The illusion of Separation... Does it persist after death?

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Yikes, I wouldn't really consider this place prison. I'm stuck here guys; is it just a choice of prefrence?

[CFTraveler]

Depends if you consider desire to be choice or preference.

[Caelrie]

Yikes, I wouldn't really consider this place prison. I'm stuck here guys; is it just a choice of prefrence?

It's been my overwhelming experience that everyone here on Earth is here by personal choice.

[ButterflyWoman]

Yikes, I wouldn't really consider this place prison.

I do, but I mostly just thought it was a useful metaphor.

I'm stuck here guys; is it just a choice of prefrence?

I don't know. I suspect I came here deliberately, but then a lot of people go to prison deliberately, too, they just don't necessarily realise that's what they're choosing...

Seriously, I do believe we come on some sort of choice, but it may be, as with so many things in the material world, a choice we don't fully appreciate that we're making, at least for some souls.

[iadnon]

Hi:

There's a book by Ophiel (Art and Practice of Astral Projection) where he relates that in his astral trips he saw people living in houses resembling their earthly replicas.

It seems they didn't realize they died, so they went on doing their lives in the astral.

Yes, it must be weird to appear in an another world where matter is plastic and things appear just by mere thinking. But look at our dreams. I've had dreams where I was feeling odd, but I didn't want to wake up because of some attraction.

That's all. I just wanted to point out that quote.

Bye!

[DeleterJoe]

Perhaps you are experiencing this and every other incarnation that you will ever be at the same time, and once you die the illusion will be complete from every perspective and you will be once again one, since I’ve heard time is a construct in the physical experience and it doesn't exist on the other side, all experiences are simultaneous, that is why you can access information from past and future lives they are all happening in the now.

But than again I could be wrong. lol I do love identifiers, but that could just be the ultimate insecurity, i.e. a want to persist in the illusion of separation.hm... perhaps the identifier the simplest one being, I'm. then the question,Who am I? Then the persistent state of the perpetual illusion that comes about answering this, I'm... identifiers (my friend refers to them as adjectives,though we have talked about that as well, are all measurements also insecurities? Since the only way to measure something is to measure it against something else, a state of separation from said thing, i.e. not being one therefore you need to reinforce the illusion of separation through adjectives, identifiers, and measurements, all being the same things) . hm... don't know,sorry if that makes no sense, just rambling.

Perhaps everything that can be identified and is identified is all God, and aslong as one thing holds on to an identifier separate of the one concept, theentire illusion will remain.

But still who is to say the illusion is bad, wrong, or should ever really begotten rid of? I for one love being Joe.

[ButterflyWoman]

Perhaps you are experiencing this and every other incarnation that you will ever be at the same time

That is my understanding now, although that's a somewhat simplified version. This thread was originally from 2008. And, yes, all is God (Source, Universal Consciousness, One, Whatever), and the separation is ALL illusion. Such is my current understanding. I do not see the illusion as "bad" or "wrong" or anything else of that sort. It just is what it is, and it's possible to see beyond it, and when that happens, things change and are experienced in new and interesting ways.

It's interesting to see this very old thread revivied, though, because it's a reminder of just how much HAS changed in this life story, for this point-of-view that is "me".

[sherlocksgirl]

My understanding is that you cannot be separate in any meaningful sense after death and that separation is something that only really exists in the physical reality, i.e., here. I don't know about reincarnation, it's not something I really have any experience of, but from what I've seen I personally believe that you only reincarnate if you have too much negative energy to be able to go through the afterlife process. If we do all reincarnate then between lives you would be within your personal unconscious (your own private portion of the astral), which is also where the afterlife process takes place - you don't go beyond that area as a separate being.

Funnily enough I've been pondering on something related to this today so it felt like sort of a sign-post to come across this thread. I was shown recently that when you have unconditional love for someone you're connected to them forever but I can't seem to figure out how that could be in any way meaningful when after death we're all One anyway. I thought it might be to do with some sort of blueprint for reincarnation from within the One but that doesn't make sense either. Anyway, I'm rambling.

The illusion does have a purpose, it's part of a process of purification - a way for Us to safely express Our self-destructive side and to gradually become less so.

[CFTraveler]

The problem with this idea is that according to many experiencers' observation of the afterdeath process, the etheric phase (and possibly astral phase) of the process is physical- that is, the etheric is composed of energy and possibly the astral- enough anecdotal evidence exists to support this idea- that the whole 'life review', 'adaptation' and 'belief system territory' process, even the 'park' (where the deceased begin to affect their enviornment deliberately' is a scenario in which time and space appear to exist (as experience), which perpetuates the illusion of separation. Any time you see some sort of evolvement the sense of separation is necessary to be able to see it- change, time, space, are what 'separation' is- it may be essentially illusory because we are one, but enough experiences support the idea that this illusion persists at least for some time (notice my use of the word 'time' in this context) is perceived, or at least reported.
I think ultimately, once all this evolution and adaptation and reincarnation is past (there come temporal allusions again), then more than likely all sense of separation goes away once the deceased 'cross the bridge' to whatever, and maybe no one has seen what happens next because separation stops being created/perceived....
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