What Survives Death? | Michael James

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Rani Madhavapeddi

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May 2, 2026, 4:07:10 PMMay 2
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FYI

https://youtu.be/CW9HvTg6iQc?si=K-RJ0vFu_zaB5zwP

Rani Madhavapeddi Patel

Dan Kilpatrick

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May 2, 2026, 7:26:39 PMMay 2
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Hi Rani, and All,

I haven't watched the video, but a question came up in reading the subject line. What is death? Do we know what we are asking about?

It seems we are looking as if from a distance or from "outside" what we are inquiring into. It is as if we automatically assume we know what we are talking  about. 

Nothing personal intended here, just looking at our shared consciousness in how we receive all this. In the midst of the subject might be quite a different situation..... 

-Dan

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Rob MacDonald

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May 2, 2026, 11:40:40 PMMay 2
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Dan,

Not sure what you are trying to get at?

Isn't death, in this case, just like what I would consider a share milepost for us as humans?

I mean, sure, as in the case of ice, it melts, so ice becomes water, but 'melt' happens.  Maybe not a great analogy, but I think if you are doing this human experience long enough, you are familiar with what we commonly label 'death'.  But maybe I am missing your point.

It just points to a moment in the human experience, and from there it becomes like a work of abstract art - something we all look at and have different perceptions of what it might be (an end, a transition, etc.)

-Rob M. 

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Rani Madhavapeddi

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May 3, 2026, 8:12:38 AMMay 3
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Dan,
It appears to me what you are suggesting is do we know if life ends or continues? 
The physical body came at birth, what came goes. It’s a movement in consciousness. The experiencer as the individual self cannot exist as the body mind does not. Consciousness from which it arises is not there? There? Or transforms is based on what belief you may have. NDE says there is a sense of you that continues. But I don’t know if you are fully dead if that experience can be there. In short I did not die to know what happens after death. If that’s what you are saying is not known. 
Love peace and joy! 
Rani Madhavapeddi Patel


On May 2, 2026, at 4:26 PM, Dan Kilpatrick <kilp...@gmail.com> wrote:



Paul Rezendes

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May 3, 2026, 8:45:02 AMMay 3
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Dan, Rob, Rani, Everyone,

I started watching part of the video you sent in Rani. It seems to me that humans seek permanence. This guy has succeeded in finding permanence in life after death. He thinks he found it. People really latch onto ideas like a soul, something that will continue after death. My grandfather had that all figured out too. He lived his life strictly according to the Bible and he was waiting to go to heaven to meet his wife and everyone who had died. He would live there forever and ever in peace. That idea, that identification with a soul, did give him peace and he did not fear death. I will give him that. Whether this guy in the video or my grandfather were right remains to be seen.

If nothing is ever really born then what dies? I think maybe this is one of the things that Dan was pointing to. I like Rob M's metaphor of the ice cube, when it melts it just becomes water. So my question is: do we ever go anywhere or just become something else? We are already the Earth and the sun dancing on the planet. Maybe the energy moving through us is not going anywhere as it moves through all beings. The energy is not dependent on this form. I really don't know how all that works out when the body stops functioning. Do I need to know? It is an interesting curiosity. Every day we wake up and wait and see what happens. We really don't know what's next.

That doesn't mean wondering and talking about is not OK.

Paul


Jeffrey Angelson

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May 3, 2026, 10:39:22 AMMay 3
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Paul Everyone

Paul,


I appreciate how you’re holding both sides—what brings peace and what may or may not be true.


The ice cube metaphor works for me, with one caveat. The water remains, but the ice cube as a distinct form is gone. So maybe the question isn’t where we go, but whether there was ever a separate “we” to begin with.


Zen asks: what was your original face before your parents were born?


If that’s what we are… then nothing needs to continue and nothing needs to go anywhere. The form appears and dissolves, but what we are was never contained in the form to begin with.


We are already the earth, the sun, the movement of life itself—THIS, as it is, appearing as us.


So perhaps nothing dies into nothing… it just doesn’t stay what it was.


THIS is LIFE.



Jeff Angelson

Paul Rezendes

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May 3, 2026, 11:05:50 AMMay 3
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Jeff,

If I understand you correctly, yes. That is basically what I'm trying to communicate.

Thanks for the feedback.

Paul

Rob MacDonald

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May 4, 2026, 12:24:11 AMMay 4
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All,

Just wanted to echo the 'both sides' sentiment here.  To me this is a "Yes, and..." item, like so much of what we seem to be experiencing here.

The last few nights I have had some vivid dreams of experiences in seemingly other realms.  Nothing cosmically amazing.  A family gathering in some familiar in-laws house that doesn't exist in this 'waking' world.  Interactions with the people there.  Emotions.  When I awake they are seemingly gone, lest the vapor of the memory of that experience.

I bring this up because after repeated trips into this dream realm, I have often thought about their meaning and relationship to my waking experience, I call them 'dreams', but like Dan's question about 'death' they fall into that same exact camp.  Do I really know what is going on?  I can't say for sure, because whether I am typing here, responding to this email thread, or off in a dream experiencing something else, it is all just what is happening.

Maybe there's some theory of karmic energy that flows through waking, dreaming, death, a rebirth, etc., but what good would having that knowledge be if all we are ever witness to is what is happening in this moment?

-Rob M.


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Paul Rezendes

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May 4, 2026, 9:44:37 AMMay 4
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Rob M., everyone,

Yes, I think I can hear what you're saying. It doesn't matter whether we are lost in thought, in a dream, having a psychedelic experience... it is what it is, until we separate it out into all different kinds of categories. You triggered some thoughts about psychedelic experiences that I have had. It is not like psychedelics create something different; they seem to just stop the mind from creating this reality. You can go to a place where there is no up or down, no center, no boundaries, just a swirl of feelings and colors, nothing is separated. Is that what a newborn child experiences? We say that's just an hallucination, but is it?

Just some thoughts.

Paul

Rani Madhavapeddi

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May 4, 2026, 5:46:03 PMMay 4
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It’ s - ing through all states. 
🤣🙏🏻💐💜
Rani Madhavapeddi Patel


On May 4, 2026, at 6:44 AM, Paul Rezendes <pho...@paulrezendes.com> wrote:

Rob M., everyone,
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