Where does one go after death?

[TotallyOz]

The BF and I had a discussion about safety during Songkran and I begged him over and over to please drive safe. I once talked to another lad about this and he said that he would get a do over if he died. I don't like the idea of a do over and he asked what I thought happened. I said Nothing. His face just starred at me as if "stupid falang,"

 

What do you think happens after death?

[Gaybutton]

I'm not so sure I would want a 'next life.' I'd have to go to school again?

 

It's nice to think about going on to something else and even nicer if you genuinely believe that happens. Unfortunately for me, I think this is it and it's all you get. So, enjoy it while you can.

[Guest Astrrro]

I voted "I don't know" but my guess is you have just one shot.

[Guest RichLB]

This is a fun one. I've often entertained the notion that our time here is a learning experience we choose prior to our arrival. We may elect to have a life of suffering in order to learn whatever that existence provides or a life of comfort and wealth to learn those lessons. Upon our death, I like to think we get to choose to return for further lessons or to move on to another existence. Since I like the notion that all life in connected, that other existence may be akin to universal consciousness - or God if you like that construct.

 

I wish I could believe that with some level of commitment, but the best I can do is prefer it to the Christian notion of heaven and hell.

[TMax]

Reincarnated, I want to come back as a good looking lesbian born to wealthy parents, not that I'm asking too much.

[Guest gay_grampa]

In some ways I am envious of those who have faith and believe in Gods, life after death and can live their life knowing in their own mind that someone is there looking over them.

 

However, all the evidence I can see and read shows that this is superstitious mumbo-jumbo and we get one crack at life.

 

Enjoy it while you can.

 

On another tack, I thank those with their beliefs for producing some stunning architecture around the world but damn them unreservedly for the wars and strife that their beliefs have caused.

[Guest fountainhall]

I thank those with their beliefs for producing some stunning architecture around the world but damn them unreservedly for the wars and strife that their beliefs have caused.

Well said! I have been extraordinarily fortunate in my life to have visited some quite astounding buildings conceived and constructed to the glory of one God or another. Step into St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice, the Taj Mahal, the Great Mosque in Cordoba with its unique double columns, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Wieskirche in Bavaria and some of the great cathedrals in Europe, and marvel in wonder at what mankind has been able to achieve. Yet, like gay_grampa, I detest the monstrous bloodshed and loss of life that all represent in one or more forms.

 

My Chinese friends in Hong Kong are convinced I was a Chinese in a previous life. Sadly, I just don't believe a word of it.

 

Another interesting associated topic would be: if you were to be reincarnated and could come back at any earlier time in history, which country/place/period would you choose - and why?

[Gaybutton]

if you were to be reincarnated and could come back at any earlier time in history, which country/place/period would you choose - and why?

For me, that's easy. I would choose, if I could have plenty of money, to go to ancient Greece or ancient Rome. Can you imagine what gay life must have been like if you were wealthy? It was probably pretty good even if you were poor. Pompeii, before Mt. Vesuvius blew its stack, must have been a paradise.

 

I would also consider Thailand, before western countries started imposing their homophobia.

[Guest jomtien]

 

 

Another interesting associated topic would be: if you were to be reincarnated and could come back at any earlier time in history, which country/place/period would you choose - and why?

 

 

I'd Like to come back in Paris, but no further back than a few years before my actual lifetime. As charming as past eras seem in books and movies, I'm sure I wouldn't like life much without air conditioning, electricity, clean clothes, good food.....all that stuff. Of course, coming back in the past without knowing about such things might be different.

[Guest]

Another interesting associated topic would be: if you were to be reincarnated and could come back at any earlier time in history, which country/place/period would you choose - and why?

 

For me, it would be as a painter working on the Sistine Chapel with the master. I know probably not a well paid job but it is one of my favorite things on earth and I'd love to see it actually being painted.

[Guest fountainhall]

For me, it would be as a painter working on the Sistine Chapel with the master.

I first saw it before the restoration and it was hugely impressive. When I went back to see it in its restored state, I just gasped in awe and wonder.

 

But if you go back to that time, not only will it not be well paid, you'd better start strengthening your back for the 4 years it's going to take to paint the ceiling. Mind you, with all Michelangelo's young assistants, you'll be in for a great introduction to gay 16th century Rome

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

I would be quite happy to come back as an absolute despot in any era before the 19th Century. That would be so that I could show people how to run a country properly, have fun right...and be immediately obeyed when I say "Off with his head".

 

But I sincerely believe that I'll be reborn as the one-eyed, one-legged wife of an impoverished, alcoholic, karaoke-singing serial bigamist wife-beater for the sins I have committed (and plan to commit) in this life.

[Guest RichLB]

I know you guys are just having fun with fantasizing about what it would be like to live an alternative life, but I bet, on reflection, you'd decide the life you're living isn't half bad. Sadly, what I observe is that most people (certainly not any of us who post here) don't even live their current life to the fullest. How many work 8+ hours a day, 5+ days a week, 50+ weeks a year for 30 or 40 years? It seems insane to me. That extra money you're making isn't gong to make you happy - it's only the lack of money that makes you unhappy. If there is an after life, for god's sake learn that lesson and enjoy the life you have!

[kokopelli]

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, earth to earth; that says it all! But in some form your dust and ashes may well nourish a tree or even a mango which some Thai lad will eat and you will live again as a cell in his body?

[Gaybutton]

you will live again as a cell in his body

With my luck, instead I'll come back as a cell in the asshole of a dung beetle. Come to think of it, some people out there think that's what I already am.

 

I sincerely believe that I'll be reborn as the one-eyed, one-legged wife of an impoverished, alcoholic, karaoke-singing serial bigamist wife-beater

OMG! You're going to be my wife!

[Guest]

To the crematorium or grave. These options seem to be missing.

 

Considering the very limited choice between religious options or "don't know" it's almost like the pope has taken over this site.

[firecat69]

To the crematorium or grave. These options seem to be missing.

 

 

If in the ground the worms will get you and if burned you will be with the dust and that is it. Unless Q from the Continuum saves you.(LOL)

[Guest luvthai]

If I could do a do over I would be so happy as there have been things I should have done and things I shouldn't have done. Hopefully I'd get it right the next time.

[Guest fountainhall]

Sadly, what I observe is that most people (certainly not any of us who post here) don't even live their current life to the fullest. How many work 8+ hours a day, 5+ days a week, 50+ weeks a year for 30 or 40 years? It seems insane to me.

Some years ago I returned to the UK for a University class reunion. Many had been good mates at the time and most I had not seen in decades. I was looking forward to it.

 

After 3 days of wining, dining, partying and reminiscing, I came away feeling I had made a big mistake. I had totally failed to realise that we might all have changed a great deal. Almost all my former colleagues were on second marriages. Few had travelled much - maybe the occasional week-end to a European city or, in one or two cases, a holiday further afield. All were envious of the relatively more exciting jobs I had had and the opportunities literally to travel the world on a regular basis - even though this had also involved a good deal of employment insecurity. The common refrain was, "Well, in a few years we will have paid off the mortgage, the children will soon be off our hands, and once we have retired we have so many plans to visit many of the places you have been lucky to see during your career. We're so looking forward to it. Maybe we might even get to Bangkok. Err, where exactly is Bangkok?"

 

Four years later, one has died of cancer and his widow has given up all thought of long distance travel. More recently, some have got into financial difficulty as a result of the financial crisis (haven't we all ) and their retirement plans have been put on the back-burner. I feel myself extraordinarily lucky that I was given the possibility of living life (almost) to the fullest and that I had the stubbornness to break out of the 'expected' mould at an early stage.

[Guest xiandarkthorne]

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, earth to earth; that says it all! But in some form your dust and ashes may well nourish a tree or even a mango which some Thai lad will eat and you will live again as a cell in his body?

 

I have told all my relatives who are likely to survive me that I want to be cremated when I die so that if my ashes are scattered at sea, I can give all my enemies food poisoning if they ever again eat any form of sea food...but if they scatter me in the hills, my ashes will fly into their eyes and cause them to have traffic accidents when they're driving.

 

If they decide to keep my ashes sealed in a chamber pot in a cement niche, they don't get to inherit one cent.

[Guest fountainhall]

If they decide to keep my ashes sealed in a chamber pot in a cement niche, they don't get to inherit one cent.

I wonder if anyone remembers the wonderful Jewish revue group which performed in New York in the 1950s (I don't - but I have a wonderful tape of one of their performances). There is one short sketch called 'The Reading of the Will'. At one point, the very dry, Jewish-sounding lawyer doing the reading, announces: "And to my brother Louis, who never did a day's work in his life and who always said I would never remember him in my will - Hello Louis!"

[Guest joseph44]

I'll be cremated (wherever) and cause a tiny ash-cloud.

[Guest mauRICE]

My Chinese friends in Hong Kong are convinced I was a Chinese in a previous life.

 

Was that when they saw you naked?

[Guest fountainhall]

Was that when they saw you naked?

I reckon if they saw me naked with my rather big-boned frame, they'd know I was definitely never a citizen of the Middle Kingdom. No, I am certain they were referring only to my great wisdom, intelligence - and craftiness

[Guest fountainhall]

For me, it would be as a painter working on the Sistine Chapel with the master

I would be quite happy to come back as an absolute despot in any era before the 19th Century.

Given a choice - and there are just SO many possibilities - I would be more like GT. I'd be tempted to turn the clock back about 100 years and try to work with Serge Diaghilev and his extraordinary Ballet Russes. A larger than life, gay, somewhat boorish man, he drew to him a staggering array of talent, including one of the greatest dancers ever - the bisexual (well, I reckon he was gay!) dancer Nijinsky, the composers Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy, de Falla and Richard Strauss, artists like Picasso, Matisse and Braque, and choreographers of the calibre of George Balanchine (who later founded American Ballet Theatre), Michael Fokine and Leonide Massine. Not only was it was a unique period in the history of the arts. it was in many respects a gay ensemble located in gay Paris. But what would I do? I'm no dancer, artist, composer or choreographer. Perhaps I could just be the wardrobe mistress!