After/Life

Psychology and Philosophy in Magic
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Life: the byproduct of chemical reactions

Death: the great unknown.

Life, before death. But what is after life?

What is non-existence? Is very hard to define since all we know is existence, but comparing a living brain and a dead one can give us some insight. The former is active. The latter is not. Personally, I like to equate non-existence with the lack of motion. Nothing is happening.

For decades, I’ve been an atheist. Some days I still am. From my point of view, this life was everything there is. Some days I still think so. Some days, I don’t believe in magick, spirits or anything else.

But some some scientist, like Schrödinger and Dyson, supported the idea of a second level of existence. According to them, consciousness wouldn’t be a byproduct of a brain working.

So, if consciousness is not the byproduct of a brain working, what is it? Where is all that information stored? And how?

HH Price has an interesting view of the afterlife. According to him, the consciousness exists after death and uses all the rational and empiric information obtained through life to recreate memories and create new scenarios, with new landscapes, people, etc. Sounds nice, right?

But what leads Price to believe this? That’s an actual question since I have no idea. And I want to know.

All cultures around the world had their own views and all of them agreed and some sort of afterlife. Then again, some philosophers in Ancient Greece believed that there was something akin to the soul, but it was made of atoms and such atoms dispersed after the death of the individual, rendering it useless. Yes, atheists predate the Garden of Eden and Valhalla.

Is easy, from an anthropological point of view, to see why all cultures want to believe in an afterlife. Comfort, but also validation. Life is so brief and we’re so insignificant compared to vast universe that we want some sort of transcendence to validate all the suffering we go through in this life. Then there is the question of moral, but fuck it, I have a thing called empathy, that’s why I don’t go around kicking dogs on the streets, not because I think some god cares if I do it or not.

So, what about near death experiences and why aren’t all of them identical? Well, because they’re near death, not dead already :man_shrugging: And if they’re not dead, then they’re alive.

Death is a process. So, people hearing themselves being proclaimed dead while possible, doesn’t mean that enough cells in the brain are dead already for consciousness to fade. So I think NDE are, at most, bad arguments.

So, why in hell would we even believe in anything? Because of the times magick works? That can always be excused as a coincidence (or a million coincidences). Sometimes, we know things we can’t know. And that’s not enough. But some other times, several of us know things we can’t know independently and, fuck it, what are the odds of that? I guess the odds are zero. So, such experiences force me to conclude that there is something more. But not necessarily an after life.

And this is as far as I go. Now I want to hear you. What sort of afterlife do you believe in, if any, and why? Why being the key part.

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“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” -Mark MF Twain

Philosophy usually merits an eyeroll at the language nonsense, but here it has validity. You hit upon a philosophical dilemma, known to me as the mind body problem. You say mind is the result of body, others say body is the result of mind. What is valuable is not the fighting of these two, but how both look upon the same xyz from a slightly different perspective. (To one the sun rises, to the other the sun sets. Same event/occurrence, different perspective placements in time).

I wholeheartedly believe that this is the same as asking “What is before birth?”. Coins having two sides.

A fundamental amount of (?) biological and electrical motion is necessary for sentient life. I do not account for the awareness of plants and minerals.

Skepticism is a forgotten tool. In part because langue itself has made skepticism into a “bad word”.

If I punch into a piece of two dimensional paper, and rend/tear it… I am an expression of (?), but not limited to said expression of (?).

Suppose 2D stick figures existed. One day, you show up and punch a hole in the piece of paper, which is “Universe, or Life” to the 2D figures. While the “puncture” is not forever, it leaves a definite mold that is felt for generations to follow.

I mean this directly and not poetically or mystically: Death was with/as us before we developed the ability of speech. Before humans could read or write, there was Death - often personified. I suspect this to be a clue as to the timelessness of Death. It can create poems and books that speak to humanity across time, or it can lead to existential dread and nihilism.

The theory of evolution is the most compelling reason I have found for empathy. “My” DNA is interwoven with so much, be it amoeba or dog or worm or bee.

What is curious is this process of dying is powerfully colored by dominant narratives, be they political or religious. Most people born into a time experience an afterlife that is influenced by the most popular narrative.

I think we are shunted by our own mind, we get in our own way. There could be so much going on before birth and post death, but since it is arbitrarily, necessarily filtered though a biological brain, most is lost in translation.

This word has been ruined by translators so many times over. Once upon an ‘old testament’ time, what was,is self-evident was belief! It did not mean ‘aligning with values or principles’. In our terms, we all believe in gravity, the sun and moon cycles because they are self evident.

Anyways, I have rambled too much. Excellent topic.

Edit: Ego is as a single color, immersed in infinity. If one color fades away, does not mean the ecosystem dies.

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My thoughts on this aren’t very well developed yet! So, great post bringing this up.

However, I will say, currently I believe the Soul persists after the death of the body (Without dissolution). I believe the Soul can go to various afterlives, such as a “hell” realm to be tormented, or a more peaceful afterlife, and eventually be reincarnated, and the ultimate destination of everyone is union with The One/God (What that union is like, however, I am uncertain of. It may be that we are like drops of water falling, and when we reach our final destination, we fall into the ocean. The important thing is that that is not non-existence, very far from it!).

One of my favorite parts of the Definition of Hermes to Asclepius is this one:

Providence and Necessity (are), in the mortal, birth and death, and in God, unbegotten (essence). The immortal (beings) agree with one another and the mortal envy one another with jealousy, because evil envy arises due to knowing death in advance. The immortal does what he always does, but the mortal does what he has never done. Death, if understood, is immortality; if not understood (it is) death. They assume that the mortal (beings) of this (world) have fallen under (the dominion) of the immortal, but (in reality) the immortal are servants of the mortal of this (world).

—Hermes Trismegistus, Definitions of Hermes to Asclepius, Aphorism 10, Definition 6.

Nothing in this world is truly destroyed. It is simply the material form of things that dissolve. But the material these forms are composed of disperse, and eventually join together to form something else again, and continue onwards like this.

I believe it’s similar that the Soul is not destroyed after death, but it seems to maintain its form in a sense, until perhaps it joins back into the ocean where it came from, so to speak (But, I’m uncertain if this is total dissolution as many understand it).

So, the reason why I believe these things is from the philosophies that influence me, some of my experiences, the practical observation of the unity of the cosmos through traditional astrology and divination, and also examples like that nothing material in this world is truly destroyed.

Now, I am uncertain if we choose where we go after death. This material world seems to be governed by the Gods, as otherwise branches of traditional astrology wouldn’t work (Well, I’m unsure how else to rationalise how everything in this world has relation firstly to the 7 Classical Planets, and that these things ruled by one Planet move according to their motion, including entire nations). So, much of our lives seems to be governed by the Gods, and at least Plato seems to have believed that they manage the world totally:

Athenian: “The supervisor of the universe has arranged everything with an eye to its preservation and excellence, and its individual parts play appropriate active or passive roles according to their various capacities. These parts, down to the smallest details of their active and passive functions, have each been put under the control of ruling powers that have perfected the minutest constituents of the universe.”

—Translated by Trevor J. Saunders, Plato, The Laws, p. 437, Penguin Classics.

(Although it should be noted that the Gods here traditionally are not viewed to be evil in any way, but rather that they are supremely Good. The One emanates down to the furthest it can, this world being the furthest, and so this world is the best it could be, but since things come into existence or shape, they must be destroyed in order for the world to be preserved and have continuence or eternity)

So, it would seem plausible to me that the Gods also lead us after death to where we ought to be, for the perfection of the cosmos as a whole, leading us to the appropriate afterlife, and in the cycle of reincarnation, until we finally make the ascent.

There are other things that come into play here that could be alternatives, so I as I said, my own thoughts on this aren’t fully developed yet.

These are my thoughts on this matter currently! It will likely develop more fully as I continue to learn and practice. I’m not currently well versed on philosophies like Platonism and Hermeticism currently, although what I do know of them has influenced me greatly. In any case, it does seem to me that the Soul persists after dead, and most peoples across the entire world have seen this, and that there are afterlives, and rebirth into the world occurs.

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Harken unto me: The afterlife exists because I say so! See how easy that was?

You question me?

So, if you or anyone else has issues like this, I can provide definitive answers.

‘Yet even now, I do not know what lies ahead. Now is my time to seek the glory of my Goddesses and Gods, that I will one day walk with Satan, in His world, with His Bride. And that I will become greater than the mortal I am leaving behind. The mortal which must die that a God(dess) will be born!’

There are many reincarnation stories, some modern ones fully documented. Years ago I read or heard on radio about a cardiologist(?) who worked in a heart ward were patients regularly died and some were revived. They used to tell him that they’d left their bodies and travelled around. The medical specialist started hiding flowers in vases at the side of cabinets where the patients could see these. He used a lot of different things (like balloons) and places and when the patients were revived, they’d tell him that they saw whatever it was he’d concealed. The only way possible is via an out of body experience. How can this be caused by dying brain cells?

And I’m coming back because I rejoice in the fleshly life! I also believe I’ll have continuing Aeonic work to do.

You question me?

Al.

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