What if You Get to the End of Your Life and Find Out You Were Wrong?

It's not a comforting thought that your life might have been off track. How could anyone know for sure?

The non-believer finds upon death that they are leaving their body behind.

"But wait! If I'm leaving my body, then I'm not my body. So, what am I?"

And like a lucid dream that never ends, as in the movie Waking Life (2001), you imagine all manner of things, perhaps even a living nightmare.

Without the physical anchor of their body, the non-believer is lost in an uncontrolled storm of thought and creation. How much control does anyone have over their dreams? A few can manipulate their lucid dreams, but if the dream ever gets away from you, terrifying madness may envelope you. And no one on Earth will know of your torment.

Depending upon what they have believed during their life, they may be rudely surprised that things may not be as they originally thought.

What if a believer discovers that, though they thought they were following Christ, they had been attached to earthly things and had been following them, instead?

So many Christians believe in their own future, bodily resurrection. Will it happen? Personally, I don't know. Some tell me that I am confusing "reincarnation" with "resurrection." Personally, I don't think so. I see reincarnation and resurrection as two completely distinct and separate events. And personally, I see resurrection as a spiritual event, not a physical, Homo sapiens event. Just as Adam and Eve suffered a spiritual death in the Garden and just as Genesis 6:3 says that man is "also" flesh, man is something else, too—spiritual.

Could it be that the part of man that was created in the "image of God" is their spiritual half? I've had believers and non-believers confuse this issue. At least it seems to me that they are confused.

If Genesis 1:26 is true, then why doesn't it refer to the spiritual part of man? Why would one atheist say that these imperfect bodies show that God is imperfect, too? Perhaps it has nothing to do with these Homo sapiens bodies.

Does the dogma or interpretation of a bodily resurrection for us indicate an attachment—even a lusting for—the flesh? What would you do without your body? If you are inherently spirit, of what good is the body? Jesus told his enemies that in heaven they would not have their wives as they did on Earth, but would be as angels.

What's the purpose of the human body? Is it only a temple to aid in the quiet reflection of their own spiritual reawakening? And if such awakening occurs, is the body needed afterward?

I have remembered many of my past lives, some far more vividly than I remember most of this one.

Delusion? I could be wrong. I have been wrong about many things.

And yet, when I hold certain beliefs inviolate—miracles happen. When I have doubts, they don't. Again delusion? If my entire life is a delusion, perhaps. Somehow I don't think it is, so what I witnessed is likely what I witnessed.

Believers and non-believers hold one trait in common a large percentage of the time. Finding humility amongst them is difficult. Heck, finding humility in myself is sometimes difficult.

Stubbornly holding onto an idea as "TRUTH" can backfire!

There can be truth in most any statement, but such an idea can also possess lies. How do we know for certain?

Do I believe in reincarnation? For now, yes. I'm attempting not to be stubborn about it. I have enough evidence to convince me that reincarnation is real. None of the arguments of others are sufficiently logical to dislodge me from that belief. And yet, I am willing to be dislodged.

Ultimately, my aim is one of finding "TRUTH."

I want to know more about my spiritual self. I want to know how to recognize more accurately my master's voice.

Being aware that one can be deluded is not a bad thing. Being humble in the search for "TRUTH" is always good. But regrettably, some people have stopped looking. They now already know their own version of "truth," and nothing anyone says can dislodge them.

When they get to the end of their lives, will they find themselves on a lonely island of thought, caught in an unending nightmare, because they didn't take the time to learn more about their own spiritual nature? That possibility saddens me. Will I find out something similar? That possibility frightens me—enough to do something about it.

But what is the right thing? As a scientist, one refrains from holding onto any one idea too tightly. That's not "skepticism," but instead "restraint" and "humility."

We can all practice restraint and humility. We can practice a hunger for knowledge, because in this mortal realm we will never know it all. Appreciate the input of others, especially when it is something new and strange—or something familiar with a slightly different twist. Give value to the views of others, even if we disagree. Sometimes we may find that their idea sits long enough in our own mind to take root and show itself to be valuable. The first glance is not always the most revealing.

Sometimes "TRUTH" remains hidden by our own preconceived notions. Humility allows us to let go of these notions long enough to let such superior knowledge reveal itself.

I grew up shy, painfully so. I lacked self-confidence. I also had a fear of heights after several damaging falls during infancy, one requiring stitches.

As I grew up, I learned to let go of my fears and the anger generated by them.

Then I discovered the true meaning of "faith." To the glory of the Heavenly Father, miracles happened. I discovered that all prayers are answered instantaneously and in the affirmative. Always! Too many people feel they are praying, but are deluded by what they think they are asking. It's a bit like a girl going to the Ob-Gyne and being told repeatedly that she is not pregnant. All trajectories short of perfect and humble confidence will fall back to earth as if never answered. But they are answered, because the prayer contained a spot of doubt. They received back more doubt. They were merely blind to that for which they had asked.

So, be pregnant with the spirit—be humble about what is and isn't "TRUTH," and have perfect confidence in only a few key things:

• God is infinitely powerful
• Both the Father and the Son love you
• And both want you back

Anything beyond this can become tainted with earthly interpretation. Is your interpretation true? That's possible. Is someone else's interpretation true? That's also possible.

The tragedy I seek to avoid and to help others avoid is in clinging to the wrong thing when the end is at hand. I do not want to be clinging to my own ideas when I should be asking the Father for Truth. I don't want to be clinging to the notion of a bodily resurrection when there may be no bodies where we are going. It is entirely up to the Father what that destination looks like.

I don't want to cling to any resentment, either. In the final judgment I might see the head of a pharmaceutical company, guilty of the slow murder of millions from chemical poisoning and the suppression of cures made illegal by congressional lobbying, all for gargantuan greed and lust for power. They may go to heaven because at the last minute they saw the error or their ways and were washed clean of all sins. And me in my struggle to be anonymously good, fail to enter paradise because of a spot of resentment. Agonizing irony, that. So, I do my daily laundry to wash out all such dark spots. And I stay alert to where those spots originate.

The only way to know for certain is to get the scoop directly from the Heavenly Father, Himself. And, for that, you need to hone your skills at listening for His voice, constantly questioning your own "interpretation" as fallible.