The common expression “life after death” is shorthand for the concept of continued life after physical death. It is an expression found in writings and discussions under a variety of topics – religion, medicine, philosophy, and any combination of those topics.
Once again we are distracted and confused by our own language. We might better use the expression “existence after death,” or perhaps a more accurate shorthand, “life after life.”
We are perpetually handicapped by the confines of our physical body and physical experiences. So, we slip back into the trap of using the terminology of that human experience to describe a condition that we are forced to imagine.
To fully grasp the condition beyond death’s door, perhaps we need to expand our mental vocabulary. We might start by defining what is “life,” what is “death” and what is “life after life.”
When we use the term “life,” we are generally describing the condition of a functioning, self-aware entity. Of course, life also applies to plant and animal entities as well, but in the context of exploring faith and logic, we will focus on the human condition.
In that context, we are referring to the ability to function and interact with our environment and each other. It also means consuming food, oxygen, and water to maintain the system.
Death, then, means the cessation of all those functions, and the physical body then breaks down into the basic chemical components.
What then do we mean by “life after death?” – or, as we now see it, “life after life?”
Once we accept the fact that the personality or the intellect and self-awareness of the person exists outside and beyond the physical body we can begin to comprehend the relationship of existence within and without the physical body.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand this relationship is to fall back on the conventional view that the body is occupied by the spirit or soul and death is the moment that the spirit is released from the vessel that has contained it during earthly existence. Life after life is then merely the continuing existence outside the physical body.
The question then becomes “where” does the spirit exist, and once again, we are handicapped by our language.
Since we are used to identifying a location in terms of the three-dimensional space with which we are most familiar, the concept of “where” is difficult to grasp when it is invisible to our senses.
There are narrations of people who have claimed to have died, passed into the next realm and returned to life. While those events usually involve descriptions of brilliant colors, bright lights, or even encounters with those who have passed before, the universal similarity between these accounts is that they all revolve around earthly experiences such as sight and sound.
If the newly released spirit no longer possesses the physical organs of vision and hearing, perhaps the spirit interprets the new experience in terms of the customary sensory inputs of the physical life. Perhaps the freed spirit or soul needs time to adjust to an existence without physical form.
Perhaps spiritual life after physical life exists in a realm or dimension that earthly life cannot experience.
Logic suggests that invisible dimension is where God resides. Maybe the proof of that is the other experience described by those who have died and returned is the feeling of love.