Is there life after death?
On her deathbed, the novelist Gertrude Stein asked: “What is the answer?” Receiving no response, she then concluded: “In that case, what is the question?”
To question may not always lead to the final answer, but unless you start with the right question you may not reach the correct answer. This is a rule of philosophy from some of the earliest philosophers of Western Civilization.
There are some great questions, however, that don’t always submit to reason, one of them being whether or not there is life after death. Some are sure there is life beyond death, others that there is not, and some puzzled, even intrigued, by the question.
In any case, the question of immortality is one of the great ones of human history.
One of the world’s great philosophers, Socrates, told his disciples that he was not afraid of death because it would be either a long sleep or the soul would continue in some form or another. Other teachers taught that life would continue in this life multiple times, the so-called doctrine of reincarnation. Still, others do not believe human life survives death.
One of my favorite stories is that of Dr. George de Benneville who came to this country as a refuge from religious oppression in Europe, settling in Berks County in the 1740s. Here he started a school for both Native American and American children, as well as one of the first apothecary shops in this part of the world.
The part of de Benneville’s story that intrigues me is his account of his near-death experience in the 18th Century which closely follows the stories of such modern-day experiences.
One writer and storyteller, Alexander King, began with a different question that yielded a somewhat different interpretation, proving the point that the kind of question you pose will shape whatever answer you reach. King asked: Is there life after birth? That focused his response on life in the here-andnow, not after death.
These days one finds articles and television programs on what is popularly called “near-death experiences,” those described by people who have been declared dead and who return to report what they discovered.
Many reports included encountering a bright light, sometimes friends or family who had died earlier, and what has been called a “life review,” a time to assess one’s life.
One of the more interesting near-death stories I have found is that of Jack Bybee, who fell ill and was declared dead in South Africa in 1972. He lived and reported the more typical near-death experience of seeing a bright light, hearing voices, traveling down a tunnel, and undergoing a review of his life. It’s the three questions he was asked that strike me as important to living a good life in the here-and-now, whether or not you believe in what Bybee says about life after death.
1. What have you done with the life past?
2. Whom have you loved or been loved by?
3. What have you learned?
If you respond to these three questions in terms of the life you have already lived, you may deepen your understanding of what’s important.
I can’t verify to my satisfaction if near-death experiences point to an afterlife or not; they may be the final perceptions from brain activity or simply hallucinations. But rather than pointing to actual near-death experiences, I find it more informative
But rather than pointing to actual near-death experiences, I find it more informative to look at nature with its rounds of rebirths and renewals, new life out of the old.
to look at nature with its rounds of rebirths and renewals, new life out of the old.
I had one experience while in Wales on top of a high hill overlooking the Tintern Abbey. Resting under an old oak at the summit, I had the distinct feeling of looking through a veil at some other dimension, but connected to this one, as if I were getting a glimpse of what is beyond.
The Welsh call this a “thin place,” a sense or feeling that another dimension opens up if only a minute or two, not dissimilar to a near-death experience.