Knowing these stories and many more, it's almost impossible for me to think that nothing awaits us when we die. It's impossible for me to accept that I'll never see my dead loved ones again, or meet people who passed decades, perhaps even centuries before I was born. Again, it's impossible to use science to study the supernatural. But, just based on the testimonies of others and personal experience, I am inclined to believe in a spiritual realm, where our essence (AKA soul or spirit) goes after our earthly vessels fail.

Sadly, most people (especially in western societies) don't talk about death, or dying, or what awaits us when we die. It's swept under the rug, treated as an enemy that must be defeated somehow, made to be a million times scarier than it really is. Sure, death is hard to talk about. It is terribly sad and uncertain. The pain of losing a loved one is impossible to put into words, it's so great. But, it happens every second of every day. Cells die. Insects die. Animals die. People die. It just is how this world works. And, we ought to talk about the reality of death, instead of treating it as a possibility that is very unlikely to happen. Believe it or not, everyone who has lived, is living, and will live, will eventually die. However, I don't believe the physical deaths of our earthly bodies is The End. Rather, I see death as a transition into the next realm. The realm of the supernatural. 

Of course, I don't know what the next realm has in store for us. Do I believe we will be conscious beyond death? Yes. Do I believe the afterlife is anything like how most people view it? No. Absolutely not. Our feeble, finite, Earthly minds will never be able to even begin to comprehend what lies beyond us. Anyone who says otherwise is full of shit!