Thursday, February 19, 2015

Asking Wikipedia about life after death

The Ladder of Divine Ascent from St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai Peninsula, Egypt

I love Wikipedia.  If I'm watching a historical movie, I go to see what's true and what isn't.  If I haven't heard of someone, I go there.  I go there to read about unheard of localities.

Last night, I thought I'd give it a test.  So I wrote in: "life after death."  Wikipedia has all the answers, I thought.

I fell down laughing:  Life after Death is the second and FINAL studio album of American rapper, THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.

So there you have it.  You heard it here first.

Okay, if you go to "Afterlife," you get the history of religious thought all the way down to the present with Mormons having the most detailed concept of afterlife of anyone--see Doctrine and Covenants, section 76.  I am as wary of explicit details of the afterlife as I am of no detail at all.

Then too, you will find Raymond Moody's, Life after Life and Elizabeth Kubler Ross's Death and Dying, Return from Tomorrow, by George G. Ritchie and Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven.   I've read all of them and find them hopeful.

I used to have a bishop who said, "I can't wait to die and meet Jesus." 

I've never had this compulsion. 

Anyway, I told my orthodox father what my bishop had said, and he mused, "Put a gun to his head and see what he thinks then."

Like everything else, death is an experience we have to live ourselves.  I imagine it will be  like marrying, having a child, where you expect dramatic change, but in the end you still end up being yourself only in a new context.

4 comments:

  1. I have thought your last paragraph so many times--you just said it perfectly.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have a strong compulsion to live still. But it will be fun to see what happens next. I use Wikipedia all Time.
    Whenever I don't know something, Or read a popular cultural reference, And don't know what they're talking about, I Google it and usually Wikipedia is where I find my information. sometimes I take it with a grain of salt.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Speaking of Wikipedia, what is that Spanish book listed on your W page under published works? I found it today when my friend, a fan of yours, discovered I am related to you. She has one more reason to like me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "It's probably THE UNLIKELY ROMANCE OF KATE BJORKMAN which was published into Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.

      Delete