Did the bacteria have afterlife?

I wonder if there's such a thing as afterlife, whether the single cell creature have it, and maybe every cell in the human body have it too 

I wonder if there's such a thing as afterlife, whether the single cell creature have it, and maybe every cell in the human body have it too 

If, hypothetically speaking, we say that a whole human being has an afterlife, and in addition, each cell in the body also has an afterlife, then at the death of the whole body, there would in effect be two separate entities formed from the one living being.

On the other hand, in some organ transplant cases, there are reports of the recipient suddenly acquiring new traits, such as a liking for certain food or drink, or perhaps certain type of music, things which the person did not have before the transplant, but have somehow been inherited from the donor. That does suggest a couple of interesting things. One, that even a part of the body may contain something additional to its simple mechanical function. Two, it casts doubt on the idea that consciousness resides only in the brain. It seems the whole body is involved.

But perhaps it depends on what we include in the idea of consciousness, for example during an NDE a person may report feeling more alive than ever (realer than real), but at the same time disregard the body they have just left, and the life and activities it was engaged in, as unimportant. The body seems like no more than a pile of tattered old clothes, gladly left behind. What is it that survives?

Under hylozoism all matter would have life. Under that viewpoint, you have layers of life going from "material"/atomic life, to the vital layer, to the mental layer of animals capable of rationality and holding of concepts.

Of course the "layers" have gradation, for example bees know about the concept the zero. The idea is that just your soul influences the cells that make up your body, the souls of cells and bacteria can influence the atoms that make up their bodies.

More on this idea in the Eric Weiss thread.

I like the idea, though of course there would need to be more research done in parapsychology to ever test such conceptions.

If, hypothetically speaking, we say that a whole human being has an afterlife, and in addition, each cell in the body also has an afterlife, then at the death of the whole body, there would in effect be two separate entities formed from the one living being.

On the other hand, in some organ transplant cases, there are reports of the recipient suddenly acquiring new traits, such as a liking for certain food or drink, or perhaps certain type of music, things which the person did not have before the transplant, but have somehow been inherited from the donor. That does suggest a couple of interesting things. One, that even a part of the body may contain something additional to its simple mechanical function. Two, it casts doubt on the idea that consciousness resides only in the brain. It seems the whole body is involved.

But perhaps it depends on what we include in the idea of consciousness, for example during an NDE a person may report feeling more alive than ever (realer than real), but at the same time disregard the body they have just left, and the life and activities it was engaged in, as unimportant. The body seems like no more than a pile of tattered old clothes, gladly left behind. What is it that survives?

Interesting questions about transplanted organs but I think we get hung up with identification with the body and, perhaps, the illusion of separate realms. So, to the transplant phenomena I might say that perhaps the personality leaves some kind of imprint on the physical material of the body. Something like a ghost being associated with a place - the idea being that it is not the actual personality doomed to wander the battlements for centuries but some kind of spiritual imprint. 

As to the original question about individual cells, I think we need to consider the possible fundamentals. To my way of thinking, mind stuff and spirit stuff are identical. Body stuff is a manifestation of mind stuff but it is still, essentially, mind stuff. The physical world is, therefore, a manifestation too. So the separation of the worlds of the living and the dead is an illusion. Mind is both collective and individual. In other words, the individual human mind is valid and has a particular focus and it is also part of the whole: the universal mind if you like but also gestalts of souls nested within greater gestalts and so on. The consciousness of bacteria might be organised in a different way to humans - perhaps like a group mind or a hive mind (thinking bees and ants, etc., but something of a similar nature for other collectives). So the "soul" of a collective might be the greater (spiritual) aspect, behind the scenes as it were. I imagine that all souls, whatever their nature, evolve just as their physical counterparts do and that evolution in two parts is essentially a single process from a larger perspective.