adventist ghosts
what religion does death convert us to?
Shabbat shalom y’all,
I believe it was psychotherapist and author Daniel Foor— I forget where I heard this, I think in a podcast or instagram post— who shared a story of a spiritual leader (I believe in the Ifá tradition) ask him, “Why don’t white people ever bury their dead?” Daniel responded, “What do you mean? Of course we bury our dead.” The spiritual leader responded something like, “Then why do I always see your ancestors’ pale ghosts following you around all the time?”
Adventists have a certain hubris around their doctrine around the state of the dead— that once one dies, there is no survival of the departed’s personality, they are in effect asleep until the Christ returns and resurrects them. Any evidence to the contrary— any voices heard at a seance or information recounted from a dream— are demonic attempts to trick you away from the “truth” of God’s Word. Ironically, this doctrine is where adventists and atheists tend to agree.
But that’s not the (un)lived experience of most of humanity.
One of the most universal beliefs of humans is that the dead can have an unexpected influence on the living.
The dead aren’t always seen in a positive light. How many of us experience trickle down traumas from our patriarchs and matriarchs? Several Native Californian cultures wouldn’t even say the names of the deceased for fear of summoning their ghosts. Ellen White even had a dream of James visiting her after his death, providing her with encouragement.
Sure, we frame pictures of our beloved dead. But candles? A glass of water? That’s just inviting the devil and his cronies! A ouija board? That’s opening up a door to dark, evil things!
I’m convinced anyone who says it’s evil to explore these practices doesn’t believe in a God capable of protecting them.
What’s the point in believing in God if it doesn’t benefit you or your loved ones?
Sure, Ellen White actively tried to distinguish adventism from spiritualism, the biggest competition at the time. A century before spiritualism, enthusiasm was the hot new trend in American religion that everyone criticized for being too eccentric and charismatic. Adventism and Ellen White are downstream of the shouting methodist tradition and converted it into a very disembodied, thought-oriented doctrine.
All to say, our metaphysics about death is just 19th century church politics that we’ve taken for granted and uncritically codified.
We twist and decontextualize Bible verses to prove ourselves right. Why do we take “For the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) as a scientific claim rather than a poetic exploration? The following verse reads, “Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.” And while that’s partly true, it doesn’t account for that which still lives on inside of us. Our grandparents’ love and hate tend to live on in our parents’ experience and become our own inheritance.
What, then, are we already haunted by? A fear of the body? A fear of dreams? A fear of being wrong? A fear of mysteries? A fear of other’s authentic experience? The fear of being excommunicated? Of being ostracized? Of having your family disown you for believing differently than them?
Let’s end with a brief thought experiment!
What if your beliefs about what happens when we die are wrong? It could be a 100% wrong or just 2% wrong.
Imagine the afterlife that is different from your own expectations.
In this thought experiment, how does your “incorrect” belief impact your “actual” afterlife?
For example: Say, I’m expecting to go to Christian heaven as soon as I die and be an ethereal angel flying around the cosmos. Now say that the “actual” afterlife is I am reincarnated into a Chilean child in 2143 BC. Assume you can remember your past beliefs. As a prehistoric Chilean child, would “Christian heaven” be any different than the night sky?
If you’re struggling to come up with hypothetical afterlives, you can read a report of a near death experience from the Near Death Experience Research Foundation. Just see what happens in you if, even for just two minutes, you consider it the “actual” afterlife and your beliefs were “incorrect.”
If we’re wrong about what happens when we die, how might these incorrect beliefs impact us in death? Are our grandparents sitting in their graves alone waiting for Jesus to return? How long would it take for them to give up and look for their descendants? Are they thirsty? Are they cold? What comfort might a candle or glass of water bring them?
Thanks for reading.