Speculations on the Purpose of Life
and Life After Death


     I know I’m not alone in wondering about the purpose of life and what happens after we die. There are 4,000 distinct religions in the world, each offering its own unique ideas about who we are and why we exist. Most of these religions are regionally based with a relatively small following. However, these religious communities have decided their beliefs are true.

    In this document I’ll share my own speculation on the purpose of life and life after death. I see myself as a systems thinker. My speculation is a broad system which includes the evolution of our universe, the purpose of human life beyond just survival, the nature of life after death, and how we are contributing to the evolutionary purpose of becoming one (unity). 

    I am inspired by Albert Einstein, who shared the following review of the magic of imagination:

 

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.
For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand,
while imagination embraces the entire world,
and all there ever will be to know and understand.”


    The ideas I share in this document come from a stream of consciousness that I believe is not just from my mind, but from what Einstein called imagination – what I see as the wisdom of my spirit.  I trust this wisdom only when it aligns with my personal experience; otherwise, I speculate on its validity. Some of my insights in this document are my beliefs while others are speculations. As you read, you can decide what resonates with you.  


We are spiritual beings


    An ancient Greek story, Plato’s Cave, describes people sitting in a cave with the light behind them. They observed their reflections on the wall of the cave, believing that the shadows were reality, they were not aware of their physical beings. Similarly, I believe that most human beings see themselves only as physical beings rather than spiritual beings and are challenged to acknowledge and recognize their spiritual beings. I believe we are a duality, being both physical beings and spiritual beings. I also believe that our physical being provides an opportunity for our spiritual being to achieve its purpose of harvesting love from the daily experiences of our physical being. I would like to emphasize view we need to understand when there is disharmony with others in our physical life we have what I call a “Moment of Truth ” a moment in which we focus on what’s right rather than who is right by doing so incrementally learn how to love.

    Many years ago, I learned about auras when I saw the aura of a cut leaf. Kirlian photography shows that leaves have an aura which is not changed when a section is cut off. You can see this searching online for “Kirlian photography image of a cut leaf”. Similarly, people who lose a limb often experience “phantom limb syndrome”: feeling sensations like pain or movement in the missing limb. Some people can see the human aura, and many have observed auras leaving the body when somebody dies. I speculate the human aura could be perceived as our spirit. 

    I believe that the physical being ceases to exist when we die and the real us, our spiritual being, continues after death. It takes the love it has harvested from our physical life with it into another realm, contributing to the evolutionary purpose of all being one. 


The evolution of our universe


    I’ve marveled at the evolution of our universe, which scientists say has been unfolding for 13.6 billion years. Sir Roger Penrose supports a theory called panpsychism, which suggests that consciousness is not solely a property of complex brains but exists in all matter, even at the level of atoms. He believes this consciousness played a role in the evolution of life from inorganic matter. An atom united with another atom and made a molecule. E.g. hydrogen and oxygen got together to create water.  I believe all the organic and inorganic matter in our universe have an aura that generates a vast field of spiritual energy which we are part of. God is either this energy or is guiding it to achieve the universe’s evolutionary purpose. We are all partners in this evolution: our purpose is to facilitate growth towards all becoming one by learning from our life experiences how to increase our capability to love and contributing the harvest of love from our lives to the spiritual field of energy which we unite with when we die. As John Lennon’s song Imagine says, “I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one”.


Learning to love


    Humanity has gained extensive knowledge and skills that provide the means to sustain our physical daily lives. We learn to love in the process of undertaking our daily activities. While society values love, it offers few resources to help us learn to love. I have explained a process for learning to love in a document called Moments of Truth, which can be viewed on my website www.bobtales.com, under the “Learning to Love” tab. Simply put how we learn to love is not when we’re living in harmony but when there is disharmony and we seek to discover harmony not by deciding who is right but what’s right and it is in the process of doing so that we learn to love.

     Many who do not recognize their spiritual being believe love comes from the physical heart, I believe comes from the spirit. Love is a feeling that we have for another person, shared between our spirits. It’s a complicated concept. Is love at first sight real? Sometimes we feel an immediate attraction to someone new and want to explore a friendship. The other person may or may not feel the same. We can choose to let the connection grow naturally, whether it stays at a mental level or deepens into a spiritual bond. 

    I recently asked myself, “what is a friend?” To me, a true friend is someone with whom we have built shared love: the deeper the love, the deeper the friendship. Even if we re-engage with a friend we haven’t seen for a long time, the love is still there. Our spirits collect love from the many friendships we’ve had in our lives: it’s like a personal harvest of love. 

    Integrating all these concepts, I believe that, upon death our physical body dies and our spiritual being unites with the universes immense field of energy and contributes the harvest of love from our life to that field. Which in a minuscule way contributes to the evolution of our universe. I shared earlier that the spiritual energy of the universe could be viewed as God or the means by which God is enabling the evolution of our universe. Some may choose to view this energy fields as heaven.

    The following is guidance on the purpose of all life from spiritually evolved human beings

    Muhammad

    “Spread love everywhere you go”. 

    "Love is a gift of one's innermost soul to another so both can be whole”.  

    Buddha

     “Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish”. 

     “If you are not capable of taking care of yourself—it is very difficult to take care of another person”. 

    Jesus

     “Do unto others as you would have them do to you”.   

     “Love your neighbor as yourself.”


Life after death


    I shared earlier that the spiritual energy of the universe could be viewed as God or the means by which God is enabling the evolution of our universe. Some may choose to view this energy fields as heaven.

    After death I believe our spirits keep their unique identities. I don’t speculate on whether we are reincarnated to continue the learning journey, or whether our spirits have relationships with the spirits of others who have died, but anything is possible. Believing that we retain our personal identity as spiritual beings and that we are part of God’s energy field is sufficient to give me peace. 


Creativity


    What is the source of human creativity? The human spirit. When an artist creates an art form, creativity comes not from the physical body but from the inspiration from within. The art form created is imbued with the creator’s love and when viewed by a human spirit it is enriched by the creators love. I suggest you ask the question why people choose to go places to view art.

    For many years, I have been blessed with inspirational thoughts that move through me.  I document them as soon as I can. While I’m documenting them, I have additional insights – that’s how I developed this document. I call this a “stream of consciousness”: it comes from my spiritual inner wisdom.  

    The document you just read was one of my more detailed streams of consciousness. It contains thoughts I had not previously conceived, such as God being an energy field, and human beings harvesting love from our lives to contribute to God’s energy field.  

    I encourage anyone who reads this document to risk using their imagination in their daily lives, encouraged by Albert Einstein’s writings on “The Magic of Imagination”. 



    Reassurance number 1 


    I looked for reassurance that my insights here weren’t completely off track, so I looked for figures I respected with similar spiritual insights. I explored Einstein’s thoughts on God and was gratified to find alignment

    Albert Einstein  himself stated "I'm not an atheist, and I don't think I can call myself a  pantheist ... I believe in  Spinoza's God  who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists.” 

    Spinoza saw God as the natural world itself, the substance comprising the universe. 

    According to Einstein's theory of relativity (E=mc²) shows that matter is a form of energy, meaning that, like everything else, we too can be considered as energy fields. 


    Reassurance number 2 


    A new, more radical speculation, is that the evolution of the universes spiritual energy has proceeded concurrently with the evolution of our physical universe, This energy field could either be God or be directed by God quite a different concept than one I was taught by the Christian church that God was a father who I would join in a place called heaven if I followed their teachings.

    But working on this document I now believe that viewing God as a father figure has contributed to a domineering culture in which people build systems of power and control over others, choosing to play God.  

    I searched on the Internet for information about world religions and found that there are about 4000 distinct religions in the world, each with its own view of God. I had not previously been aware that Hindus and Buddhists do not believe in an entity call God, but rather a universal consciousness, viewing humans as energy.  

    Hinduism teaches that the soul is considered eternal and part of a universal consciousness, which can be seen as a field of energy. 

    Buddhist don’t worship a higher power. Instead, they focus on achieving enlightenment through practices like meditation, which helps clear the mind. (I believe meditation is essential to being truly awake i.e. being able to be guided by one’s spirit.) They also believe that after death, an individual’s consciousness or energy is reborn in a new form. 


    Reflection


    Inner wisdom and creativity arise from a person’s spirit. I believe the stream of consciousness that provided the basis for this document was a manifestation of my imagination and creativity. Like any other art form, its beauty and value are in the eyes of the beholder. I hope it has stimulated your thinking in a positive way. Here is a summary of the key points. 

    ⦁ Documenting my thoughts on life’s purpose and the afterlife life has given me peace. 

    ⦁ Auras can be seen as energy fields, and as such our auras can be seen as the energy field of our spirits. 

    ⦁ Many believe we are only physical beings, but I see us as both physical and spiritual, with our physical beings in enabling the purpose of our spiritual beings to improve the ability of our spirit to love.

    ⦁ Changing widely held beliefs, including our understanding of God, is challenging. 

    ⦁ Love is a feeling we have which doesn’t come from our brain but from our spirit.

    ⦁ I believe that human creativity comes from the wisdom of the human spirit. 

    ⦁ The daily activities in our physical life help our spiritual being to improve its ability to love. My document Moments of Truth on www.bobtales.com (“Learning to love” tab) expands on this. 

    ⦁ Panpsychism, advocated by Sir Roger Penrose, suggests that consciousness exists to some degree in all matter, even atoms. 

    ⦁ Penrose also believes the consciousness in inorganic matter enabled it to evolve into organic life. 

    ⦁ I speculate all matter is part of an immense spiritual energy field – either the force we call God, or something God facilitates to realize the universe’s evolution. 

    ⦁ I believe our spiritual beings are contributors in the evolution of the universe.

    ⦁ A true friend is another with whom we have built shared love. Even after a long time apart, that love remains. 

    ⦁ Our spirit harvests love from the many life experiences of our physical being and establishes a personal harvest of love. 

    ⦁ I believe that, when we die our physical being dies and our spiritual being unites with the spiritual field of the universe and contributes its harvest of love to the evolution of our universe and in doing so returning to achieving God’s purpose that all be one. 

    ⦁ I think that our spirit maintains its unique identity after death, and that gives me peace. 


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