Can the afterlife be a lucid dream?

I heard from the Afterlife Topics and Metaphysics community that the “afterlife” has multiple levels, ranging from astral to celestial.

I also heard that you have the ability to lucid dream on he other side, and have a subjective experience. I have not personally travelled to this realm to tell if what I heard is true or not.

Does anyone have any idea, whether we lucid dream immediately when we die and go to our personal summerlands (how the “afterlife” was depicted in What Dreams May Come), or if we will exist in realms separated by layers, divided based on how exalted we are, but still have the ability to still lucid dream? Thanks.

Okay, here we go. Not an easy question buddy.

To some degree yes, of course. If you ask any lay man if the afterlife is more like a whimsical dream state or more akin to this waking life of DMVs and jobs we hate stuck inside a monkey flesh puppet suit – everyone would instinctively say the former. Duh lol.

But it gets weirder than that when we look into far eastern concepts of self/soul/awareness. Transcendental teachings have men thinking that the lucid dreaming of our current self in the afterlife would be a stage and not the end all be all of mankind’s final progression.

I enjoy one masters teachings of “If you aren’t aware here, you won’t be aware there.” It is not that easy to die and get “sudden enlightenment” or sudden lucidity to keep the words on brand for this website. We all know dreams are essentially reflections of how we did that day in our waking life. So in that very literal and reductionist sense – dreams are our “daily afterlife”. And I do in fact mean that quite literally. By god its so simple, dead people look like someone taking a nap haha.

If anything I would say its more akin to astral travel rather than a lucid dream. If I could reach for a metaphor – dreams are swimming in your own pool and astral travel is swimming in the open ocean (with other sentient creatures). But alas, the illusion of separateness may be just that… an illusion.

And then there is the whole question about children and DNA lineages. How souls quite possibly might fractal off the original parents. So does something different occur when ones lineage ends. Final life type questions. There is not so much a concrete objective answer for this thread. I want there to be, trust me. But were circling in the domain of subjective and its hard to navigate the muddy waters.

Your best answers may be found in another realm, whether that be lucid dreams or OOBE. Answers to the riddle, are rarely found inside the riddles worlds. What I mean to say is, its hard to see the forest for the trees while here and “alive”. Ask your guides, or sub conscious, or angels, or deceased family etc. That may be your best course of action.

  1. You are eternal. This we know
  2. It will be more dream like than not. This we know
  3. Your level of afterlife (and subsequent lucidity levels) will be a reflection of how you did while here. This we know.
  4. But there is no classic hell (in a western catholic sense). This we believe
  5. Reincarnation answers more questions that it causes which is always a good thing with any theory. Especially the initial question of “How was I born here verses there” in regards to life circumstances and not just geographical location. This we know

After all that, in simple simple terms, I would answer your question with a more pragmatic yes rather than leaning towards no. But the question borders closely to the edge of “Too big a question to ask” Again, all logic points to a huge part of what constitutes “you” as being immortal. And that might be enough for now? Ehh probably not. I like the question enough to obsess over myself lolol.

I encourage Tibetan Dream Yoga as the highest form of dream practice. Because it also has profound waking life ramifications. If your daily life isn’t improving as well, dreams dont really mean much except for escapism – which itself does have some (all be it low) intrinsic utility.

Did this help a little?

Hello @Hjeni, welcome to LD4all :wave:

Lucid dreaming is an awesome capability of our brains which basically works by having some normal brain functions switched off (as is normal for sleeping) and some others enabled. I’m afraid that, after death, your brain functions will all be shut down. Hence no lucid dreaming or anything like that.

As you can probably tell, I’m a sceptic when it comes to topics regarding the afterlife :joy: If my blunt explanation is not satisfying for you, then I suggest the following approach: First consider what you are seeking. Do you only care about opinions that you like, that appeal to you, that confirm what you think? If this is not what you are looking for and you care for the actual truth, then it gets a lot more difficult to make progress and get solid answers. ZackSymes made a good start however.

I agree on 4. As for 1, 2, 3 and 5 you stated that we know them as facts. How so? What do you consider proof for those statements or by which logic do you deduce them from known facts (and how are those proven)? I don’t know any of those 4 for a fact :shrug:

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This does help. How do I preform Tibetan Yoga?

I am but no means an expert. Not even close. But I can give a quick run down of the teachings thesis and goals and applicable benefits to waking life.

In a sentence it is basically “extreme mindfulness”. Mindfulness to the degree that it naturally carries over to the sleeping state and in a loose round a bout way — you don’t need to “go lucid” because you “arrive lucid”.

Now they take it to an extreme. They begin to change the environment, change their shape, and dissolve the dream state in an effort to practice meditations in a void. A space lacking any external waking stimuli or dream stimuli — oneness essentially.

Now this is all if I understand it correctly. Which I believe I do enough to get the ball rolling in a discussion with you buddy.

I would find a book and YouTube podcasts that provide more clarity than I can right now :slight_smile:

I could say this much however; pretend this waking life is a dream. Imagine going lucid here and the immediate wonder you would have at the silliest of things? A simple bird or building would just “seem cooler” if it was a dream building or bird right? Lol

I love practicing the wonder while “awake” as well. It’s like practice for when I do go lucid — which used to be a lot more!

… I’m getting back to it after a spell of relationships :slight_smile:

I will never use “side with the majority” as a
promising path towards truth. That’s silly and leads to willful ignorance.

But as it relates to 1-4, we have thousands of years. Hundreds of cultures. And an amazing amount of disconnected sources that agree on these things. We’re talking really disconnected sources. Apart by land mass and generations as well as language.

A fact is only an opinion that is so wide held it well… becomes a fact. And it’s repeatable in regards to the scientific method of course.

I just can’t shake this odd feeling that atheism and western reductionistic off shoots are pompous. “I’m smarter than everyone in history!” Not saying at all that’s what you’re doing. I don’t know you at all lolol.

But I had a small symptom or introduction to ego loss when I was like “Come on… someone has figured this out in mankind’s 10,000,000,000 humans.”

There are only a few (but enough) common denominators between religions to suggest what’s shared between them might be able to leave the domain of opinion and be honored in the “factual hall of fame”

We don’t actually know if dreams take place in our mind like you suggested. Basic neurology does indeed show the brain reacting to dream stimuli this is true however. So on that point it’s possible the brain constructs worlds.

But imagine… you have a brain that can create worlds so real it tricks you into thinking it’s waking life. That’s profound. Beyond!

And I will end it with this, I came from my dads balls. And that sir is the craziest thing to ever be said or proven. Walking purple giraffes with super powers… that’s nothing when compared to what we already know. A big ball of fire in the sky just came back west from China. Right on schedule… that’s insane. How cool :slight_smile:

To your question about do I want supporting facts to fit my narrative or actual truth? Sir I can promise this more than anything. I need real knowledge. A big personality change occurred a few years back where I found my need to be right now trumps my fear of being wrong. That is to say I love being wrong because now I am smarter and have been corrected. One step closer to truth. Big thank you. And this is why I attempt to only study the few objective pillars of reality. I have little time for things or topics where opinions are allowed accepted and encouraged. “I want to prove the cup and not debate the liquid”. You like the beach, I like the mountains — yeah but we both like vacations. Objective common grounds. Not subjective views of which flower is prettier on said grounds.

I quite like your writing style. The metaphors you integrate pack quite a punch to underline your argumentation =)
I also noticed that I probably misunderstood parts of your original post which made it rub me in the wrong way to some degree.

Do you have some specific sources that you can recommend for me to consume? Concerning the scientific method, I am also strongly in favor of that. And it’s also what is keeping me a skeptic in this regard. How can I reproduce results that will prove the point of reincarnation or dreaming after my current life has ended (I am assuming that this is what we are discussing at the moment)?

I’ve been living in China actually for 3 years now and have learned about the western arrogance first-hand in the mean time, as I am a westerner myself and found a lot of my personal truths be shattered. But those experiences were not about the spiritual realm, so let’s get back to that before I steer off.

Again, could you please give me one of these denominators as an example and which religions share this particular belief to make the discussion a little less fuzzy?

I think you are not giving us enough credit. :wink: We have achieved great things so far and that’s basically all thanks to our brain. I would expect it to be capable of amazing feats.

The question was actually aimed at Hjeni because I felt I could not provide a satisfying answer to him/her. I am not surprised by your answers. I am intrigued to learn more about the insights you have gained so far and especially how you have attained them.

Email me :slight_smile:
ZackSymes@gmail.com

The easiest point of teaching to begin with, that we find in all of these disconnected sources and religions worldwide is simple — there is a God (of some sort). Ohh the skeptical mind.

I heard a great person once say “God as a word is like a whale that’s been swimming for too long. It’s covered in barnacles”. I don’t know where you stand spiritually. But there is a creator/architect/designer/programmer/source/intelligence etc etc blah blah pick anything you like at all.

I am going to list some religions and common teachings out for sure, but if you only take one thing away from our interactions it is to separate God from Religion. My father used to always say “Zack, you don’t have Christianity… you hate Christians.” His point was simply, you don’t hate god you hate what we’ve said about “Big Homie”

Clarify time! yayyyy children laugh if I had to pick a religion to follow — it would 100% be Hinduism sprinkled with Gnosticism. You are a god with self induced amnesia to play a game with your own awareness — hide and seek essentially. In a play on a floating ball of water in space.

Why do I believe in a God at all? Because humans fit the literal definition of a God. At night you create worlds so real in your mind, we fail to tell if we are dreaming or awake. And down here in “real life” you create more life through sex and procreation. Hmmm… make worlds and make life? By gollly. ■■■■■■■ gee wheeze. That’s the literal definition of a God. Let us make man in our image might not have been too far off back in Jewish Bible days.

Ok ok ok back on track steers the go kart I don’t need to list sources for my 1st point. The first point being 400 religions all say there’s a beginning intelligence. Some think it’s a snake, or a dragon, or a cloud of dust, or a really old man, a boat that we live on, I don’t honestly give a ■■■■… worship a toaster oven. But if that hot pocket machine made the universe and doesn’t tell you to kill babies — then we have the same God. Details can fall away — like I said I want objectives. So it would be hard to list sources when you can literally throw a jelly bean at any religion and hit a belief system that has an origin story with a “higher power”. I understand Buddhism is a slight variation from the norm but I like what Alan Watts said (who I believe was quoting someone else but whatever) “Buddhism is Hinduism stripped for export”

Brooooo one of your questions requires a book. My thumbs hurt. I could schedule a phone call if love yo hear about your travels. Or I could shoot a YouTube video dressing this all. But “how I prove reincarnation and the afterlife’s similarity to dreaming” I’ll try real hard to address those. I have the answers. But ■■■■ text is so void of humanity that half of the jokes and teachings will fall flat. This takes more time for less impact. Seems silly.

Reincarnation
Why did I end up middle class white American and a child soldier in Nigeria? That’s the question.

1. Everything is random
Bullshit. Birds fly to magnetic waves. The sun is perfectly distanced. The earth tilts just right for seasons. The human eye can see at all. Your skeptical mind may get in the way here but ok lol. The world has such an obvious design. It’s kind of like “Well Ted, the video game is so well designed but where you start life is random as ■■■■ tho.” Huh? Why? In what world?

2. God is a dick
Ahh yes, the good ol atheist favorite. That god is up there handing out cards. “You’ll be fat! You’ll be broke! You’ll be Oprah — heavily raped as a child but then be like rich and Obama’s friend or whatever!” Come on dude… the kind behind the hydrogen molecule and the very concept of math — how could that energy be a dick? Don’t confuse this with Bible stories. They were children back then spiritually and needed God watered down. In the same way any decent father figure sets more rules for his 3 year old verses his 33 year old.

3. You earned it Zack
Earned it. As in reincarnation. I will ask you to list a 4th. But most simply say it’s random but like… in a new way that they think isn’t just saying random. Haha. The other 2 simply don’t hold water. It’s random? Come onnnnnn how shallow of thinking. Gods a dick ■■■■■■■ with you? I’m sureeeeee. We all know billionaires who cry when a nickle rolls down the drain… of the sink in their jet. That’s a metaphor saying “Whatever made this game is so high up in intelligence it’s literally stupid to get upset. If even possible. Humans get mad with jealousy or envy. But how could you hand out life cards as a dick when you know space time equations my dude?

But bro this is just the beginning. The very first step in even beginning to address your questions. Proof? We want proof?

Ask yourself out of 10,000,000 humans in history — why don’t we have proof yet? Would the powers that be end you? Is proof knowable? How would proof of the afterlife change life so fundamentally? It would cease to be a “game of amnesia” as the Hindus describe it. Hard science isn’t easy. It was designed to be difficult. The veil has to be there down here on earth.

But hold up hold on. You don’t seem amazed that the brain literally makes worlds that can trick you. You’d said something along the lines “we do amazing things” don’t confuse making a Tesla rocket with making a literal world. A world with applicable subconscious lessons of adventures and environments with characters and colors and meaning. Building dream worlds is not the same as… I don’t know… the Golden Gate Bridge or coming up a democratic society.

And on some real sh*t — we don’t even know if the brain actually does this for us or not. Or if we travel

Check my YouTube channel for some actual personality Zack Symes. Not the music — that’s all being re done. F*CK that rap ■■■■ :slight_smile:

And thanks for the compliment of my writing style. I took my small inheritance and ran away to write a book lol.

I am currently uploading a personal 27 minute video where I answer each question in depths with an attempt to also showcase some humor and personality that we all know is quite obviously lacking in pure text format.

But… My favorite teachers are;

West: Jordan B Peterson
Bridge: Alan Watts
Eastern: Sadhguru

Bonus: Abraham Hicks

Let some skepticism go. It’s ok. Intellectuals aren’t that different. They worship them selves. I know I know religion is dumb. But if IQ is an actual thing, some people need the big questions boiled down. Religion serves its purpose — Not everyone is “smart”. And they deserve happiness and understanding as well. I mention this because so many intellectuals need to look down on religion and quite literally won’t believe in a god because the people that believe in a God… are often stupid.

“Don’t blame the hammer for missing the nail.”

Blame the Catholic Church for “ruining” God… not the very idea of a God who inspired the questions to begin with :slight_smile:

Personal video response

Coconut Crabs

This is an interesting question and thought and pretty deep too. It reminds me of this:

“And, whoever is blind in this (life) , **he will (also) be blind in the Hereafter and (even) more erring from the way”

17.72

Don’t we need a body to dream? Even in lucid dreams we are using our body to experience the dream.

I think there are some answers we don’t get in this life…
Just like we don’t know what happened before we came into being… it was all blank. We didn’t LD then either…

“Will you not remember?”

6:80

I believe in the afterlife it will either be a dream or a nightmare that we don’t have the choice to wake up from.
We will be able to see all the aspects of the unseen realm that we weren’t able to or aware of.
More importantly elements in our minds, hearts and souls will become visible and manifest… maybe similar to small seeds that grow into huge trees for example…

We are told that animals are able to see into the unseen realm and so this video stuck with me:

Cockatoo hears the people of the grave

“We will set a seal on their mouths, and their hands will speak out to Us and their feet will bear witness to their deeds.”

36:65