What is the Point of the Aftterlife?

      

By Stephen William

What is the Point of the Afterlife? By Stephen William, author of: ”Nostradamus His Prophecy Finally Explained.” Available on Amazon Kindle now. One of the questions non-mystical people sometimes ask is, “What is the point of the Afterlife ?”. It is sometimes asked to support their view there is no Afterlife, therefore there is no mystical contact with it either. It is sometimes followed by a statement such as “Why cannot we just live our lives and then die and that’s it.” Such statements are often used to also dismiss the entire existence of a spiritual or mystical dimension to existence altogether. On the face of it, it is an interesting question . We have our physical life which is observable , with its trials and tribulations ,but also its rewards and happiness. But the concept of an Afterlife is not easily observable by most of the population and nobody ,even the most talented medium really knows what is like or is 100% sure what its true purpose is. Firstly,  the mystically inclined folk do not “invent” the Afterlife. Those of us who  are mediums produce credible contact and evidence  of passed ones for people who seek contact with their departed , did not “create” the reality of an Afterlife. Archaeological evidence  of ancient humans believing (or knowing of?)  an Afterlife stretches back tens of thousands of years. This consists of cave paintings etc. but more importantly consists of many elaborate burials complete with gifts and tools for  the departed to use in the next “life” . Nearly all  major religions have a belief in an Afterlife and most of the world’s population believe in one. Yet the Mystical which include spiritual mediums can prove the existence of an Afterlife , even though many people do not accept our evidence, however strong and  credible . Even though they cannot reasonably explain away how we obtained such evidence. So, the Afterlife is not just imaginary concept , but something which exists and is beyond our choice and control ,which cannot be dismissed purely because it disturbs some people in some way. Why does it disturb some people? Well apart from some people thinking that modern science disproves its existence whilst it does not and more interestingly cannot, it is traditionally cited as a potential form of punishment and deterrent by conventional religions. This I feel is the reason the idea of it disturbs a lot of modern people .  None of us are “saints” though, me included. Many of us have done things in our  life which we feel are completely wrong and make us feel thoroughly ashamed of ourselves. Therefore, the idea of  some form of eternal punishment is disturbing and one of the ways to deal with the prospect of that ,is to deny the Afterlife exists. Nevertheless, mystics know it exists and perhaps that knowledge helps us lead better current lives , (well some of us anyway) which does lessen the feeling of guilt as we approach our final days. No medium though can say with complete certainty that punishment in the next life  is not suffered. Yet in my experience from the departed spirits  who have led less than perfect lives I have brought forward for an enquirer, they do not seem to be in  agonising torment. They do often seem to be  seeking forgiveness for past misdeeds against the enquirer and are distressed when the living people  are reluctant to give it. Perhaps if there is punishment ,it is the feeling of a life misspent and the realisation of seemingly no way to put things right in the physical world. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for the Afterlife to exist? To reflect on what you could have done better and if possible, ask for forgiveness from those you have wronged? However, what about rewards in the Afterlife? Well, the happier spirits which come forward always seem happy they are still remembered with affection by the enquirer and their reward seems to be able to able to look over their loved and liked ones lives with pleasure if the living are happy or offer advice and guidance to them if they are not. A traditional religionist reading this may  quarrel with my suggestion there is no traditional” Hell” to scare  wrongdoers with as a deterrent? Well firstly considering the amount of evil in the world now and in the past , it does not seem to be acting as a deterrent! There are two reasons for this in my view, Firstly, as with all non-proof faith only religions there  is no proof of  the torments or the place itself. Secondly it does not seem too logical to torment people with severely cruel punishments forever now they have departed the physical world. It rights no earthly wrongs and does not cancel out the harm and damage they have caused. The concept of Hell has  reached us mainly from what would be considered as heathen sources in the ancient world . If we take the Christian religion which is my birth family’s religion and the biggest religion in world, it originates in  The Old Testament , which is also the basis of the other Abrahamic religions as well. Yet Abraham and the Hebrew people who are said to descend from him were influenced by many non-Abrahamic peoples during their Old Testament history. Abraham came from the Sumerian city of Ur according to the Bible. The Egyptians famously enslaved them, however they were also conquered and enslaved by the Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians. To be fair to the Persians ,they set them free again in the land of Canaan. They were then conquered firstly by Alexander The Great ‘s Macedonian-Greek Empire and finally the Roman Empire. Respected Biblical historians have detected influence from those heathen conqueror’s religions . Especially punishment in the Afterlife. The possibly most potent influence on the now traditional Christian viewpoint of post -life punishment is the Greek--Roman  Tartarus . It was supposed to be a place of permanent torture and fire presided over a blood- soaked heathen goddess called Tisiphone. She carried a whip to punish the unfortunates consigned there. The parallels with our modern view of Hell are striking . It is also understandable , because many of the early Christians were Greeks or Romans. Also, the early Christians who were originally Jews, had been influenced by this image of Afterlife for the evil for over two centuries of Greek-Roman occupation. However how did  any of these ancient people come to this conclusion that  cruel and constant torture were the only suitable  fate for “sinners”? In my view it is because these torments were a direct copy of the punishments of their own societies. In that period of history, long imprisonment for minor crimes was rare. It cost too much in cost of food , prison guards and building jails to house the prisoners. Instead flogging with a whip or rod, causing permanent disfigurement ,such as gouging out an eye or cutting off a hand were common. For more serious offences, execution was the punishment of choice. Yet it was mainly not quick execution. Burning alive, hanging without ensuring the death would be quick, boiling alive ,skinning alive, slowly torturing to death ,crucifixion etc.etc. were all used very often publicly by the ruling classes as a deterrent for offences we sometimes today would not even consider as offences! It is therefore easy to see how their ancient imaginations would then lead them to believe that similar lurid punishments would be used in the Afterlife. However, we can be 99.9% sure that they had no proof of such punishments after death! Yet as modern mystics we do have  evidence of the Afterlife. Now obviously no medium gets more than a glimpse of the Afterlife in the contact we have  and no living person knows exactly what the Afterlife is  like. Still, we mystics do know from gaining messages from the departed that there is not obviously physical (in a non-physical dimension!) pain being suffered by the departed. The only thing we seem to experience is regret for an imperfect life led and a desire for forgiveness if the living enquirer is one of the  people they have harmed. And perhaps that is the reason contact with the spiritual/mystical dimension is important. Humans are communal beings. We need the love, comradeship and respect of other human beings to become rounded people ourselves. We are not creatures that are raised by a mother in solitude from others of our kind and then leave our mother not to see her again, mate ,reproduce and then our offspring leave us in solitude till we die like many other animal species . Humans live in societies where love, comradeship and respect  are the oil that lubricates  the functioning of those societies unless the society is depraved, cruel and dysfunctional . Then when we pass over and  if we have withheld those  qualities from other people, we suffer the torment of regret and perhaps that is our punishment? We have regrets in our physical life , so if our personality survives into the Afterlife , the remorse will follow us there unless it can be assuaged in some way . Perhaps it remains until the wronged people give their forgiveness either this side of existence or when the wronged join them on the other side? No one can know for sure. However perhaps this possible situation demonstrates the point of the Afterlife. There is no point in a spiritual dimension existing unless humans can participate in it in some way . The Afterlife illustrates that it exists in a practical way. It demonstrates the eternity of existence and from a mystic point of view it is contactable in a practical way. Now many mystics have visions and messages from the mystical dimension from various sources such as their guides etc. Yet if they give messages from these sources to a non-mystical person even if they are extremely relevant to the receiving  person there is an always a possibility, that person will think it is just a piece of inspired philosophy that by coincidence hit the right spot . However, if the mystic says did you have a grandmother called Jane who had red hair and was half- Scottish because if so ,she wants you to call your cousin in Canada because she may need your help that would be personally relevant. If all those facts are true and your cousin did need help (and I have had very accurate detailed messages like that myself from some talented mediums) the proof of the spiritual dimension is proven by the Afterlife . The Spiritual side of life is proven by a message that cannot be “researched” by probing questions , guesswork or just sheer coincidence. The receiver of message is then convinced of the reality of a Spiritual Dimension which is proven by a recent forebear who knows their own personal history and  extended  family relatives. The point of the Afterlife is therefore  probably the continuity of human love and affection for eternity . Passed relatives , partners and friends watching over their living loved ones ,but also asking for forgiveness from the living when it is due. It is the continuity of everything that we value and believe is a virtue. It is proof of what we call Spiritual values are intertwined with our physical life that we live now . It is also an indicator that Mysticism  can provide the proof that will encourage people to live spiritual lives.  ©Stephen William International Copyright. If you wish to discuss anything contained in this or any of my other articles ,please contact me on stephenwhealing@gmail.com My book which covers modern mysticism as well as Nostradamus’s, is available at only US $ 3.45 on Amazon Kindle or FREE TO READ if you are a Kindle Unlimited member. please follow this following link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B098LS5PM7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_MBDF06G549ZKJ6XFKMCJ