ProudCatDad
New
Hi, all,
The afterlife is fascinating to me. I believe that Bryan Ehlmann proposes a model here that merges the various lines of evidence quite nicely:
https://philarchive.org/archive/EHLTTO
A more user-friendly summary here:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Perhaps-Heaven-Is-in-Our-Never-Ending-Dream-and-Natural-Afterlife
My take?
Consider the overwhelming evidence of NDEs. Experiencers all seem to say the same thing, which is "It felt realer than real," as though they were in an entirely new reality.
Reality is, of course, a construct of one's mind. My reality right now is my small bungalow....four walls, a sofa, a television, etc. You could tell me that anything in the world outside of my bungalow is real, but my reality at this very moment is contained within my bungalow.
Thus, I am simulating a reality.
Time is also a construct. Time does not exist as a principal law or function of the universe. At the risk of sounding too "Quantum Woo," time does not exist outside of our ability to measure or observe it.
Consider the Many Worlds interpretation of the Double Slit Experiment. Also, consider Simulation Theory (Elon Musk is convinced that the chances of us not living in a simulation is billions against one).
When we "die" and enter into the new reality of the NDE, perhaps at some point our brain will finally die, the last neuron will fire across synapses (this ought to satisfy materialists). But, it does not matter: we are-- quite literally-- in a new reality of our mind's "construction" and on a different plane of consciousness. You could be "dead" right now, for all you know, and just living in a reality, simulated either by your consciousness, by a collective consciousness, or by some higher-ordered future being.
So, you will never consciously know that you have "died" while in this new reality. Ehlmann argues that you could exist within this new reality indefinitely, time being a construct of consciousness and all. But....
....we know from many NDEs that the experiencer is offered reincarnation, and also have the wealth of Jim Tucker and Ian Stevenson's research into children's past life memories. These children-- occasionally-- speak about a time "between lives," when they pick new parents or families. They are quite literally simulating a new reality, a new universe of which we all just happen to be a part.
But there are infinite universes out there, if the Many Worlds interpretation is to be believed. They may exist simultaneously to our own. They "spawn" as a function of Quantum Mechanics. They are all simulations, in a way.
This theory has been helpful to me. It has managed to align so many competing theories of the universe and consciousness and avoids much of the mess.
Just some CatDad thoughts for the day.
The afterlife is fascinating to me. I believe that Bryan Ehlmann proposes a model here that merges the various lines of evidence quite nicely:
https://philarchive.org/archive/EHLTTO
A more user-friendly summary here:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Perhaps-Heaven-Is-in-Our-Never-Ending-Dream-and-Natural-Afterlife
My take?
Consider the overwhelming evidence of NDEs. Experiencers all seem to say the same thing, which is "It felt realer than real," as though they were in an entirely new reality.
Reality is, of course, a construct of one's mind. My reality right now is my small bungalow....four walls, a sofa, a television, etc. You could tell me that anything in the world outside of my bungalow is real, but my reality at this very moment is contained within my bungalow.
Thus, I am simulating a reality.
Time is also a construct. Time does not exist as a principal law or function of the universe. At the risk of sounding too "Quantum Woo," time does not exist outside of our ability to measure or observe it.
Consider the Many Worlds interpretation of the Double Slit Experiment. Also, consider Simulation Theory (Elon Musk is convinced that the chances of us not living in a simulation is billions against one).
When we "die" and enter into the new reality of the NDE, perhaps at some point our brain will finally die, the last neuron will fire across synapses (this ought to satisfy materialists). But, it does not matter: we are-- quite literally-- in a new reality of our mind's "construction" and on a different plane of consciousness. You could be "dead" right now, for all you know, and just living in a reality, simulated either by your consciousness, by a collective consciousness, or by some higher-ordered future being.
So, you will never consciously know that you have "died" while in this new reality. Ehlmann argues that you could exist within this new reality indefinitely, time being a construct of consciousness and all. But....
....we know from many NDEs that the experiencer is offered reincarnation, and also have the wealth of Jim Tucker and Ian Stevenson's research into children's past life memories. These children-- occasionally-- speak about a time "between lives," when they pick new parents or families. They are quite literally simulating a new reality, a new universe of which we all just happen to be a part.
But there are infinite universes out there, if the Many Worlds interpretation is to be believed. They may exist simultaneously to our own. They "spawn" as a function of Quantum Mechanics. They are all simulations, in a way.
This theory has been helpful to me. It has managed to align so many competing theories of the universe and consciousness and avoids much of the mess.
Just some CatDad thoughts for the day.