The purpose(s) served by believing in life after death (original) (raw)

Across the world we are experiencing baffling instances which lead us to believe that there is life after death. There are events which lead to communications from dead ; people have seen apparitions resembling the lost ones; there have been occasions when someone comes in dream to tell that now you will not be seeing him/her and next day you hear the sad news of death; incarnation is surfacing from several parts of the world. Parapsychological researchers across the globe are collecting data on these phenomena and analyzing to explore whether there is life beyond death. However, from time immemorial, there has been belief that there is survival after death. This belief is serving many purposes in current life. This article tends to examine the same. "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages." The famous lines by Shakespeare give a traditional view of life and death; entry signifying birth, playing part means living one's life and the exit is death; the director being the Supreme GOD. From time immemorial, mankind has been curious to know what happens after death. We are baffled by innumerable incidents which are reported across the world where deceased have made their presence felt to living people. Krippner (2006), describes an incident when during his dream, his friend's wife "Spotted Fawn" says that she will not be seeing him anymore and next morning he hears news of her death. There is a reincarnation case of Sharada (a Bengali lady), (Stevenson, 1984) who, is reborn in Mahrashtra as Uttara. Uttara began to have apparent memories of an earlier life when she was in her thirties. These memories occurred during dramatic changes in personality, at which time she spoke, Bengali (Marathi was the only language she knew), which she apparently neither spoke nor understood in her normal state, and which, she apparently never had an opportunity to learn.