# Chose your own afterlife **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 5, 2012, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487 "2012-01-05T09:37:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/21 "2012-01-05T21:46:50Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does reincarnation include complete memories of previous lives? While the reincarnated you may have some knowledge that only the current you knows, to find out about your past lives you’d need to go through hypnotherapy to regain full knowledge of your past lives. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/22 "2012-01-05T21:50:26Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Oh, and FYI, it’s _moksha_ for the Hindus. Just doing my part. 🙂 Oh thank you. I’d always heard that Nirvana was a shared concept between Hindus and Buddhists. Looking up moksha I see that’s only partially correct. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/23 "2012-01-05T22:02:01Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > While the reincarnated you may have some knowledge that only the current you knows, to find out about your past lives you’d need to go through hypnotherapy to regain full knowledge of your past lives. Would the hypnotherapy actually be guaranteed to work, or would it just reveal imaginary lives the way it does now? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/24 "2012-01-05T22:06:51Z")
I’m going to answer seriously. It’s going to depend on whether “paradise” means I get to see my \*actual \*son again, or rather an illusory version of him. I’m kinda thinking it would be the latter, if everything in this paradise were entirely under my control. If he’s an illusion, I don’t see the point of it. And for that matter, I wouldn’t want it to be my actual son if he were under my control as you suggest. Also, can you tell us how Nirvana is distinct from both Oblivion and Paradise? ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/25 "2012-01-05T22:06:57Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Would the hypnotherapy actually be guaranteed to work, or would it just reveal imaginary lives the way it does now? Just because everybody who tries it has past lives as royalty and rich people, and never as slaves or poor people, you think it’s fake. :dubious: 😃 OK, OK, for the sake of this thread it actually works. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/26 "2012-01-05T22:08:07Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I’m going to answer seriously. It’s going to depend on whether “paradise” means I get to see my \*actual \*son again, or rather an illusory version of him; and, l. I’m kinda thinking it would be the latter, if everything in this paradise were entirely under my control. If he’s an illusion, I don’t see the point of it. For the purposes of this thread you could see your real son again. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/27 "2012-01-05T22:11:31Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Just because everybody who tries it has past lives as royalty and rich people, and never as slaves or poor people, you think it’s fake. :dubious: 😃 > > OK, OK, for the sake of this thread it actually works. Then reincarnation it is. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/28 "2012-01-05T22:18:11Z")
Well, I’d probably choose paradise. Which would be fun for an eon or two. But then I’d most likely get bored and decide to make a model earth, you know, to see how well I know my geography. And then once I make the earth, I’d probably get really into miniatures as a hobby and since I already have this great model earth right there, I’d just store 'em on it. Of course, I’d have to give the miniatures some sort of AI so that I’m not having to do all the work, you know. That all sounds exhausting so after, oh 6 days, I’d need to take a nap…oh dear. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/29 "2012-01-05T22:20:20Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > Well, I’d probably choose paradise. Which would be fun for an eon or two. But then I’d most likely get bored and decide to make a model earth, you know, to see how well I know my geography. And then once I make the earth, I’d probably get really into miniatures as a hobby and since I already have this great model earth right there, I’d just store 'em on it. Of course, I’d have to give the miniatures some sort of AI so that I’m not having to do all the work, you know. That all sounds exhausting so after, oh 6 days, I’d need to take a nap…oh dear. I always suspected you were a Witness. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/30 "2012-01-05T22:22:35Z")
Of course no “Oblivion” if I can choose. I have fear of what might be the boredom of Eternal Paradise… when I go over to other countries/cultures, where they have denser intermingling of population with larger spectrum of economic classes, I always feel like I get 10 times the life experience, or “Life Juicy” as I call it, than being here in the states, in a relative cocoon of affluent but sparsely populated country. I feel like I’m missing out on that experience/contact/traction of life… in a way, perhaps, like being in a paradise, here. There, it’s much more compacted stressful, happy, sad, joyous, etc… you feel like you are _living_ in _the story_. Here, I feel like I’m living in a huge, sterile, empty space but in comfort. I voted for “Eternal Paradise” as it seems like a safest choice… but perhaps “Nirvana” might be more fulfilling existence. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/31 "2012-01-06T00:02:26Z")
How come there’s no option for being a ghost? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/32 "2012-01-06T00:13:12Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > What, no Valhalla? Damn straight. Also, why no option to wander the night in ghostly torment? (Waves at Little Nemo, who snuck in there.) > [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Why would anyone choose oblivion over paradise? I can only guess that it comes from living a life that sucked so bad that you can’t believe even paradise would be pleasant for you. Depends on how you define paradise. If paradise is basically being absorbed by a Higher Being, that’s about the same thing as oblivion, with the added twist of having strengthened or satisfied the being who absorbed you. If paradise means drinking the waters of Lethe, that’s very near to oblivion. Even if you are allowed to be separate, what kind of separate existance can you have with no memory and no bodily imperatives? If paradise is rejoining all of your dead relatives . . . let’s just say that I come from a long line of Complainers. It would be a loud paradise. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/33 "2012-01-06T00:26:58Z")
“Reincarnation” would be a gamble. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/34 "2012-01-06T00:30:56Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > “Reincarnation” would be a gamble. Some people like taking risks. I prefer to play it safe myself. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/35 "2012-01-06T00:53:27Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Some people like taking risks. For all you know you might end up being a dayfly ([Mayfly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly)). Hey, you’d experience flight for a day. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/36 "2012-01-06T01:20:00Z")
Oblivion. I don’t need to be trapped in my own head for eternity, and that’s what this idea of “paradise” is. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/37 "2012-01-06T01:55:43Z")
Life on Earth is fun; I want to give it another ride. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/38 "2012-01-06T02:38:48Z")
> [@brittekland](#): > > For all you know you might end up being a dayfly ([Mayfly](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly)). Hey, you’d experience flight for a day. In the OP I specified that you could control some of the circumstances of how you come back. So for the purposes of this thread only, the risk is minimal. ---
**Author:** ![brittekland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@brittekland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brittekland)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/39 "2012-01-06T03:59:58Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > In the OP I specified that you could control some of the circumstances of how you come back. So for the purposes of this thread only, the risk is minimal. Ooops, guilty: apparently I forgot to read the OP after voting… :rolleyes: This is a much kinder kind then. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chose-your-own-afterlife/608487/40 "2012-01-06T07:08:52Z")
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