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Death comes to us all… but isn’t it about
time we knew more about it? In the modern
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world we still have Faith and religion to
shape what we believe, but we also have
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increasingly in-depth scientific theories on
what will really take place. In this video,
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we’ll be approaching it from all angles,
in search of a higher understanding.
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This is Unveiled, and today we’re
answering the extraordinary question;
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what happens after you die?
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Do you need the big questions answered? Are you
constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to
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Unveiled for more clips like this one? And ring
the bell for more thought-provoking content!
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Everything lives, everything dies, and the
world keeps on turning. That’s the general idea,
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anyway, right? Well, yes, except that
we humans have an innate and ancient
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tendency to imagine that this life isn’t
all there is. That there’s something else
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beyond this mortal coil… some other
place to which we’re all headed.
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Is life after death possible?
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The concept of life after death can be debated
from three main angles: Faith, science and
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technology. In terms of Faith and theology, some
refer to heaven and hell, everlasting paradise,
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or reincarnation. Then, there are various more
scientific and academic approaches pertaining to
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the preservation of consciousness. And finally,
there are the more technological answers,
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imagining a future time when life can
be saved and digitalized via machine.
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Through the lens of Faith, today’s question
is really an irrelevant one. Of course
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life after death is possible, if you believe
strongly enough. With science and technology,
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though, the answer isn’t quite so straightforward.
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The tricky matter of consciousness is key.
It’s something which has long puzzled the
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world’s foremost thinkers, philosophers and
scientists. What is it? Where’s it located?
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And what happens to it when our physical
bodies are no more? René Descartes is
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usually billed as the flagbearer for the
modern debate, thanks to his belief that
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our consciousness is the only thing we
can actually be truly certain of - the
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basis of his often-quoted, seventeenth
century mantra; I think, therefore I am.
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Fast forward to the twenty-first century, however,
and the debate is still in full swing. In 2015,
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Oliver Burkeman (writing for the Guardian)
asked why the world’s greatest minds still
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couldn’t solve the mystery of consciousness?
In his article, he referred back to a mid-90s
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science conference when one David Chalmers
referred to the issue of consciousness as
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“the Hard Problem” - a term which eventually
inspired a 2015 play by Sir Tom Stoppard.
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For Chalmers, when it comes to the brain, there
are many easy problems and one hard one. The
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easy problems are things like how do our senses
work? and how do we remember stuff? In reality,
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these questions actually aren’t at all simple to
answer… but they’re still a breeze compared to the
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hard problem which, for Chalmers, is… how do all
of those other problems amount to experience? How
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is it that, yes, we see colors, feel pain, hear
the waves crashing on the rocks at night… but,
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crucially, are left with a sense of
being irrespective of all of that?
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But what does this scientific-philosophical
quandary have to do with the question at the
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top of today’s video; is life
after death possible? Well,
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for as long as science cannot absolutely
align consciousness with a physical,
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material thing - with a specific part of the
brain, for example - there’s an argument that
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it doesn’t need our bodies (or brains) to
carry on. And then, there are any number
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of things it could do post-body and post-brain…
all of which amount to some form of afterlife.
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This is just one interpretation, though.
For many, the expectation is that we
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will one day be able to definitely say that
consciousness is the product of the human body,
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and probably of the human brain. We will one day
be able to solve Chalmers’ Hard Problem. At which
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point we might try to encapsulate consciousness,
prolong it or create an artificial version of
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it to potentially live forever - more on
that shortly! But, at that hypothetical,
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future stage, we could very confidently
claim that life after death is possible.
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What’s interesting, though, is that according
to one study, we might have already measured
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it. In 2014, the AWARE study - an acronym
for “Awareness During Resuscitation” - was
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published by a team from Southampton University
in the UK. It charted the apparently conscious
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experiences had by those who had survived
a cardiac arrest… in between the time of
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clinical death and their heart restarting (a
period when their consciousness should’ve shut
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down). For almost half of the heart attack
survivors, results suggested that there was
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some level of awareness post death. They could
see or hear what was going on around them,
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or they built memories of it… or even suffered
from post-traumatic stress disorder, linked to
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it. In all cases, to some degree, it could be
said that the patients were alive after dying.
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But, still, the widely held expectation is that
even if death is like this - even if there is a
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between-time when a dying person is conscious
of their fate - then it should only last for
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a few minutes. At which point the Hard Problem of
consciousness regains its mysterious hold, and the
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apparent afterlife ends. It’s this window between
life and death, then, that science and technology
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most wants to open up. If there is any moment
at which a person’s essence of life remains even
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when their physical body does not, then growing
numbers of people want to bottle that moment up.
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It may sound like a sci-fi writer’s dream
dystopia, but in the modern world we are
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trying to relocate consciousness out of
organic bodies and into more reliable,
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less perishable ones. But, before we do
this, we need a watertight understanding
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of what it is we’re trying to move.
The race is on to map the human brain!
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So far, we’ve made big steps in
the right direction. In July 2019,
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news broke that scientists had managed to
complete the connectome of a tiny species
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of worm. A connectome is essentially a brain map.
It details every single neural connection inside
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a brain. And the 2019 news represented the first
time we’d fully completed the connectome of any
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organism. Now, the structure of worm brains
is something we can confidently say we know
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about. And it’s something that we could
potentially recreate over and over again.
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The jump from worm to human brains is, clearly,
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a considerable one. But these early successes
prove that it will, one day, be possible. And,
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at a future time when we can map not only the
human brain in general, but also specific brains
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from person to person… we could end up with
effective blueprints for every human being.
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The personalities, individual traits, and even
consciousnesses of everyone… translated into data.
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But where would we go from here? It’s one
thing to have the maps and diagrams of a
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brain to pore over and work from, but it’s
another thing to go ahead and build it! And
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even if we could… would this ever truly
constitute as life after death? Is, say,
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a recreation of your brain and consciousness
inside an android of the future really the
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same thing as your brain (as it is) right
now? If science heads in this direction,
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then very quickly these will be the sorts of
ethical questions that the world would be facing.
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Thankfully, before all of those future problems
arise, however, our quest to preserve life even
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after death is likely to yield a number of other
positive discoveries. The Human Connectome Project
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is arguably one of the most forward-thinking
and ambitious initiatives on the planet today,
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as it represents the biggest effort we’ve
made so far to map the human brain. It’s
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a joint project linking a number of the
world’s best universities and hospitals,
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and its primary goal actually isn’t life after
death. It’s just that understanding the potential
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for life after death could be an offshoot of
the study. In the meantime, it aims to get
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to grips with all manner of neurological
conditions and brain disorders - ranging
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from depression to psychosis to Alzheimer’s
disease. The general idea is that once we’ve
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gotten to grips with our brains, it’s possible
that the entire human race could benefit.
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So, the answer is three-fold. The afterlives we’re
told about via various religions and alternate
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worldviews rely on Faith, and for as long as
you have Faith then whichever afterlife you
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subscribe to is deemed possible. Many scientists
among us are more interested in the nature of
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consciousness, though… and in deciphering
once and for all why - in some cases - it
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appears to extend until after we die, creating
to some degree a life after death, once more.
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But finally, for the technologists in
our midst, life after death will surely
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be possible in the future. All we need to
do is successfully map the human brain,
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tweak our connectomes so that they can apply to
everyone, and then design some sort of digital,
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android world in which to house them all.
Which camp do you fall into? Do you view the
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afterlife as a concept to believe in, a science to
master, or a tech breakthrough waiting to happen?
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What happens after we die? It’s a big question,
and one of the most popular answers is that
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we go to Heaven… and that Heaven is pure
paradise. Think of the best, most agreeable,
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most enjoyable place you can imagine, and that’s
what we’re dealing with here. Everything is good,
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nothing goes wrong, and it all goes
on for eternity. But… how can that be?
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What if Heaven is terrible?
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We’re not debating whether Heaven does or doesn’t
exist. We’re not especially concerned with the
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form it takes (if it does exist), either. And
we’re not about to tell you how to get there! We
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have covered most of these topics in other videos,
though, so be sure to check them out after this!
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But, for today, we’re more simply imagining that
Heaven is a place where people go after they die.
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For every one person in this life, there’s
the possibility of one more soul (or spirit,
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or consciousness) in Heaven.
We know that broadly speaking,
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the promise of an afterlife provides
comfort, guidance and focus to millions
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on Earth. But statistically speaking,
it triggers a bit of a headache.
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First of all, who gets in? There’s potentially a
huge population issue. If we take just the modern
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human as having even a chance of entry into
Heaven, we’re casting our net up to 300,000
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years back across history.Even the most
conservative estimates claim that around
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100 billion people have lived on Earth during
this time. That means that even if only half of
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everyone who’s ever lived gets into Heaven,
there’s around 50 billion people there. Say
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the figure is more like eighty percent, and
that’s 80 billion souls all in one place.
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When you imagine paradise,
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do you see 80 billion people? Or would
you rather it be a little quieter?
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Consider, too, that the population of Heaven
will have started to spike in recent years,
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in line with the fairly spectacular figures
we’ve seen down here on Earth. In the year 1800,
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the global population was around 1 billion. By
1900, it had grown to about 1.6 billion. By 1950,
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it was 2.5 billion. And then the figure truly took
off, so that by the year 2000 it was at more than
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6 billion… and today we’re speeding ever
closer toward the 8 billion people mark.
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The effects of this recent, rapid change are
continually debated and analysed by experts in
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the modern world… but, in Heaven, the effects are
pretty simple. There are more people than ever,
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and they need to make way for more people
still (at an increasing rate) every single
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year. In 1950, there were 50 million annual
deaths in the global population. Today it’s
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up to 58 million - a relatively small increase,
you might say. But projections by Our World In
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Data say that by the year 2050, we could be past
90 million deaths per annum. Whoever’s keeping
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the books in the afterlife, then, is about to
see their workload skyrocket! And, again, it
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could be argued that this doesn’t tally with the
stereotypical image of Heaven being a peaceful and
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harmonious place. Really, it’s less bliss and more
bustle. Less serene and more, well, stressful.
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But perhaps we shouldn’t get too bogged
down in the numbers? Heaven, after all,
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is endless and eternal… so it’s a good bet that
it can handle any number of occupants. Indeed,
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the more the merrier, because a busy Heaven means
that less souls will have wound up in that dark,
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miserable and fiery other place
- Hell, or the underworld. So,
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let’s imagine that you’re a soul departed from
this mortal plain, but your ticket into Heaven
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is stamped and verified. It’s a little
louder than you might have anticipated,
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yes, but otherwise it’s all good. Now, to
find your friends, family and loved ones.
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But here lies another potential pitfall with how
Heaven would actually work. What if one of the
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people you had been expecting to meet up with…
actually isn’t there. Or, perhaps even worse,
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what if it’s impossible to recognise them
in amongst the celestial, angelic crowd?
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As we’re dealing with a broad version of Heaven
in this video, there are no set rules for getting
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in. But we know that there are variations
of these rules between religions and belief
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systems on Earth. Thereby, in some instances,
you might be permitted entry via one religion,
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but denied it by another… and, so, your fate hangs
in the balance until such point as it’s revealed
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to you which rules were the right ones. That is,
until such point as you’ve died. What happens,
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then, if for whatever reason your best friend
doesn’t get in? It would be bad enough for them,
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naturally, but also terrible for you because
you’d be facing eternity without someone who’s
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important to you. So, how could Heaven ever
be that enjoyable under these circumstances?
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There’s also the issue of perfection. Many
versions of Heaven include that those inhabiting
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it are either already perfect souls, or they’re
elevated to become perfect souls. But could this
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state of invariable perfection actually cause more
harm than good? Mightn’t it take away individual
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traits and personalities, for example? And for
anywhere to ever be considered truly perfect,
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would this mean that even the concept of
Hell will have had to have vanished, too?
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Universal salvation is one way around that last
question, wherein everyone is saved and sent to
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Heaven regardless of their Earthly deeds.
God reconciles with all, and everyone ends
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up happy. But, with such complete happiness
already in the bag, one question asked by
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skeptics of Heaven is… what would motivate the
souls that inhabit it? What would inspire them,
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or even please them? And, as a result, would they
even need such ties as friendship and family?
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Amongst some of the harshest criticisms leveled
at the idea of Heaven is that, according to some,
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it might not even be possible to employ free will
there… because that would risk imperfection. And,
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so, can a place where free will
doesn’t exist ever be that great?
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And all of this is before we’ve considered
whether it’s only humans that get into Heaven?
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Is there also a place for pets, for example?
If there isn’t, then wouldn’t it be imperfect
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from the outset (from a pet-owner’s point of
view)? And why stop at just domesticated cats
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and dogs? Say you’re a naturalist and you’ve
dedicated your living years to saving pandas.
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If there aren’t pandas in Heaven, then
wouldn’t you be a bit… disappointed. Or,
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say you spent your life as an explorer passionate
about the Arctic Circle. If you were asked,
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you’d probably like Heaven to have polar bears,
rough seas and extremely cold temperatures… but
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none of those descriptors really fit the
bill for what we’re usually told Heaven
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will be like. Again, there’s argument that all
eternal bliss would really achieve is stripping
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us of what makes us… us. But there’s
also the problem of physicality, here.
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Across almost all versions of Heaven, we accept
that we’ll be inescapably leaving our physical
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bodies behind. So, even in an afterlife where free
will does still exist, and we are still motivated
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and capable of seeking out loved ones… there
are no hugs to give them. There are no hands
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to hold. And there isn’t conversation to be had,
in a physical sense, without mouths, vocal cords,
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lungs, et cetera, to make it happen. Even if your
pet dog does get into Heaven, you can’t pat it.
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And if Heaven is like the Arctic Circle, then
you can’t feel it. According to some versions,
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feasting is a big part of the afterlife… but
eating and drinking would surely be difficult,
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too? Finally, imagine that you have a
favorite tree in this world, and fortunately
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for you it does get replanted in the ever-after.
Unfortunately, you’ll never be able to climb it,
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sit by it, or potentially even see it. But
still, in theory, the leaves would grow forever.
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And that’s arguably the final, faintly
frightening aspect of Heaven - it’s said
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to be forever. Eternity is really impossible
for us mere humans to get our heads around…
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so much so that even eternal bliss is
daunting to some. Even an alternate,
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physical domain with free will comes
with the caveat that; this will never,
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ever change. It’s a whole new, wholly
alien, level of existence for us. A
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place where everyone is universally satisfied.
And while, for believers, that’s reason enough
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to accept that it’ll be fantastic… for
skeptics, it’s difficult to buy into.
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There are plenty of theories and beliefs
about the existence of an afterlife. From
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reincarnation back into this reality, to
angelic depictions of a literal Heaven
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complete with pearly gates. Or a
literal Hell, complete with fire
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and brimstone. But not all versions of
life after death are quite so… colorful.
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Eternal Oblivion Theory. We can probably all agree
that it appears at first to be quite an ominous
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turn of phrase. But interesting, nonetheless. And,
according to some, it’s integral to understanding
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our place in the universe. Broadly speaking, it’s
the conceptual idea that our consciousness ends
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completely at the point of brain death. While many
religions and worldviews promote ideas to support
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the transportation of our current consciousness
to another plane of existence after we pass,
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Eternal Oblivion Theory says that no such
thing happens. While the afterlife serves
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as a cornerstone to various Faiths, and
as a source of comfort for millions of
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followers… here, it’s unapologetically
denied. So, what’s going on instead?
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In 2017, the humanist writer David Niose
posted an article on Psychology Today titled,
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“Oblivion Isn’t Really So Bad”. In it, he expands
on the Eternal Oblivion Theory… presenting it as
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something not to be feared, but to be reasoned
with. An alternate end-of-life story that he
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feels stands up to scrutiny. Niose compares
the supposed nonexistence post-death to the
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similarly oblivious state we were all in
pre-birth - something he says he “didn’t
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find at all dissatisfying”. And this is a common
argument among all Eternal Oblivion theorists.
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We came from nothing, we go to nothing,
and there’s nothing we can do about it.
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Thanks in part to our growing scientific grasp
of what happens after we die, Eternal Oblivion is
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now increasingly pondered by a variety of people.
Perhaps unsurprisingly by atheists and agnostics,
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yes, but also by some theists - by those with
some degree of religious or spiritual belief.
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The idea of the mind and consciousness
being dependent on the working brain,
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for example, has more advocates now than
ever before. Science is increasingly
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confident that consciousness can’t exist in
the long-term without a brain to house it… so,
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what happens after brain death? Or,
more precisely for today’s question,
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what could we ever realize was happening?
For Eternal Oblivion theorists, the answer is
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nothing. And the nothingness is so complete that
even the concept of eternity doesn’t register.
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It’s a dark theory (in more ways than
one!) but it also isn’t a new one. So,
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let’s scale back. The famous Greek philosopher,
Socrates, was a religious skeptic who mused about
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the Eternal Oblivion Theory, more than 2,400
years ago! Many of his philosophical positions
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weren’t exactly welcomed at the time of his
living… and, ultimately, he was sentenced to
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death for impiety and for corrupting Greek minds
in the year 399 BC. His ideas on death, however,
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were specifically captured by his friend Plato,
and eventually published in Plato's "Apology”,
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wherein it’s recorded that Socrates wondered what
might happen to him after his death sentence was
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carried out. He’s said to have surmised two
main options. The first being that his soul
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would move from one plane to another, to a place
where he might discuss philosophy with some of
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Greece's past heroes. An afterlife, if you will.
The alternative, though, was essentially Eternal
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Oblivion, which Socrates pictured as a deep and
dreamless sleep with a complete lack of awareness.
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Importantly, in Plato’s account, that second
possibility doesn't seem to have bothered
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Socrates too much. True, he would be missing the
opportunity to talk to his heroes, but he’d never
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have a chance to feel bad about that. Socrates,
it seemed, generally thought that the prospect of
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a dreamless sleep should be held as a comforting
thing for us while we’re alive. That it amounts to
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a place where the mind ceases to exist, but also
where there isn’t any sort of recognition of that
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fate… or suffering because of it. And that’s
an idea that has remained through the ages.
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The Naturalist Tom Clark also wrote about the
Eternal Oblivion Theory in a 1994 article titled,
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"Death, Nothingness, and Subjectivity". In
it, Clark presents the idea of oblivion as
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being totally in-experienceable from our point of
view. A stance not too far removed from Socrates,
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thousands of years beforehand. Clark suggests
that this non-experience (from our point of
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view) should mean that we needn’t subject
ourselves to the fear or worry that the
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seeming eternity of death creates. He further
muses that even the term “nothingness”,
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that we so often apply to the
time after death, is problematic,
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because it imbues nothing with a quality…
which then makes it something. Which then
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implies that our consciousness would have to in
some way endure it, when really it never will.
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For another example of the problem, this time
from pop culture, there’s a moment in the 1984
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fantasy movie, "The NeverEnding Story", when
the characters are trying to describe an evil
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force called “The Nothing”, when one suggests
it is a hole, prompting another to remark that,
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"a hole would be something. This is Nothing”.
“The NeverEnding Story” wasn’t necessarily
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entirely concerned with Eternal Oblivion… but
we can see some crossover. And we can see how,
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even if we’re not acutely aware of it, there’s
a sense of existential dread that continually
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plays on the human mind. Because, in
our brains, through our consciousness,
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we tend to align nothingness with suffering.
But that’s not the conclusion of the Eternal
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Oblivion Theory. Instead, it seeks to make real
the concept of nothing. To take away the mystique,
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and to give meaning to something that's otherwise
very abstract and difficult for us to understand.
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David Niose’s comparison to a pre-birth
state is one way to look at things,
00:23:21
but more generally it’s argued that the
chief reason humans fear nothingness is
00:23:25
because we’re incapable of processing it apart
from our present minds and consciousness. It’s
00:23:30
extremely hard for us to consider what happens
after we die and not to feel anxiety, loss,
00:23:36
or the ultimate feeling of missing out
on something. But, with eternal oblivion,
00:23:40
we don’t miss out on anything and we don’t
suffer… because, well, it’s more than
00:23:44
impossible for us to do that. The conditions
for any of that to happen just… aren’t there.
00:23:50
Other scientists and public figures to have spoken
in favor of the Eternal Oblivion Theory include
00:23:54
the physicist Sean Carroll and the psychologist
Steven Pinker, both of whom have highlighted
00:23:59
the lack of scientific evidence that life or
awareness can continue after death. In this way,
00:24:05
death might feasibly be rephrased as being a total
unconsciousness. As something final from which we,
00:24:11
all of us, will never return. Except, again, with
Eternal Oblivion, we couldn’t describe death as
00:24:17
being “something”, because it’s not something.
We just are, and then we aren’t. Crucially,
00:24:22
life (and consciousness) goes on from the point of
view of anybody that isn’t (or wasn’t) ourselves,
00:24:28
after we’ve died. This is something that Tom
Clark in particular points out, in his paper.
00:24:33
But personal life after death is something that no
Eternal Oblivion theorist would ever subscribe to.
00:24:39
And, for most advocates of this way of thinking,
that’s no bad thing. They’d typically critique
00:24:44
all other afterlife suggestions as being empty,
unsubstantiated promises. And, to go even further,
00:24:50
many question whether the concept of bliss
in the afterlife is even possible when it
00:24:55
implies that we still possess consciousness
there? An Eternal Oblivion theorist might say,
00:24:59
for example, that if there isn’t
oblivion, and paradise does exist,
00:25:03
then how would we feel if one of our
loved ones wasn’t there? In that scenario,
00:25:08
we’d have pain and worry and suffering even
if the afterlife is real! Why would we want
00:25:13
that? And how could it ever be a paradise?
It's something of an existential Catch 22.
00:25:19
Ultimately, it’s an unfortunate trait of the human
condition that most of us are scared to die. And,
00:25:24
for many of us, much of the fear is about what is
(or isn’t) waiting for us at the end. According
00:25:29
to various terror management theories, most
of what we do in this life is in some way
00:25:34
linked to a continual need to find comfort
against the thought of death. And, really,
00:25:38
even the Eternal Oblivion Theory amounts
to exactly that. A bid to process the
00:25:43
un-processable. To describe the indescribable.
And to predict the seemingly unpredictable.
00:25:49
A favorite quote among humanists, and
particularly Eternal Oblivion theorists,
00:25:53
comes from another Greek philosopher,
Epicurus, who was born around forty years
00:25:58
after Socrates died. He, too, didn’t
shy away from contemplating death,
00:26:02
most famously saying; "If I am, then death
is not. And if death is, then I am not”.
00:26:08
It’s perhaps the simplest way of approaching
Eternal Oblivion. It’s not a mode of thought
00:26:13
that everyone will like or believe in… but
it does encourage us all to appreciate the
00:26:17
present. To value the life that
we’re living right now. Because,
00:26:21
when death comes, the ultimate transformation
is at hand. You are, and then you are not.
00:26:31
Humans are naturally afraid of the unknown.
Often, when we think of the dark depths of
00:26:36
the ocean or the deep vastness of space, we
feel an indescribable sense of unease. A fear
00:26:42
of concepts that lie beyond. But nothing
is shrouded in quite as much mystery,
00:26:47
morbid intrigue or existential
terror as what happens after we die.
00:26:57
What if we proved life after death?
0:26:57.600,1193:02:47.295
00:27:01
If there’s one question in the history of the
world that humanity most wants an answer to, it’s
00:27:06
this one; what happens after we die? The problem
of death is one that humans have contemplated for
00:27:12
thousands of years… and we’ve never really got
close to solving it. Modern science continually
00:27:17
enables us to delay death just a little while
longer, and average life expectancy has increased.
00:27:23
But the ultimate end still inevitably
comes one way or another. And… then what?
00:27:28
Most religions offer ideas about what comes
after this life, including heaven and hell,
00:27:33
reincarnation, or some other
type of spirit world. Meanwhile,
00:27:37
there are increasing numbers of science
and future tech initiatives aiming to
00:27:41
build an afterlife before we get there -
including various plans to upload human
00:27:45
consciousness onto digital drives, where it
exists for all time. That’s the hope, anyway.
00:27:51
No matter what Faith you do or don’t subscribe to,
though, no matter which speculative technology you
00:27:56
most believe will actually be invented, it’s
clear that the thought of death affects us in
00:28:01
profound ways. That, throughout our lives,
we’re guided by how and why and where it
00:28:06
might end. Terror Management Theory posits
that so much of what we do in life amounts
00:28:11
to us trying to manage our subconscious
concerns about dying. The general idea says
00:28:16
that the main reason we build (or don’t build)
relationships with other people, for example,
00:28:20
or the reason why we follow religions, seek fame,
or assume any number of cultural identities,
00:28:25
is because we’re trying to make ourselves feel
better about our own impermanence. We’re trying
00:28:30
to build something that’s bigger than our own
mortal selves… because actually everyone (whether
00:28:35
they realize it or not) is worried about
the fact that they won’t be here forever.
00:28:39
Immediately, all of this subconscious anxiety
disappears were we to prove an afterlife. Now,
00:28:45
this life wouldn’t be all there is, so there’d
be much less pressure to try and preserve it.
00:28:50
Or to create something that lasts longer
than we can. Any irrefutable evidence that
00:28:55
life after death exists would, then, have a
massive effect on people’s personalities. On
00:29:00
their morals. On the human character,
as a whole. But for better… or worse?
00:29:05
One perhaps surprising improvement
could be less prejudice. Concerningly,
00:29:10
research shows that by simply reminding an
individual of their own mortality, you can
00:29:15
cause them to become more biased, prejudiced, and
even aggressive - as part of a kind of in-built,
00:29:20
misguided defense mechanism that humans
have. One experiment in America, for example,
00:29:25
showed that even judges can be swayed in this
way… with it being found that when reminded of
00:29:30
their mortality before sentencing, they’re more
likely to give harsher punishments. We can say
00:29:35
that even the justice system itself, then, is
shaped by the specter of death. And we can see
00:29:40
how the thought of death can provoke from within
us a deep-rooted kickback, which could then lead
00:29:44
to social problems ranging from unfairness
to intolerance to perhaps even violence. But,
00:29:49
if we knew that death wasn’t the end,
then none of those things need happen.
00:29:53
There are other ways that our subconscious fear of
death shapes how we feel and behave, too. Accounts
00:29:59
of near-death experiences have increasingly
interested scientists and psychologists in
00:30:04
recent years. Reports often include an aspect
of life flashing before eyes, a phenomenon also
00:30:09
known as a life review, where people claim to
not only witness their past actions, but also
00:30:14
to see how those actions affected others. If this
particular part of an NDE is something we all will
00:30:20
ultimately experience, then we’re all set to spend
our final moments self-evaluating. Coming to terms
00:30:25
with everything we did (or didn’t) do. And, given
that so many who come back from an NDE pledge to
00:30:31
lead a better life from that point forward, it
seems we more often than not judge ourselves
00:30:36
as having behaved poorly. The prospect of death
prompts us to doubt what we’ve done in our lives.
00:30:41
It’s possible, then, that proving an afterlife
would lift a number of subconscious issues from
00:30:46
our minds… alleviating pressure and ridding us
of mental ties we might not even realize we have.
00:30:52
Because this life would no longer be everything,
our terror management impulses couldn’t run amok
00:30:57
anymore, perhaps resulting in a fairer and more
generous human race. But, also, because we’d
00:31:02
know there was a second chance waiting for us,
we might be able to cut ourselves some slack,
00:31:07
and avoid deep-rooted feelings that we were living
our lives incorrectly. Perhaps everyone would be
00:31:12
imbued as standard with the do-good mentality of
a near-death-experiencer, and we wouldn’t have to
00:31:17
see the error of our ways in order to change.
Or… perhaps that’s just wishful thinking.
00:31:22
One counter argument says that the promise of
a life after this one would mean that people
00:31:27
would actually value this one far less.
And that’s not a good thing. Suddenly,
00:31:32
the consequences of anything you do on Earth
matter very little, because really this existence
00:31:36
is just a stepping stone into the future. At
its best, this interpretation leads to reckless
00:31:41
abandon. People doing what they want, when they
want, because who cares? You’re guaranteed a “try
00:31:47
again” after all of this is over, anyway. At
its worst, though, it leads to selfishness and
00:31:52
cruelty. With every cruel act now diluted by the
human psyche, because everyone is scarily safe
00:31:58
in the knowledge that nothing matters in this
life so long as there’s another one on its way.
00:32:03
Naturally, so much of this hypothetical rests on
what form our confirmed afterlife would take. Is
00:32:08
it heaven and hell, is it reincarnation, do
we all become ghosts, or is it nothing like
00:32:14
what we expected? Is there a God waiting for us
when we arrive, or isn’t there? And if there is,
00:32:19
what type of God? Meanwhile, there are any
number of scientific theories which could
00:32:23
serve to shape our understanding, too. The US
computer scientist, Bryon Ehlmann, for example,
00:32:29
theorizes that the afterlife is merely our
last moments before death played on repeat,
00:32:33
a dream-like state he calls Natural Eternal
Consciousness… so is that all we’d have proven?
00:32:39
Needless to say, the particulars of life after
death would completely reshape society on Earth.
00:32:44
Religions could quickly disappear, with
only those which most closely predicted the
00:32:49
real-world afterlife retaining any followers.
Science would head in all new directions too,
00:32:54
as the revelation would go against many (and
most) mainstream scientific theories. Physicists,
00:33:00
in particular, would have a hard time
trying to explain it in logical terms.
00:33:04
If there’s a good place and a bad place, a
heaven and hell, then one offshoot could be
00:33:09
an afterlife industry… built on products and
schemes to get people where they most wanted
00:33:13
to be. We’d see companies monetising the path
to the hereafter… because some people would
00:33:18
try to buy their way in. Products on shelves to
better your chances of heaven. Supposed experts
00:33:23
styling themselves as trusted gatekeepers
between the here and there, guaranteeing
00:33:27
you safe passage or your money back. In this
incredible scenario, Earth could unfortunately
00:33:32
descend like this… into a corrupt, insincere
and fraudulent realm where everyone’s striving
00:33:38
to boost their afterlife potential. A chaotic
midway point on the road to a higher plane.
00:33:43
Or, if we assume that the better
sides of humanity take hold,
00:33:46
then a proven afterlife could prompt us all
to help others. It could inspire equality,
00:33:51
with everyone focused on the shared goal of
enjoying this life and preparing for the next
00:33:56
one. What do you think would most likely happen?
Ruthless one-upmanship or altruistic harmony?
00:34:02
According to the psychologist Steven Reiss,
writing in 2016, one main reason why many
00:34:07
religions offer an afterlife in the first place is
to help us to find tranquility in this life. For
00:34:12
terror management theorists, it’s more simply
about us staving off death anxiety until the
00:34:17
moment comes. But would life after death really
make the here-and-now more tranquil? Would you
00:34:21
worry less, or just worry differently? Because
the questions wouldn’t stop there… For one,
00:34:27
if there’s a life after this one, then what comes
after that? And would the afterlife also be proof
00:34:32
of immortality? Proof that whatever we did, on
Earth or beyond, we’d know about it forever?
00:34:37
Do these ideas dampen our fears, or intensify
00:34:40
them? It’s an existential
headache from here on out.
00:34:44
What’s your verdict on life and death?
Do projects like the AWARE study reveal
00:34:49
all there is to know? Is Heaven really a
place that we should want to end up in?
00:34:55
Or does the Eternal Oblivion Theory actually
offer more in terms of comfort? And finally,
00:35:02
what do you think would happen if
we ever did prove life after death?
00:35:26
00:35:33
For now, we at least have our lives
on Earth to enjoy, to experience,
00:35:39
to learn from, and to remember. But, for that
unknowable time hopefully long into the future,
00:35:46
those are some ideas on what might
happen when our lives run out.
00:35:54
What do you think? Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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