Ha ha,

Another one I like is -

We only cease to exist if we are forgotten.

I think that is lovely; so even if people have died, as long as they are in their loved one's memories, they will continue to exist.

Katerina

I've tried to pass through the exit door a couple of times and have failed (obviously, duh!) and to this day I wonder whether I really wanted to top myself - afterall, I could have found a more foolproof route... but I didn't.

I don't believe in God - although I don't disbelieve, so I'm not an aetheist - so thoughts of heaven and hell never came in to it. I also didn't consider the impact it would have had on my loved ones at that time.

I was just empty - not low or depressed or anguished - just empty and faced with nothing but pointlessness for ever more. And because I couldn't see forward, or indeed back, from that particularly point(s) in my life, there was nothing around me to hold on to - to turn to - to help me through - that I thought would be useful or prefferrable to death. I just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up again.

Now I realise that I was depressed at those times (probably). I don't think I have ever really dealt with those issues or those events and most people I know are unaware of what happened.

I have got close to those feelings since, but when I feel down now I do think about my loved ones (I have kids and am married now) and I feel I don't want to leave them or have them think of me as the bloke that committed suicide.

So for me, afterlife is about the memory people will have of me when I pop my clogs - and the only way for them to have a fond memory of me is for me to stay around as long as possible and try and have a positive impact on their lives.

That's what gets me through the tough times.

Beadle

Is there life before death? That's my main concern.

JB

Not if you're undead JB.

Ah ha! But to be undead, you must first have been living.

JB

Surely you just have to be 'not dead'?

It's a bit like 'if a tree falls in the wood and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a noise'.

That could all be cobblers of course.

Well, strictly (and I'm going to bore you now) the term undead is a derivative of the horror genre, and it refers to things like vampires, zombies etc. It means something that was a living mortal being that became polluted by something supernatural, died, and then because the mortal soul was damned and unable to go to either Heaven or Hell, the body remains on the earthly plane in an 'undead' state.

JB

That'll be John Prescott then?

In medieval times, if someone was dying and received the last rites, but then recovered, they were regarded by the more superstitious as a kind of ghost, with one foot already beyond the grave...

Emma

That'll be Tony Blair then? Or Gordon Brown.

Either of these people fall firmly in the undead categrory, yes, bloodsuckers and ghouls that they are.

JB

Jacob Zuma, Robert Mugabe, George W Bush, Vladimir Putin... oh it just goes on and on and on

By crikey, George A Romero was right - the undead are taking over!

Yep, when there is no room left in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth. I think the Nazis kind of took the last few available rooms in the Underworld, leaving us to deal with the earthbound damned - Bush, Blair and of course, Jade Goody.

JB

Just for the record there is no such thing as the Afterlife, because what we consider to be the Afterlife is also the Previous Life and in actuality REAL life. This is just a Shadow Play by comparison. As a sometime psychic (it doesn't work to my convenience) I have 'met' several suicides on the 'other side' in the company of people who have 'died' more conventionally.

Consider this. Death is inevitable. Birth is not. That is a clue as to which it the REAL reality. You don't have to come here, but if you do, you DO have to go back.

Best

Prospero

Wow Prospero, I love that idea!!! The whole concept just really resonates with me.

JB