality. My inner geek and hippie can't seem to agree on which one to believe.

So where does that leave me as I ponder what's arguably the single most unnerving question in all of humanity? I find myself in the same place that I often come to in these contemplations. I have searched my entire life for some great and exalted master who could lay it all out for me and tell me how the universe works. However, after countless conversations with many who are far more enlightened than I'm ever likely to be, I still have the same questions.

Maybe there's a way to measure the afterlife and plug it into a computer. Perhaps there's some aspect of the spirit world that a new religion will be able to show us, an eternity that we can touch and see. If that's a possibility for the future, it doesn't do me much good today.

Consequently, I'm left with the only path forward that I can find. I search, I contemplate, and I pay attention to what feels right to me. If it resonates, I stay a little longer to see if it can make it past the analytical side of my mind. If it fails to hold water for one or both halves of me, I simply move on. But I always keep looking.

Is there something beyond the physical that survives when our bodies are dead and gone? Is there a Valhalla for the fearless seekers of truth, where the brave may live forever? Is my spirit an immortal thread of consciousness that travels from lifetime to lifetime, a journey of learning and discovery that it takes joy in experiencing? Or am I just barking at the moon?