In my opinion, yes.
But it depends on how you think of life.
If you think of life as the physical part of your existence – of course you’re immortal.
A basic principle of physics is that matter cannot be created or destroyed; only changed. And your body has been changing since the moment you were conceived. Most of the cells in your body are not the same ones you had a year ago. That’s why we eat; to supply energy and matter for replacing the cells that ‘die’ off.
When you ‘die’, you’re cells decompose and go on in the stream of life. If you’re buried, your body rests in containment, but still goes on to becoming part of the earth. If you’re cremated, most of your mass goes up in smoke and into the atmosphere, and your ashes go wherever your family places them – in the water, under a tree, or fired off in a cannon like I know of how one lady went out (True story). Or if you ‘die’ in the ocean, the crabs eat you. Hey! They gotta eat, too.
But what about your soul?
I like the word soul because it simply labels that intangible part of your existence that provides ‘life’ to everything that exists. It can no more be created or destroyed anymore than your cells. It only changes from one form of consciousness to another.
Ever hear of the term animism?
It’s the belief that everything has a soul. A life force. The essence to existence. The conduit of consciousness. The intangible field that connects with all else including humans, animals, plants, celestial bodies, and the forces of nature.
I believe that when you ‘die’, your soul transcends from this plane of local consciousness and rejoins that plane of non-local consciousness which is the cloud of infinite intelligence that gives order to all existence.
You go back to where you were before you were born.
I call that ‘God’. I’m comfortable with that word, too. It’s simple and has been used a lot.
Are you comfortable with your soul?
I personally think that when we die, that’s it. Nothing of a consciousness goes on, because there’s nowhere for it to go on to.
But…say you’re Ray Bradbury or Isaac Asimov or Truman Capote and you die. Whether or not any of your consciousness goes on, generations of people will remember you and read your words and in a sense, that part of “you” still “lives.” John Wayne and Elvis and Gandhi still live after their deaths in their films, music, and legacy. And, of course, no one will ever forget Hitler.
All four of my grandparents are dead, but for me, they live on in my memories, and the memories of all whom they interacted with in life. That’s the kind of life after death that I personally subscribe to.
When I write, I go with whatever fits the story. 🙂
There are some great questions about what happens when we progress technologically to the point where we are able to upload ourselves into a computer. What, then, does death even mean? What does life mean? Is the dataspace in which our consciousness exists equivalent to Heaven, Valhalla, Nirvana, The Elysian Fields, or whatever? Or would it be more like reincarnation?
It makes for awesome stories.
You know. Gary, you just may be right. Maybe there is nothing behind the black door but more black.
But I’m willing to take ‘Pascal’s Wager’ that there is another plane of consciousness out there. Hey, what have I got to loose if there isn’t?
But I’ve got a different look at it, and it comes from my personal experience. Years ago I had a ‘fear-death’ encounter. It’s like a near-death encounter (NDE) and it changed my whole viewpoint. I know I wasn’t imagining it and I’ve done a lot of research into the phenomena. There are thousands of documented cases from all over reporting a consistent experience.
You know the old line “Show me, I’m from Missouri”. Well, I got shown, and I’m not crazy, so I’m inclined to believe there’s more to our existence than most of us realize.
And, for sure, you’re right about living on in memories. I’m not religious but it seems that Jesus is a pretty good example of living on in memories. I don’t buy into the immaculate conception and physical resurrection, but it sold a lot of books!
Progression to technological immortality is an intriguing thought. It’s almost there now in the form of digital publishing and storing your words in the cloud.
Thanks for your post,
Garry