I thought I might just as well open some kind of philosophical topic ;)

I want to hear your opinions to that matter and your real, personal opinions, not what your religion makes you believe (if however you really believe in the afterlife thing of your religion, you can state that, too)

My theorie:
There's no thing like heaven or hell. When we die, the vessel of our soul, the brain, can't contain the soul anymore, which then escapes, like gas coming out of a broken pipe. It then goes to some kind of "nexus", a big "ball" of souls and waits for a new vessel to be free (a newborn child). So, it's basically some kind of rebirth. You however won't become something else, according to your "karma". You must think of the soul as some kind of lifeform, that can't think. The humans are vehicles for these lifeforms, the brain is the cockpit and computer central. The soul can't think for itself, which does the brain, but the soul controls the brain, thus creating some kind of personality. So, no matter how often you die, or what you did in your last life, you will always be the same person. Just a different body and erased memorys (just like when buying a new computer. It's "empty", too, at first).

This theorie may have some holes, but that's pretty much what I believe in.

I just believe we cease to exist, spiritually. Our neuron paths shut down, and without the ability to execute thought, we halt everything.

Of course, we're hardwired for self preservation, thus the belief in the afterlife. Heaven and Hell are sets of neurons, man.

I don't picture afterlife as the religions do (like heaven), all of it is very human and made up by humans. My personal view is that you go to a place where all your questions are answered. You can review your life if you want :D . From there you can chose whether you want to live again or remain there for some time and ask more questions. If you chose to live, you are randomly put into a child and life starts again.

The soul is, however, a very abstract thing and made up by humans. It was created by very religious people who judged eachother on their own ethics and values. The afterlife is something which I think is very 'inhuman', so all the punishments and judgments won't occur. That is the main reason why I'm not religious.

Think of it as many dimensions. Everything that exists in the physical world exists at the same time in one of these dimensions, too. So if our "life" here ends, our consciousness is pulled in some kind of "interdimensional" tunnel that isn't visible or detectable or to be found with our limited physical senses. Through that tunnel we reach then an other dimension where we exist just like we do here on Earth or some other place in the physical universe, but in lighter, less physical body. Every dimension above ours is a lighter, more spiritual one. There may be also dimensions that are even more physical than ours...

Woah! Finally a thread for me :D

Well, my imagination is endless at this point. I think life is a mission. I partially agree with Scatty, our "soul" normally exist on a non-physical plane living in somekinda society. At each rebirth you are given(or choose) a mission to be fulfilled in your "life" on earth. For example you can born a poor child in africa than you struggle for your life, if you succeed, you get respect on the soul-plane, you can of course choose easy life(rich parents, good lookin etc) but you won't be respected if you do that...

Some people say everybody is on earth ON PURPOSE. Like everybody has a mission. I think it might look like this. After your life ends, you go back to the soul-plane to review your archivements, goods and bads. Then if you wish you can start another "mission" and live again. Of course you won't remeber the soul plane or your mission, you will just have an instinct to do stuff randomly but that is you mission nontheless. After you die, you get back your memories as well, so you can summarise your efforts. This works like kredits I think, so if one life you struggled like hell to even survive, you are revarded an easier life for next time. OF course the "boss" decides who gets what. I think there might be somekinda superior power on the soul-plane too, a higher being or somekinda "senate" or something that judges your deeds each time you get back and reward you accordingly...

And of course you can be anything not just human :D If you want to you can become an elephant or ant, or even a amoeba :D it all depends on your archivements :ok:

Sssso... whaddya think?

Although there is some disagreeing in your view, I must say it is a nice one.
But then we can wonder: what is succes? For Western people, it might be having a car, a healthy and most of all wealthy life and family. African people have succes by surviving.
We can conclude that your goal is set and formed by the society around you, thus it cannot be chosen on spiritual levels, where you are not yet born.

We can ask ourselves: what is happiness? How is it formed? How does it differ per culture? Is it truly happiness? Do every cultures have a similar goal, to become happy? How does this all relate to spiritual grounds?

It is different for everybody I think, I mean happiness, the mission you gotta fulfill. Remember the soul-plane is not a phisical one, it exists outside time and space. You can see EVERYTHING from there, everything that cannot be percived with your current means.

You can see the society, the people one-by-one you can see everything from there, but the hard thing is that you loose all your memories when you are born so you won't know what you have seen "out there". I hope you know what I mean... :unsure:

Happiness is something that is different in every case. Happiness could be to gather lotsa cash, or just have a cup of tea with you beloved one... or just see the world for a second (remeber the terrible child deaths :( ) I think I summarised it all...

I know what you mean.

In your text, you gave two examples of happiness:
- the man who became happy with a lot of cash
- the couple which became happy by being together
These are of course different things, but the ultimate end-goal is the same: to become happy. It only matters how you become happy, and that is, according to me, individualism.

If we have agreed on that everyone's ultimate goal is to become happy, no matter how, we can discuss your theory even further.

Do you think that becoming happy is easier in some parts of the world?
Is it more easy to survive in Africa than getting loads of cash in the 'civilized' world?
Will Africans seek new ways to become happy after they have established their survival? After all, we are continuously striving for happiness, so we are never satisfied.
When you die, in your theory, you go 'up' and review your life and discuss the good parts and the bad parts. It is of course not fair if we can become happy more easily than other peoples.

As man one's said:
"Human is a living computer, with the mind of soul"
-Gufu

One word: ReInCaRnAtIoN