By Chad Wilson,www.paranormalunderground.net

I often ask myself . . . why? Why do people feel it is necessary to believe in life after death, or not? Why do we make up scenarios that fit our outlook on what happens to us, or not, after death?

My answer is this. We tell ourselves that we continue on after we die because we fear that which we don’t understand. Few people return from beyond the veil to say what is up, that Uncle So-and-so says, “Hi!” (Well, except for the occasional near-death experience, household haunting, or psychic reading.)

And then, when these hauntings and experiences do happen, many question their sanity or have others question it for them. And even though many of us seek insight into the paranormal, oftentimes these experiences are dismissed as weird, wishful thinking, or a product of the mind, and we just continue on as if nothing happened.

And it might be years later, as we lie in bed talking to our significant other, that we remember the weird events that have happened over the course of our lives. It is these experiences (or lack thereof) that help shape our views of the world, and more specifically of what might, or might not, happen to us when we die.

Events during my life have indeed shaped my viewpoint on the paranormal and an afterlife. As a child and a teen I remember feeling as if I’d live forever. It was only with the maturing of age that I came to realize that we all die. There was no avoiding it. Death is “the great equalizer” as they call it.

We all die, and the thought of dying can be a scary prospect — I know, I’ve been at that juncture in my life. The one thing that finally got me to searching for answers about an afterlife was the very real prospect I faced of dying from mouth cancer. Thankfully, the results of the biopsy were negative, but from that point on I was a changed man. And maybe that is what it takes, to be faced with our own mortality.

I also had experiences growing up . . . the shaking of my bed when I was a teen and the weird shadow person I saw for an extended time during my youth.

However, while there are some who face death and come away with a belief in an afterlife for varying reasons, there are others who face death and need scientific proof of the afterlife.

Unfortunately, at this time, what our society defines as “scientific proof” of an afterlife does not exist. No individual or group can currently provide that scientific proof. We are all in the dark as much as the next person. The only one who can answer the ultimate riddle of death, and the surviving of it, is each individual. When it comes down to it, each person decides for themselves what they believe.

Life is a journey . . . we are born, we live, we die, and what happens after is a great mystery. Yes, I have hope because I believe I will be reborn at some point after I die, to continue my journey.

But what of the atheist, the nonbeliever, what do they have to look forward to? Oblivion? The quiet of the abyss? A true final rest?

For me, I have hope. I see no harm in believing in the continuation of our soul. And if when we die, the result is that we cease to exist, we won’t even know that we were wrong. But what if we do live on?

I know that eventually I will pass on, but in the meantime I am determined to try and find answers to give others the hope that I now live with. If in the process I am able to provide that to one who is themselves seeking the answers I will feel I have accomplished my goal.

In this lifetime, my goal is to try and bring hope to others.