Other than a belief, there is no evidence for life after death. NNS talks of people claiming near death experiences, which include encounters with departed love ones, even "Jesus" himself, but those in themselves are not proof. Nor are claims of "out of body experiences", they also do not prove that there is life after death. I do not doubt that people have had these "experiences", well at least in their minds they have such encounters. but the reality is they may be no more than the mind itself giving an illusion of some non existent reality.

Throughout history, many have claimed encounters with supernatural beings, including visits by the spiritual types, space aliens and departed love ones, god, Jesus and the saints, the whole gamut of supernatural beings. One of the most famous claimed apparitions is the so called visitations by the Virgin Mary to three devout Catholic children at Fatima Portugal in 1917. In the context of the world at the time, such a visitation was timely for the Catholic Church. Did it actually happen, or was it a mind encounter passed to three innocent children, and then exploited by the Church for its own ends.

//Life does seem to exist after death.//

Any objective research to back that up?

//Though rare, I 've heard enough stories of elderly indivuals say thay have been visited by a loved one who was already dead or by Jesus Himself.//

Any evidence that these are not just hallucinations?

//Some of those experiences say the indivual had an out of body experience and can discribe what was happening arond them, even in rooms that the the person's body isn't at.//

Umm... no. Check out the research of Dr. Sam Parnia who conducted a rather brilliant experiment in hospitals a few years ago, in which he placed images on high shelves only visible from the ceiling. Anybody who claimed to have left their body and be near the ceiling during resuscitation attempts would be expected to identify those images. If their perceptions of OBE's were merely psychological, i.e. illusory or false memories, then they would not be expected to have seen the images.

Wanna guess what the results were?

//Occasionally there are stories of some kind of sign, or a dream, or some other means that those morning the loss of a loved one experience to comfort them.//

Seriously? People dreaming about their loved ones after they've died? That's your hard-and-fast proof of the afterlife? Jesus...

I've been known to dream of my late dog, who passed away a few years ago. Presumably that means that all dogs do indeed go to heaven.

But according to the Christian apologetics site I looked at:

"In order for one to be saved, one has to believe in Jesus. But animals cannot exercise saving faith in Jesus."

So I guess we can definitively conclude that dogs don't go to heaven at all. Which leaves us with a bit of a paradox.

//A forth strange phenomon is the topic of ghosts in general.//

And we're back to hallucinations.

Why do people think that hallucinations constitute proof of anything other than the fact that people hallucinate sometimes? Seems like an odd thing to believe.

Is there life after death?

I firmly believe that there is.

But for those wanting some substantial proof -
some scientific evidence? I can only say that
my belief is based on faith and my religion.
I think that only the most bitter and cynical
among us would still cling to the thoughts of
a soulless world. I hold the conviction that
the heart, not the brain, is the light of
the world. My intellect must bow to my
spiritual impulse. But that's just my personal
view. Others will certainly feel differently.
My mother passed away peacefully on 26th January
2018.

I would find it very difficult not to
believe that one day we shall meet again.

cont'd ...

"Two tired eyes are sleeping
Two weary hands are still
The one who worked so hard for us
Is resting at God's will
Always loving and kind
She never deserved what she went through
If she could have spoken before she died
These are the words she would have said

'This life for me is truly passed
I loved you all until the last
Weep not for me and courage take
Love one another for my sake
As life goes on and you get older
My hand will come down
And rest on your shoulder
So don't weep for me
Just pray and remember me lovingly
Until we meet again.' "

Sentinel life does seem highly unlikely, the number of souls to be accommodated is mindboggling.

However we do pass on our DNA to our progeny, & that after all is the essence of us. So not immortal, as the human race will probably become extinct some time, but something of most of us will be around till then.

To Paul1405. I find it hard to believe that of the 4 types of events I discribed regarding strange events around death, that you don't know at least one person who you regard as rational and trustworthy who has experienced one of those 4 types. I have a hard time believing anyone is that isolated from these strange occurances, they thry or someone they trust haven't had one of them. But if you really don't know of anyone like that, then I'd recommend you to open your eyes. I assume there is a little bit of tunnel vision going on if you are unaware of these things as holding some weight in the real world, not just in someone's mind.

To Toni Lavis. I give the same message I gave Paul1405. But also you said "any objective reasurch?" So no. Just experiences I've heard from others. But with two qualifying aspects to consider. 1) Is this person I hear this story from a reliable person? Or in general would I trust what they say and their testimony on other things. And 2) Is there anything that that person would gain by lying about their story, or anything to discredit their view? If the answer is no on both then that counts as evidance to consider. To weigh on your own after they've said their tale.

"Check out the research of Dr. Sam Parnia."

I'll have to look into it. Thanks for the reference. I hope the reasurch is reasonable. I wouldn't expect a witness of a crime at the grocery store to remember and identify different products on the store shelves while someone is robing the place. It would be more resonable to think that witness's attention was diverted elsewhere. This could be the case in Sam Parnia's study, or it might be something more reasonable. I'll have to look into it.