Curtis' Question

[Ironhold]

For those who don't know, there's a long-running syndicated comic strip called "Curtis". 

The series is about the titular 10-year-old from the big city. He's very bright, very curious, and has already decided what he wants to do when he grows up (write & direct horror movies, which he's a fan of). But like most kids his age, he can't help but fall into misadventure and doesn't entirely understand how sitting in school for several hours a day will get him towards his goal. 

The strip that ran on 19 January 2025 (sorry, King Features Syndicate's Comics Kingdom website limits how many strips a person can view without a subscription) has Curtis meeting with the minister of the church his family goes to. As part of it, Curtis asks what to him is an important question: How do we know that we're actually, presently, living in reality? 

His concern is whether or not it's possible for a person to "die" but find themselves existing in a reality akin to the one they were living as a sort of afterlife in and of itself. 

In the strip, the minister shoves him out the door without even attempting to answer the question. 

To me, though, it does raise a point that I would imagine many individuals are indeed curious about: when a person dies, what tells them that they've passed on and that they need to accept that they are in the afterlife? 

What does everyone here think?

[mordorbund]

For reference:

https://comicskingdom.com/curtis/2025-01-18

[DurangoUT01]

Once a person dies,  their new reality will be so significantly different from this moral earth life that they will know almost immediately.

[Vort]

39 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

For reference:

https://comicskingdom.com/curtis/2025-01-18

I think you meant:

https://comicskingdom.com/curtis/2025-01-19

The question is, in essence: What is the nature of our consciousness and perception, especially our proprioception (used in a generalized way)?

This may seem spitballing or eighth-grade level philosophy to some, but I don't think so. We Latter-day Saints believe that we lived as conscious individuals before our mortal birth (and not merely in our fetal state). Yet we have no good idea about or even solid models for what that "pre-existence" may have looked like. Honestly, it may well have looked very much like our mortal life today. I suspect it bore more resemblance to our mortal experience than we realize. I also suspect that "it", our premortal experience, was experience in  separable and perhaps discrete phases, such that our mortal life might possibly be considered as another phase in that process.

As for the actual question posed, I suspect that each "phase" of our eternal lives is well-marked, and we are not left with any questions about whether we are here or there. But that's my own philosophy, so who knows? Maybe some people die and it takes them hours or years to figure it out.

[laronius]

Jacob 7:26 ...our lives passed away like as it were unto us a dream...

We lived before we were born. When we die we in essence wake back up to our previous life. It is a reality we will be far more familiar with than right now. Like waking up from a very real seeming dream.

[Carborendum]

11 hours ago, Ironhold said:

 when a person dies, what tells them that they've passed on and that they need to accept that they are in the afterlife? 

1. There are aspects about a spirit world that are so clearly different than the mortal realm we live in now, that it would be impossible to believe that we're really having the same experience.

2. Beyond the 5 senses, there is a spiritual sense that the scriptures continually teach us to develop.  One reason why is that once we become disembodied, our other senses will not be useable.  The nature of our perceptions will be different.

• We may see, but not with our eyes.
• We may hear, but not with our ears.
• We may touch, but not with flesh.
• We may smell, but not with olfactory.
• We may taste, but not with our tongue.
• We will wonder and think, perceived, believe, deny... but no organ we call a brain.

If anything, our senses (and our desires) will be amplified in some ways, diminished in others.  The experience will be sufficiently different that we will recognize "We're not in Kansas anymore."

[Traveler]

15 hours ago, Vort said:

...

As for the actual question posed, I suspect that each "phase" of our eternal lives is well-marked, and we are not left with any questions about whether we are here or there. But that's my own philosophy, so who knows? Maybe some people die and it takes them hours or years to figure it out.

...

I have reason to believe that it is not unlikely for a person to die and not realize that they have passed on.  As we begin to navigate our next estate, we will learn through the experience what has happened to us.  I am quite sure that our next estate is not so different from our current mortal estate that we will immediately realize much of anything.  I believe it is possible that we will recognize others that have preceded us in death that will help in the transition and will explain many helpful things.    I am also of the impression that Jesus, as a resurrected glorified being, is not a resident of our next spiritual existence.

 

The Traveler

[Carborendum]

28 minutes ago, Traveler said:

I am quite sure that our next estate is not so different from our current mortal estate that we will immediately realize much of anything.  

Well...

Quote

But whether it be at his resurrection or after, I do not say; but this much I say, that there is a space between death and the resurrection of the body, and a state of the soul in happiness or in misery until the time which is appointed of God that the dead shall come forth, and be reunited, both soul and body, and be brought to stand before God, and be judged according to their works.

 -- Alma 40:21

They are separated.  Paradise is much better than this earth life.  You'll know it.

Spirit Prison is a state of "misery".  I'm sure most people will know it.

Beyond that, they will immediately understand that we cannot "touch" things in the same way.

Even the just men of the Old Testament considered it a type of "prison" to be separated from their bodies.

Quote

For the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.

 -- D&C 138:50

Edited January 21 by Carborendum

[Traveler]

8 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

....

Spirit Prison is a state of "misery".  I'm sure most people will know it.

....

The fallen state of mortality is also a state of misery.  Yet few are willing to give up this life of misery just because they do not know that much about joy - especially the joys of living according to the laws, ordinances and covenants of G-d.

I do enjoy our conversations - but before you consider certain extensions of thought – those that are willing to sacrifice a broken heart and contrite spirit understand that we will remain miserable until the resurrection.  It is by faith in Christ and the joy of resurrection that we can experience parts of joy and have faith in the fullness of joy.

 

The Traveler

[NeuroTypical]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

Paradise is much better than this earth life.  You'll know it.

Spirit Prison is a state of "misery".  I'm sure most people will know it.

I did my dad's temple work.  I have no clue where he is right now, or if he'll avail himself of the doors I've helped open for him with my earthly ordinances on his behalf.  

I can see it going either way.  He might say "Oh, well that's obviously what I should have been doing this whole time", and bend his knee.  Or he might be trying to organize the afterlife version of a poker game, guffawing loudly at jokes about what those holy shiny white clothes wearin' visitor wimmin have beneath them robes.  My poor mortal tools of judgment tell me he was overall a good man.  We'll see.  But yeah, I really have no clue if he's in paradise or spirit prison right now.

For whatever reason, whenever I voice this notion around folks in a temple situation, they usually stumble all over themselves to express all the ways they're certain dad'll seek exaltation.  I don't get it.  No matter his choice, I'm at peace.  

[Vort]

1 hour ago, NeuroTypical said:

I did my dad's temple work.  I have no clue where he is right now, or if he'll avail himself of the doors I've helped open for him with my earthly ordinances on his behalf.  

I can see it going either way.  He might say "Oh, well that's obviously what I should have been doing this whole time", and bend his knee.  Or he might be trying to organize the afterlife version of a poker game, guffawing loudly at jokes about what those holy shiny white clothes wearin' visitor wimmin have beneath them robes.  My poor mortal tools of judgment tell me he was overall a good man.  We'll see.  But yeah, I really have no clue if he's in paradise or spirit prison right now.

For whatever reason, whenever I voice this notion around folks in a temple situation, they usually stumble all over themselves to express all the ways they're certain dad'll seek exaltation.  I don't get it.  No matter his choice, I'm at peace.  

If the Russian novel has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that men (and women) will often seek after misery and ensconce themselves therein, comfortably nestled in its lap.

[Carborendum]

3 minutes ago, Vort said:

If the Russian novel has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that men (and women) will often seek after misery and ensconce themselves therein, comfortably nestled in its lap.

In that vein...  I tend to believe that those who are baptized for the dead will find salvation based on the same criteria as those who are baptized in this life. 

• It isn't about being sinless -- none of us are. 
• It is about being humble enough to constantly be open to learning the truth.
• It is about being humble enough to continue repenting based on the new truths we learn.
• It is about humbling ourselves enough to allow the Atonement to heal us from sin.
• ... and being determined enough to continue these things through all eternity.