Are People Who Meditate More Likely to Believe in an Afterlife?

People who meditate tend to believe in an afterlife for the simple reason that they discover a part of themselves, which is more than their ideas, personality, and more than their personal story. Meditation brings them to a place in their heart where there is no self, just a vastness of being. It is not a great leap from experiencing this vastness in meditation to believing that someday we will be free of our bodies, personality, free of our personal story. It is not a big stretch to imagine an afterlife, being in a vastness of space and indescribable peace.

Everyone who meditates sooner or later finds a spaciousness inside, a lightness of being, a feeling of coming home, joy. This joy, this feeling of coming home is common to many people who have near-death experiences. They, too, report an expansive experience, a great lightness of being and a overwhelming self acceptance. The great love is so wonderful that it is like coming home. For meditators and people who have had an near death experience, it is a home they never expected to find inside their hearts or in an afterlife.

So why is the experience of people who have near death experiences so much more vivid, real and unforgettable than those who meditate? The answer to this is really quite simple. Those who have a near death experience actually are free of their minds and bodies for at least as long as their experience lasts. Most meditators get only a glimpse of awareness free from physical distraction, free of thought, worry and the details of this life. Only few meditators really get to this place inside free of the worldly self to enjoy the great other.

If you talk to people who regularly meditate they will share a common experience of finding an inner wholeness that is more free than free. Meditation can routinely be a time of no thought, just being. Awareness let loose in meditation opens to something that is all embracing. Meditators report finding this exquisite love, a love beyond human love as many people who have briefly died share in their stories. Many people meditating are too busy watching their thoughts. But others who deeply explore their hearts, who allow their awareness to be, rest and soak in the inner heart discover a love beyond any love as we normally know.  (MORE)

Source: Huffington Post