What Awaits Us After Death?

The age old question of what happens to us after we die has faced man since the dawn of our existence. It is a question I myself have pondered upon the answer to for many years. Being raised by Catholic parents, I was told growing up that when we die our spirit goes to heaven or hell. I was satisfied by that answer for many years, but as I grew older and my beliefs changed, I again began searching for an answer to this question.

With so many different religious beliefs around the world, how can we be sure which one is correct? What if none of them are correct? What if all of them are correct? Maybe after our bodies die our consciousness goes wherever we believed it would go while we were alive. Despite the countless number of times I have heard people confidently debate their beliefs and what awaits us after death, I have yet to hear one that I can stand behind.

There are also those who believe that there is nothing waiting for us beyond death and our consciousness just shuts off. I struggle with this concept as well. Our minds and our consciousness within are so complex that I cannot fathom  it just fading away into nothingness.

During my search for answers, I came across a few interesting articles that linked near death experiences with REM sleep related lucid dreaming. They theorized that as our brain begin to shut down, it enters a fight or flight state and switches into the REM state of consciousness. I find this theory extremely fascinating. If our mind is able to enter the REM state of consciousness before death, then maybe the afterlife is nothing more than a dream fabricated by our own mind as it fights in vain to survive. Even though in real time our brain may enter that REM state for just a brief moment before death, the dream that we perceive to be the afterlife may feel like an eternity because of the timeless feeling that dreams tend to have.

This is the most appealing theory I have heard so far. Think of the possibilities. If the afterlife was a dream created by our mind, we could make it anything we wanted it to be. Who knows, with access to our vast amounts of memories, maybe it would be possible to manifest our friends and family into our dream-state afterlife as well. Even though I don’t believe in this theory wholeheartedly, it’s comforting to think that this could possibly be what’s awaiting me when my time on this earth comes to an end.

Poetry Entry #4 – Love Lost Forever

Your eyes drew me in

Like black holes tugging at nearby stars

A life with you I wanted to begin

But a lasting relationship would not be ours

 

You meant the world to me

My heart was yours for the taking

But I did not foresee

It would only end up breaking

 

You thought it was for the best

That I was just a friend

But that put a gaping hole in my chest

Which pained me to no end

 

As time went on my heart grew colder

And we drifted apart

I could not bear to see you get hurt over and over

By someone who did not care about your heart

 

 I did all I could to make you see what was true

But you were so deep in denial

Building this wall was the hardest thing I have ever had to do

But I needed to escape that downward spiral

 

So here we are many years later

We rarely talk and you are so far away

I wish things were better

I miss you every single day

Poetry Entry #3 – The Living Dead

I am a huge zombie nerd so I wrote this poem about them, in Acrostic form, titled “The Living Dead”.



Zombies, the living dead

Offensive odors permeate the air around them

Moans of insatiable hunger emanating from their bloody maws

Bodies broken and slowly decaying

Instinctively seeking out the living

Exterminating all life within their grasp

Shambling after you, never tiring

Poetry Entry #2 – My Damnation

This poem is titled “My Damnation” and is themed after the seven deadly sins.



Unwavering desires for a woman that is not mine,

Lust leaves my heart burning every night

Endlessly gorging without reason or rhyme,

My gluttony has no end in sight

Wanting more than he deserves,

His greed tears our family apart

Lying here as my family serves,

I am the epitome of sloth and I know it in my heart

My hatred of him runs deeper than the darkest sea,

The wrath I feel deep down will never cease

Nightly prayers for what others have over me,

From this envy there is no release

The sin of pride has never been felt,

For I have never stood on my own I have only knelt

Poetry Entry #1 – As I Lie Here Waiting

I have decided that I am going to start doing poetry entries on my blog along with my opinion pieces. I figured this would as good a place as any to post my poetry because this is pretty much the only global outlet I use for writing. I’m not sure how frequently I will post poetry, but I have some poetry saved up that I will post over the next few weeks. As I write more poetry, I will post it on here as well. Also, I would like to explain ahead of time that the majority of my poetry tends to be pretty dark because it is how I release the negativity in my life. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy it.

This first piece is titled “As I Lie Here Waiting”




As I lie here waiting

I am isolated inside this room

My body is broken by disease

It is my everlasting tomb




As I lie here waiting

I use music to drown out the sorrow

I worry about the what-ifs

And hope for a better tomorrow




As I lie here waiting

I think of all I will never get to experience in life

Like making something of myself

Or having a loving wife




As I lie here waiting

I can no longer pretend

What is it I am waiting for

I am waiting for the end

The Suicide Tourist

When I hear the word euthanasia, the image of a sick or injured animal being “put to sleep” to prevent it from suffering a painful or prolonged death comes to mind. However, there is a whole other side to euthanasia that many people don’t think about, and that is the euthanasia of human beings. This practice is also referred to as physician-assisted suicide. It allows people who are terminally ill to end his or her own life with the aid of a physician, through prescribed drugs or equipment, so they may avoid suffering through the final stages of their illness.

I was inspired to write about this after watching a PBS documentary recently titled “The Suicide Tourist”. In this documentary, we meet a man named Craig Ewert who was rapidly deteriorating from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. This film documented Craig’s journey from England to Switzerland to receive a physician-assisted suicide because they are illegal in England. This documentary was very moving, but at the same time it angered me. It angered me to think that if it wasn’t for Switzerland, one of the few countries that offer physician-assisted suicides to foreigners, this man would have had no choice but to suffer through the remainder of his life while his family could do nothing but watch. Thankfully though, Craig was able to escape such a fate and ended his life peacefully and without pain.

Death has always been a taboo subject, especially by means of suicide. Because of this, I believe this practice isn’t as widely accepted as I believe it should. When it comes to the United States, physician-assisted suicide is banned in all but three states. These states are Washington, Oregon, and Montana. However, you must be a resident of the state in order to be eligible for a physician-assisted suicide which leaves tens of thousands of terminal ill people in the United States with no choice but to suffer through the remainder of their lives.

Why do we set laws to ban this practice? What right do we have to dictate people’s lives and force them to suffer through terrible illnesses that leave sufferers with little to no quality of life? Is it because of religious beliefs or maybe it’s the personal morals of our lawmakers that keep this procedure from becoming a standard practice. It seems funny to me that we give animals the right to die as painlessly and with as much dignity as possible but we don’t offer the same to people we love and care for.

I am well aware that the majority of terminally ill people probably do not wish to end their life, but the fact that the option to do so, in a safe and peaceful way, is unavailable and illegal to those that may wish to is downright cruel in my opinion. I myself struggle from severe medical issues so I this subject really hits home for me. And even though my illness isn’t currently terminal and cannot fathom making the decision to end my life through a physician-assisted suicide, the fact that someone elses morals can dictate how I wish I live my life seems so very very wrong.

Over Before It Began?

Here it is almost a week after my introductory post and I have yet to make any sort of meaningful or informative post to this “blog”. I put quotes around the word blog because I don’t feel as though this has become a blog yet seeing as it has no real content. When I was setting up this “blog” I had what I thought were great ideas to write about, but now that this all set to go, I am unable to find something worth writing about. Where did my motivation and aspirations go? This was suppose to be my outlet to the outside world, but it’s feeling more like another dead end. I will admit that the majority of my meaningful thoughts tend to be depressing ones, due to my life and disability, but I don’t want this blog to turn into a “woe is me” journal. I guess I will just have to give it some time until I can come up with some decent content worth posting.

So It Begins

As I said on my About Me page, I have wanted to start a blog for quite some time now so that I may share my thoughts and experiences with the outside world. Humans are very social creatures and I believe they can not truly thrive unless they have a healthy amount of social interaction. I believe that extended periods of isolation, with a lack of social stimuli, is both mentally and emotionally damaging. After years of limited social interaction, I have personally felt these damaging effects take place. Through this blog, I hope to get some of that social stimuli back by having others read and hopefully comment on my entries. And if others do not comment, I still feel as though just getting my thoughts and ideas out there will be very therapeutic. So with that said, here it goes…