"how to live life" manual compiled from Skeptiko conversations?

I've been listening to Skeptiko since March, hoovering up as many episodes as possible. Really fantastic content. My sincere thanks to Alex and anyone else involved.

I am endlessly fascinated by what these conversations reveal about how the universe might work. But i'm especially interested in what they suggest about how we're meant to live our lives.

The biggest thing I've picked up so far from listening is the idea of the life review. That when we die, part of the arrival-in-the-beyond process involves looking back at how we lived our lives and the choices we made. My question is: what do people learn from this? There are always things that could have been done differently, but how? Do NDEs suggest that we should be more kind and compassionate, less complacent, less angry, more forgiving? Are there any guidelines that can be distilled?

And are there other similar how-to insights?

I would love to see a synthesis of everything along these lines that can be learned from the conversations over the years. If a team is needed to do this research I would be very interested in being a part of that.
 
...when we die, part of the arrival-in-the-beyond process involves looking back at how we lived our lives and the choices we made. My question is: what do people learn from this?

I think you are right to highlight this. It is the essence of spirituality.

Live your life understanding that you will experience the consequences of your actions from the perspective of those who are affected by them.

That means if you harm others, you will experience that harm yourself.

If you bring others happiness, you will experience that happiness yourself.

Most people, if they really believed this, would avoid harming others and only do good, to the best of their ability - we are biological creatures and do not have perfect control of ourselves.

A good (but not perfect) rule of thumb is the golden rule: do unto others that which you would have others do unto you.

But sometimes it takes wisdom to understand what is harmful and what is helpful. For example, spoiling a child might make them happy in the short term but is not good for their ultimate development.
 
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Jim - thank you for replying here. I appreciate your joining in the dialogue!

I agree with everything you outline here as solid guidelines for how to live life. I guess my question is slightly different. It's one thing to base a how to live strategy on wise words, but wholly another to glean insight from extraordinary experiences. One thing i love about Skeptiko is the focus on learning more about what lies beyond the boundaries of common-denominator consciousness. My question here is really about what we can learn from people who have gone beyond those boundaries -- what additional things have they learned that the rest of us can apply.
 
As I understand it in the life review you can not only view your life events but also see it from the others perspective (with all emotions). So I think its about compassion, love, forgiveness.
 
Jim - thank you for replying here. I appreciate your joining in the dialogue!

I agree with everything you outline here as solid guidelines for how to live life. I guess my question is slightly different. It's one thing to base a how to live strategy on wise words, but wholly another to glean insight from extraordinary experiences. One thing i love about Skeptiko is the focus on learning more about what lies beyond the boundaries of common-denominator consciousness. My question here is really about what we can learn from people who have gone beyond those boundaries -- what additional things have they learned that the rest of us can apply.
I’ve watched many talks about NDE and I’m fascinated and even a little jealous. I guess really knowing there’s something more would give great peace.
From my perception, they mostly seem to come back with a calm and grace.I think the lessons they get are what the wise sages of history have told us. Happiness comes from within. Treat others how you want to be treated.
Also, not to take it all so seriously but learn the lessons your soul needs to move forward.
I think there’s much evidence supporting this idea.
Any practice that suits you personally should help with this, wether it’s yoga, religion, meditation etc.
Below is a conference that might interest you.


If you watch it.... the car story freaked me out.
 
I've been listening to Skeptiko since March, hoovering up as many episodes as possible. Really fantastic content. My sincere thanks to Alex and anyone else involved.
I agree, and that is why I spend time here, both as a user, and occasionally as a moderator.
I am endlessly fascinated by what these conversations reveal about how the universe might work. But i'm especially interested in what they suggest about how we're meant to live our lives.

The biggest thing I've picked up so far from listening is the idea of the life review. That when we die, part of the arrival-in-the-beyond process involves looking back at how we lived our lives and the choices we made. My question is: what do people learn from this? There are always things that could have been done differently, but how? Do NDEs suggest that we should be more kind and compassionate, less complacent, less angry, more forgiving? Are there any guidelines that can be distilled?
One of the important things about the life review is that it would seem that the person themselves does the review - though maybe that would be different for spectacularly bad or spectacularly good people.

I would like to see Cyrus Kirkpatrick interviewed by Alex, because he has a somewhat different view of the afterlife, which sounds very plausible to me.
And are there other similar how-to insights?

I would love to see a synthesis of everything along these lines that can be learned from the conversations over the years. If a team is needed to do this research I would be very interested in being a part of that.

Well, apply to Alex!

David
 
I’ve watched many talks about NDE and I’m fascinated and even a little jealous. I guess really knowing there’s something more would give great peace.
From my perception, they mostly seem to come back with a calm and grace.I think the lessons they get are what the wise sages of history have told us. Happiness comes from within. Treat others how you want to be treated.
Also, not to take it all so seriously but learn the lessons your soul needs to move forward.
I think there’s much evidence supporting this idea.
Any practice that suits you personally should help with this, wether it’s yoga, religion, meditation etc.
Below is a conference that might interest you.


If you watch it.... the car story freaked me out.
As I said to Shusha, I would read Cyrus Kirkpatrick's book for a slightly different view of the afterlife - one that I think is more comforting than the more typical view of NDE researchers.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Afterlife-...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1591635934&sr=8-1

I would say that I don't find the thought of death as daunting as I used to do, though that apparently is a common experience as we age - I am 70.

However, Skeptiko does cover some more disturbing material, so it can be a choppy ride here.

David
 
As I said to Shusha, I would read Cyrus Kirkpatrick's book for a slightly different view of the afterlife - one that I think is more comforting than the more typical view of NDE researchers.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Afterlife-...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1591635934&sr=8-1

I would say that I don't find the thought of death as daunting as I used to do, though that apparently is a common experience as we age - I am 70.

However, Skeptiko does cover some more disturbing material, so it can be a choppy ride here.

David
Thank you for the recommendation.

The most fascinating story to me was Anita Moorjani’s but that’s probably because of her spontaneous healing.

I’ve had a serous car accident and have passed out a few times as a child from asthma related issues. What gives me comfort, in all those situations I felt no pain. I can’t explain it logically but I became more of an observer witnessing the situation.

The choppy stuff upsets me the most. I really hope universal justice is real. I don’t mean human justice as we stuff that up all the time :) I want everything that’s conscience to grow and become better.
 
I've been listening to Skeptiko since March, hoovering up as many episodes as possible. Really fantastic content. My sincere thanks to Alex and anyone else involved.

I am endlessly fascinated by what these conversations reveal about how the universe might work. But i'm especially interested in what they suggest about how we're meant to live our lives.

The biggest thing I've picked up so far from listening is the idea of the life review. That when we die, part of the arrival-in-the-beyond process involves looking back at how we lived our lives and the choices we made. My question is: what do people learn from this? There are always things that could have been done differently, but how? Do NDEs suggest that we should be more kind and compassionate, less complacent, less angry, more forgiving? Are there any guidelines that can be distilled?

And are there other similar how-to insights?

I would love to see a synthesis of everything along these lines that can be learned from the conversations over the years. If a team is needed to do this research I would be very interested in being a part of that.
This is a great question but don't forget about life PREviews as well. I had one of those where I was shown my entire life, from birth to death, in advance. It showed events from previous lives related to this life, and then all of the details of this life, and how others would be effected by it, even to the smallest degree. At the end of the preview, I was asked if I would accept the life. The point of mentioning this is that I was explicitly told what the purpose of the life was. It was there for the purpose of learning things that I wanted to learn. That may mean things such as how to be kind to others, etc, but at the very least it included things as diverse as exploring certain topics in a career, enhancing knowledge, and developing emotional strength. I was told explicitly that my sister was agreeing to her life as my sister so that she could serve as a kind of buffer between me and events in the life that would otherwise prove too difficult for me to handle. She was chosen because "she has a strength you do not". Not "she is stronger than you", but that she had a different kind of strength. Those ideas made sense in the context of my life and I think raised very interesting questions.
 
I agree, and that is why I spend time here, both as a user, and occasionally as a moderator.

One of the important things about the life review is that it would seem that the person themselves does the review - though maybe that would be different for spectacularly bad or spectacularly good people.

David
If my "life preview" is similar to the "life review", it went like this: A spirit came to me in answer to a question I had. He asked me if I was sure I wanted the answer, as if I might not. I said I did. At that point, he brought me to a place where I saw all the events of my life, all the people I would ever meet, affect, or by affected by (this would have to include you, for instance, and anyone you'd ever mentioned me to). I saw how everything I thought or did affected all these people, and how their actions affected me, all from the perspective of the person involved. So, if I got into a fight at school, I would see the thought of the kid who started it, beginning when he first started thinking about it, even if days before, and then all the events connected to those thoughts. This would lead up to the fight itself, and the reactions of the bully and every other kid or teacher who witnessed the fight, as well as my own feelings at the time. I then would go and watch as the memory of the fight was played out with each person until it was no longer a factor in their lives. This could involve a sequence that introduced dozens more people to the life preview, like if the bully gets sent home with a note, it is discussed with his family, then his scandalized sister tells her girlfriends, who then tease the bully, etc.

In all this, you are right, I didn't have anyone standing there saying, "this is good, this is not good." I could tell whether I liked the way each event or reaction made me feel, but that is different from adjudicating the intrinsic moral value of the events themselves. For instance, different witnesses to the same event might have different reactions. One might be traumatized, another might feel more courageous as his resolve is strengthened to stand up to the bully the next time. For that reason, even if we say for the sake of argument that the bully was in the wrong morally-speaking, and I was in the right, my evaluation of the event didn't stop there. I reviewed all the ripple effects until their termination. In most cases, the ripples were far from unanimous one way or the other. This is because the different people involved reacted based on their individual perspectives. What that means is that how I behaved wasn't the sole arbiter of value for the event. I can picture events where a person could behave badly but the event would still be "good" in the sense that others learned from it. Not that I advocate immoral behavior, I just want to underline that it may not make sense to think that the events of our lives have an absolute moral value that represents their total value to us in these lives.

When I went through that experience in the form of a dream, I felt what everyone else felt and saw what the events of my life contributed to others. This left me feeling good in some cases, ashamed in others. That said, I can imagine quite easily situations where I did not do the "right" thing but someone derived an important and valuable lesson from it, so I felt good about being able to provide the lesson, though it deviated from normal expectations of moral behavior. I say this from the perspective of someone who has, for the most part, behaved like a boy scout in good standing his entire life, but I can picture these same things being true of someone who doesn't make the same effort I have made to avoid behaving badly.
 
One question I have regarding the karmic influence and doing good in this life to prevent negative karma in the next life is regarding those human beings who are currently situated in the highest spheres of human influence, ie... government and "secret" societies.

Having listened to Alex for some years now, it has become very apparent that there exists a section of the species who live with incredible wealth and direct the general direction of the world political / scientific / educational / military industrial / religious system. In effect, the Elite. It has also become very evident to me that, considering the resources available to them, they certainly have far more information on all the subjects discussed on skeptiko relating to NDE's, para normal, God, etc...

So, my question is, if it is really is about "do unto others" - surely these people would know that and behave differently. However, we dont see that in the world, do we? We see war, corruption, deception, peadophillia and other crimes against humanity carried out in some form or another by these elites.

What does that say about the nature of reality?
 
Welcome to the forum!

Well yes I see your point ... but for example, Epstein knew that there was a judicial system and prisons, but that didn't stop him doing what he did.

David
 
But he might have believed that he was safe based on his relationships with associates. I dont believe that he was part of the "upper echelon" of society and probably thought that he was above the law. I suppose i should clarify what i believe about the 1 percent. I think that they are almost certainly not human. They may be proto human or a different species altogether. But, my point in my previous question is really about the resources available to them. Imagine what you could discover with 1 billion dollar investment in something. Jeff Bazos and Bill Gates are estimated as having made around 250 billion each from the recent corona-virus planned-demic. What do you think 10 billion worth of money would produce if invested in paranormal and after death research?

My point is that i just really feel that these people are LIGHT YEARS ahead of us and that makes me very uncomfortable about the nature of reality. Because, like it or not, they are in charge! What do you think?
 
But he might have believed that he was safe based on his relationships with associates. I dont believe that he was part of the "upper echelon" of society and probably thought that he was above the law. I suppose i should clarify what i believe about the 1 percent. I think that they are almost certainly not human. They may be proto human or a different species altogether. But, my point in my previous question is really about the resources available to them. Imagine what you could discover with 1 billion dollar investment in something. Jeff Bazos and Bill Gates are estimated as having made around 250 billion each from the recent corona-virus planned-demic. What do you think 10 billion worth of money would produce if invested in paranormal and after death research?

My point is that i just really feel that these people are LIGHT YEARS ahead of us and that makes me very uncomfortable about the nature of reality. Because, like it or not, they are in charge! What do you think?
I most certainly agree that the fact that a small number of people own such inconceivable amounts of wealth is very damaging. That is more of a political point, of course.

David
 
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