Rewriting the instructions, postmortem

In a previous post I speculated that the ultimate nature of reality is information, analogous to a set of instructions, and that in certain cases our own consciousness can rewrite these instructions and change reality. I'm not insisting this hypothesis is true; I'm just throwing it out there for consideration. And if there is any truth to it, then it ought to remain true even after our consciousness is separated from its physical vessel.

In this respect, it's interesting to look at a couple of quotes from a recent interview with Deepak Chopra, touting his new book Life after Death. I haven't read this book yet, although I intend to. I'm a little put off by the hype around it, specifically the claim that it is "the first major book on the afterlife to be published in decades." This is not true; such recent books as Is There an Afterlife? by David Fontana and Immortal Remains by Stephen E. Braude are very important additions to the literature on this subject, and there are many others. But I suppose Chopra is not responsible for his publisher's promotional schemes.

In any case, his remarks in the interview are directly relevant to our subject.

Q: What, in a nutshell, do you think happens after we die?

A: We return to our state of potentiality ... Our imagination creates our "here and now" while we are alive, and it can project a reality of our consciousness in all other realms, too ... All the mental abilities we use to create things in our life continue after death and in fact become more powerful. Whether we are in this domain or any other, we are in the same state of spiritual consciousness....

Q: Do you believe in reincarnation?

A: Reincarnation is one scenario. Everything the human mind can imagine is also a scenario. Rumi (a mystical poet) says, "When I die I shall soar with angels, and when I die to angels, what I shall become, you cannot imagine." Any imaginative realm that you can imagine exists in projective reality.

Consider the variety of afterlife scenarios that have been posited throughout the ages. Is it possible that all of these "scenarios," to use Chopra's word, actually can and do take place? Well, it is possible if we ourselves are writing or rewriting the instructions that give rise to these scenarios.

Here are some examples:

In his book 90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper, a born-again Christian, describes a near-death experience in which he found himself in a quintessentially Christian heaven, replete with pearly gates and choirs of angels.

In What They Saw ... at the Hour of Death, researchers Karlis Osis and Erlandur Haraldsson point out that American Christians on their deathbeds often have visions of angels or Jesus, while Hindus in India typically see Hindu deities.

Reincarnation studies, such as those carried out by Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia, have shown that in cultures where people expect to be instantly reincarnated with no interval between lives, young children remember a past life that follows this pattern. But in cultures where it is presumed that an interval of some years passes between lives, children will report spending the appropriate amount of time in a heavenly realm.

In cultures where reincarnation within a family is considered the norm, such cases are typically reported. In cultures where reincarnation outside the family is considered normal, cases like that are reported.

In cultures where birthmarks are expected to reflect wounds or illnesses suffered in a previous life, many more such birthmarks are found.

The point is that our expectations seem to play a considerable role in determining our after-death experience. If we expect to find ourselves at the pearly gates, we may find ourselves there. If we expect to see Jesus, we may see him. If we expect to see a different deity, we may see him or her instead. If we expect to be reincarnated at once, we will be. If we expect to have an interval of rest and recuperation before our next earthly incarnation, then that is how things will work out. If we expect to carry birthmarks into our next life that reflect our previous existence, we will. And so on.

This is not to say that our expectations are all-powerful; if a suicide bomber expects to go to paradise, he may be disappointed, if only because the expectations of his victims regarding their killer's fate are quite different. But within limits, our own consciousness may have the ability to map out the blueprint for our experience.

All of this may sound chaotic, with a different path for every soul. But why would we expect the process to be neat and simple?

Besides, the ultimate reality is neat and simple. Consciousness (whether our own or the combined consciousnessness of many individuals) writes or rewrites the instructions that give rise to all experience, both on earth and in heaven. The many apparent contradictions among afterlife accounts simply reflect the variety of experiences that are possible, given the variety of assumptions that souls carry with them.

And if the ultimate purpose of all this incarnating (and reincarnating) is to have the widest possible variety of experiences, then why wouldn't there be a variety of experiences after life, as well as during life?

Again, I'm not insisting any of this is true. There is no way to prove it. I'm just putting it out there as food for thought. And if my speculation has any validity, then it might be worth asking yourself what kind of afterlife experience you want and expect to have.

Just be careful what you wish for -- you may get it!

Comments

[Tom]

i wonder then, what would an atheist see?

as for statement about the suicide bomber, are you saying that not only that the individual's expectation plays a role, but also the group of consciousnesses that are involved (in this case, the victims)?

why not the group the suicide bombers belong to? since they all believe in paradise afterward, shouldnt the bomber go to heaven due to the group's expectation?

shouldnt there be a governing force, like karma, that guides the afterlife experience?

perhaps, a person can create his/her own reality in afterlife, but is somehow constrained by the effects of his/her action from previous lifetime(s). If a suicide bomber's action caused pain and suffering to many people, that negative energy would attach to that person, preventing the bomber from realizing his/her reality.

i guess we'll never know the truth about such thing, but given the assumption that reincarnation is true, both buddhism and hindium assert that karma plays an integral role in the next incarnations or more.

on the other hand, if a person geniunely believes he'll go to heaven, would he really go to heaven just because he believes it disregarding of his actions in life? sounds unfair, doesnt it?

[Kirby]

I think that karma does play a large role in determining the location of the next incarnation. Karma is intentional actions that create, for lack of a better word, habits. Intentional actions shape who we are.

I think we are reincarnated in a place similar to the mind. The similarity can come from belief or in the moral status of a mind.

For example, a Christian man that believes he will go to heaven but has led a life of cruelty will probably end up in a Christian hell. If, instead, he led a life of compassion he may end up in a Christian heaven.

I have speculated that an atheist, formerly religious, would go to a realm of their former religious beliefs. Or they may be incarnated back on Earth.

[Art]

I believe this earth life is a school and we are here to learn just a few simple lessons. We are here to experience duality and separation, time and space, and encode memory engrams on our soul of what it's like to inhabit a physical body. By experiencing duality and separation our soul learns what it means and how it feels to be a separate, unique, individual, something that may be very difficult or impossible in heaven due to the overwhelming feelings of oneness and connectedness on the other side. Life seems to be a never ending lesson in experiencing separation. The death of someone we love is the ultimate lesson in separation, nothing else comes close. We may never be allowed to know absolutely for certain that there is life after death because it would weaken those feelings of aloneness we feel when we lose someone we love. If we knew absolutely for certain that one day we were going to be reunited with our loved ones, we might not mourn their loss quite as much. - Art

[Gary]

Imagine a civilization so advanced that virtually everything is known about the working of reality. There is no more need to pursue science, and like the idle rich in our society, they would have little more meaning in their lives beyond the meaning they created for themselves through art and elaborate social games. These games might award points for knowing which fork to use or deduct points for wearing last year's gown. Whatever their form, these games are inherently meaningless.

Likewise, they might take up "role playing" games, just as we have. Unlike our own Everquest and Worlds of Warcraft, however, their technology is so advanced that they enter into the game and, for all practical purposes, BECOME some mythical creature called "human being". Of course complete immersion in the game requires that we forget who we really are while we are in game. A few may still have vague recollections of what they did between rounds in the "after life", but for the most part we'd rather not spoil the game by remembering.

As for "higher purpose", there is none. The game is essentially meaningless. But is sure is a lot of fun!

[Art]

Life is a never ending lesson in separation. From the moment we are born, when we separate from our mothers till the day we die, where death is the ultimate lesson in separation to those we leave behind, life is all about separation. Every time we go to the bathroom we experience separation, pick a tomato, or a grape off a vine, separation is the theme to the lyrics of most songs, movies, books, and plays. Friends move away, we grow up and leave home, everything in life is about experiencing separation. Religion, politics, race, language, wealth, gender, sexual orientation, looks, education, just about anything you name causes us to experience separation. Why? I think it teaches our souls what it means to be separate, individuals, which is something that can't be learned in heaven due to it's holographic nature. "I suddenly just relaxed completely and allowed "myself" to dissolve (?) open up (?) merge (?) into the "oneness" that surrounded me." - excerpt from Mark Horton's NDE http://www.mindspring.com/~scottr/nde/markh.html

[drew hempel]

Yeah there's the blockage that "consciousness" is somehow an image or light or something. Information is different than consciousness because information is defined by language or math, etc.

Consciousness is its OWN "thing" -- or "substance" as Gurdjieff stated -- the "objective consciousness" that is turiya, the 4th state of awareness.

So an atheist would just return to "consciousness" as do all "spirits."

This is the teaching of Advaita Vedanta practiced by jnana yoga, considered the deepest philosophy of India.

Read "Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi" So even an arch-angel has an "I" experience of heaven. From where does that "I" come from?

The same "consciousness" that is the logical inferential substrate for the information that we use to create left-brain, right-hand civilization.

[Art]

Our soul experiences and learns holistically what it is it's supposed to learn whether it wants to or not. The education of our soul is embedded in our lives. The physical universe is designed to where we experience duality and separation, time and space, and encode the parameters of what it's like to be inside a physical body, whether we want it to or not. And Yes, I believe that God is that smart.

[drew hempel]

Here check out my new article on the topic!
http://www.mind-energy.net/archives/151-The-Secret-of-Psychic-Music-Healing.html

[Ulysses]

"Is There an Afterlife?" by David Fontana and "The Afterlife Experiments : Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death" by Gary Schwartz are excellent book about the afterlife evidence.

[Trevor]

Robert Monroe the pioneer in out of body projection wrote about this in his 3 volumes on his out of body experiences. He found that people who believe in heaven usually end up in a heaven much like they imagine. But after a while (a long, long while) they begin to realise that this is self created and move on to the next phase of their existence. Usually people who have the same belief systems inhabit the same afterlife "colonies" but they grow out of them eventually.

Trevor