'Hereafter' does it really exist?

The last few weeks I've been reading a few hubs (as we do here on Hubpages!) that have left me somewhat frustrated and wanting to put a reply much more fully than we can in the normal comments. That's left me really with only two choices.

1. Ignore the hubs and carry on. Anyone who knows me knows that's not something I tend to do, and to be honest (even at the risk of offending some) this is actually a subject that for me is too important to 'just walk away from'.

2. Write a hub in reply. Well, here it is!

There are times when I can ignore some of the things in hubs, times when I might not agree with what they're saying, but still can see what they're saying. However there are times when it shouldn't be ignored, I think this is one of these times!
Is there really a 'Hereafter' or is it just 'Pie in the sky when you die?' The hubs I read recently argued that there isn't and basically said science overwhelmingly points to there not being!

Okay, I can accept people have that view, but what does science say about it?You all know what I believe by now so I won't waste time telling you what I think, what I did was Google the following question.'SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR LIFE AFTER DEATH?' and was stunned with the results!

Can science really prove there's life after death?

We've often said here, in the 'heated debates' that science can't prove either way! Well, it turns out we were wrong, science has had a lot to say on the subject, but we haven't really been listening! We've been too pre-occupied with our own views and trying to 'prove points' that we missed what science has been telling us for a long long time.

Before I go any further, I want to point out that I do believe in the two, and as I looked into this subject I've had a 'bumpy ride' reading up on it for the last couple of days. I'm not expecting to convince anyone in any way, but I wanted to present the evidence in a way that people will realize that there really is scientific evidence that helps us know whether they exist.

I googled the question using the 'speaking feature' on a smartphone, and literally. that's what Google recited back to me (in a mechanically female voice that only Google can create)

I got 2.5 million hits on the subject, but the ones that piqued my interest were the top ten as they all referred to a study done by Southampton university and a hoax that was put out claiming that scientists in Germany had proved life after death.

As I said the information on the web about the experiment in Germany (supposedly completed earlier this year on 994 volunteers) is a hoax and while I mention it here, I won't be referring to it again in this hub.

Do we really have a soul?

This is linked to the idea of an afterlife and we'll explore that a little too.

The study was carried out by the University of Southampton and involved fifteen hospitals in three countries (The USA, The United Kingdom, and Austria). They took the information from 2,060 people who suffered cardiac arrest. Of those 2,060 about 330 were resuscitated and it's these people whom the study was based on.

The study itself was reported in the journal 'Resuscitation'

39% said they felt some form of awareness during resuscitation (this is despite the fact that in each case the Brain had stopped functioning and they were 'clinically dead')

13% said they felt the separation of the spirit from the body.

13% said there was a 'heightening of the senses'

1 said he was 'sat in the corner' watching the hospital staff work on his body for three whole minutes (they worked this out because one of the monitors they were using has a safety feature built in that sounds a beep after three minutes and he told them he heard two beeps from the machine!)

Here's what the Doctors say.

Death is a process that can be reversed. When it is we call it cardiac arrest, but when it passes to the irreversible, then it becomes death. Once the heart stops beating the brain only continues to function for 30 or so seconds, then it 'switches off'

If that's the case, then how do you 'reboot' the brain when all life is gone?

I did eventually find a site that critiqued the study and found some pretty important flaws in the recorded data (misleading headlines from the press, none of the criteria they set up for examining if it was possible worked as they all happened outside the rooms specially equipped for the study etc.

They also pointed out that while the idea the brain continued to function and there was some form of awareness (despite being 'clinically dead') is significant it doesn't prove life after death, REALLY?

I wonder how they're going to cope with the next piece, the experiment?

Actually, before we decide on the question of whether Near Death Experiences are real, we first have to decide on whether we actually have a soul, or is it a 'trick of the brain?'

Linked to the idea of the idea of life after death is the idea that living things have a 'soul' that might carry on after the body has ceased to function, is that possible?

According to science, not only is it possible, but a number of prominent physicists the soul actually HAS TO EXIST! Not just that they think it does, but the laws of physics (Thermodynamics) and quantum mechanics dictate the soul has to exist!Before we go any further, here are the scientists (past and present) along with where they work or worked!1.

1. Dr Hans-Peter Durr (1929-2014) former director of the Max Planck institute for physics. He taught the existence of a universal quantum code that pertains to all living and dead things. Basically, with quantum mechanics, subatomic particles can be in more than one place at the same time, as with the theoretical 'Higgs-bosun' particle. Durr argued that in experiments the same has been observed in complex compounds. The 'quantum code' is also everywhere and when a thing dies the 'code' (our memories) returns to the 'quantum state'2.

2. Dr Christian Hellweg. Worked at the Max Planck institute for Biochemical research. He has researched the idea that each part of our cells also have a 'memory' that is stored and retained, but when the body dies the 'memory' returns to the 'quantum state'.

3. Dr John Archibald Wheeler. (1911-2008) Physicist (Princeton) and colleague of both Einstein and Nils Bohr (the father of Quantum physics) “Many scientists hoped…that the world, in a certain sense, was traditional – or at least free of curiosities such as large objects being in the same place at the same time. But such hopes were crushed by a series of new experiments.”

4 Dr Robert Jahn (Princeton) head of the 'PEAR' project (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research research into how the Human mind can interfere with machines that the Human may be interacting with simply by 'wishing' for a result. He has been working in this field for 30 years and is a 'plasma physicist'

5 Dr David Bohm (1917-1992) Worked with Einstein on the Manhattan Project, then was his assistant at Princeton before taking up a professorship at the University of Sao Paolo and eventually the University of Bristol.

In collaboration with Stanford neuroscientist Karl Pribram, Bohm was involved in the early development of the holonomic model of the functioning of the brain, a model for human cognition that is drastically different from conventionally accepted ideas.^{[4][not in citation given]} Bohm worked with Pribram on the theory that the brain operates in a manner similar to a hologram, in accordance with quantum mathematical principles and the characteristics of wave patterns

These are just five names of prominent scientists that I found in one article run by the Huffington post!

I forgot to put this is the hub originally, but here's why I say science says that the 'soul' has to exist.

'Consciousness' is regarded as being the result of electrical activity in the brain, it's not a chemical process or even the result of a chemical process (no chemical activity that creates electricity has been observed as far as I'm aware!)

That means that 'consciousness' is a result of energy.

The first law of Thermodynamics states that matter and energy can neither be created or destroyed, they can only be transformed. When we die the physical body isn't destroyed, but slowly decomposes, in other words, it is slowly transformed back into the original state of the component atoms, but what happens to the energy?

Energy can't be created or destroyed, so it has to transform! The idea of a soul that lives on is the idea that the energy that was 'consciousness' transforms itself and continues to exist. Some religions teach that it's re-absorbed back into the 'divine' (Hinduism and Buddhism) but others (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) all teach that it remains separate from 'God' but resides either with him or in a place he has appointed for it.

That is why I believe that science says the soul has to exist, because of the fundamental laws of Physics and Thermodynamics.

It's probably not a question that many of us like to think about, but some of the things that are written here throw the whole idea into question without really even looking at the evidence. In this hub, I wanted to present that evidence, at least the few pieces that I could find in the space of just over a day.

I say that short timeframe to let you know that there's a lot more evidence out there if we'll just take the time to look for it.

My Dad always taught me to respect the other people's point of view, but if they challenge yours then make sure you defend what you believe but in a way that respects others beliefs and is willing to learn from them. I hope that people when they're reading this hub, will see that, and honor it.

Blessings

Lawrence