# What you wish the afterlife would be like **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455 "2013-12-30T03:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/21 "2013-12-30T12:09:12Z")
BTW annihilating yourself is compatible with my idea. It would be like exiting out of a program and never running it again - and deleting it just to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/22 "2013-12-30T12:22:04Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I’m not sure, but I had really hoped that it would have been one hell of a lot further away from the “Does anyone here have an annuity?” thread… 😃 But then if it hadn’t been placed there you wouldn’t have been able to make that joke… ---
**Author:** ![Snerky\_Snerk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Snerky\_Snerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snerky_Snerk)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/23 "2013-12-30T12:49:39Z")
My ideal afterlife: An island - quite large, going from beach, to jungle, and rising to a snow covered peak. For wildlife, I would like a wide variety of birds, and a few of the cute and cuddly animals - a few monkeys, some panda bears, possums, etc. For supplies, I just write what I want, put the list in a bottle, and throw it into the sea. The next day a raft will wash ashore loaded with what I asked for. Each raft will also have random items included just to amuse me - some days a book, some days a puzzle or a toy. Most importantly - I want every pet I’ve ever had to be there. And a few pets that belonged to other people as well. No growing old. No disease or serious illness for me or the animals. And for god’s sake - no other people…unless I can kick them off my island when they start to annoy me. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/24 "2013-12-30T13:19:46Z")
I would like to wake up in Iain m banks culture universe and find out that my entire life here has been inside a simulation of 21st century earth that culture people send themselves to when they get bored . ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/25 "2013-12-30T13:42:40Z")
Ever expanding horizons, new adventures of things not yet dreamed of, discovering new friends, and having close relationships along the journey, and many children. > [@](#): > > Hiding your own omnipotence from yourself then rediscovering it over and over again through lifetimes of suffering and ignorance (just to reobtain what you always had) sounds like hell to me. Yes I would agree, Not something I would recommend signing up for (again). ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/26 "2013-12-30T13:49:36Z")
Well, I guess I might wish there would be an afterlife, but since I am pretty sure there isn’t one, I don’t know. I think I’d like to go to **Smerky Smerk** ’s place as it sounds very cool (as long as I don’t get kicked off). I’m not sure I could handle meeting all the pets I ever had though; several of them were/are pretty jealous so I think I would have a lap full of cats with several others sitting and glaring at me. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/27 "2013-12-30T14:01:03Z")
I don’t have any expectations. I hope to be surprised. But, if my dogs are not there I do not want to go. ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/28 "2013-12-30T14:07:51Z")
Hope this doesnt sound too weird. I had what. for want of another term, I call an Afterlife Experience. Ive only told my yoga teacher about this since it doesnt really fit in with what my circle of friends or DH would consider “sane”. But this is SD so maybe its OK here. I was in a dark warm room getting a massage. I am otherwise healthy and not prone to any psych or physical or emotional problems (that I know of) that could explain this. I do not take any medications. I dont do any kind of meditation techniques. During the massage, I felt myself drifting away from my body but was not alarmed. At one point I was aware that my body was still on the massage table but “I” was above it, and then suddenly I was in deep space. It was the most peaceful sensation Ive ever had: no Anything. Just the awareness that “I” was part of an infinite Otherness and that “I” had no boundaries. And then the massage therapist spoke to me, I took a breath, and I was aware of being in my body again. But I was still very peaceful and this continued for the rest of the day. This is what I imagine the Afterlife is. I certainly hope so. Now I really have no fear of being dead, just the “getting there” of dying. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/29 "2013-12-30T15:14:33Z")
An endless series of Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals, in an Art Deco, Film Noir world! Of course, I live in a neat NYC penthouse and dress nice! ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/30 "2013-12-30T15:54:34Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > See also the ending to “The Simpsons Game”: > [http://youtu.be/a7w2L33z-ng?t=2m11s](http://youtu.be/a7w2L33z-ng?t=2m11s) Wow. God has 10 fingers! ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/31 "2013-12-30T16:13:00Z")
I wouldn’t want an eternal afterlife, but a few thousand years would probably do nicely. I like the idea of repeating lives - heck - I wish there was a way to forget things now so I could experience them again for the first time. The first kiss, first sexual encounter, my first time living on my own in a big city, marriage, kids… I’d like to know what it’s like to be a woman, but there’s so much more to that than just having the right parts. You have to live it from the start. I’d like to know what it’s like to be rich, poor, smart, ignorant, adventurous, reclusive, white, black, asian, indian, and on and on and on. The sum of all of those lives would let me know who I am. Sounds interesting to me. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/32 "2013-12-30T16:22:02Z")
> [@Frazzled](#): > > I’d like to know what it’s like to be a woman, but there’s so much more to that than just having the right parts. You have to live it from the start. I’d like to know what it’s like to be rich, poor, smart, ignorant, adventurous, reclusive, white, black, asian, indian, and on and on and on. The sum of all of those lives would let me know who I am. Sounds interesting to me. That would work and be interesting only if you remember when you weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![mage-girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@mage-girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mage-girl)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/33 "2013-12-30T19:10:48Z")
In any worthwhile afterlife/heaven, there should be cats. 🙂 Dogs are okay too, but not my favorite. I had the best dog ever when I was in kindergarten, and he has proven hard to top. There should also be time to do EVERYTHING. Spend time with your relatives, look down on those still alive, maybe do hobbies and research stuff! That would be so cool. I would like there to be video games too, but I doubt that will happen. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/34 "2013-12-30T19:46:29Z")
I’ve always imagined Heaven to be kind of like a Holodeck with no morality protocols. If it’s not that, then I prefer Oblivion. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/35 "2013-12-31T02:35:33Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > But how will you know if you get your way? :dubious: Well, yeah… It’s hardly the first time that what I really want from the universe is logically self-contradictory! > [@](#): > > And the trouble with that is covered in a short novel by another author (_The Great Divorce_ by C. S. Lewis): that there are some people who would rather be eternally miserable and make other people so than be happy on anything other than their own terms. “It sounds grand to say that you’ll accept no salvation that leaves one soul in the cold outside. But watch that sophistry or you’ll make a Dog in the Manger the tyrant of the universe.” Certainly a risk, I’ll agree. But it’s a moral stance I believe in. Bertolt Brecht covered it in his ballad “All of Us or None.” It’s an ideal, and those are always coming up short because of the strictures of reality. But it’s the afterlife: it’s supposed to be beyond silly things like conservation laws. We can’t have perfection in this world, but if we can’t have it in the next world, then, fuck it, I ain’t going. There comes a point where you just have to put your foot down. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/36 "2013-12-31T10:11:10Z")
Why, what would putting your foot down achieve? ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/37 "2013-12-31T11:20:33Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > In the future there might be conscious beings that inhabit computers - perhaps inside neutron stars. They might have a lot of leisure time and like going inside computer simulations - “sandbox” games like GTA V which include some story missions but also the freedom to just have random fun. > > \ > > Also, what do people think this says about my morality, etc? (That I’m quite self-centered?) I kind of agree with that with a couple of caveats, namely that other people also have this ability/experience and you can join _their_ created realities if you so wish, after all other people will be able to imagine things you can’t. There is also the ‘simulation problem’ with your scenario, if the beings you have created to populate your new reality are functionally indistinguishable from real live sentient creatures don’t you have a duty of care towards them, after all they are _your_ creation. For a materalistic utopia The Culture described in the novels of Iain M. Banks is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Strangeland64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@Strangeland64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strangeland64)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/38 "2013-12-31T12:38:08Z")
I wish in the afterlife that I could still exist, but have the ability to either not have a body or to temporarily have my body, without all the burden of pain and health issues if I wanted, so I still experience the sensation of eating and drinking and such if I wanted too… or just not have to deal with having to eat, drink and all the things we have to deal with having bodies… like sickness and pain .And definitely being able to go anywhere I want in an instant, see or be anything I wanted, experience anything I want. It would be even cooler if I could just have my body and tweak it out so it would look like I always wanted it too, and be the age I liked best . I also definitely would love to see my son again and be able to talk to him and see him happy and healthy instead of depressed and on drugs… same goes with rest of family that I love… I’d love to always be able to see them and have a connection to them. I do wish it could be without all the human failings we all have now though, except LOVE… there would be no need for sickness, jealousy, anger or any other negative emotion. I always think of John Lennon’s “Imagine” when I think of how I would like it to be. These are my wishes… 🙂 I personally kinda believe in reincarnation, but hope to hell I’m wrong ! P.S. I really don’t believe in Hell… but I do like to believe even if I’m kidding myself that maybe, just maybe some sort of place exists that we go to that fits whatever our beliefs and hopes are. It’s what keeps me going some days, so if that seems silly or wrong, shoot me… It’s all I got because I certainly can’t see human kind ever getting along. Nor do I see sickness, poverty, people born with crippling deformities , natural disasters , discrimination, or countless other things ever stopping. So I dream of a better life and I realize I may be called an idiot but that’s okay. It keeps me from losing my mind right now 🙂 If there is nothing at all, well that’s far preferable than the Christian heaven/hell story. Yea, I’d take a total ending and wipeout to the traditional heaven/hell any day. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/39 "2013-12-31T15:52:41Z")
Afterlife: Big rock candy mountain ---
**Author:** ![Cerealbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Cerealbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerealbox)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/40 "2013-12-31T17:53:44Z")
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