Welcome to Gaia! ::

I feel that physical existence is our chance to ascend and escape the cycle of reincarnation. After we die, if we haven't ascended then we are reborn. If we have then we move on to survive in a state of energy.

That's about all I got. LOL

afterlife to me is this:
Heaven (Souls Square) =the transition into your next life...it's a giant amusement park with everything to make every soul happy.
Hell (cheerleadia)= Life period

I don't know really how it is, seeing how I haven't experience death yet, though I do have a theory as to how and why the idea of Heaven and Hell has come to existance and why it is associated with death and such. Here is the theory:

When a person die, he dies with whatever his major emotion is. The idea stems from what I've come to understand from those who have experience near-death experience. Those who nearly died had much grief or regret at the time of their impending doom; due to this, many of those people experience a very negative effect of death (aka a Hell-like state). Those who were generally happy and such who experience a near-death usually had the opposite (aka Heaven). Thus whatever the mindframe of your death determines where you are going, not by your deeds by how you feel towards the deeds of your life. I mean, if you have commit some horrible crime and when you are dying and look back at it, guilt eats away at you and when you finally die, that guilt follows you and thus you are in "Hell". This is also why I believe that in religion, specifically Christianity, the idea of forgiveness of sins before your death will allow you to accend into Heaven was created. The idea that you are forgiven of all your wrong doing at the end of your life will make you feel...light. Unburden I guess you can say and thus when you die and feel forgiven, you will leave the world with happy positive thoughts in your head and mind. *shrugs* But that's just my theory...

I also believe there are many ways of existing, some as energy, others as matter. Perhaps there is a way to exist as something like the very essence of time, but nobody ever knows.

My Dad has an awesome argument. He chooses to believe there's an afterlife; if he's right, then he can be right. If he's wrong, he'll be dead and won't give a damn xd xd xd

I want to believe that there is some sort of eternal "paradise" or heaven, one coud say. some hopeful part of me wishes to be able to see my loved ones once more after death. I'm not sure if this could ever be.

I do, however, believe in reincarnation in a sense. Humans can be born once again as a human,or as any other living being-an animal, a tree, etc.

Well, my belief on the matter is a bit haphazared and mish-mash, as I've thought about over a period years. Assuming that human consciousness is simply a pattern of electrical signals in the brain, or something like that, I presume that when we die, our consciousness simply ceases to exist. There's nothing. Less than nothing. I couldn't explain it because it's really incomprehensible. It's kinda hard to imagine what it feels like to not exist at all.

On the other hand, and I may just be a gullible fool, I don't rule out the possibility that some people's consciousness may not entirely fade, and they would be ghosts or phantoms or what have you. I don't think that this would be a common occurance, but it may be possible. Could be the whole "unfinished matters" business or could just be dumb chance.