Life After Death?

[qwertyportne]

When I crunch through the snow to my truck, then turn the key in the ignition and hear it roar to life, I know water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and believe the science behind the internal combustion engine. My normal, everyday mindset, in other words, isn’t skeptical of things I can verify, directly or indirectly, time after time.

Paranormal claims have always been outside that mindset—subjective rather than objective evidence and no clear way to repeat the experiment nor measure the results. I therefore tend to dismiss paranormal experiences and claims as wishful thinking, self-delusion or superstitious nonsense—sometimes all three at the same time.

There was an exception, however, and I experienced it 22 years ago when my son was murdered.

He and I and his mother had driven to the mountains to hike and run the Pacific Crest Trail. I was training for a 50km race. His mother was training for the 10 mile part of the event. Our son wasn’t doing the race, but was also a runner, and came along to be with us. We left the parking lot around 8 in the morning. His mother planned to hike for an hour or so, but I wanted to run for 3 hours. Our son was tired from a week of college exams, so he decided to run with me for 20 minutes, then return to the car and wait for us.

When he and I got to his turn-around, I gave him the keys to our car. I continued up the trail to my turn-around, then started back. When I was 2 miles from the parking lot, a very dark, ominous feeling came over me. I didn’t hear a voice but something inside me wanted to get back to my wife and son quickly. It was frightening and urgent–not something I could dismiss as just my imagination.

When I got near the parking lot, my wife was walking around calling for our son. Not loud enough for me to hear her when I had been 2 miles away, but there was an urgency in her voice. We searched the forest and the road leading up to the trail head for an hour but never found him. Exhausted, I ran down to a nearby restaurant and called the police. The search party found our son late that evening. He had been beaten to death. They never found his killer.

What I heard that morning has never been in doubt–the message was as plain as if somebody had shouted words into my ears. What I have wondered all these years is who sent the message? Was it my son? Telepathically while he was being killed? Or para-normally after he was dead? Or was it my wife communicating telepathically as she searched frantically for him?

My wife and I shared the burden of our son’s death for 17 years. Five years ago, she died, leaving me to ponder the answers to these questions on my own.

A few years later, I read a book by Thomas Sheehan in which he said: “We only know what we interpret, and cannot peek over the edge of our interpretations to see things in the raw.” For a while, I entertained the idea that perhaps para-normal experiences are peering over the edge of our sensory judgments and cognitive interpretations. So what, I thought. Even if my para-normal experience was peering over, hearing a voice without my ears, it didn’t tell me that consciousness survives death.

I still don’t know, but arguments for life after death continue to attract me in a self-indulgent way. Who wouldn’t want to believe they will be with their loved ones again in some cosmic consciousness, collective or otherwise?

Will I never know? Never is a long time—longer than forever, which is only now.

--Bill

[aquablue]

When you ask "Who wouldn’t want to believe they will be with their loved ones again in some cosmic consciousness, collective or otherwise? "
Why not just believe it!!
You have had to live with a lot of heartache.
It would be good if you could get some grief counseling though. It may help you
to live in the here now. You are still here for a reason. You may not know why but you will someday.
Why not believe what comforts you, that you will see loved ones once again someday in some form. It may very well
be true!

[little missy]

Hi, I am very sorry to hear about what has happened to your son.

I believe all families have a shared psychic connection between their members and also after death.
I see life and death this way - I am an energy using a physical body to learn the lessons set out for me in this lifetime. When I die my energy goes back to cosmic conscience central where we/they all congregate.
Some of us are here for a long time and some a short time but we all eventually meet up again in the hereafter.
I have read a lot of books by different authors on life after death and they all have the same reasoning and information so there must be something in it.

[Acting Like Godot]

Umm.

Don't ask me to write a long essay to explain this, ok.

But i'm quite confident of the following:

1. Yes there is life after death

2. No it was not your son communicating with you while he was being attacked

3. No it was not your son communicating with you after he died

4. Most likely it was not your wife communicating with you either

5. In this case it was you yourself detecting the event

[qwertyportne]

Thanks for the replies.

Aqua, my post was about curiosity driven by skepticism, not living in the past driven by grief. Here and now is a wonderful place to live, hence my remark about the present moment being forever. I believe all sorts of things, but not without evidence and certainly not to make me feel good--that's morally as inappropriate as not being concerned about how I make my money as long as I have it.

Missy, thanks. He was a good guy and I miss him very much. Ditto for his mother. They both keep me open to the possibility that there is something to it. Your comment reminds me that now is the time to be connected. It's always now, so it's always time.

Godot, no explanation necessary, long or short. Words are just handles to carry the idea of something from one person to another--not the thing itself. But sometimes they carry quite a bit. Thanks for yours. That is one possibility that never occurred to me. I will look further into it.

--Bill