Moreover, “after” expresses a temporal relationship and “beyond” expresses a spatial relationship. Upon reflection, then, it seems strange that the phrases “life after death” and “life beyond death” are used as synonyms. So, instead, we move on by substituting purely spatial phrases like “the world beyond” or “the beyond” or “the other side.”
These are spatial terms but not spatial concepts. “The world beyond” does not exist in any defined spatial relationship to the present world. Thus, we cannot point to the beyond, for example, if someone asks us to do it. The request simply makes no sense.
“The other side” is equally problematic, for there is no clear answer available for the next logical question, namely, “The other side of what?” “The other side” suggests a dividing line or barrier separating two spaces, yet nothing whatsoever indicates in which direction “the other side” supposedly lies from this world.
So, “the world beyond death,” “the beyond,” “the other side,” and the like are not literal in meaning, but they are not meaningful, intelligible metaphors, either. Although they resemble metaphors, there is no way of telling what their supposed literal meanings might be. In other words, we cannot specify equivalent literal meanings for supposed spatial metaphors like “the world beyond death.” Consequently, by the criteria established earlier, phrases such as “the beyond” and “the other side” are nonsense metaphors.
The idea of an afterlife is not yet a full-fledged concept. Rather, it is a loose conglomeration of self-contradictions and figurative nonsense such as meaningless, unintelligible spatial metaphors. Plenty of other nonsensical metaphors and other nonsensical figures of speech are also used for verbalizing the idea of an afterlife. For example, death is sometimes likened to an expansion of consciousness or an ascension to a higher plane of consciousness. Here again, however, we are falling back on spatial metaphors that have no equivalent literal meanings that can be specified.
Whatever figure of speech anyone uses for the afterlife, however, the essential problem remains the same. Namely, the figures of speech are never linked to equivalent literal meanings. Therefore, the nebulous notion of life after death is a complex mixture of self-contradictions and figurative nonsense. Nevertheless, as we know, nonsense stimulates a flow of odd mental imagery, half-formed ideas, and fragmentary chains of thought, so phrases like “life after death” and “the world beyond” evoke plenty of jumbled mental images, garbled half-thoughts, and incoherent or distorted mentation—and we mistake that for a concept of the afterlife. Moreover, adding to the confusion, we shift indifferently and casually from one of these words or phrases to another until we make a complete circle. Our minds get lost amidst enthralling but foggy images and half-formed notions, and we take for granted that these familiar words and phrases have a determinable literal meaning.
We glide smoothly from “life after death” to “the world beyond death” to “the next life” to “the afterlife” and so on. We readily interchange self-contradictory phrases with assorted figurative nonsense. The ease of substituting one supposedly equivalent phrase for another heightens the illusion that these literally meaningless, unintelligible expressions somehow make sense.
The circular process of substituting nonsense for nonsense does not amount to a meaningful, intelligible definition of “life after death.” Instead, we recognize it as a new sub-type of nonsense definition. That conclusion follows from the long process of discovery and reasoning in which we have been engaged, so the core notion of life after death is nonsense after all, just as various eminent thinkers have said.
Therefore, sentences like “Is there a life after death?” are nonsense questions. We already saw that nonsense questions play a crucial role in religion as well as in scientific inquiry. Asking whether or not there is an afterlife is part and parcel of being a human being. In religion and the spiritual life, the idea of a life after death is an enduring source of hope and inspiration. Like other important nonsense questions, the question of life after death also constantly stimulates rational inquiry and debate.
Nonsense concerning life after death may sometimes arise from the mind’s attempts to escape the reality of death. Earlier, we learned that people sometimes talk nonsense because of severe stress. They may talk incoherent nonsense when their minds are racing as they are trying to escape situations of mortal danger. Hence, soldiers sometimes talk incoherent nonsense upon being rescued from horrific battles in which they narrowly escaped death or life-threatening injury. In such cases, nonsense is the mind’s last-ditch attempt to escape imminent death.
Speculating about life after death may sometimes also be partly an attempt to evade the reality of death. In other words, in trying to escape death, the mind may contradict itself, pose nonsense questions, and create nonsensical figures of speech.
Speculative books about life after death have been enormously popular since antiquity. Reading such books is a pleasurable way of escaping one’s anxieties about death. Similarly, Houdini entertained audiences with death-defying escapes from seemingly inescapable predicaments. He seriously pondered the question of life after death and even promised to try communicating from the other side, if there were an afterlife. Hence, popular books about life after death and Houdini’s entertaining escapades attest to the same principle: namely, life after death would be an ultimate form of escape—an escape from the space-time continuum itself.
Nonsense occurred in magical formulas that once supposedly transported people temporarily to a world beyond death. Earlier, we discussed the ancient belief that uttering the right combination of exotic nonsense could magically alter reality. Similarly, it was also believed that formulaic nonsense words could open a doorway between this world and an afterlife world. In other words, nonsense once symbolized the transition from physical reality into a transcendent afterlife reality.
Shamans supposedly transported themselves across the Great Divide by singing songs that mixed nonsense with meaningful language to produce a unified effect. Shamanic songs consisted of nonsense syllables and meaningless refrains combined with meaningful, intelligible parts. Certain shamans of Siberia would shout, “By the power of our songs, we cross it!” in the middle of their performances. That would signify to the audience that the shaman had at that point crossed the barrier into the spirit world.
Nonsense was not just a one-way street, however, that went only to the other side. For the magical, cross-dimensional effect of nonsense also worked in the opposite direction. The right nonsense could sometimes pull the departed from the spirit world back to this world.
Nonsense occurred in magical formulas that once supposedly called spirits back from a world beyond. The Greek Magical Papyri contained instructions for contacting the dead in the afterlife world. The procedure required someone who wanted to call up the spirit of a deceased person to utter specific, strange-sounding nonsense words. Uttering the mysterious magical nonsense formula of “SOUTHOU BERBROI AKTEROBORE GERIE” would supposedly call up an apparition of a departed individual.