Death and the Afterlife

Death and the Afterlife PDF Author: Samuel Scheffler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019998252X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what extent would you remain committed to your current projects and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for cancer? Would couples still want children? In Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show that the continued life of the human race after our deaths--the "afterlife" of the title--matters to us to an astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed, Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Death and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four distinguished philosophers--Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf--who discuss Scheffler's ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final reply.

Death and the Afterlife

Death and the Afterlife PDF Author: Samuel Scheffler
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019998252X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 221

Get Book Here

Book Description
Suppose you knew that, though you yourself would live your life to its natural end, the earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed thirty days after your death. To what extent would you remain committed to your current projects and plans? Would scientists still search for a cure for cancer? Would couples still want children? In Death and the Afterlife, philosopher Samuel Scheffler poses this thought experiment in order to show that the continued life of the human race after our deaths--the "afterlife" of the title--matters to us to an astonishing and previously neglected degree. Indeed, Scheffler shows that, in certain important respects, the future existence of people who are as yet unborn matters more to us than our own continued existence and the continued existence of those we love. Without the expectation that humanity has a future, many of the things that now matter to us would cease to do so. By contrast, the prospect of our own deaths does little to undermine our confidence in the value of our activities. Despite the terror we may feel when contemplating our deaths, the prospect of humanity's imminent extinction would pose a far greater threat to our ability to lead lives of wholehearted engagement. Scheffler further demonstrates that, although we are not unreasonable to fear death, personal immortality, like the imminent extinction of humanity, would also undermine our confidence in the values we hold dear. His arresting conclusion is that, in order for us to lead value-laden lives, what is necessary is that we ourselves should die and that others should live. Death and the Afterlife concludes with commentary by four distinguished philosophers--Harry Frankfurt, Niko Kolodny, Seana Shiffrin, and Susan Wolf--who discuss Scheffler's ideas with insight and imagination. Scheffler adds a final reply.

At Heaven's Door

At Heaven's Door PDF Author: William J. Peters
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982150440
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
A “brilliant and fascinating” (Eben Alexander, MD, author of Proof of Heaven) exploration—rich with powerful personal stories and convincing research—of the many ways the living can and do accompany the dying on their journey into the afterlife. In 2000, end-of-life therapist William Peters was volunteering at the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco when he had an extraordinary experience as he was reading aloud to a patient: he suddenly felt himself floating midair, completely out of his body. The patient, who was also aloft, looked at him and smiled. The next moment, Peters felt himself return to his body…but his patient never regained consciousness and died. Perplexed and stunned by what had happened, Peters began searching for other people who’d shared similar experiences. He would spend the next twenty years gathering and meticulously categorizing their stories to identify key patterns and features of what is now known as the “shared crossing” experience. The similarities, which cut across continents and cultures and include awe-inspiring visual and sensory effects, and powerful emotional aftershocks. The book is filled with “moving and tender” (Jack Kornfield, PhD, author of A Path with Heart) tales of spouses seeing their loved ones reach the other side after decades together and bereaved parents who share their children’s entry into the afterlife. Applying rigorous research, Peters digs into the effects of these shared crossing experiences impart—liberation at the sight of a loved one finding joy, a sense of reconciliation if the relationship was fraught—and explores questions like: What can explain these shared death experiences? How can we increase our likelihood of having one? What do these experiences tell us about what lies beyond? And, most importantly, how can they help take away the string of death and better prepare us for our own final moments? How can we have both a better life and a better death?

Illuminating the Afterlife

Illuminating the Afterlife PDF Author: Cyndi Dale
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1427099596
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
We all want to know what happens when we die. According to Cyndi Dale, we don't have to wait to find out. With Illuminating the Afterlife, this internationally renowned author presents a compelling investigation of the soul's journey - an evolutionary cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that we travel as we ascend through the spiritual "Planes of Light."

Memories of the Afterlife

Memories of the Afterlife PDF Author: Michael Newton
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
ISBN: 9780738715278
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Features amazing case studies of real people embarking on life-changing spiritual journeys: returning to past lives as a Viking, a German WWII soldier, a slave in the American South... reuniting with soul mates and spirit guides... and communing with their immortal souls. As gems of self-knowledge are revealed, dramatic epiphanies result - enabling these ordinary people to resolve illness, explain strange feelings and impulses, find emotional healing, realize their life purpose, and forever enrich their lives with new meaning.

The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State

The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State PDF Author: Ellen Baumler
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1496214803
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is a groundbreaking history of death in Montana. It offers a unique, reflective, and sensitive perspective on the evolution of customs and burial grounds. Beginning with Montana’s first known burial site, Ellen Baumler considers the archaeological records of early interments in rock ledges, under cairns, in trees, and on open-air scaffolds. Contact with Europeans at trading posts and missions brought new burial practices. Later, crude “boot hills” and pioneer graveyards evolved into orderly cemeteries. Planned cemeteries became the hallmark of civilization and the measure of an educated community. Baumler explores this history, yet untold about Montana. She traces the pathway from primitive beginnings to park-like, architecturally planned burial grounds where people could recreate, educate their children, and honor the dead. The Life of the Afterlife in the Big Sky State is not a comprehensive listing of the many hundreds of cemeteries across Montana. Rather it discusses cultural identity evidenced through burial practices, changing methods of interments and why those came about, and the evolution of cemeteries as the “last great necessity” in organized communities. Through examples and anecdotes, the book examines how we remember those who have passed on.

Afterlife

Afterlife PDF Author: Barry Eaton
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459613236
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Psychic intuitive and broadcaster Barry Eaton answers all the questions people have on life after death. Filled with amazing stories and firsthand accounts, including Barry's own remarkable experiences....

Shaman Pathways - Deathwalking

Shaman Pathways - Deathwalking PDF Author: Laura Perry
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1785358197
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 81

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Book Description
Deathwalking, or psychopomping, is the shamanic practice of helping the deceased's soul pass on to the next realm. Despite being an essential aspect of the Shaman’s historic and contemporary role, it has been largely overlooked in modern Shamanic literature. Shaman Pathways – Deathwalking is an anthology offering ten perspectives on this vital and timeless practice.

The Survival of the Soul

The Survival of the Soul PDF Author: Lisa Williams
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
ISBN: 1401930867
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Many of us have questions about the passage of life and often wonder what happens when we die. In this amazingly insightful book by medium/clairvoyant Lisa Williams, evidence of the afterlife is explored. Through various channels such as meditation, psychic readings, communication with her Spirit Guide, and a personal near-death experience, Lisa delves into the journey of the soul, discusses the different stages of the afterlife, and reveals what life is really like on the other side. Survival of the Soul addresses the myriad questions many of us have surrounding this subject, especially if we’ve gone through the painful experience of having lost loved ones. Lisa provides a reassuring glimpse into this fascinating topic by exploring the pathway to the afterlife and then to reincarnation; with the realization that death is not final, but rather a transition into the world beyond —a place that should be honored, not feared.

Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between

Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between PDF Author: Ananda Cohen Suarez
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 1477309551
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Examining the vivid, often apocalyptic church murals of Peru from the early colonial period through the nineteenth century, Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between explores the sociopolitical situation represented by the artists who generated these murals for rural parishes. Arguing that the murals were embedded in complex networks of trade, commerce, and the exchange of ideas between the Andes and Europe, Ananda Cohen Suarez also considers the ways in which artists and viewers worked through difficult questions of envisioning sacredness. This study brings to light the fact that, unlike the murals of New Spain, the murals of the Andes possess few direct visual connections to a pre-Columbian painting tradition; the Incas’ preference for abstracted motifs created a problem for visually translating Catholic doctrine to indigenous congregations, as the Spaniards were unable to read Inca visual culture. Nevertheless, as Cohen Suarez demonstrates, colonial murals of the Andes can be seen as a reformulation of a long-standing artistic practice of adorning architectural spaces with images that command power and contemplation. Drawing on extensive secondary and archival sources, including account books from the churches, as well as on colonial Spanish texts, Cohen Suarez urges us to see the murals not merely as decoration or as tools of missionaries but as visual archives of the complex negotiations among empire, communities, and individuals.

Where After

Where After PDF Author: Mariel Forde Clarke
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1789046181
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
A journey that will compel readers to view life after death in a completely different way. Where do our loved ones go After they die? This is the question that has traversed the universe for centuries and is considered one of life’s greatest mysteries. While many of the world’s renowned philosophers, scientists, theorists, doctors, and great mystics endorsed the existence of the afterlife, no one book has been available to explore it all, until now. Mariel Forde Clarke asserts that whether you believe in God or heaven, you can be comforted by the sense that an afterlife exists beyond the realm of one's physical comprehension. Drawing on the findings of patients who have had neardeath experiences and visions, and on those of renowned scientists and doctors, Clarke helps the reader chart the journey of the soul and navigate their grief.