If a person were interested in knowing what it might be like to live in Paris, it would probably be more useful to seek out the opinions of those who actually spent a fair amount of time there rather than relying on the speculations and guesses of those whod never even made the trip.

In his column in the Faith and Reason section of July 8 Daily Item, my dear friend Kerry Walters takes us to a somewhat more exotic destination thats of interest to many of us the afterlife. Kerry outlines the view, expressed primarily by the ancient philosopher/theologians Theophilus of Antioch and Irenaeus, that only a portion of us those who had chosen to act in a Godly and morally-upstanding manner in this earthly life were destined for immortality; the rest of us, would simply cease to exist.

Unfortunately, at the time they wrote, neither Theophilus or Irenaeus had been to Paris. Their personal experience of the afterlife was nil. Fortunately, other sources do exist that we can turn to for more first-hand information.

From almost two decades of intensive research in this very subject (my book on the topic will hopefully be completed later this year) I can state that the consensus (closer to unanimous) opinion of those whove actually been there spirits whove finished their earthly life and made their journey to the other side is that those who believe in conditional immortality are, no pun intended, dead wrong.

Based on post-mortem communications from these spirits (144 of them, ranging from the famous to the infamous to just-plain-folks) delivered through some of the most highly-respected, intensively-observed, and scientifically-studied mediums of the 19th and 20th centuries plus communications from a 145th spirit (the Virgin Mary) the prevailing experience of the afterlife is that (1) its open to essentially everyone, that (2) the quality of ones initial afterlife experiences will be totally dependent on how one lived his or her earth-life, and (3) that learning, growth and development are not limited to our earth-lives, but continue on the other side.

Take if as you will, but this is the take from those whove actually been there.

Donald C. Porteous Jr.,

Milton

See the original post:

Letter to the Editor: Conditional immortality? - Sunbury Daily Item