What Happens After You Die?

For my Genius Hour project, I chose to do the question, "What happens after you die?" This question is such an approachable question, that it's almost unapproachable. You could take this so many different ways, too. You could talk about the physical aspect, like your body, you could talk about your soul; religiously or not, or you could talk about it scientifically. It truly is a question that some point in your life, you will wonder about, and want to know the answer to. I will be discussing what happens to your soul, religiously, scientifically and through my perspective.

I want to approach this topic with theories and religiously. Some people believe that when we die, we only lose our physical body, but keep our soul or consciousness with us. Some think that when we die, that's it, it's over, your body and soul no longer exist. Others beg to differ. They think that you're born, live, die, and it repeats a countless amount of times, but those are all just theories.

Religions

Most religions think basically that same thing happens after you die, others are somehow along the lines of those theories. Hinduism believes in rebirthing, and in the paths of the Sun and the Moon. The Sun path is known as the path of the gods, and you go onto the sun path if your life was full and successful. You are greeted with several gods, and it is a rest-of-your-afterlife paradise. The people who don't go on the Sun path, go on the Moon path. The Moon path is basically a second chance - or more- at life. If you go along the path of the Moon, you will return to Earth once again. People believe that the path of the Moon is a necessary resting period in between your past life and your new one. It recollects, or recycles, all your energy.

Buddhists believe that death is not the end of life, just the end of your current appearance. They believe that after death, you will be reborn into one of the six realms- heaven or hell, human beings, Asura, hungry ghost or animal. Asura is the realm of anger and constant war, and the hungry ghost realm is the realm of constant desire and greed. From my understanding, that means you will not be reborn back onto Earth, but into a higher or lower realm of life.

Finally, I'm going to talk about Christianity. Some only believe in Heaven and that God will greet you when you die, others believe that sinners go to Hell, and the good people got to Heaven to meet God. It's sort of flexible, what they believe in happens after you die, but it's all along the same line.

Those are only some religions, but the rest, as I said before, generally follow along with the same ideas. Scientifically speaking, what the religions believe in, for the most part, is that we all have a soul, but where it ends up varies.

Scientific

There has been many tests trying to prove what really happens to our soul after we die, but the ones I'm going to be talking about below are the tests that I think have proved the most.

Many scientists in the U.S have started a huge 3-year project to explore some "out-of-body" experiences. One of the tests was to speak to and examine about 1 500 people who have experienced "clinical death." Clinical death is when your heart stops, and soon after you brain does too. Only 10 - 20% of people live after experiencing clinical death. The people have reported being able to see while being clinically dead, and it felt as if they were floating towards the ceiling. They were asked exactly what they saw, to confirm if what they saw was true or not. What the testers had said was told to the nurses, to check with them. Several hundred of the cases have been accurate so far. If the rest of the project continues in the same direction as this, it will confirm consciousness even when your brain and heart have stopped working.

A group of German scientists had held an experiment on living people of several different religions, (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Atheist, etc), and made them feel like they had died. The most common reaction was a sense of detachment, warmth, a feeling of levitation, calmness, safety and overwhelming light.

On April 10, 1901, an experiment was held by Dr. Duncan MacDougall. He wanted to prove that the soul had a mass. He conducted the experiment on 6 patients who were soon to die, and weighed them. Just after they died he had weighed them again. For each patient, the difference was 21 grams. 21 grams is equivalent to 4 sheets of regular sized printer paper. He believes that 21 grams is how much the soul weighs, therefore it was thought to be the weight of the soul leaving the body.

Conclusion

When I die, I hope that my soul will separate from my body and I will be able to continue to look over my family and see the ones that have passed on throughout my lifetime and longer.

What I've learned while researching about what happens after death, is that, even with so many tests being done, the question still remains unanswered. It might be answered within the next 100 years or so. However, I think that most people will still believe in what they have always believed in, but the next generation may be more open to new beliefs.

Author's Note: Sources: German Scientists Prove There is Life After Death http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/germa-scientists-prove-there-is-life-after-death/ https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi_o8WervjKAhWIeT4KHV36B-YQjB0IBg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fannoyzview.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F02%2F21%2Fdr-macdougall-and-his-theory-of-21-grams%2F&psig=AFQjCNE3Lz0CLEKYlWXsupNmo27YpjwOdw&ust=1455577325391729 http://www.historicmysteries.com/the-21-gram-soul-theory/ http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/healhty-and-famillies/features/this-is-what-its-like-to-be-dead-according-to-a-guy-who-died-for-a-bit Life After Death http://www.truthcontest.com/entries/the-present-with-religion/life-after-death.html http://www.stevepavepavlina.com/articles/life-after-death.htm Tang (Ven) http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma5/viewdeath.html https://www.google.ca/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi_o8WervjKAhWIeT4KHV36B-YQjB0IBg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fannoyzview.wordpress.com%2F2013%2F02%2F21%2Fdr-macdougall-and-his-theory-of-21-grams%2F&psig=AFQjCNE3Lz0CLEKYlWXsupNmo27YpjwOdw&ust=1455577325391729