I'm Christian, but lots of other Christians havedifferent ideas about what happens to you when you die. What do you think happens?

First of all I would like to offer my sincere condolences to you and your family for the loss of your mother. However, the Bible does not teach that at death some part of a person lives on. God inspired King Solomon to write: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) Those who are “conscious of nothing” are totally unaware of their surroundings. They cannot feel or act.

The Bible states that when a person dies, “the spirit itself returns to the true God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) Does this mean that a spirit entity literally travels through space into God’s presence? Not at all! The way in which the Bible uses the word “returns” does not require an actual movement from one place to another. For instance, unfaithful Israelites were told: “‘Return to me, and I will return to you,’ Jehovah of armies has said.” (Malachi 3:7) Israel’s ‘returning’ to Jehovah meant a turning around from a wrong course and again conforming to God’s righteous way. And Jehovah’s ‘returning’ to Israel meant his turning favorable attention to his people once again. In both cases the “return” involved an attitude, not a literal displacement from one geographic location to another.

Similarly, at death no actual movement from the earth to the heavenly realm occurs when the spirit “returns” to God. Once the life-force is gone from a person, only God has the ability to restore it to him. So the spirit “returns to the true God” in the sense that any hope of future life for that person now rests entirely with God.

First of all you must understand what a human being is, then only you can understand everything else.

God doesn't watch each and every human being at the same time and cannot live with each and everyone to guide them. These works are done by the spirits. God had created different kinds of spirits for various purposes. He had made the spirits to watch, guide and determine the destiny of the human beings from their daily activities, talks and thoughts too. Your past determines your present and your present determines your future. God has given freewill to all creatures including human beings. According to this, all human beings have all right to live a life as they wish. But if it happens to be bad and hurts someone, they have to face the consequences. These consequences are created by spirits. It's a natural system. After death no one lives in any form. Heaven and hell are only for spirits, not for human beings. Spirits are separate elements. A human being is not a single spirit. A human being doesn't have a spiritual body. A human being during his/her lifetime is living with many spirits which have joined one by one since birth. They are knowledge, skills, feelings, emotions, interests and everything. Even thoughts are not your own. For example, when you want to take a decision on a subject, one after another the spirits think and you just listen, choose or reject the ideas which they transmit to your mind through your brain in the form of thoughts. Brain is just a media to connect the spirits to your mind. A mind is just a computer's mind. After the destruction of a computer completely you will not get it's mind. The same is the case with the human beings. Soul is nothing but an energy needed for the functionality of a body. It is not a spirit or anything else. All human beings are just robots made of flesh and bones and toys of the spirits for their games.

The bible says that the dead are shown to be “conscious of nothing at all” and the death state to be one of complete inactivity. (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10; Psalm 146:4) Those dying are described as going into “the dust of death” (Psalm 22:15), becoming “impotent in death.” (Proverbs 2:18; Isaiah 26:14) In death there is no mention of God or any praising of him. (Psalm 6:5; Isaiah 38:18, 19) In both the Hebrew and the Greek Scriptures, death is likened to sleep, a fitting comparison not only because of the unconscious condition of the dead but also because of the hope of an awakening through the resurrection. (Psalm 13:3; John 11:11-14) The resurrected Jesus is spoken of as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep in death.”—1 Corinthians 15:20, 21

At Isaiah 25:8 the prophetic promise is made that God “will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces.” The sting producing death is sin (1 Corinthians 15:56), and thus all having sin and its accompanying imperfection have death working in their bodies. (Romans 7:13, 23, 24) The abolition of death, therefore, would require the abolition of that which produces death: sin. By the removal of the last trace of sin from obedient mankind, the authority of death will be abolished and death itself will be destroyed, and this is to be accomplished during the reign of Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:24-26) Thereby death, brought upon the human race by Adam’s transgression, “will be no more.” (Romans 5:12; Revelation 21:3, 4) Its destruction is figuratively likened to its being hurled into a “lake of fire.”—Revelation 20:14

If anyone of us gets hit by a bus today and dies, we are gonna have some serious problems if there is no Purgatory. Jesus said, " Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48).

Ain't none of us is perfect right now. There has to be some sort of welcome mat at the pearly gates for us to wipe our feet on before we enter.

First-century Christians seem to have been juggling different ideas, too. Many different (and not particularly compatible) explanations show up in the New Testament. Some of them adapted notions from Greek (or even Babylonian) paganism as well as Jewish folk culture.

We are promised some sort of existence. It's said to be eternal. As to the details, I don't claim to know them, and I don't trust anyone who does make such a claim.

I'm christian, too, but I'm intrigued by your experience with your mother. I do believe that really happened-that you perceived her in her new spiritual state.

I had had a falling out with my sister and she died before we reconciled. about 4 years after her death, she came to me in what seemed much more real than just a dream; she was completely changed-joyful, enthusiastic, etc, and she grabbed me and hugged me, and I knew she was saying in effect "I forgive you and we are clear as far as I'm concerned". I felt that she had come to that because in heaven she was being healed and set free from all her wrong thinking and false beliefs, which had led her think of me as her enemy; now she knew the truth, and she wanted to let me know. She came back two more times after that, seeming to want to make up for not being sisterly to me all those years. I'm sure we'll do "my part" in heaven and continue reconciling.

I also think that we get to have these encounters with people about whom we are very much concerned after they die-wondering what happened to them, how they are, etc.

"Purgatory" doesn't exist. Catholic is false and leads to hell, "Jehovah's witness" is false and leads to hell. Avoid all of those.

And nobody "sleeps until judgment day". That is a lie. Everyone that goes to judgment day, will fail it and go to hell. The key is to avoid judgment day, and that is only by believing in Jesus.

The only way to heaven, is by believing in Jesus.

The truth is that Jesus is God. Jesus loves you! Death leads to immediate heaven or hell, and it is too late to be saved, after death. The only way to heaven is by believing in Jesus. The truth is that believing in Jesus to take you to heaven without adding any of your own works, is the only way to heaven. Jesus paid it all, so believe in Jesus, and you re saved. There is no chance to be saved after death. Jesus Christ is God, Jesus died on the cross to pay for all of our sins, all sins past and future, to make all our sins forgiven, past and future, and then Jesus resurrected from the dead. Nothing else pays for our sins, not works or deeds or religions or anything. You cannot add any works to salvation (Romans 4:5). So to be in heaven and not in eternal torment in the lake of fire, believe in Jesus Christ to take you to heaven. That easy! Tell Jesus right now that you believe in Jesus for eternal life, and you will be in heaven! Jesus loves you and wants to bless you now and throughout your life and forever!

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Bible teaches that when we die, we cease to exist. The dead can’t think, act, or feel anything. The Bible says: “The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 146:4)

God explained what happens when we die when he spoke to the first man, Adam. Because Adam was disobedient, God said to him: “Dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19) Before God created Adam “out of dust from the ground,” Adam did not exist. (Genesis 2:7) Likewise, when Adam died, he returned to dust and ceased to exist. The same thing happens to those who die now. Speaking of both humans and animals, the Bible says: “They have all come to be from the dust, and they are all returning to the dust.”—Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20.

But you were right that we believe death to be like sleep, but not in a literal sense, the Bible often compares death to sleep. (Psalm 13:3; John 11:11-14; Acts 7:60) A person who is fast asleep is unaware of what is happening around him. Likewise, the dead are not conscious of anything. Yet, the Bible teaches that God can awaken the dead as if from sleep and give them life again. (Job 14:13-15) For those whom God resurrects, death is not the end of everything.

Well it's like this: Were these man-made religions established after Acts Chapter 2? Ask yourself if Jesus' teaching is above all of them. Then open your Bible to Luke Chapter 16:19-31 and see what the Lord has indicated. He never taught a truth with an "untruth", even if you believe this to be a parable. I personally don't believe this to be a parable, but it remains the truth.

What the Gospel says happens is what happens, and what I think doesn't matter a bit. I could list several reasons why death is not the end of existence; but the most important is because Jesus Christ died and then came back to life again.

By His resurrection He proved beyond doubt that this life is not all there is, but ahead of us is eternity. His promise is true: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25).