Core Concept

5 After Death Theories

The five existing answers humanity has proposed to the question of what happens at death: reincarnation, heaven and hell, death-as-illusion, death-as-final, and the born-again déjà-vu theory. The book proposes a sixth.

The five after death theories that are mentioned and named in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmaiy-JB9VE are: Reincarnation, born again -- deja vu theory of life after death, heaven and hell theory of life after death, death is an illusion theory, death is nothing and is final theory. There are other theories of life after death. Superimmortality is a scientific theory of life after death that contains and needs no supernatural concepts, places, objects, like gods, souls, spirits, heavens or hells. It is based on the is simple concept that consciousness is produced by the structure and functioning of matter and duplicating that structure and functioning closely enough duplicates the same consciousness and thus you.

There are many problems with all five of these theories from a scientific, logical and experimental perspective. For example, reincarnation of you into an animal requires a change in the size and structure of the brain from a human brain size and functioning brain to any size and functioning animal brain. This implies that it is not the structure and functioning of the brain that is important in producing consciousness, but some other supernatural concept like a soul. The problem is there has never been found a soul or spirt like thing. A theory can postulate all sorts of non existent objects, it just makes the theory a fictional story not a useful way of thinking. Science has found that the smaller the brain the less complexly conscious or aware of your total reality you are likely to be.

The born again -- deja vu theory of life after death again assumes a singular soul like concept that goes between different bodies after death. This soul like thing some how contains aspects like knowledge and abilities from your previous lives but not all. The science of superimmortality predicts that the closer that one person's structure and functioning of his brain is to another person's brain the more likely they are to have similarities in memories, personality, self identity, etc. These similarities are not limited to one other person (because of a singular soul) but because identity of structure and functioning of matter is not limited to just one other person at a time.

The heaven and hell theory of life after death requires very different worlds from what is contained in this universe. There maybe evidence of multiverses that have different physical laws but there is no evidence of supernatural after death worlds, that require gods to determine where and how you get to these places. This theory still requires a supernatural soul that ties different bodies together into the "one singular you" over time. No matter how much people look for a soul that there is no scientific evidence of them existing.

The death is an illusion theory --- death is a figment of our consciousness. Does the body produce consciousness or does consciousness have object constructs like bodies in it? Do you have to have objects for the creation of consciousness or consciousness for the existence of objects like bodies. The structure and functioning of the brain creates a reality but it creates a very limited view of reality. It is a local and incomplete view of reality that has been developed through evolution to give advantages for survival. As you change the structure and functioning of the brain you change the reality that the brain produces. If you change the structure and functioning of the brain enough then the consciousness that is produced can make it seem like death is an illusion. For example, the structure and functioning of the brain can be changed enough so that the consciousness produced is not aware of any one ever dying. A young child could have never experienced death of anything thus he might not be aware of death at all. A person could have amnesia and never have memories of any thing dying and have lost the understanding of the concept of death. However, we can have a good understanding of death. What is it like to be dead? It is like not being conscious. You have to be conscious to be aware of the passing of time. If your body was put in a state of suspended animation for any length of time like a billion or trillion years and then revived as if you had not been frozen without any change in your brain, it would seem, to begin with, no time had passed at all for you. Superimmortality goes one step further. It does not matter if this is a revised version of your body or a different body entirely, if the structure and functioning of this body is identical then it will produce you experiencing this particular perspective on reality. So any time in the future a different body with a continuation of the structure and functioning your current body is producing, it will produce a continuation of your current consciousness and it will seem to you like no time had passed at all. Of course, if there is a difference in the environment that you are now in (which is in the future), you can be aware that something has changed. And maybe then aware that time has passed that you were not originally aware of. Even though superimmortality predicts that bodies can stop producing consciousnesses by no longer functioning in the right ways (which is death), It also predicts that any consciousness can be reproduced by duplicating the correct structure and functioning of matter closely enough thus making permanent death more of an illusion than a reality.

Death is nothing and is final theory is supported by the evidence that most people that have ever lived have died. The human body does not seem to have the ability to live longer than 120 years so it seem that all the currently living people will eventually die. There is no evidence that people's bodies come back to life after they are dead long enough. Of the five theories, this theory fits the scientific evidence best. However, it still does not fit the scientific evidence coherently as superimmortality does. A good and complete scientific theory of life after death should be able to tell physically under what circumstances every conscious being will experience conscious existence for the first time, and again after death.

Is it true as the announcer says that there is no way of proving if these theories are right or wrong? First, can they all be right? Can they all be wrong? If they can not be proven wrong should they be given any special status over any other fictional theory of life after death?

At min 6:02 in this video the announcer says: "If coming back as an animal or going to heaven comforts people in this life, frankly that is all that matters." If death is final then it does not matter what you believe will happen after death because there is no way to avoid the finality of death. But if any of these different theories are true then it does matter what you believe and how you use these beliefs. It would thus appear that this announcer believes that death is final. This is because if death is final then all that matters is making the most out of this one singular life.

Superimmortality is a more complex theory that fits the scientific evidence much better than any of these five theories. If superimmortality is true, which is very likely, then the continuing development of science is very important for supplying knowledge about everything including about ourselves and how to exist and survive endlessly into the future. Maintaining the earth as a good place to live is endlessly into the future allows for many of the same and different versions of you to exist into the future. Making livable places and then inhabiting then with conscious beings through out the universe increases the likelihood of versions of you existing. So what we do now and into the future effects the likelihood of you existing after death. What you do now likely depends on what you believe, so it matter what you believe.

APA

Douglas, M. (2026). 5 After Death Theories. You Never Die companion site. Retrieved from https://volney.co/concepts/5-after-death-theories.html

MLA

Douglas, Mark. "5 After Death Theories." You Never Die companion site, 2026, https://volney.co/concepts/5-after-death-theories.html.

Chicago

Douglas, Mark. "5 After Death Theories." You Never Die companion site. Last modified 2026. https://volney.co/concepts/5-after-death-theories.html.

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