In August 2020, I was surprised to discover a YouTube video titled “10 Theories About the Afterlife,” which presented the theory of a natural afterlife as #5. The video had been posted on May 29, 2018. The presentation (starting at 4:32) isn’t too bad; however, it can leave viewers with two misconceptions about the natural afterlife.
First, though you will indeed experience your final conscious moment forever, you won’t know you are experiencing the exact moment forever—i.e., that the experience is over. You’re just “living in the moment” (hopefully, a very pleasant one), always anticipating more consistent moments will follow. It’s not like a “Ground Hog Day” experience (as in the movie).
Second, the presentation is based on my first journal article, “The Theory of a Natural Afterlife: A Newfound, Real Possibility for What Awaits Us at Death,” published in 2016. The presenter raises the issue that “it [the article] does miss the scientific part of actual testing.” However, the early article doesn’t really “miss” it as the article does address testing. In it, I claim a “Real Possibility,” not certainty, for the natural afterlife and state that future testing scenarios would perhaps allow the “theory to verified or falsified—making it a scientific theory someday [my emphasis]” (p. 941). My subsequent journal articles in 2020 and 2022 generalized the natural afterlife theory to the NEC theory based on cognitive science principles. These articles established that the NEC theory could be tested, making it a scientific theory. So, the video could use an update.
K. Alvin Marie Publishing