When We Die, Is There Something Waiting?

By Tommy Acosta

Sedona, AZ — When we die, is there something waiting? This question is poignant in the aftermath of the recent passing of former Sedona Councilman Mike Ward, and my own brush with death.

So, we ask, is Mr. Ward now in a better place, as they say when someone dies? Or is he nowhere, having taken his turn on the earthly stage and now his act is over, leaving only the memory of him behind, for those who knew and loved him?

Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Do we have eternal souls that last forever? Is there such a thing as reincarnation? I just don’t know. Who, can for sure?

Raised as a Catholic, I was taught early on that there is such a thing as heaven and hell, and a God who rules over them. If we are good, we can go to heaven, sit at the right hand of God, play with angels, and live happily ever after in the afterlife. But if you are evil, if you’ve done wrong, if you’ve disobeyed your mother and father, or blasphemed against the church, you’re going to hell where you will burn forever in a flame that never extinguishes, and you never rest and the pain never ends.

But by the time I was in Catholic high school, I stopped believing in an afterlife. I had pretty much given up on that concept because I reasoned that whether you’re good or bad, in the end, does it really mean anything if there’s nothing waiting? I perceived the concept of being rewarded or punished after you die as just another means by which religion controls us in this world.

I still believed in God. But not in an afterlife.

There is no proof that there is a heaven or there is a hell, even though many religions prescribe to that.

The only proof on whether there is a heaven or hell is right here on earth when we are living and can experience them.

And then there are those who claim to have near-death experiences, where they wake up during an operation hovering over the doctors.

They could see themselves and are instilled with a sense of peace as they fly through the ceiling and go to heaven where Jesus and their family members that have passed before them are waiting to embrace them, bring them into the fold, where we will have life everlasting, happiness, purpose, and meaning.

But could it be true? Is there something waiting? I mean when the brain dies do all our memories die with it. Do our memories turn to dust when our bodies die because there is no more active brain waves, and there’s nothing, just spent energy? But we are told we have a soul, an eternal soul or spirit that lives on forever, but again, no proof.

I myself had what could have been deemed a near-death experience.

I was at a party here in Sedona, or should I say a celebration, called “The Night of the Crimson King.” That night, I stepped out onto the patio in the backyard, and I had a digital camera I had purchased.

I saw three lights in the sky flying in formation, and they were flying erratically, not like a plane. Then I realized I was witnessing three flying saucers, so I snapped away with my digital camera, and they just blinked and disappeared into the black sky.

I walked back into the house, triumphant that I finally captured an UFO, and I said, “I got one! I got one! I have a picture! I got three UFOs! Oh my God!”

The next second, I woke up lying on the floor, hearing a woman saying, “He’s passed, he’s passed.”

I opened my eyes. Tried to get it together. I was flat on my back and there were several women standing around me. They looked distressed.

I spoke and answered her.

“Not quite yet,” I said.

Shocked, they said I had been lying there for three minutes; not breathing and had no pulse.

The doorbell rang and the paramedics came in and lifted me back up. They said I seemed to be okay and left.

Then the memory of what I thought happened while I was unconscious came to me.

I was at a train station, like Grand Central Station in New York City, and I was on a balcony looking down at all the lines of people waiting to go take a train to their destination.

I looked at a conductor and said, “Hey, I don’t have a ticket.” He said, “Well, you don’t have a ticket because you’re not supposed to go.”

With that, I came back.

I’ve thought about it a lot over time. It was probably a lack of oxygen that caused the hallucination. And that’s why people see tunnels and the funnel of light; simply a lack of oxygen to the brain.

My father, and this is an interesting anecdote, my father, though Catholic, was a philosopher and a Rosicrucian, very esoteric in many different ways.

I asked him during one of our last discussions, as he lay in hospice ready to pass, if he knew what happens to us after we die.

He said, “Nothing! Nothing! When you die, you die. There is nothing waiting, period. That’s just the way it is, son. When you’re dead, you’re dead.”

A few days later, he died.

That stuck with me through my life. Maybe he’s right; there is nothing waiting. Sad to think he died with no afterlife to believe in.

I recently went through an 8 1/2-hour operation where it was nip and tuck most of the way, and I was out under anesthesia for that time. I remember being pricked by a needle and then I remember being woken up eight hours later. Those eight hours never happened to me. I mean, the doctors did their job. They saved my life but there was a nothingness during the time I was under. No dreams. Just blackness.

So, is that what death is? Was my father, right? You just die, that’s it? You pass the baton and drift into the eternal nothing?

Or do we reincarnate at the moment that we pop off the planet, that split second when we stop breathing and our brain just dies? Do we return, born somewhere on this planet as a brand-new baby? Start the process all over again

There are so many questions.

But back to religious beliefs. Almost all religions believe in an afterlife.

In Christianity if you’re good, you go to heaven; if you’re bad, you go to hell or purgatory, where you have to spend some time paying for your sins. Or if you’re believe in Islam and you’re martyred, you go to paradise where you will be surrounded by virgins and live forever in happiness, comfort, and joy.

Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, all believe in an afterlife of some sort.

Still, there is no proof that an afterlife exists.

The question remains: when you die, does all the psychological and mental suffering end, replaced by joy, purpose, love and peace?

What about those suffering from dementia, depression and mental problems. Are they mysteriously cured in the afterlife?

I don’t know. Trying to imagine what happens after your death is like trying to remember what it was like before you were born.

I just know that I’m here right now. And that every second counts. Every breath I take counts. Every moment needs to be lived with joy and fullness. And love,  love, love, love—because love is the only way out and the only way in, and this life is all the time we have.

Appreciate, give thanks, and love well.

And if there is an afterlife, I hope you are having a great time in heaven, Councilman Mike Ward. You are fondly remembered for your dedication to Sedona and the magic of our beautiful city.