“Are we immortal beings?” That was the question for our last Exploration Gathering. At this gathering we took part in a meditation for peace, discussed this question, and watched an Alan Watts video about his take on death. The video was absolutely mind-blowing.
The Oxford definition of immortality is “living forever; never dying.”
To most of us, immortality means that we shall persist after the experience of physical death, retaining a full recognition of ourselves, and having the ability to recognize others. If our full capacities go with us beyond the grave, we must be able to think consciously, to will, to know and to be known, to communicate and to receive communications. We must be able to see and be seen, to understand and to be understood. In fact, if one is really to continue as a self-conscious personality beyond this life, he can do so only if he maintains a continuous stream of the same consciousness and self-knowingness that he now possesses.
Most of us agreed that there is something about us that survives death. The point of contrast was whether we remain, as Ernest Holmes says, intact with our personality and memories. Some felt that we return to some energy and are absorbed back into that energy. Some in the group drew on past life regression, out of body experiences, and reports of near death experiences to inform their opinions. It was interesting to note that we did not tackle the concept of a soul and what that means. The group chose to be more fuzzy about beliefs around immortality, probably because we haven’t been there and experienced it yet. We have no empirical data to draw upon.
