A matter of Life and Death

There are literally dozens of views and opinions about life and death - just what exactly is life (?), and what happens to our consciousness or self-awareness when we die (?). These views range from the materialist, who sees life as a random clustering of atoms which, for a brief moment in eternity produce a living creature, to the mystic, who thinks that life is either an illusion, or a passage through a multi-layered experience in which there is no death. The materialist sees life in terms of mechanics, the mystic sees life in terms of infinity in which all things are possible but nothin…