Life after death is a fascinating topic that has intrigued humanity for ages. We've encountered various beliefs and concepts surrounding it, from reincarnation and heaven to purgatory, enlightenment, ghosts, and even ancestral planes (looking at you, Black Panther ). It's undeniably one of life's most captivating mysteries.
With all that we've been told, I often ponder what the afterlife would look like if we had a choice. Death marks the end of our earthly journey but opens the first chapter of our afterlife.
Let's engage in a thought experiment to explore what my afterlife could entail.
Could it be an opportunity to indulge in my wildest fantasies? Attaining enlightenment, perhaps? Maybe an eternal yard filled with perpetually young and lively puppies?
Being the over-prepared, over-thinking maniac that I am, I’ve considered three possible options that I‘m living for.
Option 1: A Journey Through Time
My curiosity knows no bounds, and one concept that has always fascinated me is time travel. When you contemplate your existence in the vast course of human history, it's astonishing how it's simultaneously significant yet minuscule. Once you transition into the metaphysical realm, time loses its relevance.
Earth has witnessed eons of time and will endure for many more. Imagine having the ability to witness the Earth from any vantage point at any moment in time. The possibilities are captivating.
Here's a glimpse of what I'd do:
But why stop there? If time is indeed eternally written, why not venture a hundred years into the future to witness humanity's trajectory? Discovering cures for all diseases, achieving interstellar travel, and experiencing widespread empathy on a massive scale.
From a physicist's perspective, although we perceive time as psychologically real, it is not fundamentally so. At the deepest foundations of nature, time isn't a primitive, irreducible element; it's a concept crafted by humans to distinguish our past from our present. As Albert Einstein said, "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." Time serves as our record of what came before us and what is happening now.
However, in death, time loses its meaning. Devoid of significance, it becomes open to exploration without consequence.
Imagine the beauty of spending eternity merely watching events unfold — observing humans and diverse flora and fauna emerge and disappear in the blink of an eye. A perpetual stream of discovery and entertainment awaits.
Option 2 : Traverse a boundaryless space
Much like time, space is an element that often surpasses our comprehension. Here we are, on a floating rock, in the middle of nowhere. Just because we've given it a name doesn't make it any more real. Around us stretches an endless soup of nothingness.
The only thing preventing us from venturing beyond Earth and exploring further is ... you guessed it, our physical form. Our intricately designed primordial bodies can't withstand the unimaginable conditions of space. Death, however, is liberation from the physical form.
Being an astronaut was one of my childhood dreams, and perhaps I can fulfill it posthumously. Without the limitations of my body, why couldn't I
And this is just within our solar system. If the observable universe is indeed observable, and life after death is possible, then it's reasonable to believe that you can observe all of space. Explore the ends of the cosmos—Andromeda, The Pillars of Creation, Proxima Centauri.
Even if you can't travel far from Earth, imagine witnessing the depths of the ocean, the summits of mountains, Point Nemo, and the heart of the Amazon — areas of the world that very few, if any, humans have access to.
Our minds and bodies severely restrict us, but once we're free of them, the world becomes our intricate maze, waiting to be experienced.
Option 3: Everything Everywhere All at Once
Having explored the realms of time and space, let's delve into the fabric of reality for my final option in the afterlife — me, in a movie theater with endless popcorn, watching every version of my life and how it played out.
I'm a staunch believer in the multiverse theory. This isn’t something that Marvel created, by the way. The earliest discussion of the multiverse theory dates back to ancient Greek philosophy, particularly the works of the philosopher Anaximander in the 6th century BC. Anaximander proposed the idea of a "cosmic egg" that contained all possible worlds and universes, and that these worlds would come into existence and then eventually perish.
Movies like Everything Everywhere All at Once, Coherence, and Mr. Nobody bring these concepts to life through compelling stories.
In simple terms, every version of reality exists because each decision you ever made led to a different path. Multiply this by 8 billion people making countless life-altering decisions every second, and the vastness of the multiverse becomes incomprehensible.
The curse of our existence is that we can only experience one reality (unless we get lucky with psychedelics). However, the benefit of death is the possibility to see all the ways our lives turned out.
Consider what I could witness in mine:
Since we can't observe these realities, each one remains a possibility, and I'd love to see how they all played out.
While it's entertaining to contemplate eternal bliss, there's always the possibility that the soul desires peace and calmness. Our visions of the post-life experience can vary in magnitudes. However, I have many questions.
I don't desire a God or an entity to merely hand me the answers. I want my curious nature to folllow me to the beyond. I want to embark on a journey through time, space, and reality to discover what lies further.
I mean…. doesn’t that sound like heaven?