right and they where giants. but this fact is not known to many but there is plenty of proof..

It is as he said it would be.

The human soul is some form of sentient energy field. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause
-------Shakespeare, from Hamlet

A great subject in the wrong place with the wrong audience. Simmers are focused pretty much on the Now.
On the other hand, they are open to imagination--obviously.
Check out:
http://www.near-death.com/
There is serious research out there for those who really want to know.
Some clever tests show the survival of consciousness after the body ceases to function.
Even to placing signs hidden on the ceilings of medical operating rooms (which were correctly read by some 'leaving their body' during operations)
About one in five reported leaving their body.
Doesn't seem to matter whether you believe or don't believe in survival after-death.
Your consciousness goes deeper than you realize (so to speak).

One could debate and argue this for ages.

I personally believe that there is something else there. My own belief is that we are reincarnated; that we need to learn, and then we get to 'transition' when we have learnt. When I was 21, I started to have 'bad memory dreams', things that had happened to me, places I had seen. So I went to regressive hypnosis, and a HEAP of stuff came out.

Sure, it could have been my sub conscious, but could my sub conscious really give me a pain like a knife being thrust into me? Because it happened.

Coming forward to today; my fiance is 4,900kms away from me, but when she is sad, or down, or happy, or even horny - I feel it. Explain that. And it is correct 100% of the time.

It's also interesting that in the last two years or so, I seem to have found more 'peace' within myself. I consider that I have been a good person, and done the right thing. As a result, should anything happen to me, I will only be sad for those that I leave behind.

There is simply too much in the universe for us to contemplate. Man by his very nature is ignorant AND arrogant, we think we know it all, and chances are, we know very little. I shall continue to keep an open mind.

Some good posts. I was a non-beleiver for a long time, but have changed.

It's comforting to read and hear about after-life stories reaching centuries back one direction and as close as today and family in the other, Ol' Grog.

It's good to know there is a chance of surviving death even if we are not personally certain of it. If that's wrong, it won't matter. Or we will be just matter. But if it is possible... Almost every family has such "afterlife" stories, whether much talked about or not, and many of us have friends to tell us.

When you see for yourself that the waking part of you is only a part, THAT's when the rubber meets the road. The conscious you, the aware part, is only half of it. But a very vital, important part. We literally "pay" attention; it's the coin of creation. Where our attention goes, so do we.

Nothing opens our eyes and ALL our senses like having an experience yourself, whether out-of-body, prophetic dreams, near-death, seeing ghosts, you name it. No one has to tell you then. You know. May not understand, but you know.
But there is a good reason people are deeply shaken by seeing ghosts or having those abnormal experiences. And why they usually avoid more of them afterward, while others seek out the experience when they haven't had it.

Once faced, the inner YOU knows the edge of everyday reality has crumbled, and you stand naked close to the unknown where anything is possible. It's like standing on a cliff or the top of a tall building looking down. Your body KNOWS you are on the edge and tells you so! The feeling is deep and strong. A real thrill, and a dangerous one, that some people love.
Instinctively, most people retreat back to the "safe" and dependable world we are used to. Most try to close that door to Everything and shut their eyes again. Too much to handle. Better the devil we know than the devil we don't know.

My opinion is that we all are here to learn, to experience life in its fullness of body and mind and one day come to realize how much alike we are-- even while we are all different and unique-- akin to ALL life and made up of what does not seem alive at all: the earth and its minerals and chemicals. "To have life, and have it more abundantly," soneone well-known told us. To learn as the Buddhists do: to have compassion for all sentient beings (and who is to say what is sentient, but us?).
Then, somehow, to carry that knowledge and pass it on to one another. To educate one idiot at a time.

Lucky us, to be here now. And perhaps be here in the future.