TruthBook Religious News Blog

Goodbye Heaven and Hell: we now hold a host of quirky ideas about the afterlife

by John Naish

(This is page one of a three page article. It contains results of a survey exploring peoples' beliefs regarding life after death, and is very interesting. Please click on "external source at the bottom of this page to access the entire piece.)

Of the two certainties we face in life, death and taxes, we all tend to share similar thoughts on taxes. But what about death and whatever comes after it? Most of the time we go about our lives as though it will never happen. The afterlife has become taboo. Even during Easter, the great Christian story of death and resurrection, we prefer to think of chocolate eggs and fluffy bunnies. But Michael Irwin, a retired United Nations medical director, has created his own national opinion survey about life after death and unearthed an intriguing range of beliefs.

He wrote to 1,600 Britons picked at random from Who’s Who, where he is listed by dint of working for the UN and the World Bank. He is also a former secretary of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and is on the council of a similar group, Friends At The End (Fate). I guess you could say he’s interested in the subject. So, it seems, are many others: of the 761 replies he received, more than half added extra comments and ideas to the questionnaire.

Nearly half of those questioned believe that nothing will survive their deaths other than their children, their writings, and the memories of friends. But significant numbers believe in the possibility of their souls surviving in an afterlife, or of their life force continuing in some form. Only one in five didn’t feel certain about what would happen.

And beyond these apparently simple positions lies a spectrum of quirk-filled personal credos, which Irwin has compiled into a booklet, What Survives? “I’m 74 and it’s natural that I’m thinking about what happens to me when I die,” says Irwin, of Cranleigh, Surrey. “I grew up in the Church of England and was a religious teenager. But later I grew sceptical and became a humanist. Now I’m more New Agey: I believe that there are life forces common to all living creatures which may survive our deaths in some way going back to the universal force of creation.”

Despite his spiritual shift, he has not lost his scepticism. “In my years as a clinical doctor, eight of my patients came around from comas or ‘died’ on the operating table and told me they saw flashes of light and other phenomena,” he recalls. “Whether it was genuine or the result of chemical changes in the brain, I can’t say.”

Michael Irwin will send copies of his booklet, What Survives? free to the first 50 readers who e-mail him on michael-hk.irwin@virgin.net

ANNABELLE BOND Mountaineer, 36 “I would like to think that I will go on another journey after I die. What form it will take I cannot possibly imagine. But I do believe in some kind of God, and I think that we will all report to it after we die, whatever our religion.

“I had Christianity shoved down my throat at school, but it hasn’t stopped me believing. Climbing has helped; it suits me to be optimistic about life after death. It helps me to come to terms with the chance that I won’t make it back from an expedition. You never know on the mountain; you can die however good or bad you are at climbing. It’s beyond your control.

“One person in 12 doesn’t make it to Everest’s summit. Last year, I saw two friends slip to their deaths on a peak in Alaska, and I’ve seen plenty of dead bodies on the way up mountains.

“Of course it makes you think about your own mortality; it’s important to acknowledge the obvious danger you are putting yourself in. But at some point, it’s comforting to pass the responsibility on to a higher force — otherwise you’d never climb.

“Being on a mountain is a powerful spiritual experience. You feel connected with this world and the next. The least religious person would pray if they found themselves in danger, I can guarantee. I never know who, or what, I’m praying to. It’s something up there, and I want it to protect me.

The closest I’ve ever been to my own end was climbing a peak in Argentina last year. It was the sixth mountain I’d done back-to-back in six months, including Everest.

I was going for the title of fastest woman in history to complete the Seven Peaks challenge — involving the highest mountains on each of the seven continents — which I got.

Labels: belief, death, life after death, Michael Irwin