My wife and I just bought our first home. We, separately, come from the bottom of the world. Colette was divorced and abandoned with 3 children to care for and no help, she stumbled from day to day working 2 and 3 low wage (...Tell me again why low wages are good for the economy....[?]...) jobs keeping her head held high as the church evicted her from her home (with her kids). I, just before meeting my wife was living in a corn field (about a week) after having to leave the friends home I was living in as a result of a complete collapse of the business that we where trying to get off the ground (He has 6 children, and yes, they lost their home too....). That was three years ago. Last night we finalized the deal to buy a 3 bedroom row home with a finished basement, fully furnished(!). Its not that you can't pull out of the massive gravitational pull of the blackhole of human ruin, you can. Its just that people keep being pushed off the edge in the first place and little or no real help is given to catch them. This is why we fail to break 12,000 on the dow. This is why economic expansions will ALWAYS fail. As soon as we "get it" we will conquer the stars, until then, we will crawl and fall. Period.

You know, I just had a thought. I have maintained during the course of my life that subject of "life after death" should be forbidden for discussion or speculation.

Having said that, It seems to me that the trend of the last 25 or so years regarding thrill seeking, and extreme sports may in fact be a very important, key piece of evidence regarding the experience of death if not the character of the "aftermath". We are addicted to experiences that mimic death. Drugs are one such experience. Increasing amounts and more powerful drugs yield a kind of psychological thrill ride, the sensation of disconnection, acceleration and "lightening" (in both the weight, as well as the dark senses of the word) Thrill rides, being made increasing advanced and more "thrilling" by technology are, in fact benefiting from the closeness to which this induced experience mimics the threat of immanent death, or the dislocation of the drug experience through physical experiences. Extreme sports are the ultimate expression. This involves the actual risk of death being very immediate and very real, and then being avoided through skill. The great pleasure that we seem to derive from this may come from one of several factors:

1. The actual experience of death may involve the massive dump of certain hormones and chemicals in the brain that induce the "ultimate" rush, there by easing the mortal terror of dying. (this however, calls into question what the source of this kindness is as the concept is predicated upon the idea that the death of the organism is absolute, so why bother with comforting the organism?)
2. The "brain dump" is the physiological analog of the higher experience of death and this process is needed to ease the experience of the transitional state. This would involve willingness, if you are fearful or reluctant or enter death the experience is certain to be horrible, as there is no choice. If, however, your "ready" and willing to accept the experience it may be that it becomes the greatest "ride" of all, which if not followed up with any "continuation" is your last experience and you wouldn't remember anything anyway so it just won't matter to you. Just like the moment of maximum fear and release during a thrill ride or an orgasm, the sense of "selflessness" being the disconnection from your memories. Although, once again this calls into question the purpose of this complex system of easing the experience if there is nothing after. (though it is quite possible that there IS nothing after and the "pleasure" or "pain" of the experience is purely a subjective interpretation of the physiological process. Very possible)
3. The simulated experience of death is purely cathartic in nature and the subjective experience is the release of our inner mortal terror of the prospect of death itself and the end. There is no "experience of death" only the anticipation of it.
4. The experience of death is an actual physiological reality and is the direct objective experience of the transitional state that is our procession from this the "next" state. The sensation of "acceleration" is in fact the experience of acceleration from this to a higher state. The "lightness" is the experience of the de-physicalization of the entity. The over-whelming sense of pleasure is the realization of the end of physical limitations and depredations. This would then call into question "what is it that lays beyond?" The reported experiences of the death process are remarkable similar to that which we might imagine a newborn infant experiences at birth. Sudden change, the end of a stable existence and the transition to a new state, motion, acceleration, disconnection (umbilicus?) and the perception of an on-rushing brightness that seems to contain a living presence followed by the greetings of people that we "know" (the implications of that are far beyond the scope of this article). The experience of the process of physical decay would then be a component of the death experience, perhaps the "de-physicalizaion". This then calls to mind the possibility of a highly altered time sense. The years of physical decay passing in only moments of subjective time, or, alternately, lasting forever. This would make sense considering the Einsteinian predictions of time flow as we accelerate.
5. Thrill rides are just big time fun, drugs are a blast and extreme sports are an ultimate, "peak" experience due to the fact that it proves real, physical superiority.

So which seems the most likely to you? And, if you really think about it, does it matter? I think that a little of all is involved at some level and that we simply do not have the capacity to comprehend it fully.

Just an thought

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Without going into a great deal of detail, (as it would "muddy the waters" and confuse the issue) history is cyclicial. Everyone has gone to the movies and, within the first few minutes, realized "Oh God, not this again!' After a few times it would seem that there are in fact, only a handfull of plots possible and the thousands of movies made are just new varients on the same story. Its true. There are only a limited number of stories and each one gets told and re-told. In the case of history this process continues until the final telling at which point, history is fulfilled and the story ends. The problem is that we know this and we are trying to avoid the end because, well...its the end. So at each iteration we manage to avoid the culmination of the process that is inherent in the story just enought to require the whole process to re-initialize and start again. "Do it again Daddy! Do it again!" We are trying to avoid the end of our childhood as a species, we don't want to "grow up", we don't want the summer to end, and "we ain't gonna...so there!". Think again. We are, whether we like it or not. No, we don't know what awaits beyond that foggy veil and we are only posponing the inevitable and making things more difficult in the process. That having been said...

We are about to "Do it again". Biblicial prophesy is a function of our ability to exist in a unified, trans-temporal group mind state. Within that focus we are able to speak to the future and the past, as a group. Or, the past can speak to us. Try to imagine that St. John, in reality, had an alien radio that allowed him to speak to a news caster in the future, (say, Dan Rather) He might have had a great deal of dificulty understanding what was being said, assume further that this alien radio has a universal translator attached and, voila!, Nothing. You see, St. John would have had a hard time understanding anything that he was told or shown. The problems of global trade barriers would have invoked images of gigantic walls and fortresses to protect the "city" of U-Sah from hordes of A-shen "radios"(talking boxes? Little people inside?) The images that he transcribed are in a language that he shared with Nostradamus. A language that both shared with the universe itself..."Yes, thats right! ITS...not mathamatics, no, not music either...." . You see, the language of the universe is beyond all of that. For us, a word is a way of exchanging a thought about a thing. For the universe, a word is a thing, and it doesn't like being refered to as "a thing", as that is rather demeaning. (Although "thing" gets a kick out of it). A galaxy IS a word (as we, with our greatly limited perception and understanding) comprehend it. Language, thought, idea, concept, information, knowledge is what the universe is made of. quarks are thoughts. St. John, in the visions of the book of revelations was "seeing" and "hearing" in the simple form of the universal language that was (and is) available to humanity. So was Nostradamus. Being born and growing up is a phase, just one of many. Some even think that death is just the process that leads to the next phase. Who knows? Perhaps there is no end. I do know this, the history of the human race is the record of the process of conception, birth, and maturation of a being. and here at the apex of that process (again..."oh God, not this AGAIN!") We are still no closer to crossing the line into adulthood. Our survival is NOT assujred. We are NOT the "only game in town". To put that in terms that would seem more familier, God made the universe. We are the natural and proper result of that process. We are not the "choosen" of God nor are we the only "child" that God created. If we don't make it, sadness and tragedy aside, another will. In short, your not the center of the universe. stop acting like it.