Hi I was wondering that since I read so much about belief playing a role in the afterlife, what would happen in a hypothetical situation where a whole planet's beings (it could be earth!) were all materialists who didn't believe in an afterlife. Would they all 'believe' themselves into a state of perpetual sleep after they die. What if nothing if the physical universe conceived that there might be life after death because of mind conditioning by the materialist debunkers?

I'm glad this is only a hypothetical question but it begs to be asked because if consciousness creates reality and focus levels as I've read on this site, then there is a danger it could also self destruct by creating a materialist reality with no afterlife belief. Don't get me wrong I am not too worried, it seems as though we are in a spiritual awakening but I get concerned about the popularity of believers in nothingness in some of the circles I mix in.

What do you think?  ;)

If consciousness persists after shedding the physical body, it persists.  This part does not require belief.  Either we, as individuals have an awareness which is independent of the physical body, or we don't.

Our beliefs are important, but they do not seem to change the universal or divine laws.  What beliefs do is create either the freedom to explore and evolve, or barriers that do not allow us to see beyond a certain point.  I can't imagine a scenario where a planet of sentient beings would so disavow the possibility of an afterlife that the entire experience would be a hell or eternal sleep.  When opinions are taken, it is often found that many people inherently believe that there is something more after death.  This is not necessarily based on education or religion.  

The principles of unity, love and grace exist, both in the physical and nonphyscial realms, whether we acknowledge them or not.  If we deny them, we distance ourselves from God, and create our own blocks and self-imposed hells.  When considering an entire population or planet, it seems that there must be good people familiar with these divine laws who therefore would not be constrained by hindering beliefs in an afterlife.

The major reason I believe your hypothetical scenario could not work is that the main shock of still existing or being alive after death, and seeing or feeling a light love (as is present in numerous NDEs), would immediately burn away any preconceived materialist notions about materialism or the afterlife.


Matthew

I basically agree with you except that I've heard and read about channeled information that people who believe, i.e. catholics that when we die we are in a state of perpetual sleep until Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead and they create that state of perpetual sleep for themselves because they so strongly believed in it. The consciousness is ever present but the choice to ignore awareness of one's existence could equate to a state of self induced nothingness possibly?

Of course I'm not a materialist or a religious person who believes in resurrection rather than immediate crossing over so I wouldn't have this problem but other people I know do believe these things and I would like to somehow open their minds to prevent them from being in such a state. It would be sad if I couldn't talk to someone I knew in the afterlife because they were in a state of sleep.

NDE research has shown that skeptics and believers alike are just as likely to have a life-changing NDE.  As I've mentioned on another thread, even atheists often encounter a radiant Christ, despite the fact that they expect only the extinguishing of their consciousness.

Don

Greetings,

I noticed that in your comments about the materialists, you never said they expect to be in a coma, they said they'd be just sleeping. Choosing sleep over a coma is an act of faith that one will awake or being awakened. So their consciousness is working even in their denial of it.  ;)

Sleep is for resting but also for dreaming.  I believe that they would eventually dream, if not awakened first by a more conscious spirit, and that their dreams would spark their curiosity enough to wake them up to see what was going on. Consciousness is everlasting, to paraphrase what's been said.  :)

Betson

hi all.  Doc said: The principles of unity, love and grace exist, both in the physical and nonphyscial realms, whether we acknowledge them or not.  If we deny them, we distance ourselves from God, and create our own blocks and self-imposed hells.  When considering an entire population or planet, it seems that there must be good people familiar with these divine laws who therefore would not be constrained by hindering beliefs in an afterlife.
_____

I was just reading something this morn a friend sent regarding how we are just as creative in denial as we are in affirming.

this goes along with what I read in Bruce's books about doubts produce further doubt circumstances..as I think so shall I be..so we can agree we are very creative to focus on as Don said in another post, the things of god. that yearning for god is deep inside every individual (my belief) whether they are conscious of it or not. god is our completion. would that we could bring to god upon death, a work of art; ourselves.
however, we help each other in this task.

Grace is a really good concept for meditation. I had an NDE and I had to surrender to grace as there was nothing else to do but give it up. thats the same to me as giving up objective consciousness (desires, curiosity, plans, etc. whatever it means to have an objective where something needs to be done)
Curiosly, I now have a different take on life because of the NDE. At the moment I surrendered, precisely to be more clear, nothing mattered anymore and I was like "poof." now you see it, now you don't.  It was at the moment of surrender grace took me into a speed up zone, a thrilling ride, simply because I had given up knowing what to do or where to go, etc. Grace to me is an attribute of God. Grace is found in what was called the Holy Spirit. If u think of what holy means, I had a problem there, so I subsituted the word Holy for the word Whole. I was then whole, submerged into god for just long enough that I became grateful I had any life whatsoever.
no life is a waste to me. each person looks like a movie star after realizing that we can surrender to god, to wholeness, to grace that holds its hands out and says all u have to do is ask, I've been standing here knocking on your door said J for centuries, all u have to do is open it and let me in.


love you guys, alysia

Hi Never-

Interesting question!

In doing past life regressions with people who have little present time faith in their spirituality it is common to find that they have had numerous lifetimes that seem to have had no inter-life events at all. As an example, a young woman reported being with a nomadic Asian tribe, possibly Mongol. At the time of her death she said, "I went into a field of flowers." I always thought that this was a rather nice image.

Many others seem to simply die at point P1 and time T1 and then transition to point P2 and time T2 wth essentially no intervening awareness. In a few cases, when questioned specifically, some of these individuals had recollections of some kind of intermediate state. Others did not.

My interpretation of these data are that those of us who have no spiritual awareness tend to have no spiritual experiences. Those at the other end of the spectrum who have no karma to remedy and who are familiar with meditation and samadhi seem to merge into God to some degree. The rest of us evidently fall in between, joining into the "Cosmic Consciousness" (God if you prefer) to whatever degree our limitations permit.

Now that you have asked about this, my suggestion is that you poke about a bit for yourself. My web site gives HowTo information for doing past life regressions - they're very easy. I use hypnosis, just enough to create relaxation of the conscous babbling of the mind. Very simple. You could see what kind of results you observe for yourself and draw a more authoritative conclusion than one based on the opinion of others.

dave