The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Last night while flipping through the channels I came across a show on the History Channel about how religions view hell, and or the afterlife. (I couldn't find the name of the show.) It made me think of how similar a lot of the views are, and my own views.
My questions to everyone is how do you see the afterlife? And do think that most religions differ or remain similar when it comes to believes on the afterlife?

to be quite honest, I know that going to heaven there is a spiraling of lights, and well Hell is a strange place to visit, it plays on your fears and there are many walls of souls. and yes I have astrally traveled to both before, but not by choice I was shown a taste of it.

I think that most religions view the afterlife the same. I know what the churches tell me about heaven and hell. I guess my question is how does anyone know. Its not like someone died and came back to life to tell us what it is like

I think I have seen the same documentary. It is interesting. I have a hard believing that hell is or will be how religion has depicted it throughout history. I kind of think that religious leaders throughout history have used the idea of hell to scare their followers into acting a certain way. I personaly have no idea what the afterlife might bring. I do hope it's hell as has been described for thousands of years.

I believe that when a person dies they get reincarnated into a new body, until they experience everything life has to offer...

lol I saw the same show, and it was, I believe, titled Satan: A History of Hell. Or something therein. I watched with great intest, on how Christianity explains the fall of Lucifer, and how they only touched on Lilith, and rounded out the two-hours with a look at Satanism, and a Black Mass at the Church of Satan. But I digress.
Anyway, more to the point, I believe that when you die, if you have completed your task, you go to rest in the Summerland, and if not, you either go back and try it again or go to a form of Hell to get your punishment for being "wicked" (the definition of wicked may vary from person to person).

Again... as with the concepts of both Satan and Jesus (ironic, ain't it?)... so also the concept of the "burning flames of Hell" also are directly derived from the Semitic accounts of the supposed "Fallen Angels" who, having been vilified as Satan and his angels, were supposedly imprisoned deep underground in the valley of the Dead Sea where smoke was supposedly seen to arise giving rise to the myth that where they were imprisoned was a place of constant burning and pain. This was precisely the place described as "hell" for the first time II Peter 2:4.

Other than the Christian hell, what other forms of afterlife do you believe in? (ex-summerland)

Personally, my view of the Afterlife is that it is largely incomprehensible to us while limited to only five very limited senses and three very narrowly perceived dimensions while in mortality. However, given the universal drives within us, I feel there is much about the Afterlife that will continue to fulfill those drives: the drive to create, to progress, to develop deep and intimate relationships with others.

For those who believe there is nothing after mortality, I would ask: How can it be that -- as proved by modern Physics -- all matter and all energy can change in form but cannot be either destroyed or created being thus truly eternal, yet Life itself, comprised by the union of these two eternal components, is not? Why would Life not be just as eternal, though able to change in form, as are matter and energy?

I do not believe in any religion's concept of the afterlife. Nor can I find logical reason to believe in reincarnation for the same reason that I do not believe in eternally repeating the 1st Grade: both concepts would be eternally redundant and non-progressive. Given that we are motivated to grow, to learn, to progress, such a cyclically repetitive life paradigm makes little sense given our inherent need for constant growth. Nor would it explain the fact that Human populations on this planet do not remain statistically constant, but are expanding constantly... thus indicating that we are not simply being biologically "recycled."

I reckon that whatever you believe will happen to you, happens. Saves anybody being right or wrong.

I think they all differ from the last. Frankly i like my view better, no offence to anyone. My view is that hell, is in the middle fo the earth and is a great big fire pit, something that I, myself, will enjoy being in.

In response to whatever you believe will happen:
A Pagan Goes to Hell

A Pagan dies, and to his great surprise finds himself standing before some pearly gates. The guy in charge looks him over before asking, "Can I help you?"

"Where am I?" asks the Pagan.

"Beg your pardon?" the other guy asks. "You're in Heaven, of course."

"B-but I don't believe..."

"Hmmm" (squinting his eyes) "are you one of them Pagan folk?" the gatekeeper asks, his mouth curling in mild distaste.

"Yes, I am... I believe I'm in the wrong place, which way is the Summerland?" our Pagan friend asks.

"It's been 'temporarily' shut down for repairs," the gatekeeper said with an ironic chuckle, "ever since we took over...err...I mean... since the people found their way to the true path."

"Whatever," says the Pagan, "What do I do now?"

"I'm sorry sir, but you must go to Hell. No Pagans allowed here."

"WHAT? Hell? But I don't believe in Hell!"

"Sorry, those are the rules, just follow the downward path to the left."

So our Pagan friend walks down to Hell, only to find the doors open. He warily goes in and looks around to see beautiful meadows, and animals happily roaming the surrounding woods. "Hmm, so far so good."

A voice behind him made him all but jump out of his skin. "Can I help you?"

"SHEESH! Give a guy a heart attack, why don't you?"

"Ahem... a little too late for that, isn't it?" the guy said with a smile.

"Who are you, anyway?" our friend asks.

"Why, I'm Satan," the other one said with a slight bow.

"Satan?!" said our friend as he started looking around nervously.

"At your service... you're the Pagan guy Pete called us about, right?"

"Pete... oh the guy in Heaven, yes..." he said, eyeing Satan carefully. "What's gonna happen to me now?"

"Well, you can hang out, there's some great fishing going on in the lake beyond these woods and, if you follow the road down this way, there's refreshments and a little market not too far and to your right. I believe the Pagan meeting grounds are just behind that hill..." Satan went on.

"Are you serious...?" he finally asked. Satan grinned at him innocently.

"Why shouldn't I be?" Sudden understanding filled Satan's eyes. "You don't believe the rumors, do you?"

Suddenly, in answer to our friend's growing fear, the vault of the skies opened with a thunderous groan. A soul, plummeting through the sky, screamed in terror, his screams drowned by the opening of a yawning chasm full of fire and brimstone. The stench of sulfur thickened the air. Thousands of howling, suffering, tortured voices echoed through Hell. When the screaming soul finally fell into the pit, the ground shut closed with a sickening thud that rattled the earth.

Our Pagan friend all but soiled his undies as he yelped in terror. "And what was THAT all about?"

Satan rolled his eyes, and made a dismissive gesture with his hand as he said with a distasteful grimace. "Oh, just ignore that..." He rolled his eyes again. "My Christian guests refuse to have it any other way!"

I know everyone's beliefs are going to be different on this subject. We will truly never know what will happen to us when we die, until it actually happens, all we can do is speculate for now.

Besides lifes to short to be worrying about those sort of things any way. Whatever happens is whatever happens and we should just leave it at that.

My way of thinking is that worry about that when you are on your deathbed...

I do believe in life after death. I feel that we join our loved ones who have past on, not necessarily in heaven but more a spiritual plane. We then are reborn into another form (human or animal) we continue this process until our business on this earth is finished.

my views on this is simple..least for me..as a satanist i am goingto hell anyways so it doesnt matter what anyone thinks the burning flames are hell are about

I also believe it to be something that can only be speculated about. Who really knows? It could be everything from your own personalized afterlife, to a very general set of circumstances such as heaven of hell, or simply nothing at all. I believe no one really knows and I don't take a lot of time considering it really. I will find out when its my time. Until then its just one foot in front of the other.

I think the afterlife is the same as the 14.7 billion years before life we wont know nothing about it like before youn were born.

I think that there are basic similarities just because our minds all work in the same way.

I agree. I think that there are some simalarities in them. I guess we will find out one day.

I will confess I dont beleive in afterlife in the way fo a place to go...but more fo a eternal sleep

I think that all religions have their differences and they all think that when you die you are going to go to a certain place and get certain things when you get their...

all beliefs of the afterlife are different.

all beliefs of the afterlife are different.

I don't hold that there is an after life. All that is garuenteed is this life, and the preparations we make in order to secure our own bodies a survival beyond the dead meat we will eventually become as physical bodies always do.

So is there a hell, yes, is there a gehenna beyond the valley in Israel, is there fires and planes of ice, and water so vast and deep where only the demons spawned knows what lay at there center. Yes. Because to deny them is folly, when so much in this world is corrupted, when so much in this world is damned by its own vices. It manifests here, in subtle ways, in the quiet ways, in the ways for those who know what to look for find them.

I dont think this is a religious concept, other than the 'conditioning of religions on its congregation.
But at the end of the day it is that individuals believe of how they see things.
Putting religion aside we are even told about balance and that you will always need opposites to keep us on a steady course. Now introduce the term 'heaven' and we find there is a 'hell', a dark to the light.
The same can apply here - its just a matter of individual chose.

I don't believe in the 'religious' view of the after life. My views are more pagan in that you go to a form of limbo and you go through a review of sorts before you return to a new life to continue your journey of knowledge and understanding.

what i think is that you finish this life and it's like going to the next level. Because here we are learning... if there's something that you failed in, well, you need to come back, and reincarnate again and live... i think after life is just the preparation to come again... and i don't think there's a hell, i think that here on earth there is enough suffering... there can't be more...

I started to watch that particular documentary, but had to change the channel because I just couldn't deal w/ all the religious babble about heaven and hell.

At one point, there was someone on there who said that the true meaning of hell is to live in the absence of God (meaning, God doesn't accept you into his holy embrace, and you are forced to spend eternity knowing that you screwed up in a major way and can't earn His forgiveness). I would think that this would be the more accurate depiction of Hell if you believe that sort of thing.

I personally believe that the afterlife is an unknown journey, and you don't learn what it is until you get there. I don't pretend to know what it is, and to be honest, I don't want to know what it is. If I knew, that would mean I was dead..and well..I'm enjoying life right now. lol

There are many different seeming ideas on this but at the base of it all seems to be the same.

actually, the vikings vision of hell is the opposite - it is a frozen barren wasteland. but most religions do take the view that there are different planes - that our world is the middle one. if you lead a worthy life, you go to a higher, better plane, but if you lead a dishonorable worthless life you get sent to a lower plane that is unpleasant and full of misery. not all go along with this, but many do because we need to feel that even though there is no justice in this world, there is justice in the afterlife. it is interesting that though justice does not exist in the natural world, Mankind believes in it and has a need for it.

there is NO afterlife! People just can't cope with the fact that we just die. The End...

well whats the point of it all then? why go to work and struggle through life if you cant ever win?

i agree with karnstein, there is no point in working, all it does is just waste time for the inevitable

I have spoken with some people about their own religions, and I had been raised in a certain religion as well.

My own thoughts is that there are a lot of similarities, but still some small differences.

The afterlife though.....I truly don't know what I am going to expect.

The only thing in my opinion that religions feel the same about is that there is an afterlife. Most of them think differently about what kind of afterlife there is though.

Most religions that I've studied either believe in reincarnation, or a good after life. So, you are either redeemed after death, or at least have a chance for redemption.
I was discussing Hell with my brother one night, he's a very big Christian. I told him that I thought it was peculiar that his God is so forgiving, and yet he condemned them to a fiery hell to burn for all eternity.
He believes that it's metaphorical, that hell is merely to not be in the presence of God, to be hopeless, which you can compare to burning alive for all eternity...But it doesn't matter, because it will be just as miserable.

I believe in reincarnation.

Personally, I am not sure what happens after we die and one day I will get my chance to find out. But with my belief system as it is, there is no belief in a satan or hell.

i really believe like sum others it really depends on what your regilious beliefs are in my case i dont go to church and do believe we come back in some form whether it is as a animal,person or ect hell does exsist but in fact who does really know where you go when you die.I think we may never really know fully where we go.

it's all made up.

you cant know for real, cause u'd be dead.

i dont believe in heaven or hell.

That's true bloodtaintedstars...You can never really know for real until you're dead.

then dont post if u cant anser it.

but, it's true, u cant exactly coe back and tell about how u died. and how it was like.

it's all made up by church.

As a psychic, i have helped a lot of souls over to the other side, and i would not call it "Hell" or "Heaven". It is merely so that there are 2 gateways. Childrens a certain age, murderers and criminals like them have to chose the left way which leads to re-incarnation. The right way leads to everlasting love. There is just one way to come thru the right way, and it is thru Karma. You have to get good karma to go thru the light, with a bad karma you will be reborn untill your karma is good. There is no real hell, only reinkarnation.

My image of Satan for the longest time when i was a kid was the picture that they had on the Underwood deviled ham products. Not sure if you know the one i mean but the devil is pictured as red with the sharp point on the tail.
I have heard too that Satan can take any form at all and you never really know what form he is in.
So i always sort of wondered if Satan could take all forms could he not transform hell into a different form where we were not even aware we were there.
I grew up hearing about this huge lake of fire and people screaming from the burns but guess nobody really knows until one is there possibly.

I'm skepitcal there is a hell. My Reason:
Religions, Most notabily the bible one, were merely created to keep order. To supress the masses under a "Global Law"
Also the bible is VERY contradictive of itself. This "God" is all forgiving and what-not, and yet you put a foot wrong and your damned? I.dont.think.so.

So, beleive there is only two planes - This one (possibly purgatory) and Heaven. (after life)
If you fuck up Purgatory, you must simply just live another lifetime here until you get it right.
Makes much more sense then just being sent to hell to be burned on a stake forever.

Great thread :)

sarajean799 - Thats gotta be the funnyest thing ive read in days >.

that is funny as hell but I think most set believes follow the same lines so that they instill the fact that you can not get a way with the bad shit you do in life.

well im some one that beleave something if i see it with my own eyes but most of the religions out there have a form of hell no matter what they may call it an no one realy knows what the afterlife realy is cause no one can realy say that they have been there an came back so i guess we dont realy know what the afterlife is realy like

alot of people view afterlife in their own way, wether there is an afterlife or not, religious points to it or not. personally i hope in an afterlife yet my mind for it does not know what to percieve tells me we just go back into mother earth from which we came.

I believe in Reincarnation as Dead Energy is an oxymoron.

JMC

I believe in reincarnation and in spirits existing on the physical plane in an attempt, by the soul, to achieve a certain level of existence. Once this is achieved, I believe they go on to a higher plane, unlike that in which we exist.

i also belive Ravensbloodzero. on the planes of existence. when we died we move on to the next plane. thats why some people can comuncate with the dead. cause they see more then one plane