What happens when we die? Exploring (and debating) the magical, mysterious meaning of Near Death Experiences

(a few of my own thoughts, in an interview/conversation earlier today – which I think, and hope, are true)

“I think doubt is a good thing – and no doubt, a sign of intelligence and a willingness to look critically, at what we know – and can’t know. There is a great quote I love (by the neuroscientist and author Sam Harris – “You don’t get anything worth getting, from pretending to know things you can’t know.” There is much we don’t understand about the mind – and consciousness itself is a huge mystery. NDE’s – no matter how persuasive to the person who had the experience, are not empirical evidence for an afterlife. They are first person, subjective experiences that imply evidence that consciousness is non local – and can “separate” from the physical body in times of great distress (and even spontaneously, without any distress) – and that is very suggestive that what we take ourselves to be, as conscious creatures, is a far poorer account of our true nature and spiritual potential. I think the folks who (not surprisingly) conflate religious beliefs, dogma, etc into the mix – make it even harder to separate what is subjectively true, vs what is objectively real. I believe that consciousness survives the death of the body in some way – although for how long, I (nor anyone else) has any way of knowing. It does defy critical thinking in some way to consider myself, posthumously, floating around in some ethereal space watching football, eating ice cream and chilling with my long lost pets and grandparents, watching Netflix for eternity 🙂 I hope some version of this is true – and I suspect, based on my own experiences, some version is. (probably not Netflix – with my luck – I’ll end up with AMC+ or Fubo TV 🙂”

What do you believe?