The question of the afterlife recently has come up a few times in my life. Recently my partner’s grandmother has come down with a mysterious illness and this has caused her to question what will come afterlife. Similarly, my father has been struggling with an illness for quite some time and he has pondered the same question. I have listened to both of their ideas what will come afterlife and they both varied greatly. My partner’s grandmother explained that she believes that afterlife she will go to heaven. When asked why she thinks this, she stated that this was because the Bible said so. She also explained that she is confused about how it would be because it is stated that  heaven is a place in which there is no marriage. She went on to explain that we are not meant to know what comes after life and she believes that this is by design. When my father explains he believes of what comes after life, he describes a moment of darkness and peace followed by being born again. He states that he will most likely not be born again as a human but as a bird living in the trees of the tropics or as a dolphin jumping through the waves.

While listening to these two differing opinions is interesting, I believe that they are strongly attributed to a person’s religious beliefs. My boyfriend’s grandmother was a Christian in her twenties to late thirties who attended church consistently, while my father has attended a handful of services and mixes often between praying and practicing his own spiritual techniques.