Do you believe in life after death? If so, what form to you believe your "spirit" exists in?

Question

I work w/patients who have (amongst other things) dementia, Alzheimer's disease and/or mentally retarded/developmentally disabled.

So, I have been wondering -if there is a life after death, what form does our spirit exist in? How much resemblence does it bear to the people we are now?

For example, Alzheimer's is an organic disease that results directly from the destruction of brain cells. In addition to causing memory loss, it can cause severe personality changes -so what is it that makes up a person's "spirit"? And what part of it will carry on after death? I mean, a whole personality can be altered by changes in brain function -so what is it that makes us who we are?

And what about people who are born w/a mental defect?

Just curious what other people think.

And, PLEASE don't tell me about your religion or quote scripture to me! No offense, but I am interested in original thought - not in being preached to ;)

Answer 1

Ok, well as long as one believes in spirit, one would also ask him/herself how did men "get" this spirit. Where did it come from? Or why did it enter our bodies? If one also believes in God he might find the answers there (by God here i mean a supreme being that created us, not necesarily the God a certain religion talks about). And if He did create us what, in your opinion, would be the place in a man's body that would "hold" the spirit? Would it not be the brain? Now if Alzheimer destroys brain cells, does it not shatter the bond our body has with our spirit?

I believe that the spirit is the "final" definition of what a man is. (if i may say so) Thus if a body cannot "hold" or "channel" the spirit how it should, is it not the body's fault? In other words I believe the spirit is suffering but will not be destroyed in the same manner the body is by these kind of diseases (also including here mental retards).

In conclusion, I think the spirit coexists with the body in order to experience and learn. It lives on even if the body dies (either this is true, or we just want to believe it in order to give our own lives a meaning; but if you don't believe the spirit lives on then the only alternative would be to believe that in the end our lives mean nothing). We, as spirits, strive towards the light and/or the truth, whatever or whoever that may be. We may not see the meaning of the life we live now but in the end this experience will count just as much for our spirit. And I think that eventually our spirit will find the light and reach a level of understanding that we, as flash and blood beings, can only dream of now.

Answer 2

Nothing happens to your mind when you die.

I think that you and many of those who will answer may be confusing mind with brain. Your brain is an amazing organ it controls our muscles, respiration, pulmonary function and a host of other lesser known functions, but it does not think.

Thought is a function of mind that exists independent of anything physical. What appears to be the brain thinking in brain function imaging and other brain measuring attempts is only blood flow being measured to the part of the brain that acts as an interface between the mind and the body. This is the secondary function of the brain after regulating bodily functions. It acts as the interface, or the mind body connection.

Without it there would be no way for the nonphysical mind to exert any control over the physical body.
It is interesting that science has done its best to overlook this fact for so long. The silly idea that thought is some magical function of some mysterious electrochemical reaction is so vague as to be hilarious. There are several ways to disprove this theory beyond any shadow of a doubt.

Being nonphysical in source your mind is in no way effected by the death of the body and loss of the mind body interface, or brain.

Love and blessings.
don

Answer 3

My dad has changed so much since his stroke, and then, the drugs they've got him on in the nursing home have changed him so much, that I have wondered, "Who is my dad?" But then, I saw him change a lot, in life, after he made money, so, the question remains. You asked what we think. I think the God who loves us will, in the end, let us be the person we choose to be, when this life is over and the new one begins. I think that He, by choosing to live a human life with a wide spectrum of experience (from the lowest to the highest), and then dying and living again in a powerful state, has shown that we, connected with Him by His love, can position ourselves anywhere in that spectrum. My friends with Autism and Downs syndrome have beautiful qualities that really shine in their situations. I hope they never lose those qualities! I really think that the "spirit" that goes back to God at death and returns when He comes is like a computer code that activates us to be what we've chosen to become.

Answer 4

I believe that our spirits take the form of an energy field which can resemble our physical bodies. Our body is just shell that houses our soul but is not affected by its abnormalities or defects. Our brains are just flesh they are not our spirits.

Answer 5

If we evaluate the easy components from which all of us comprehend all on our planet is derived and we place this in assessment to those components all of us comprehend to exist on others planets interior the image voltaic gadget, then it would be fool hardy, egotistical and ignorant to anticipate that existence varieties do not exist on those planets. In admire of what type of existence type they could be, all of us comprehend from our own planets evolution that, dependant on the degree of evolution and different exterior contributers, the existence varieties might probable undergo some resemblance to our own, wether interior the easy molecular shape or in a miles better, extra state-of-the-artwork evolutionary type. to close, i savor that the extra religious human beings might dispute this thesis - yet i pose this question - who's to declare that "the author" (as religious persons might quote) has not created someplace else? while that is amazingly obvious that this planet and its components are actually not unique! PLEASE observe: i did not "google" for my reaction, and that i derived mentioned answer from my training and reminiscence!

Answer 6

People are free of such infirmities in the afterlife.
They become who they would been had they not been so afflicted in mortal life.

Answer 7

There is no life after death.

Answer 8

You're asking a spiritual question, but at the same time you don't want to be preached to, okay...I guess you don't want an answer to your question.