What Does Happen After Death?

Many times I've had children, grandchildren and spouses tell me how much they miss their loved ones. If only they had a way to talk with them, learn from them, hear that everything is OK, discuss today's problems, etc. Those whose faith is not grounded in God's revelation can become quite vulnerable to charlatans claiming to assist them to get in touch with these deceased loved ones. That's why it is not unusual to read about so-called psychics taking advantage of this vulnerability. One such report surfaced last week.

Psychic Accused of Exploitation : Discovery News: A young woman told a jury today how a psychic tricked her into performing “like a porn star” in the hope of getting in touch with her dead grandfather.

Spiritualism is a many and varied belief system. Its hard to call it a religion. Essentially the idea behind it is that when one dies he moves on to some kind of spirit world. In that after-life world the deceased long to communicate with the living, but find it difficult to do so. For unexplained reasons the living cannot hear them. So they need a medium, someone gifted somehow with the ability to get in touch with the dead and tell the living what they are saying.

The entertainment business loves to tap into this phenomenon. Top among recent movies was Ghost (1990), starring the now deceased Patrick Swayze—who obviously has not returned from the dead. Swayze's character is Sam. Sam and Molly (Demi Moore) are a very happy couple and deeply in love. Walking back to their new apartment after a night out at the theatre, they encounter a thief in a dark alley, and Sam is murdered. He finds himself trapped as a ghost and realises that his death was no accident. He must warn Molly about the danger that she is in. But as a ghost he can not be seen or heard by the living, and so he tries to communicate with Molly through Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg), a psychic who didn't even realise that her powers were real. Up to this point she had been busily bamboozling people who wanted to communicate with the dead. After Oda Mae finally does tell Molly what's going on via Sam the ghost, Sam is free to whoosh on up to heaven—or something like that.

Ghost brought Paramount Pictures a gross income worldwide of $507,600,000. The movie won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Whoopi won a Supporting Actress Oscar as the fake medium. Not bad for all concerned.

Another bit of craziness in this after-life arena was Robin Williams' starring role in What Dreams May Come (1998). Talk about a syrupy plot. Chris Neilson (Robins' character) and his children die in a car crash. He finds heaven to be more amazing than he could ever have imagined. However, his wife is missing. Annie (Annabella Sciorra), in her grief commits suicide and ends up in hell. Chris discovers a way to visit Annie in hell and in love decides to stay there with her forever. However, the powers from on high are so moved by Chris's sacrifice that the both of them do indeed end up in heaven. Perhaps now they can be reborn on earth and live their lives together.

What Dreams May Come grossed $55,000,000 in the USA and $16,000,000 worldwide the year it was released. It continues to make money through rentals.

You get the picture. Pun intended. Tomorrow I want to take a sober look at this stuff by way of God's revelation in Holy Scripture.