Spirituality and cryogenics

Oryx

A similar thread has prompted me to ask: if you get your body frozen when you die, with a view to being brought back, what happens to your spirit/soul in the meantime? Do you wait in a spiritual holding area till youre reunited?
Or do only non religious/spiritual people go for cryogenics?

How about you don't believe in a soul, get frozen, and then find out youre wrong, and there is a heaven. Then the docs reanimate your body and you have to go back!?! If youve gone on to a happier place would your body remain as a soulless shell?

Does anyone else think about this?

stevenmu

I've was actually thinking about this recently and I came to my usual conclusion, i.e. I've no idea !

I suppose it may depend on how the cryogenic process worked, one line of thought is that they would just slow your physical processes down, you might breath and your heat might beat only a few times every hour or every day even. In this case your brain would still be active and I think your spirit would stay connected to it and leave you in a very disjointed dream like state, maybe like some kind of very deep meditative trance, but far beyond what would normally happen. If you're re-awoken I guess you'd just go on as normal, possibly not remembering or only having a vague idea of what it was like while you were frozen.

The other line of thought is that your body would be frozen after you're already dead, preserving it. In this case I'd be inclined to think your spirit would have left your body and gone on to wherever. I think that if your body was thawed out it would either not regain conciousness or else it would be running on purely basic animalistic thoughts and instincts.

Of course I've nothing to back either of these ideas up

Reincarnation could confuse the matter even more. If your body dies and is frozen, you would presumably reincarnate into a new one. If your body is then reawoken could another spirit reincarnate into it ? Could you then be walking around and bump into your former body with someone else in it ? Would your body realise someone else was inside or would the spirit inside maybe think it was in the wrong body ?

One more thing to add, before I make myself dizzy, there was a thing in the news recently saying that scientists somewhere had been able to revive dogs hours after they died, and they thought the same methods could be applied to humans. This brings up many of the same questions, and it may not be all that far away :eek:


(edit: why do I always seem to be :eek: 'ing when I reply to your posts)

TerrorFirmer

Its an interesting question.

What do I believe?

I believe god decides. God will know if you are going to be cyro frozen at any given stage of your life, and accordingly your soul will not be permitted into Heaven on the basis that it will still be required on Earth, even if it is many years in the future.

Basically, you only leave your physical body if God decides its the genuine end of the road for you.

Only when your body and mind cease to exist on a permanent basis that has always been know to pass, does your soul enter Heaven.

My 2 Cents.

Oryx

Perhaps time is irrelevant on the other side, and when your brought back its like a mili-second has passed?

amazingemmet

Time and space are irrelevant on the other side alright. Personally i'd be more concerned with what might come back with you if you were reconnected

CerebralCortex

I think once you have been frozen your body becomes something else hence you become something else and your soul leaves what is left is a piece of frozen machine made of meat.
If they figured how to make an artificial brain where your entire conciouness has been moved to another physical holding thing then you don't exist anymore but something that resembles you minus the soul.
The above statements are only trains of thought and are not to be taken as what I truely believe cos I just don't know.

Oryx

CerebralCortex wrote:

I think once you have been frozen your body becomes something else hence you become something else and your soul leaves what is left is a piece of frozen machine made of meat.
If they figured how to make an artificial brain where your entire conciouness has been moved to another physical holding thing then you don't exist anymore but something that resembles you minus the soul.
The above statements are only trains of thought and are not to be taken as what I truely believe cos I just don't know.

This whole spirituality forum is about discussing things we simply dont know
I suppose this subject occupies my thoughts because I think its quite sad to have so little faith in an afterlife or soul that you would consider doing something as futile as freezing your body, in the search for immortality.
I think, too, that in 1000 years those capable of bringing you back to life would have no reason to, unless to use you as a National Geographic exhibit Your family will be long dead and your money spent by future generations anyway.

Thanks for the input guys!

Nurglespawn

Stevanmu: think the buddism has the answer to the zombie dog thing, buddists believe that although you body dies, it takes a number of days for your soul to actually leave your body (Hense the dogs being brought back to life hours later). can you post a link? sounds interesting.

your soul would no more hang around if your dead body were frozen than they would if you were cremated. Your soul doesnt realy give a damn if the meat it lived in for a few decades is at 120C or -35C being dead means being unshackeled from the mortal coil.

i agree with what Stevanmu however, if by cyrogenics you mean the freezing of a LIVING body, then your soul would probobly stick around for the ride.

i think the whole subject is moot however. the current method of cryogenics, and the whole thinking behind it is at a very primative stage, think wright brothers planning a flight to the moon. freezing a human cell and then thawing it is just to crude an answer.

i dont think i'll get myself frozen anyway, the notion of my soul being stuck in an ice-pop for a couple of hundred years doesnt appeal to me for some reason.

tj-music.com

If your body gets frozen I believe that your soul is free to go wherever it wants to go. If it chooses to return once your body gets "back to normal" , I wouldnt be too surprised if you, "all of a sudden", have way more experiences and wisdom because your soul moved on and came back more complete.

scorptech

Interesting forum.....for my 2 pence worth, here is what I think.

Cryogenic technology is man made and as of yet, does not work, however, there's nothing to say that they might crack it within the next few decades (wasn't Walt Disney supposed to be cryogenically frozen??).

Anyway, this is playing with nature and since your soul leaves your body after you die (a soul leaving a body has been withnessed by a number of mediums just after death with a number of spirits around the person - obviously relatives that had already move over to the spirit world).

I think Stevenmu has probably the right idea - slow the heart rate down keeping the body alive, but just about. This might work if your not suffering from a terminally ill disease with no cure, if you do have a terminally ill disease, then keeping the body alive will still case the disease to spread.

Knowing how things are going with the planet etc, do you ready want to be cryogenically frozen, our would like to be in a happy place with family members and no worries or suffering. I know which one I prefer!!

Dades

I'm reading a book at the moment that charts the history and possible future of cryrogenics. It seems to infer that until we have nanotechnology capable or rebuilding cells destroyed in the freezing process that no successful resuscitations will take place. And that technology itself is only theoretical and not inevitable.

What happens during the process? I don't believe in a soul per se so if anything gets revived it will be a consciousness. Personality, Memory etc. That's assuming the brain cells are restored to their pre-frozen state which is highly unlikely.

scorptech

Pet cemetery comes to mind..................All body no soul.