Author Topic: Need your help writing a spiritual fiction novel (Read 1716 times)

Elyria · « **on:** January 26, 2015, 02:15:48 pm »

Hello all.

I'm a writer, trying to become a published author. And today, while sitting and contemplating some things, an idea for a story popped into my head! It's very simple in design, taking place mostly in the afterlife, but complex in inspiration. I want it to be incredibly spiritual, so I was hoping you all could answers some questions based on your beliefs. If you decide to answer, I ask that you answer honestly and as descriptively as you'd like. Also, you don't have to answer all of them. Whatever you choose to provide will be helpful. There's no wrong answers here.

1) Where do you believe you go after you die? Is there a name? A location? Is it above earth in the clouds, below earth in the ground, or a different plane alongside earth? Is there more than one level?

2) What does your afterlife look like? Are there homes? Buildings? Libraries?Carnivals? Temples? What do the people look like? Are they sexless and ageless? Floating balls of light or gas?

3) Is there weather in your afterlife? Is there a sun, stars, moon? Does it get dark or is it always light? Does it rain or snow?

4) Do new spirits get created in your afterlife? If so, how?

5) What about reincarnation? Is there a welcoming ceremony for returning spirits? A cleansing or readjusting process? Do they evaluate their progress in their life? Do they decide to get reborn, or does a higher power choose for them? When the leave for their new life, how much do they know about it? Is there a process they go through to forget the afterlife?

6) Are their deities in your afterlife? Or are they on a different plane? Is there a governing body at all?

Again, this is all just for inspiration.

I won't be using your exact words. I just decided that I wanted to write a book, mostly based on the Summerland, but I'm interested in all afterlife at the moment, and I'm curious what others believe. I really want this to be a book that spiritual (non-Christian) people can read and say, "Wow, that's exactly how I imagined it."

Thanks in advance for all who participate!

Faemon · « **Reply #1 on:** January 26, 2015, 08:16:02 pm »

Quote from: Elyria;170022

I want it to be incredibly spiritual, so I was hoping you all could answers some questions based on your beliefs.

Wishing you all the best on this endeavor! Although, incidentally, I'm investigating pop culture paganism in the sense that the inspiration that moves many people to "just make up" things could actually be a form of spiritual intuition. Community can be an integral part of spirituality, but "incredibly spiritual" isn't limited to "what other people have said about this."

That said...

I consider the experience first, then the interpretation. As I have not yet died or remember dying, this would be speculation rather than belief. It would, I believe, be an extrasensory experience, which I do have (in suspiciously sensory ways, which I've read happens when one is simply not aware of a natural translation from the subtle to the sensory) but this would probably not "translate" into something physical as planes.

That said, I remember one dream that I had when I was hiking the mountains with a couple of deceased people that I knew in real life, and in the dream I knew they were dead, but my reaction was basically, "Hey, sweet digs. If this is what the afterlife is like, I can't wait to die!"

So, "Otherworld" is still generally a good placeholder or model to sort of examine the thing, although it's more of a placeholder as in a function (that I use for other stuff too, such as hypotheticals or metaphors) than a belief to me.

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What does your afterlife look like? Are there homes? Buildings? Libraries?Carnivals? Temples? What do the people look like? Are they sexless and ageless? Floating balls of light or gas?

Yes. Mostly a meadow with a river and a tree, though, which I suspect is kind of cliche by now but I like to think it's cliche for a reason.

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3) Is there weather in your afterlife? Is there a sun, stars, moon? Does it get dark or is it always light? Does it rain or snow?

Sometimes during out-of-body experiences, there's a lot of wind that isn't wind. It's more like force-field currents. Weather might also be more like mood, if just waves of this vibe or that vibe or another just overwhelm the place. I can translate some metaphysical events to sort of supernatural disasters, too. But celestial bodies, light levels, and precipitation right now I would say are translation conventions between the subtle and experiential. So, there would be the gist of those phenomena, yes, but maybe not in a way that the corporeal would recognize.

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4) Do new spirits get created in your afterlife? If so, how?

I'm thinking of everything being sentient at every level, so when a sort of node happens then the thing comes alive. I'm thinking of awareness or consciousness as an eddy in a bankless and bottomless and surfaceless river of sentience.

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5) What about reincarnation? Is there a welcoming ceremony for returning spirits? A cleansing or readjusting process? Do they evaluate their progress in their life? Do they decide to get reborn, or does a higher power choose for them? When the leave for their new life, how much do they know about it? Is there a process they go through to forget the afterlife?

I have this idea that we're all simultaneous "reincarnations" of one another, so regressions are more like receiving vibes in a strand of a web, less so with sending a bucket down into a personal well of experiences. Whatever experience a regressant would have, would arise because it was compatible with something that they needed to know/experience/face/deal-with on some level, at the moment. So, physical beings get born and interpret it as something linear like rebirth, which is fine because we function best when we consider and project linear time. But I would attribute the value of decision necessarily, and in some way ifwhen we reincarnate, we never leave.

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6) Are their deities in your afterlife? Or are they on a different plane? Is there a governing body at all?

Just like the weather, I could imagine that there's a balance (or imbalance) of powers that could be translated as government, but maybe not recognizably one...