The Afterlife, on Darwinian „Rite”

http://anthropos.ro/cristian-horgos-o-lume-de-apoi-pe-stil-darwinian/
Dr. Sigmund Freud is credited with the claim  'in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality'.
Philosopher Emil Cioran said that "Deep inside, each man feels – and believes – himself to be immortal, even if he knows he will perish the next moment. We can understand everything, admit everything, realize everything, except our death, even when we ponder it unremittingly and even when we are resigned to it" Dr. Carl Gustav Jung goes further. Thus, in his study "The Psychology of Life After Death"(7)  Ronald K. Siegel summarizes the following: “Jung took the position that the concept of immortality, universally present in the individual's unconscious, plays an important role in ”. But for those who do not believe in any religious form of afterlife the only possibility to achieve this ‘psychic hygiene’ remains the belief in a kind of surviving of the consciousness with the respect for the Evolution laws of Charles Darwin. Some theoretical clues in such a direction we can find in the chapter "Conclusion. Science and the Unconscious" written by Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz for the book "Man and His Symbols" by dr. Carl G. Jung and his collaborators. And an interesting medical research has started within the project “AWAreness during Resuscitation – II: A multi-center study of consciousness and awareness in cardiac arrest” (5) which is expect to bring more light. Meanwhile, all we can do is to image some possible models of ‘darwinian’ afterlife.

We are four broad categories: those who believe in an "afterlife", those who do not believe, those who are undecided and those who are not interested or not yet interested – being known that this interest increases with age. Obviously it is fine to be in an category if you are happy with this. But at least for now I'm among the ones that are still searching. If you read, for example, the study "The Psychology of Life After Death" (7), conducted by the psychiatrist Ronald K. Siegel, you have chances to dramatically decrease your belief in any kind of afterlife. This is even though, according to this study, a poll conducted by Gallup in 1978 showed that about 70% of the people of the United States of America believed in an "afterlife" and we can assume that European citizens are not essentially different. And yes, in favor of those who do not believe in an extension of life, the philosopher Auguste Comte once said sententiously: "to search for the soul and immortality is a childish phase of human development". But still, after reading the books of other psychologists or psychiatrists more open to spiritual transcendence, your hope for a prolongation of consciousness after biological death can be greatly increased. For instance, dr. Ran D. Anbar, in his study “What Happens After Death?” (1), writes: “We discuss that our perception of reality is limited by what our brains have been geared to handle. For example, we know a lot that we cannot perceive, such as light or sound, that is out of range of our brain’s ability to register. It also is reasonable to assume that there are many things we cannot perceive, of which we are unaware. Thus, rather than a position of certainty about the lack of existence after death, it may be more humble to hold an agnostic position: It is unknowable what happens after death.”.  

Dr. Freud:  'in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality'
Why am I wavering instead of deciding on one side or the other? First of all, when it comes to foods or beliefs: „de gustibus non disputandum”. But one concrete reason why I am not among the staunch skeptics is that I find it preferable to grope, to search for alternatives to a fate that would end definitively and irrevocably in eternal darkness, with the stopping of the heart. Plus there's prophylactic advice about it, and not just anyone. Dr. Sigmund Freud himself is credited with the claim  'in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own immortality'. Dr. Carl Gustav Jung goes further. Thus, in his study "The Psychology of Life After Death"(7)  Ronald K. Siegel summarizes the following: “Jung took the position that the concept of immortality, universally present in the individual's unconscious, plays an important role in ”. We can find out more International Association for Analytical Psychology website from the article „Volume 18: The Symbolic Life” (4): “In the foreword to “Phenomenes Occultes” by C. G. Jung (1939), occult phenomena, particularly the question of the soul’s existence after death, are examined. The essays in the book are described as dealing with the idea of immortality and its functional value, not with the metaphysical question of immortality. The idea of immortality exists worldwide and is therefore real — a characteristic of psychic life. It is argued that for reasons of psychic hygiene it is best not to forget such universal ideas, and if they have disappeared, from neglect or intellectual disfavor, they should be reconstructed as quickly as possible regardless of alleged philosophical “proofs” for or against their existence.” So, in short, given that in the subconscious anyway we have a vein of faith in the afterlife, it would be preferable to connect our conscious mind to this desire in order to achieve more psychic harmony.  

"Religion of love," metaphor or essence'
It's just that I'm among those too analytical to believe in a strictly Edenic "afterlife" as projected by religious teachings. I am still tempted to accept that religions, once stripped of their own mythologies, have in their depth a common denominator that concerns the transcendence of spirituality. I mean, the phrase "religion of love" is too attractive not to cling to it. But before exploring the possible power of love to create a world of souls, I first make an introductory journey through just a few sources of psychological inspiration. There are certainly others, perhaps even more suggestive, but I came across these and they seem helpful enough.
Aldous Huxley “The Doors of Perception. Heaven and Hell”
Gabor Mate “Myth of Normal”
Carl Jung “Man and His Symbols”,
What do these thinkers have in common? First of all, they explore the transcendence of spirituality. Dr. Jung, in his chapter "Approaching the Unconscious" in the book "Man and His Symbols", writes: “One cannot afford to be naive in dealing with dreams. They originate in a spirit that is not quite human, but or rather the breathe of nature -of the beautiful and generous as well as the cruel goddess. If we want to characterize this spirit, we would do better to turn to the ancient mythologies and the fables of the primeval forest. In addition, Huxley and dr. Mate do it by personally and directly using psychedelic substances, a method that, along with hypnosis and the more difficult intense meditation, are currently the best-known ways of deepening alternative states of consciousness. Not being corseted, like Gabor Mate and Carl Jung, by the rigors of the psychiatrist profession, the philosopher and writer - nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize for literature - Aldous Huxley is not even shy to end his book by advancing his own vision of the "afterlife ”, in which souls persist after death. Here is the last paragraph from Huxley's book: “As far as I suspect, both modern spiritualism and the ancient tradition are correct. There  is a posthumous state of the kind described in Sir Oliver Lodge's book, Raymond; but there is also a heaven of blissful visionary experience; there is also a hell of terrifying visionary experience, such as that suffered here by schizophrenics and some mescaline users. And there is also an experience, beyond time, of union with the divine Foundation.” For his part, Dr. Gabor Mate quotes in the chapter "Jesus in Tipi. Psychedelics and Healing" from the book "The Myth of Normal", of Dr. Rick Doblin, the Founder and President of the “Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies” (MAPS). And here's what Dr. Doblin says: “We tend to think, with our ego, that we are the Center of the Universe. Psychedelics move this and we can see that we are part of something enormous, much bigger than any individual, and that this unity goes back in time and forward in time. They can take us out of our usual patterns. When you stop looking at things from 's perspective, you feel a new potential and sense of connection being released” The purpose of these just a few quotes is rather to emphasize that far-reaching thinkers were open to the possibility that "the world is more than meets the eye" (Gabor Mate)  

An imaginary model of "the other world"
But what could the world beyond be like? And obviously I hope it doesn't come down to haunting old houses and harassing or scaring sensitive people. And now, I return to a model of the "other world" that would smile at me. Love, by its very essence, is the expression of the closeness of souls, two or more - because, isn't it, the ideal is to be able to love many people - not necessarily love through eros. At the opposite pole, selfishness or, even more drastically, fear, hatred, lead to loneliness, to the isolation of the soul. So if there were to be a core, a communion of souls, then it could essentially be based on the properties of love. A brick is inert, but a wall connected to the bricks is able, for example, to vibrate. Likewise, a union of loving souls might have transcendent properties that a single soul would find more difficult or even impossible to develop.. A handy metaphor is the lavish scenario in the movie Avatar, where consciousnesses are connected to a core. Yes, it's a sci-fi movie, and it may boil down to mere phantasmagoria, but that doesn't completely rule out an inspired intuition. That is, spirits, especially empathic ones, could be connected on a level that we are not aware of on a daily basis. What I want to point out is that for a "congregation" of souls, temporal boundaries may lose their strictness and meaning. An imprint of a loving soul could remain, even after biological death, somehow resident in the dense "multi-soul" clouds. But what is a spiritual manifestation without emotions, good or bad? At least from an earthly perspective, the lack of emotions betrays a dull, utterly meaningless existence. So to what extent would a perpetuation in the soul world be of value, if the soul were devoid of feelings? And what then could be the equivalent of joy or sorrow in the world of immortal souls?

One possibility would be that the post-mortem souls rejoice when new loving souls, especially known ones, are connected to the world of souls, and which would thus offer the possibility of recalling their experiences from the former earthly life. Respectively to suffer when other dear souls, gradually losing from the initial energy of love, finally break away from the core perishing and dissipating in the solitude of the universe. Another question would be how it is possible, strictly under the conditions of Darwin's evolutionism, for a "world beyond" to have appeared. Here is a possible answer. The ancient man envisioned, desired intensely, practiced multi-millenary rituals and above all believed in various forms of heaven. And because of this need, the brain, with its amazing possibilities, may have at some point created the "psychic dough" necessary to bake a surviving consciousness, just as the ancestral biological brain designed and made every new organ: eye, nose, ear, etc. Such an idea seems very daring, so I appeal, in support of it, to two paragraphs from the chapter "Conclusion. Science and the Unconscious" written by Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz for the book "Man and His Symbols" by Carl G. Jung and his collaborators. Thus, we find: „The physicist Wolfgang Pauli has pointed out that, due to new discoveries, our idea of the evolution of life requires a revision that might take into account an area of interrelation between the unconscious psyche and biological processes.  Until recently it was assumed that the mutation of species happened at random and that a selection took place by means of which the “meaningful,” well-adapted varieties survived, and the other disappeared.  But modern evolutionists have pointed out that the selection of such mutations by pure chance would have taken much longer than the known age of our planet allows. Jung's concept of 'synchronicity' could be of help here, because it sheds light on some rarer, 'borderline' phenomena, some exceptional events, in this way, it is therefore possible to explain how the adaptations and 'significant' mutations happened, in a shorter time than would have been necessary in the case of random mutations”. And on the next page, the idea continues as follows: “It seems, then, that such accidental anomalous phenomena arise when there is a need or a vital need, this fact could, further, explain why a certain species of animals, under great pressure or in a urgent need, could produce significant (but acausal) changes in its external material structure”.  These would be the premises of a possible "world beyond". If you love another perspective, maybe even better. At least for me it is important that we can imagine schematic models that are somewhat coherent. So more important than one model or another is that there would theoretically be the possibility of an afterlife so that life itself is more bearable. For now, we are limited by the observation made by psychologist Jesse M. Bering in the paper “Intuitive Conceptions of Dead Agents' Minds: The Natural Foundation of Afterlife Beliefs as Phenomenological Boundary” (2), at page 272: „The afterlife poses a special problem here quite simply because it is epistemologically impossible to know what it is like to be dead (...)”

Let's remember the last words of the book "Heaven and Hell", by Aldous Huxley:
"Something of the same kind may happen in the posthumous state. After having had a glimpse of the unbearable splendor of ultimate Reality, and after having shuttled back and forth between heaven and hell, most souls find it possible to retreat into that more reassuring region of the mind, where they can use their own and other people’s wishes, memories and fancies to construct a world very life that in which they lived on earth. Of those who die an infinitesimal minority are capable of immediate union with the divine Ground, a few are capable of supporting the visionary bliss of heaven, a few find themselves in the visionary horrors of hell and are unable to escape; the great majority end up in the kind of world described by Swedenborg and the mediums. From this world it is doubtless possible to pass, when the necessary conditions have been fulfilled, to worlds of visionary bliss or the final enlightenment. My own guess is that modern spiritualism and ancient tradition are both correct. There is a posthumous state of the kind described in Sir Oliver Lodge’s book Raymond; but there is also a heaven of blissful visionary experience; there is also a hell of the same kind of appalling visionary experience as is suffered here by schizophrenics and some of those who take mescalin; and there is also an experience, beyond time, of union with the divine Ground"

Online bibliography

(1)   “What Happens after Death”, by dr. Ran D. Anbar
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/understanding-hypnosis/202212/what-happens-after-death
(2) Intuitive Conceptions of Dead Agents' Minds: The Natural Foundation of Afterlifer Beliefs as Phenomenological Boundary, by Jesse M. Bering
https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/InstituteofCognitionCulture/FileUploadPage/Filetoupload,90244,en.pdf
(3) “The folk psychology of souls”, by Jesse M. Bering
https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/27458/1/Learning%20that%20there%20is%20life%20after%20death(lsero).pdf
(4)   “Volume 18: The Symbolic Life” (International Association for Analytical Psychology), by Carl Gustav Jung
https://iaap.org/resources/academic-resources/collected-works-abstracts/volume-18-symbolic-life/
(5) “AWAreness during Resuscitation – II: A multi-center study of consciousness and awareness in cardiac arrest”, by Elsevier B.V.
 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37423492/
(6)   “Is The Life After Death? The Mind-Body Problem”, by dr. Ralph Lewis
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-purpose/201907/is-there-life-after-death-the-mind-body-problem
(7)   “The Psychology of Life After Death”,  by dr. Ronald K. Siegel (Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences University of California, Los Angeles)
https://gwern.net/doc/psychology/vision/1980-siegel.pdf
8)  “Belief in life after death: psychological origins and influences”, by Michael A. Thalbourne
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886996001675