How would you imagine the afterlife of your choosing?

[SimuLord]

That's an interesting view on paganism, one very much in line with my own. I've always pictured my dying day as a sort of NFL Draft of the Gods, where the newly deceased gets a list of gods whom he has pleased during his lifetime along with a sort of scouting report/travel brochure to that god's own version of heaven. Notable friends, loved ones, celebrities, relatives, and the like who also inhabit those afterlives are listed as well to assist in the decision.

Since I keep Mercury (god of trade, travelers, and merchants) as my prime aspect, I picture his afterlife as a sort of capitalist's paradise, where Adam Smith's "perfect market" exists, full of symmetrical information, free of fraud, and conforming to accounting principles worthy of the gods.

Or Neptune, whose paradise I picture as an archipelago of beautiful islands with wonderful port towns where I could while away eternity as a victualer of the various men of the sea who came and went. Meanwhile, on the docks I'd find a cute girl granted the beauty of the prime of her life who chose Neptune's afterlife for the opportunities it provided her to spend forever creating art of the seascapes that marked her happiest days during her mortal life.

Paganism has a great many attractions as a religious choice. Not to preach, but I've found a great deal of spiritual growth and moral fortitude in my religious life.

 

[Cpu46]

Well I strictly believe what I can observe so scientifically I envision an all consuming blackness that shuts down feeling, sight, and even thought. The thought of non existence has literally driven me to tears some nights. As much solace believing in an afterlife would bring I just cant do it.

However I entertained an odd afterlife fantasy when I was a kid, just after my grandma died and I had to actually think about death. It centered around a Matrix like system where our bodies are actually in suspended animation (cryostasis or whatever) while our minds run through life programs. Everyone we know is not real but instead based off of people that are also in stasis. When we die our minds just load up a new program and run it. Of course that begs the question what happened when the actual body died which is why I kinda dumped this thought, although now that I remember it I may try and adapt it into a story somehow.

 

[KindOfnElf]

It's (would be) quiet. And I would feel calm. And it would be just nice if it looks like Lothlórien. That would be more than enough.

On a more serious note... I'd rest for a while among my fellow souls, hug with God for a while, and then make plans for my next life.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Hmm. Odin...

You know, if you were a warrior who died in a glorious battle, you were supposed to go to Odin.

However, if you died protecting others, then you went to the goddess Freyja... XD

In any event, this reminds me of the ideas of Deepak Chopra, who basically thinks that the afterlife you get is whatever you expect to get.

If you think you're going to go to heaven, you will.
If you think you're going to hell, you will.

If you think there's no afterlife, you won't have one...

And if you're confused, and uncertain about it, what happens after death will be equally confused, and inconsistent.

That's actually quite a scary thought though, because it turns belief on it's head.

You get exactly what you expect to get.
Heaven and hell aren't based on what you did while you were alive, but entirely on what you believe about your own actions.

Not to mention that if you're an athiest, you'll prove your own point by getting no afterlife.
Not because there isn't one, but because the afterlife is based on what you believe it to be, and athiests don't believe there is one at all.

But as to what I'd like to see, personally, I don't really know.
I like being able to shape my own reality as I see fit, but when all of reality can bend to your whims, you would probably get bored pretty quickly...

 

[Terminate421]

Heaven for me.....hm......

I have my basement, an Xbox360 with access to all of my favorite games when ever I want them. I have a fridge with unlimited cold cokes
I have either:
A. A pet Penguin
B. A pet Pokemon (Empoleon)

I have Xbox live and I can play online (Real online, if I win every time than it sucks)
A copy of the latest pokemon game and a DS with my dream team
My loving family up stairs who I can go see when ever I want.
A lovely wife as well.

Perfect or Ferpect?

 

[angryscotsman93]

@CrystalShadow: Okay, but what if I die in a glorious battle WHILE protecting others? Would Odin overrule Freyja, or vice versa?

...Then again, working for Freyja wouldn't be too bad.

 

[PiotrSkut]

If there was an afterlife like the Christian heaven, it would be such an incredibly boring and terribly depressing place to be. You can always have too much of a good thing, after all. And knowing humans, we would all miss free will far too much to just give it up so easily, even if it is for 'everlasting peace'. I do not want to give up life for all its many pleasures and vices alike just for the sake of a 'heaven' or 'other afterlife'. You cannot know joy without suffering.

The place you're describing wouldn't be heaven then. Heaven, by it's very definition, can't be "boring" or "depressing."

And the reason we can't know (temporary) joy now without suffering is because of your current fallen state of existence, and the boundaries you have to work within in the material world.

The rules you know on earth don't apply in the afterlife.

And anyone who seriously thinks heaven is supposed to be just "clouds" is an idiot. The only reason people portray heaven that way is because you can't describe the indescribable.

 

[InnerRebellion]

My Heaven would be the Fallout 3 world....but I can't die, and I have unlimited AP, and I'm level 30, max stats and S.P.E.C.I.A.L with all perks....and a laser rifle and Tesla Armor.

Yay 1000th post! Woohoo.

 

[BelmontClan]

One version: A bookstore wherein I can read all I want and have a hot chocolate and tasty sammich on hand when I feel like it.

Another version: When you get to heaven, you'll get to meet so many people from all walks of life. You exchange stories with each other, wherein you would experience that person's life as it happened, from beginning to end.

 

[Ask]

I don's subscribe to any religion, or any title. I'm just a normal person who happens to have an idea of what I'd rather have happen after I die. I don't believe it will because there's no logic really to support the idea, its just a nice thought.

If I could choose an afterlife, I'd choose to be a being without a body, existing as energy with a mind of its own kind of thing. And I'd go all around the world looking at all the things I had questions about, and then move on from the world into space and probably linger around out there for a long time. That would be fun and I could answer a lot of my own questions about how things work.

Like I said, its a nice thought but probably not what's going to happen to me after I die. Seeing as how I don't have the answers I won't try to venture an overcomplicated guess. XD

 

[joshuaayt]

Well, my personal, uhm, religion, likes to believe that you yourself become as a god upon death. Probably of your own universe- I doubt having multiple gods in a single plane would turn out well for us squishies.
And, hell, why not? It would explain a lot- if we came about because some fallible mortal being died, and willed it, then many of the poor, seemingly erroneous aspects of humanity would make sense.
'Course, it doesn't explain more than "Shit happened due to complex nature of atomic bonding", which is the belief I subscribe to when not daydreaming.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I don't know. I kind of believe our afterlife is really just whatever we want it to be. I think if you believe in the Christian-style Heaven, that's where you go. If you believe in Valhalla, that's where you go. If you believe in nothingness, well, nothing happens. The afterlife is just one of those things I doubt human science will ever be able to truly explain.

 

[TheDoctor455]

I wouldn't. I don't buy into any of this "spiritual" kind of stuff.

 

[angryscotsman93]

I wouldn't. I don't buy into any of this "spiritual" kind of stuff.

Well, lucky for you I didn't mean for this to be a serious theological discussion. Seriously, man, I just thought, "Hey, what kind of afterlife would be totally fucking awesome?" It's kind of what WOULD be cool, not what you personally believe WILL happen.

 

[TheDoctor455]

I wouldn't. I don't buy into any of this "spiritual" kind of stuff.

Well, lucky for you I didn't mean for this to be a serious theological discussion. Seriously, man, I just thought, "Hey, what kind of afterlife would be totally fucking awesome?" It's kind of what WOULD be cool, not what you personally believe WILL happen.

Woah... calm down...

I wasn't trying to be an asshole or piss anyone off.

I just honestly would not want to imagine an afterlife because of my own personal lack of belief.

So instead... my ultimate vacation would involve England, the Portal Gun, and a nice girl.

 

[Iron Lightning]

I imagine the afterlife to be like a videogame; in that it is an experience crafted by a benevolent external intelligence for my enjoyment.

 

[X10J]

Anyone here see What Dreams May Come? Yea pretty much that. For those who haven't its pretty much forge mode

 

[Dark Knifer]

Idealy, reincarnate into another human being so I'd get another shot at life, even if I don't remember my current one.

 

[CouchCommando]

I kinda like the idea of a lounge like a departure lounge, where you get to meet other people you interacted with in your life and maybe even previous lives, then you get to select your next subject to be born as and go through another life experience again.

 

[rosemystica]

I'd personally like to be a friendly ghost after I die. XD