Questioning the Afterlife

Questioning the Afterlife

Author: RainFaery

Ouija boards, electronic voice phenomena (EVP) , automatic writing, séances, psychics… just some of the many ways that one can connect with the dead. The living are obsessed with knowing what happens once we’ve gone. It scares the living souls out of us, and has baffled humanity since the beginning of time.

‘Religion’ is our usual answer to this question, yet we still don’t fully know. Nobody does. We may say ‘we believe this’ or that is ‘what is going to happen’, and ‘where we’ll go’- but why? Non-believers, or atheists may say that this is the humans’ way to comfort themselves. We all want immortality, but we know that’s highly impossible, so we believe in a similar version- life after death.

For Pagans/Wiccans, this ‘answer’ can be Reincarnation, not for all necessarily, but for many. For others, it may be the belief of the soul residing with the God (s) and/or Goddess (es) . Some people may say that this is our own creation, forged out of fear, and I can see exactly how they might come to view it to be this way.

Why is there paranormal activity? Why would there be tales of ghostly haunting, demonic possession and eerie places… stories handed down throughout generations since humans could document their tales in the earliest forms of writings? Surely, the human mind isn’t that deviously manipulating and thus tricking us to see and hear these things, for most of us don’t want to be the victim of a demonic haunting or possession ever.

Constantly, I am irritated when I hear sure answers as to what happens after death. Even as a Pagan/Wiccan, I only believe and hope to the Gods that reincarnation is real. I cannot prove it, and neither can anyone else.

I’ve heard of preachers who say that this or that is what happens when you die. The Bible is so sure of what will happen to God’s followers and non-followers. I’ve spoken to plenty of people in the Mormon faith (seeing as this is a highly Mormon populated area, and therefore there are many Mormon teenagers at school) and been told what they believe. To me, the explanation of their process after death is way too complicated, just as life is complicated. I was blown away by the explanation of the levels and kingdoms and whatnot that they will go to if they do this and that… needless to say, it was exhausting.

Oh the details, this is where there lies a problem. We have too many details to explain the afterlife, without ever being there. Truly, how does one explain a kingdom in heaven where the loyal followers stay after death? How does one even know that exists? They don’t. We don’t. Why go into such detail then? Have you seen the kingdoms? No. The very questioning of these religious beliefs of the afterlife contradicts the very sure, stable beliefs we hold in them- whatever religion it may be.

Lately I’ve been reading about the methods of spirit communication. Ouija boards are the most discussed because of the controversy over their true nature. Yes, I’ve doubted the “proof” that they work via spirit contact because a manipulative person can move the piece to say what he/she want its to if he/she wishes to trick the another person. However this doesn’t diminish my belief in the boards.

To this day I’ve never used one though, truthfully out of the fear of demonic entities and negative spirits. Despite what anyone says, we don’t know its true power, what it may be able to do, and I stay away from things like that. Although the board was introduced to me for the very first time at a sleepover as just a ‘game’, I refused to play.

I don’t use any means of communication to speak to the dead. We all wonder. Some of us dabble in the practices that explore the wonders of the afterlife. Others, like myself, don’t, and instead study and read about these methods out of curiosity.

I’ve always been interested in the paranormal, ever since I was a child. I can’t put an age on just when I first experienced this fascination. First it was innocent, starting as a fourth grader acting out Charmed with friends (Mainly the fascination was witchcraft, but also the existence of demons and angels and such) . I was only 9, but before that I had always loved “ghost” movies and “witchy” things… not to associate witchcraft with the paranormal, but my interests mixed together a bit. This grew into my enjoyment of shows such as Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, (all that I still love) and Medium.

I also began to read horror books, macabre books, and researched every haunted place I took interest in. I still research and read up on these topics and find it all so intriguing. Whatever the reason, I can’t pull myself away from these morbid topics. For someone such as myself, who has never experienced paranormal activity or been in a situation to experience evidence of a paranormal happening, I sure am obsessed with collecting information on it and researching the phenomena.

There are so many ways we can contact the dead. I attempted one of these methods to contact Aphrodite the Goddess of Love directly instead. I’ve been looking for guidance from Aphrodite for a little while, along with other Goddesses and Gods in her area of guidance. I tried automatic writing, which wasn’t very successful for me. I got some sort of result, rather difficult to read, but that is for myself to know.

I’ve found that there is a possibility to communicate and receive answers, but the questions I have keep repeating. If EVPs exist as do other evidence of the paranormal, then why don’t we know with more certainty of the afterlife? Is it possible that maybe we aren’t meant to know? Or that anyone with any supposed explanations really doesn’t ‘know’ it all?

Maybe this knowledge of the afterlife is for the dead to know and for us to eventually find out with time. Assuming that this is true, no matter how many investigations people will conduct in hope for answers, no matter how many EVPs are recorded, or how many books and movies there are on this subject, it may always remain simply ‘the unknown’.