Here's a (fun? interesting? problematic? you decide) mental exercise. Consider the following:
- a human being
- a cat
- a dog
- a horse
- a cow
- a fish
- a rat
- a spider
- a honeybee
- an ant
- a mosquito
- a cockroach
- a virus
- a blood cell
- a cancer cell
- a tree
- a carrot
- a robot
- a calculator
- a rock
- a planet
Which of the above will have an afterlife? Which might? Which should, and why? Does it matter? Why or why not?
Hi Kev,
I have an update for you, after doing some preliminary research regarding your suggestion of brain activity after clinical death occurs, which I will address in another post, after responding to this post.
My Consciousness studies is one of my major ongoing studies and it's one of my most fascinating studies of all. You might as well have asked 'what is life?' On a Conscious Level alone, one could ask if a rock, a calculator, or a robot is a living entity at all? And if it's not living, then how then could it have an afterlife, if life wasn't present in the first place? (But there's way more to that story from the Christian and Quantum level viewpoints.)
Scientists can only study baryonic matter that represents only 5% of what we know exists (and that is a very small percentage of the totality when Dark Matter and Dark Energy is factored into the equation.) The true answer is no one really knows, regardless how gnostic we think we are.
Viruses are regarded as non-living entities, since they do not complete all 7 processes of life. Oddly enough, however, they do exhibit an agenda, as is demonstrated by the toxoplasma virus, a virus that infects its host via cats, turning fear into desire, deadly to rodents, which get attracted to cats. And for humans infected with it, it involves making bolder choices, which oddly enough may be why we are polyamorous (as well as being cat lovers<g>), with us making counter-intuitive moves against the monogamous tide.
The cycle starts with cats with toxo having infected feces containing the virus. Rodents...and humans, pick up the virus via the cat feces. The rodents then get switched from fearing cats into an attraction to cats, seeking them out, and so with dinner served, it repeats the cycle.
(As a note, several of us asked which character of the Matrix did they identify with the most. I saw myself as a cross between Smith and the Oracle. Oddly enough, both were of the machine world. Smith saw human beings as a virus not mammals, by behavioral traits, which raises a host of questions concerning this post. )
Cancer and blood cells are living entities, albeit not usually apart from a host that maintains its living existence. Cancer cells contain a disorder of uncontrolled growth, whereas blood cells may or may not as well.
According to Eastern theology, in a state of samsara, karma would normally dictate what state your rebirth would take, in this case, moving up or down the scale, with the consciousness of a cancer cell probably being transferred into a rock, and a functioning blood cell into a form of higher consciousness. If Jain theology (aka PETA on steroids) is correct, it would suggest our consciousness could exist in any animal form, be it cat, dog, horse, cow, fish, rat, spider, honeybee, ant, mosquito or cockroach, etc, and since we could be downgraded into them, we could naturally assume they too could have an afterlife, since it is we who could be them in a next life. Hmmm.
Carrots and trees are living entities, albeit of the plant kingdom, both suggesting an upward samsara movement to animal. However, I've often wondered if is it possible that a human being's consciousness in samsara could be transferred to a tree. And since the Bardo Thodol states that consciousness remains with the body for 49 days, if that tree is cut down and transformed into an inanimate object, say a chair, within that 49 days, is it possible that a human female may come in and sit in that chair, unknowingly sitting on your face, leaving you with unspoken thoughts of, "Why oh why, missus, couldn't you have done this when I was living as a human being?" (<g> Perhaps I should have warned you that I have a deliciously warped sense of humour.<g>)
(My three amigos triad all live separately apart, but when we do get together, I'll spring something like this in the middle of some deep thought discussion. My brother-mate is German born, and generally doesn't get the joke, much to my sister mate's and my delight, since it makes the joke that much funnier.<g>)
...Human beings<g>, the viral-mammals. My spiritual centering is Christian in thought, albeit often in a form that even most Christians wouldn't expect or know. I believe that no is lost, and that all of us will have an afterlife worth living.
St Paul suggested that we are all members of one body in Christ, like body parts all knit together as one, which generally keeps me wondering, "Just how many assholes can one body have?"
As for the planet, I see the Earth as the only living planet in the universe. If any of us should leave this planet, we would have to take everything with us we would need, including air, since we have no Planet "B". If that's the case, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or in health, we couldn't be more married to each other than we already are. We are stuck here together with each other, by some higher power that put us all here in this now, so I would rather it be better, richer, and healthier. To me it's self-evident that the Earth is one living organism with each of us married to each other and everything else. Yet there is a forecast of a new heaven and a new earth coming. So yeah, I believe there is an afterlife, even for a planet. (Have a good one guys. <g>.)