Journey Of Life

What is life if not a journey, a lesson to be learned by each and
everyone? If we thought about life as everything, as something which
begins and ends, what would be the point? Why would we go through life
caring, working and trying to learn and make ourselves better people –
whether this be earning money, climbing to the top of the business or
intellectual ladder or simply trying to be ‘good’ people. This leads me
to two thoughts; there is a life either before or after death or that
religion and the idea of spirituality.


My mum jokes about what we now call her ‘turnip’ theory. Her theory goes as such:
‘Religion was created in order to give people something better to
think about. If a person believed that they lived in a hovel, ate
turnips and that was the only thing for them, then why would they
bother? If you, however, tell these people that by living this lowly
life, there is a better place of eternal happiness waiting for them,
suddenly they have something to live and work for.’


It’s an odd way to describe the idea but sociological theory has some
of the same ideas as this. There is a Marxist theory which calls
religion, ‘the opiate of the people’. What this theory refers to is the
idea that religion is used as a drug to dull down the pain of
oppression by what the theory names the ‘ruling classes’. In other
words, religion is used to keep the working class down and working in
their menial jobs, and keep the higher – or ‘ruling classes’ – higher
up the hierarchy.


Another sociological perspective is that of the functionalists. They
too see religion as keeping a hierarchy; however, they see this as a
good thing. Society needs a hierarchy in order to ‘function’ and this
relates quite well to the ‘turnip’ theory. If the working classes
didn’t have something to believe in, then they would not work and
nothing would get done in the world. Does this prove that religion was
made by humans?


Looking on the other side of the story, we must look at the idea that
there is a life before and/or after death. Here, we must also
acknowledge that there is a lot of evidence for this: for example,
religion, past life studies, paranormal studies, ghosts, mediumship,
near-death-experiences – the list goes on.


The paranormal – or the study of the ‘unexplained’ as I prefer to name
it – is always a subject which appears to answer a lot of questions but
also bring rise even more. I would like to also bring up the idea, that
religion is a sector of the ‘unexplained’ or paranormal; in many cases,
prophecies and seeing the future, abnormally long life spans, people
being raised and coming back from the dead, miracles, illness being
cured etc. With the same thoughts in mind, these bring up questions
such as ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ At the time of writing however, religion was
used to give answers – in a world with low scientific knowledge,
answers needed to be given, and religion was used – and possibly
created – to give these long needed resolutions to questions.


Returning back to the original idea of life as a journey and life
before and after death, religion provides us with this answer. In
Christian terms, Jesus – the Son of God – rose to heaven in order to
create a place for everyone after they had finished their pilgrimage
(or journey) here on earth. In other religions, the idea of
reincarnation provides many answers. This is the idea that life on
earth is a journey however, in these cases people have many lessons to
learn, and therefore it may take one or more lives and so a soul can
return to the earthly plane. This is also where the idea of rebirth and
past lives and past life regression fits into the argument. Some people
believe not only have they been reborn, but they still retain the
memories of the past lives they have lived. Some case studies have even
shown the memories hat these people have, to be accurate. Surely, this
could prove that there is something else before, after and even
in-between life.


Near death experiences, or N.D.E.’s, also appear to show such things.
In most case studies, people claim to see a beautiful place, a bright
light or a loved one, however, they either do not feel comfortable in
their new found abode or are told it is not their time – in other
words, their spiritual journey through their life on earth is not yet
over, their lessons have not been fully taught yet.

Ghosts, spirits, mediums and the so-called after-life seem to offer
proof in a similar manner. In the case of ghosts, souls retain their
place on earth, some believe due to unfinished business. Some ghosts
even appear to relive and carry out the duties they had in life. In the
case of mediumship, these ‘spirits’ can be contacted either in the
place where their spirit now resides or visits or by communicating – so
they believe – through a guide whilst the spirit is on a higher plane
or in an ‘after-life’.


Without any ‘hard proof’ we can never answer the question of the
meaning of life or even answer the question of which came first the
spirit and after/before life or whether humans simply created the
spirit and the idea of religion. However, there are a few thoughts I
would life to conclude with:

1) there is much proof that something more does exist – unexplainable proof,

2) the idea that life is ‘it’ and we simply ‘go through the motions’ is quite a saddening though and

3) my favorite quote: ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary.
For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible


Surely the knowledge, the knowing of what happens after we finish our
many journeys here on earth, is less exciting than the idea of living
each day like its your last, in awe of what could be awaiting you and
the idea of being reunited with those people you have loved and lost.
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