Life After Death
“Is death the end to our individual experience of life?”
Dear Reader,
Let’s say you were to build a tower out of blocks and then knock that tower down. If you were to rebuild the tower exactly as it was before, from the same blocks in the same placement, would that tower be the same tower you had knocked down?
This is to ask, if you were to die today, then eventually be reformed exactly as you are, made of the same materials and circumstances, would this not be an example of you living after you had already died?
In a world where my logic of Leora’s Existence Equation applies, this type of life after death would be a highly plausible possibility, so long as the heat death of the universe hypothesis doesn’t apply. If, at a fundamental level, nothing can cease to exist and everything remains in motion, this would portray ‘dead’ as an alternate state of being, but not the ceasing of what exists. Now, if our unique existence is the essence of what is eternal movement, it would seem almost inevitable that eventually everything we are now could be reformed exactly as is, considering that what we are now is a viable form of existence, as our current existence proves that viability. If we could not be, we would not be. Suggesting that death is not only an alternate state, but possibly a temporary one.
Would it be possible for us to experience a life in reality that is different from the lives we are currently experiencing as a result of this temporary death concept? I find the answer to this question a bit complicated, as it concerns the question ‘What makes you you?’ How much of one’s life can be altered until one is no longer the same person? For this, I would like to reintroduce the block and tower analogy. If you were to build a tower, knock it down, then rebuild the tower, only this time, replacing a few of the original blocks with different blocks, is it the same tower as before? It seems to be almost the same tower, maybe even ‘partly the same tower.’ So, if you were to die, then be reformed almost as you are now, but with some parts replacing others, is that an example of ‘you’ living again, or is that an example of a being that is ‘almost you’ living? It’s almost the same as asking if an alternative version of you is technically not you.
This leads me to the idea that this ‘almost you,’ or ‘alternative you’ concept doesn’t only apply when speaking about death and reformation of ourselves. These concepts would occur in our current lives as well. If you were to build a tower, then one by one, replace the original blocks you used with new ones while the tower is still standing, eventually having changed every block used to build the tower, is that still the same tower as before?
When memories fade
and new ones form,
when circumstances change,
and we find ourselves in unfamiliar places—
when old habits end
and new ones begin,
when we stop believing
what we once held true,
and our very cells die
to be replaced—
are we still the same beings
we once were?
Is your conscience still that of the newborn you grew from? The changes of what you are and become during a lifetime seem hardly different from the differences that occur when reformed as something that is ‘almost you.’ Perhaps each moment is an alternate state of being, regardless of life and death. So instead, I now wonder…
Is there an afterlife experience that is separated from this form of reality?
Sincerely yours,
Leora
