That is a loaded question April, but here I go. My view is that there may not be a final answer for us to find. We are a tiny part of an unimaginably vast universe, and what we know is only a fraction of what exists. Even our perception is limited. Our eyes detect only a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, but we know that there are countless wavelengths beyond what we can see. That makes me wonder how much of reality lies beyond our senses and current understanding.
Because of that, I try not to be too certain about ultimate truths, we all go with the flow of life. Religion, philosophy, and science are all different ways of exploring the same mystery. They each have their own traditions, rituals, and methods, but all are attempts to explain the mysteries of life and make sense of existence from our limited perspective. To me, life isn't about finding the one correct answer. It's about remaining curious, continuing to learn, and accepting that some questions may always remain beyond our reach.
I think you’d be surprised by how many people feel the same way. More people are stepping away from organized religion and forming beliefs that feel true to them. I grew up Catholic, but I didn’t continue with it, which my father definitely isn’t happy about. I’m very spiritual and have developed my own beliefs through experiences that have shown me we are more than our physical bodies. We are souls. We are energy. I believe we continue on after this life and that there are others guiding us along the way.
My family on my mother’s side grew up Catholic. My mom’s ancestors are from Italy (on both of her parent’s side). I had a conversation with my Nana in the past about how I don’t believe in religion, she says to me “of course you do, we are catholic”. “No Nana, you are catholic”. She then begins to try to tell me because we are from Italy and Italians are (mostly) catholic, therefore we are catholic. I tried to explain to her that is not how religion works, but in her old school mind she just didn’t get it. So I suppose she died believing I was catholic. 🤷🏻♀️
Oh wow, we’re so similar! I’m Italian too, with an Italian father. He once told my brother-in-law that his religion was the only “right” religion.But that’s exactly what organized religion has taught people for centuries. That there is only one truth, one correct path, and anything outside of it is wrong. Fear and division made people easier to control, and that control has been deeply embedded in religion for nearly 2,000 years.
Good article. Some people have put a label of ‘religion’ on ancient information that speaks of the creation of humans by otherworldly beings from the heavens. Those ancient texts are speaking of the creation of life on Earth, not the creation of religion. Some institutions in the world use the information to control the masses for various reasons. All cultures speak of a creator from the heavens. Maybe there are other worlds in the heavens, inhabited by otherworldly beings of various kinds far superior to us. Apparently, among those beings, the eternal kind are supreme, superior to all other beings. They create other kinds of life in mortal realms and grant immortality before the ascension into the eternal realm. Humans are one of many kinds they created. We are all in the mortal realm where humans are created. The end goal of the supreme beings is to populate the realms in the heavens with life. This is how I view those ancient texts.
Yes, that is true. But ultimately, the endgame for us in following religions has to be immortality, love, peace, and harmony. Also, we are hoping the eternal realm is a world where we are not entering into a religious denomination in the heavens, and that will be our lives 24/7. If that is not enjoyable on Earth, what makes us think it will be enjoyable in an eternal realm? I feel at times that many religious folks are sending the wrong message about where we are going. They make it seem as if we will be entering into what is like their house of worship setting and activities. We want to be happy, get along, and enjoy the eternal realm.
Well that’s the point of my article. Everyone thinks they have it right. But nobody knows for sure. Nobody can say this is absolutely what is going to happen. Because NOBODY has had the opportunity to die fully, and then come back and tell us what really happens. Yes you can die for a short period of time but the fact that you came back means you didn’t die fully. Every single thing that’s out there is speculation. Even my view of what happens when we die is speculation.
I agree with you. We can only hope that something beautiful awaits us beyond death, because it would be wonderful to be together again and enjoy a future life of universal love, peace, and harmony. Something more exists because there are people who can naturally and genuinely see the spirits of some of the deceased. Some people who say that they are spirit mediums are charlatans, but others are telling the truth. There is more to our reality than our physical eyes see. The spirit is the real person, the soul with consciousness. The energy from the soul gives life to the body. The physical body is a biological machine that each of us enters for a physical reality experience. That’s what I understand. April, I enjoyed your article. Thanks for sharing.
Love this perspective, especially how you trace the evolution of human understanding and connection to energy! It is fascinating how our ancestors tried to make sense of the universe. For me, viewing the soul as an indestructible electrical charge that cycles back into the cosmos makes a lot of sense, because energy truly never dies and only transforms. Thank you for opening up such a thoughtful space for us to share!
Precisely, if there is one thing that we’ve learned through physics it’s the energy doesn’t just disappear it goes somewhere else. Our body is made of energy. Without it, we flatline and die. So it just makes sense to me.
A lot of food for thought in here. My relationship with religion, having grown up atheist in “the Bible Belt”, is complex, to say the least. I think we all operate and survive and live best when we are true to ourselves, our own beliefs, while respecting the beliefs of others and admiring how diverse we are as a species. And, most importantly, lifting those views that do not harm to others. Those are the ones that must last.
A very interesting read April. I try not to get involved in religion or politics it causes too many arguments and wars because everyone’s beliefs are different, and of cause everyone believes that their religion is right.
I think the main reason people turn to religion is because their mind is disturbed, either by self guilt, or themselves or their loved ones being gravely ill or from other trauma’s that disturb their self securities and they become unstable and frightened and loose their self belief.
So they turn to prayer for either forgiveness, a miracle or some kind of relief from their worries.
My sister turned to religion when her daughter was ill with a brain tumour at the age of 4. My niece has just gone 46 now so she recovered and survived it all, but when she went into surgery to have the tumour removed my sister went to the hospital’s chapel to pray for her recovery.
My sister and my niece still belong to a church now 42 years later. My sister was never bought up to be religious neither was I.
I turned to Acceptance as you know, which to me is more or less the same thing. Jesus’s teachings were all about Acceptance and Equanimity which we all know brings calm to a troubled mind, which is what it’s all about at the end of the day.
Nevertheless April I loved reading your article and it made perfect sense and from what I see from all the comments you had from it bought up a lot of discussion. Thank you for sharing it with us all April. John
I didn’t grow up with religion. My mom said she felt judged whenever she went into a church so she never took us. When I was a kid I was curious so I would have my friend’s parents take me to church. I was probably in elementary school, maybe middle when I first started having friends take me. And for years that’s what I did. Eventually when I could drive on my own I continued. I’ve been to a few different churches in my life and each one made me question it all. Even as a child I questioned everything that was said. I never ever took anything for face value. No matter how much I wanted to believe it all, I couldn’t. None of it felt right to me. I even got a tattoo on my mid upper back of a cross, crown of thorns on top and a red and white rose for the blood of Jesus and purity. But luckily it’s in a place I can’t see. I’ve been baptized. I did all the things and I never could get FULLY into it. Religion and our views on life and the afterlife is all based on our experiences and what we feel deep inside. So glad to hear your niece recovered.
All I can say is I’m glad I’m no longer confined by one paradigm about heaven and hell. It damaged my psyche as a child. It’s wonderful that in reality we can explore endless possibilities. I appreciate you mentioned reincarnation. This feels intuitive, given we have stories of children who share who they’ve been in a past life.
I’m sorry you had to deal with that cult like system. It’s one of the many reasons I hate Religion so deeply. But yes there are sooooooo many stories throughout history of children talking about their past lives. How can a child do that if it’s not true? I know someone personally that dealt with it. Her son (out of nowhere) started freaking out at night. Making sure all the doors were locked constantly. Continuously checking on his family every night and looking out the windows expecting something bad to happen. This happened for months. He was a nervous wreck every single night and they couldn’t figure out why, or what happened. They tried everything they could think of to fix this fear. They finally went to the opposite side of the country (we live in VA, they flew to CA) to meet with a past life hypnosis. They were able to figure out that in his most recent past life he was a Jewish man whose family was killed by intruders in his house. My guess would be in WW2 times. But once they did that and figured it all out they were able to stop his anxiety and he stopped doing his nightly rituals. I’m not sure exactly what they did to stop it but whatever it was it worked.
Aw poor guy. I wanna give him a hug! I’m glad his parents met his needs, even if it meant stepping out of bounds of the conventional to give him a newfound freedom. Some people I know would say hypnosis is demonic, or it’s false memories. I mean, it worked and it was therapeutic it sounds like. Good for him!
It did work for him, so if that’s what it took then yay! I don’t know how hypnosis is considered demonic but people are known to have some weird views on things.
My spirituality and the practices I have to recognize and interact with the unseen all stemmed from personal experiences and what resonates most with my being. Ancestrally, I carry as distrust of formal religious institutions because of the harm some have caused. I feel there is a difference between the institution of religion and the underlying spirituality and spiritual practices. Finding what resonates and leaving the rest is a difficult path to walk especially when you're breaking a familial pattern or system.
I know it has to be extremely hard for those that have grown up in a strict religious household. My mom is much like me in her thoughts towards religion, so even though she grew up in a Catholic household she never put that upon my sister and me. Thankfully! Because out of all the Religions out there the Catholic Religion is the one that irks my nerves the most.
38 I had a run in with the Lord, what you refer to as a soul I refer to a spirit. I love to finally hear what you believe I mean I knew I just didn't know this. things for sharing my friend.
That’s why I do believe one of the three options is stay in place (haunting),those unresolved issues. Maybe they never resolved it because they won’t allow it to be resolved, or maybe their soul says “this isn’t worth it anymore” and moves on.
That would need an evening with a nice glass of wine. Too much for a Substack comment - and I am not able to put this in an essay like you do in such a phenomenally great way! In short: I have read a lot about this topic, talked a lot about it with others and had some strange experiences. By the way, because of my experiences, I would add another possibility to where the soul goes (universe, stay in place, new body): I think if there are some important, unresoved issues, it stays near for a while, trying to communicate, before chosing one of the three.
April, your closing question turns belief from a label into a biography: what do we believe, and what happened in our lives that made that belief possible? Family, culture, grief, wonder, disappointment, and experiences we cannot easily explain all become part of the inner monologue through which we interpret existence. Inviting people to tell that story without judgment creates room for convictions to be understood in context, even when they cannot be reconciled. Thank you for making curiosity, personal history, and mutual dignity the terms of the conversation.
That is a loaded question April, but here I go. My view is that there may not be a final answer for us to find. We are a tiny part of an unimaginably vast universe, and what we know is only a fraction of what exists. Even our perception is limited. Our eyes detect only a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum, but we know that there are countless wavelengths beyond what we can see. That makes me wonder how much of reality lies beyond our senses and current understanding.
Because of that, I try not to be too certain about ultimate truths, we all go with the flow of life. Religion, philosophy, and science are all different ways of exploring the same mystery. They each have their own traditions, rituals, and methods, but all are attempts to explain the mysteries of life and make sense of existence from our limited perspective. To me, life isn't about finding the one correct answer. It's about remaining curious, continuing to learn, and accepting that some questions may always remain beyond our reach.
I think you’d be surprised by how many people feel the same way. More people are stepping away from organized religion and forming beliefs that feel true to them. I grew up Catholic, but I didn’t continue with it, which my father definitely isn’t happy about. I’m very spiritual and have developed my own beliefs through experiences that have shown me we are more than our physical bodies. We are souls. We are energy. I believe we continue on after this life and that there are others guiding us along the way.
My family on my mother’s side grew up Catholic. My mom’s ancestors are from Italy (on both of her parent’s side). I had a conversation with my Nana in the past about how I don’t believe in religion, she says to me “of course you do, we are catholic”. “No Nana, you are catholic”. She then begins to try to tell me because we are from Italy and Italians are (mostly) catholic, therefore we are catholic. I tried to explain to her that is not how religion works, but in her old school mind she just didn’t get it. So I suppose she died believing I was catholic. 🤷🏻♀️
Oh wow, we’re so similar! I’m Italian too, with an Italian father. He once told my brother-in-law that his religion was the only “right” religion.But that’s exactly what organized religion has taught people for centuries. That there is only one truth, one correct path, and anything outside of it is wrong. Fear and division made people easier to control, and that control has been deeply embedded in religion for nearly 2,000 years.
It makes me sad, that something such as that can cause such a huge divide. It’s not like someone’s opinion and views hurt another.
Good article. Some people have put a label of ‘religion’ on ancient information that speaks of the creation of humans by otherworldly beings from the heavens. Those ancient texts are speaking of the creation of life on Earth, not the creation of religion. Some institutions in the world use the information to control the masses for various reasons. All cultures speak of a creator from the heavens. Maybe there are other worlds in the heavens, inhabited by otherworldly beings of various kinds far superior to us. Apparently, among those beings, the eternal kind are supreme, superior to all other beings. They create other kinds of life in mortal realms and grant immortality before the ascension into the eternal realm. Humans are one of many kinds they created. We are all in the mortal realm where humans are created. The end goal of the supreme beings is to populate the realms in the heavens with life. This is how I view those ancient texts.
All ancient texts see the end game differently. It all depends on where the mindset was when they were written.
Yes, that is true. But ultimately, the endgame for us in following religions has to be immortality, love, peace, and harmony. Also, we are hoping the eternal realm is a world where we are not entering into a religious denomination in the heavens, and that will be our lives 24/7. If that is not enjoyable on Earth, what makes us think it will be enjoyable in an eternal realm? I feel at times that many religious folks are sending the wrong message about where we are going. They make it seem as if we will be entering into what is like their house of worship setting and activities. We want to be happy, get along, and enjoy the eternal realm.
Precisely our body is but a vessel for our true self. The soul. The energy. The life force.
Exactly
Well that’s the point of my article. Everyone thinks they have it right. But nobody knows for sure. Nobody can say this is absolutely what is going to happen. Because NOBODY has had the opportunity to die fully, and then come back and tell us what really happens. Yes you can die for a short period of time but the fact that you came back means you didn’t die fully. Every single thing that’s out there is speculation. Even my view of what happens when we die is speculation.
I agree with you. We can only hope that something beautiful awaits us beyond death, because it would be wonderful to be together again and enjoy a future life of universal love, peace, and harmony. Something more exists because there are people who can naturally and genuinely see the spirits of some of the deceased. Some people who say that they are spirit mediums are charlatans, but others are telling the truth. There is more to our reality than our physical eyes see. The spirit is the real person, the soul with consciousness. The energy from the soul gives life to the body. The physical body is a biological machine that each of us enters for a physical reality experience. That’s what I understand. April, I enjoyed your article. Thanks for sharing.
Love this perspective, especially how you trace the evolution of human understanding and connection to energy! It is fascinating how our ancestors tried to make sense of the universe. For me, viewing the soul as an indestructible electrical charge that cycles back into the cosmos makes a lot of sense, because energy truly never dies and only transforms. Thank you for opening up such a thoughtful space for us to share!
Precisely, if there is one thing that we’ve learned through physics it’s the energy doesn’t just disappear it goes somewhere else. Our body is made of energy. Without it, we flatline and die. So it just makes sense to me.
Couldn't agree more. Energy conservation makes total sense of it all.
This sounds very interesting, bookmarked it to read later!
Thank you. I hope you enjoy it. It’s not a typical religious kind of post.
Yes, it didn’t seem like a typical religious post to me 🙂
A lot of food for thought in here. My relationship with religion, having grown up atheist in “the Bible Belt”, is complex, to say the least. I think we all operate and survive and live best when we are true to ourselves, our own beliefs, while respecting the beliefs of others and admiring how diverse we are as a species. And, most importantly, lifting those views that do not harm to others. Those are the ones that must last.
A very interesting read April. I try not to get involved in religion or politics it causes too many arguments and wars because everyone’s beliefs are different, and of cause everyone believes that their religion is right.
I think the main reason people turn to religion is because their mind is disturbed, either by self guilt, or themselves or their loved ones being gravely ill or from other trauma’s that disturb their self securities and they become unstable and frightened and loose their self belief.
So they turn to prayer for either forgiveness, a miracle or some kind of relief from their worries.
My sister turned to religion when her daughter was ill with a brain tumour at the age of 4. My niece has just gone 46 now so she recovered and survived it all, but when she went into surgery to have the tumour removed my sister went to the hospital’s chapel to pray for her recovery.
My sister and my niece still belong to a church now 42 years later. My sister was never bought up to be religious neither was I.
I turned to Acceptance as you know, which to me is more or less the same thing. Jesus’s teachings were all about Acceptance and Equanimity which we all know brings calm to a troubled mind, which is what it’s all about at the end of the day.
Nevertheless April I loved reading your article and it made perfect sense and from what I see from all the comments you had from it bought up a lot of discussion. Thank you for sharing it with us all April. John
I didn’t grow up with religion. My mom said she felt judged whenever she went into a church so she never took us. When I was a kid I was curious so I would have my friend’s parents take me to church. I was probably in elementary school, maybe middle when I first started having friends take me. And for years that’s what I did. Eventually when I could drive on my own I continued. I’ve been to a few different churches in my life and each one made me question it all. Even as a child I questioned everything that was said. I never ever took anything for face value. No matter how much I wanted to believe it all, I couldn’t. None of it felt right to me. I even got a tattoo on my mid upper back of a cross, crown of thorns on top and a red and white rose for the blood of Jesus and purity. But luckily it’s in a place I can’t see. I’ve been baptized. I did all the things and I never could get FULLY into it. Religion and our views on life and the afterlife is all based on our experiences and what we feel deep inside. So glad to hear your niece recovered.
Thank you April. And thank you for replying to my comment. I find your story and your answers to my comments very interesting. John
💗😘 thankful for you, and your comments
All I can say is I’m glad I’m no longer confined by one paradigm about heaven and hell. It damaged my psyche as a child. It’s wonderful that in reality we can explore endless possibilities. I appreciate you mentioned reincarnation. This feels intuitive, given we have stories of children who share who they’ve been in a past life.
I’m sorry you had to deal with that cult like system. It’s one of the many reasons I hate Religion so deeply. But yes there are sooooooo many stories throughout history of children talking about their past lives. How can a child do that if it’s not true? I know someone personally that dealt with it. Her son (out of nowhere) started freaking out at night. Making sure all the doors were locked constantly. Continuously checking on his family every night and looking out the windows expecting something bad to happen. This happened for months. He was a nervous wreck every single night and they couldn’t figure out why, or what happened. They tried everything they could think of to fix this fear. They finally went to the opposite side of the country (we live in VA, they flew to CA) to meet with a past life hypnosis. They were able to figure out that in his most recent past life he was a Jewish man whose family was killed by intruders in his house. My guess would be in WW2 times. But once they did that and figured it all out they were able to stop his anxiety and he stopped doing his nightly rituals. I’m not sure exactly what they did to stop it but whatever it was it worked.
Aw poor guy. I wanna give him a hug! I’m glad his parents met his needs, even if it meant stepping out of bounds of the conventional to give him a newfound freedom. Some people I know would say hypnosis is demonic, or it’s false memories. I mean, it worked and it was therapeutic it sounds like. Good for him!
It did work for him, so if that’s what it took then yay! I don’t know how hypnosis is considered demonic but people are known to have some weird views on things.
❤️
My spirituality and the practices I have to recognize and interact with the unseen all stemmed from personal experiences and what resonates most with my being. Ancestrally, I carry as distrust of formal religious institutions because of the harm some have caused. I feel there is a difference between the institution of religion and the underlying spirituality and spiritual practices. Finding what resonates and leaving the rest is a difficult path to walk especially when you're breaking a familial pattern or system.
I know it has to be extremely hard for those that have grown up in a strict religious household. My mom is much like me in her thoughts towards religion, so even though she grew up in a Catholic household she never put that upon my sister and me. Thankfully! Because out of all the Religions out there the Catholic Religion is the one that irks my nerves the most.
38 I had a run in with the Lord, what you refer to as a soul I refer to a spirit. I love to finally hear what you believe I mean I knew I just didn't know this. things for sharing my friend.
Did you dream of him or seeing him in your waking hours?
waking hours, didn’t see, just a conversation, that was as real as the ones I have every day.
My life experiences brought me to a very similar belief to yours.
That’s why I do believe one of the three options is stay in place (haunting),those unresolved issues. Maybe they never resolved it because they won’t allow it to be resolved, or maybe their soul says “this isn’t worth it anymore” and moves on.
Wow, I haven’t met many people that have a similar belief as I do. It would be interesting to hear how you got to your belief.
That would need an evening with a nice glass of wine. Too much for a Substack comment - and I am not able to put this in an essay like you do in such a phenomenally great way! In short: I have read a lot about this topic, talked a lot about it with others and had some strange experiences. By the way, because of my experiences, I would add another possibility to where the soul goes (universe, stay in place, new body): I think if there are some important, unresoved issues, it stays near for a while, trying to communicate, before chosing one of the three.
April, your closing question turns belief from a label into a biography: what do we believe, and what happened in our lives that made that belief possible? Family, culture, grief, wonder, disappointment, and experiences we cannot easily explain all become part of the inner monologue through which we interpret existence. Inviting people to tell that story without judgment creates room for convictions to be understood in context, even when they cannot be reconciled. Thank you for making curiosity, personal history, and mutual dignity the terms of the conversation.