The proof is in the eating. You have to try it and see if it works. The spiritual is not a tangible world so you cannot see it or touch it but you can feel it. Getting there is an evolutionary process. You sort of grow into it. The more it works for you, the more you want to learn about it. It is an inward journey that you have to discover for yourself. That is the only way I can explain it.

If you have children aged 3 years and younger, then, while spending bonding time together, gently ask who they were before they came into this life. Be prepared for your world to turn upside down!

thank you, namaste

Here is a book you may find comforting, "Visions, Trips, and Crowded Rooms" by David Kessler. It's a short read, and one you may enjoy. The author is a grief counselor. Although you won't find much scientific information in it, he tells you about some of his experiences and observations. For example, many death-bed scenes are the same for Jews and they are for Catholics and Muslims, so belief doesn't seem to be a big factor. Age of the person dying was not a factor either. It has been said that death bed visions are a result of the brain on medications or of it shutting down, yet some of these people had the same type of visions before their brain was shutting down; in fact, before anyone knew death was imminent. They had similar experiences regardless of whether they were heavily medicated or not medicated at all. I guess my point is that if it very similar for almost everyone, then perhaps there is something to the theory of life continuing on another plane of existence.

Another source of information as you study out this question may be the website link text

Where you can read more scientific-type stories by cardiologists, researchers and etc.

I was with both of my parents and a grandparent as they passed over, so I have some personal thoughts as well. Although the circumstances at the deaths of all 3 were very different....my mom died quickly of a brain aneurysm only in her 50's, my Grandma died at home basically of old age, and my Dad died in his 70's after a short illness, all 3 reported loved ones coming to greet them from the other side. I was surprised at one of the people my Mother mentioned, because we didn't yet know she was dead! They began conversations with these dead loved ones just before dying. Grandma was not medicated in any way.

So...there is no need to be haunted by these thoughts. Study the question from a number of sources and you might change your mind. And even if you look at the other side of the question, that existence stops, then you will just go to sleep and that will be the end, just as a deep sleep. There would be nothing to fear or be troubled about. We don't feel uneasy about going to sleep usually.

Best wishes....

actually, how do you explain a 4 year old speaking 4 languages? or Mozart composing music at a young age. There has to be some type of knowledge that came with the infant prior to birth. I think there are organizations that keep track of personalities in certain fields because the reincarnation of that personality becoming reborn is a choice. Unfortunately, we aren't privy to that and unable to prove it except what we believe.

Eh, I'm just rambling. Enjoy your quest for the answer to that question. It's been around for thousands of years.

We are.To answer bluntly!

Because the word evidence has connotations of physicality, I don't think we can prove a non material existence from a physical based state of consciousness.

To believe that something exists outside this physical realm we have to be willing to open our minds enough to allow ourselves to experience a connection to something way beyond what words alone can describe.

That's why there is really no definitive answer to your question. But in the asking, you have already begun that journey toward experiencing that divine connection while still here in the physical realm. And when you do experience it, your question will be answered because you are the only one who can answer it.

Hence, the best evidence would be realization of your true self beyond the earthly labels.

Before we were born no one knew of our existence, but when we were born everyone knew of our existence in this material world. Suddenly death strike and everyone is sad and is grieving the death of their loved one!

We then enter into the non-physical realm, with our spiritual form still looking like our material bodies,( except it is not) and everyone, and everything looks like what we have left behind, but it is still apart of this non-physical world that we have now entered. Everyone looks like human just the same, has a memory of their own human life, has the same name, and is a part of the same family roots they came from in the material world.

The material body is also the spiritual body, and when the material body dies the spiritual body in is natural form remains as before. So, death is not death as it appears to be, but a new transformation from life to continue life in the spiritual realm a dimension we left behind to become a physical being. Therefore, there is no end to life, only a continuation of life in the natural spiritual form that we refer to as the afterlife!

A spirit/soul is a living energy that never dies, and will continue to live both in the physical form, and in the spiritual form, so in essence, there is no death, since the soul shall never die and the spirit will live on forever, and ever. Therefore the physical, and non physical is the one, and same energy force that lives on to create new bodies in the material world!

So, death is survived in the material world by the soul/spirit of man with his life experience, and existence still in tact from the material world to a new rebirth, and afterlife in the non physical world!

I had an NDE about 15 years ago, and while I was dying, I was visited by my deceased father and grandmother. At first my father came to me, and I asked him where he had been, and told him that I had missed him very much these years. He then told me that he was always near me, that he had never really left me. I then told him I wanted to go with him, although I had no idea what I meant by that; I didn't realize that I was dying at the time. He became very agitated and emphatically told me that I CANNOT come with him now, it is not the right time. I began to cry and plead with him to take me with him, although I had no idea where he was to take me. At that point, my deceased grandmother joined us and also told me I cannot come with them at this time. I hadn't seen her since her death over 40 years ago. Somehow I was not surprised they were talking with me, despite "knowing" they were both long dead. Finally, they got me to accept the fact that I could not go with them at this time, and I woke up crying, feeling very sick, with a very severe headache. It took me a few days to realize what had happened, because I had never been visited by either of them, except for a week or two after their deaths. Several details that I remember from this is, they both looked very beautiful, much more so than they did while alive, and there was a brilliant white light behind them, but they both were blocking my path to the light.

Personally I do not think that a "person" and their consciousness will survive death.

However, our spiritual aspect of our being will continue on to something, not sure what that is though.....

The mystery of death is the most profound one of all, because we simply don't know for sure. None of us return from there to tell of our travels and adventures, so all we are left with are legends, myths and fairy tales. All of the greatest short stories, movies and other literary works always involve death, in one form or another.

Death, in a way, gives our lives meaning. It is the promise of death that motivates many of us to achieve things in this life, so that some essence of us might outlive us, even if it's merely in the DNA of our children.

And yet there are clues to the nature of the other side, ephemeral as they are.

The most significant clue that I can think of is that there are things (many things, in fact) that exist beyond their physical counterparts. Everything that our senses allow us to experience is a thing in its own right. The color green. The taste of a lemon. These are things that cannot be described; they can only be experienced.

And if the act of experiencing something that cannot be described, but only experienced...If that act is occurring, then there must be someone who is executing that act of experiencing.

That our bodies are the machinery by which we experience these things is undisputable. Every experience having to do with the physical can be explained as some combination of chemical reactions and electrical signals. The real question is, are our bodies all that we are?

Well...

I suppose that the only proof that I have comes from the Platonic notion of the "world of ideas." The simplest example is that of an equilateral triangle. An equilateral triangle has three equal sides. But there is no such thing in the physical world; there's no way you can make a triangle with three sides that are exactly the same length, because someone can always come along with a more accurate measuring stick, and show that the three sides are not equal after all.

So you find the long side, and you cut the difference in half. Then you do it again, and again. No matter how closely you cut, you will never reach a length that is exactly the length of the other two sides.

Equilateral triangles are a mental abstraction. They don't exist in our physical world, and they don't exist in the brain, either, because brain is part of the physical world (how do you cut a neuron in half?). Which means that there are some things that can be experienced that do not exist in the physical world.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

According to Bruce Lipton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCvPdWMO7u8 our identity is outside of our body to begin with.

When I was a little girl, I used to leave my body at will and fly about my home and neighborhood. It was the greatest feeling in the world! I think it was a gift from God, because I later had some pretty dark days, filled with suicidal thoughts- but I knew I had a soul, and knew I would still be "alive" even if my body died!

There are many stories of people seeing loved ones after those loved ones had died. I saw my grandfather the night he died, despite the fact that we did not get word he had died until the next day.

I think that perhaps you need to take that "leap of faith" that Jean-Paul Sartre writes about. He says you must just "jump across the chasm" of disbelief, and believe. Then you will see and know that these things are real. I recommend "Guideposts" magazine if you want to boost your beliefs. Hope this helps! Blessings, Jai

There is a Bible verse that says I knew a man in Christ whether in the body or out of the body I do not know. With this is mind I'll tell you of some things I know of that happened in my family.

My grandmother when she died, my great aunt said she saw my grandmother stand at the foot of her bed. She did not know my grandmother had died. But she saw her when my grandmother did die. Two friends that knew her said the same thing she visited them when she died.

My aunt when she woke up one night because she heard her jingle bells on her door bumped. She saw her father in-law in her doorway in his underwear. When she woke up, my uncle he did not see him as it was too late. When they found his body he was in his underwear and only my aunt knew because he visited her to show he was okay, and to visit one last time.

One time my aunt woke up and was having a sugar attack, (she is diabetic) she was helped down stairs because she almost fell. She was helped to the kitchen and got a drink of orange juice. She was helped back upstairs to bed. When she woke up in the morning she thanked my uncle for helping her, he said "what are you talking about?" She said "helping me to get that orange juice", he said "I slept here the whole night I didn't help you do anything." That was an angel or ghost someone helped her so she didn't fall down the stairs.