The WHWWD Thread

Fascinating Typoz and while I fully, completely respect your privacy I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say I'd love to know more of your story.

No - of course your post should stand as is. I was just offering some direction for the thread but these are only suggestions.

No worries Dave, thanks.  It's an interesting idea for a thread this but after thinking about it overnight I'm going to hang back until I can think of a way to do it without sounding cliched. It's a bit of a minefield really.

No worries Dave, thanks.  It's an interesting idea for a thread this but after thinking about it overnight I'm going to hang back until I can think of a way to do it without sounding cliched. It's a bit of a minefield really.

Sure. It's that minefield which prompted me to start the thread. I realised that, while we call ourselves "proponents" and generally agree that we live on into a somewhat different reality, there is probably no consensus on exactly how that reality differs from this one.

I can't really comment on Information Realism and I know that's your thing but this last bit reminds me of the kind of empty solace offered by an atheist at a funeral.

My personal opinion, is that the solace may not be empty and the loving and caring consequential.

I don't know what happens after I am dead. I've had lots of different ideas, and I keep adding to them.

But life... Oh my god... When I concentrate really hard, pull back, and refocus on observing the experiences I am having at this moment (disassociate myself?), for a brief enormously powerful moment, the whole concept seems utterly, utterly ridiculousness and totally absurd. It momentarily seems bizarre that I could ever be so consumed within my experiences here, that I've missed something far more important, related to something about me even being here at all. And it's just too enormous to understand what it is that causes this to feel so significant. And then it's totally gone, as if I wasn't strong enough to sustain the effort of observing me, observing my experiences. I'm plunged back into the experiences themselves, the sense of connectedness reappears, rightness reassert's itself, and everything seems totally acceptable.

I have once, on one night out with friends going from bar to bar... found some place that seemed a halfway point between being in the experience, and total disassociation of being outside of it. Holding onto this feeling of balance the whole evening... and it was quite the most unusual, utterly calm and somehow enjoyable waking experience I have ever had. I just felt as if I knew what people were feeling, what they wanted, and what was motivating them, so so clearly, that I could manipulate, and interact with them like tiny children 'in the nicest way possible' if I wished to, or just enjoy observing them interact with each other. Very strange, and I've never been able to achieve anything like that state again.

...all that said, do I feel there is something else that lies beyond this experience I'm having... yes, I do.

This is one of my favorite books:
Science and the Afterlife Experience: Evidence for the Immortality of Consciousness

Sharing messages from the dead themselves describing the afterlife, Carter reveals how consciousness exists outside the parameters of biological evolution and emerges through the medium of the brain to use the physical world as a springboard for growth. After death, souls can advance to higher planes of consciousness or manifest once again on Earth.

I agree with the descriptions of the afterlife presented in this book.

This is one of my favorite books:
Science and the Afterlife Experience: Evidence for the Immortality of Consciousness


I agree with the descriptions of the afterlife presented in this book.

I've read his NDE book (lent it to someone, never got it back) but not this one. Maybe I'll get the Kindle version.

Wow Max.  Really great contribution here.  Most appreciated!

Great thread Kam!  So happy you had the idea to start it.

I had my first, 'Spiritual' experience at the age of thirteen. I was chemically enhanced. About forty minutes after taking my first tab of LSD I noticed a growing sense of euphoria. I had a dawning awareness that the natural world was vital and sentinel.
My attention was drawn to a nandina shrub, [a member of the bamboo family] It began to sing to me, not in a voice i could hear, but somehow see. It became translucent and crystalline. Then it began to dance and grow. By that I mean it's leaves began to swell and propagate new leaves in the most hypnotic rhythm i could imagine. It pulled me in deeper and deeper. 
 It showed me its life force , I was completely transfixed. On some level I realized it was laughing at my foolishness, but the laughter was so gentle and kind,  that i felt comfortable joining in. [As some of you might do while reading this.]  

Then as it pulsed and trilled and danced, it somehow informed me that this performance was pure theater. That in fact the whole world as I had known it up to this point wasn't nearly as real as I had been  led to believe. Its joyousness and playfulness was contagious. this plant imparted a secret to me that I've enjoyed to this day.
 Needless to say this form of enchantment, doesn't work for everybody. I consider my self fortunate to have had largely positive experiences with this substance, but your mileage may vary.

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading that, appreciated.

I had a dawning awareness that the natural world was vital and sentinel.

A question: should that read sentient (able to perceive or feel) rather than sentinel (guard or keep watch)?