How does memory follow you to heaven/hell/afterlife?

Question

This is a follow up question. Memory is a physical phenomenon of the brain. In simplistic terms it is an arrangement of synapses between nerves. If the synapse is lost then so is the memory. If the nerve dies so do all memories that involved that nerve. Strokes, aneurisms, head trauma, surgery, disease, and cancer can all kill nerve cells and damage part of the brain. Death kills the entire brain.

There is even a cluster of cells located on the side of you cerebrum refered to as grandmother cells. If these cells are damaged you will never recognize another face in your entire life. Not even your own face.

If the soul is seperate from the physical being, and memory is a function of the physical being, then how can memory follow you to the afterlife?

original question

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060811182013AAasMLb

Answer 1

I guess we will find out when we pass on...

Answer 2

I would personally wish that I am only the body, and nothing would survive my death. Enough is enough!
The question of whether mind survives physical death has always been debated, and is the subject of enormous amount of research. As far as I have read the research work done so far, there does exist proof that memory survives death. This is from several cases of so called `child prodigies' where children (upto the age of 5) talk different languages, and talk of their previous parents and life partners. Several such cases have been investigated scientifically by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-sciences in India, and it has been observed by the investigators that all the so called prattle of the children are true. Most of such children, in their previous lives, claim to have died unnatural deaths, which have been verified from the police records and found to be true. In fact the injuries they sustained have been seen in the present physical bodies as birth marks. Hence there is no way to disprove the theory of after-life.
My own feeling is that the brain is like a radio transmitter, and even after the radio has vanished, the music that it sent into the air does stay in the air like radio waves, howsoever feeble. All thoughts are nucleated around the individuality, forming collectively what is called the individual memory, just as the radio station is charaterised by its own wave-length, and its music is loaded in the base wave-length. And when the individuality takes a new body, the memories stay in the sub-conscious of the new life. I see children grow. Even though they learn the language from the parents, mant times I wonder how they get all those facial expressions, gesticulations, which are not taught by anyone, and which are not even characteristic of any of the parents. These seem to have come from previous memories.

Answer 3

There surely is a physical process and physical matter involved for the body to store and retain memories. What though is actually retained? Do we know for sure that, just like the physical body is a container for the spirit, the physical memory cells in the brain are but containers of something that follows with our spirit upon death? I can't imagine all memories following as there would be many bad memories as well as good. There are also places in scripture that indicates that people who have died can recognize others, in heaven and on the other side. Like many thing spiritual everything can't be explained and a lot has to be taken upon faith. I feel that God will allow the spirit to retain some measure or method of intelligence and memories but to the exact nature or amount of those memories or thoughts I can't or wouldn't want to guess about. Comfort yourself though in the knowledge that if the physical body contains a spirit then the physical memory can just as well contain spritual memories and thoughts of the spirit.

Answer 4

Good question. The simple answer, of course, is that as far as we know, there is no afterlife. There isn't any reason to believe that your memory WILL survive the death of the cells that constitute that memory. Since the "mind" is the brain, and the brain stops functioning at death, it's pretty clear that your mind - memory, consciousness, etc. - will cease to exist at your death.

Now, if there WERE an afterlife, and memory persisted into that afterlife, the role of the neuron firings that make up your memories would have to somehow be taken up by something else. Needless to say, no-one knows how that could be, what that "something else" might be, or anything at all about this.

It's best to assume that in fact there isn't any consciousness after death.

Answer 5

I believe that memory is like vision-- has both a biological and a spiritual basis.

Right now, I'm alive- I can see with my physical eyes and my memory is stored physically in my brain.

When I die, my body and spirit will be separated. I will still be able to percive things visually, and I will remember things from my life.

I don't know how it's done, but I believe our memories are also stored spiritually (Maybe I'll have to take Spiritual Biology 101 when I die..).. like back-up files?

I believe memories, knowledge, relationships are some of the (VERY) few things we CAN take with us when we die.

Answer 6

I don't know if by default it does or it does not. But I sure would like to have my memory completely intact. If do get into heaven it would not be a problem. Just ask for it.

41:32 "Therein you shall have (all) that your inner-selves desire, and therein you shall have (all) for which you ask for."

But how do you know if the above is the word of God or not. A very logically convincing article is

http://www.muhammad.net/quran/amazingQuran.htm

If you try you might find an even better article.

Answer 7

Yes the memory of the physical bodies dies with the brain. But the soul which is eternal retains the memories of its life in this physical world. and retains it for eternity.

Answer 8

Memory and sensation are aspects of Mind not Brain.

Memory is mediated (while we are on earth in our physical bodies) by synapses and nerve-paths/states.

When we die, such mediation is stopped.

There is evidence that mind/soul can exist separate from physical body (although the evidence is not accepted by all individuals). In such a case, of existence of mind apart from physical body, the mechanism of memory would be different from the current mechanism that is mediated by synapses and nerve-paths/states.

Cordially,
John

Answer 9

That's why there is no afterlife, because the shitt doesn't make sense! I love how if something in life makes no sense at all it is immediately dismissed, but when it comes to things like the after life, heaven and the mind like your question, people have no problem closing their common sense and believing it anyway! Cracks me up.

Answer 10

you are talking physical
what about the spiritual?

You are Mind, Will & Emotions

The BRAIN is physical
You were designed to also be a spiritual being, designed to live for eternity. The BRAIN only controls you physically. When the physical is gone, you will still exist. Don't listen to people that tell you otherwise.

Pray and listen to God.

Answer 11

I have no memory of where I was prior to my birth. It is not impossible to conceive that I may have no memory of this life. I have to trust God on that one. There are both good and bad in not remembering this life in the next one. I'll just have to wait and see.