Are we “nothing” or “everything”?

Many philosophers speculate that after death, the living being either fades into “nothingness,” or expands into “everything.” This philosophy proposes that the living being does not have an individual identity after death: Instead, the individual person or living being simply vanishes and evaporates into space.

Do we become nothing after the body dies?

Merging into “nothingness” — the void — and merging into “everything” — sometimes referred to as the white light — are basically the same proposition. In either case, there is no individuality. There is no separate existence of the living being in either of these scenarios.

To this, we can offer the simple observation that individuals are born with unique and distinct personalities Some have special talents such as being a musician or having another gift. Such gifts points to an individual existence prior to birth. If a person existed as an individual before birth, does it make sense that a person would lose individuality after death?

The living being is the source of our personality, our feelings, emotions, desires, the ability to love, and the desire to be loved. Each of us is a separate, active living being.

Why would we exist now as separate beings, only to evaporate into everything/nothing? What would the purpose of this folly be?

Others propose that we are God

Some propose that we not only merge into "everything" - but we are God. We are the Supreme Being and everything around us is our creation.

Such a notion can be disproved immediately. If you are God then why do I disagree with you? How can you state you are God yet you cannot even convince me that you are God? Furthermore, why can you not control time? Or your body's aging? Or death? Or others?

In fact, you cannot possibly be God. If you were, then things have gotten out of your control, and such a notion disproves the notion that you are God.

With regard to becoming nothing at the time of death, since you have maintained a steady active existence throughout many years of a changing physical body. The death of the body will not affect your will to survive and prosper— the desire to love and exchange love.

Activity and will

Each of us is characterized by activity and will. Actively willing and thus making choices is the key distinction between living and dead matter.

And we are each distinct from each other. We each have different wills. We each make different choices. Therefore, neither are we one in the sense of being either nothing or everything.

The destination of our journey is our choice. We have the freedom to choose. Our physical body is a tool to accomplish the destination of our choice.

Regardless of whether we are conscious of our choices, those of us living beings in the human form have conscious tools to work with at the moment. Our consciousness has advanced and evolved. We can now make spiritual choices. This means we are each an eternal individual.

We can thus conclude that we continue to exist as an individual after this body dies.