Dear reader,

many ask us masons all sorts of questions. As it should be. We do conduct research on a wide variety of issues, stretching from currency derivatives to genetically modified mice; from cricket fight gambling strategies to gerry mandering. As well as perhaps our most favorite subject: the life after this. There are many opinions on this topic and the truth lodge, being the biggest tent, is obviously the best place to go if you want to hash out the specifics about this. So, without further ado, what happens after you die?

 

Meg Cummings,  farm hand, waitress and internet lover. Liebenthal, Kansas

Exquisite, lovely things. That is what will happen.  Many talk about heaven and hell. But that is just tradition. The real thing is much cooler. It’s a long trip I imagine. There’s a lot of different waiting rooms and different stuff in between and I’m sure you have busy schedule so I’ll just jump right into the good stuff OK!? You need to have a carrot right? And my carrot is the awe inspiring creativity of the Mormon church. And in my afterlife I will get my own world as I ascend to the eternal. Me and myself will be a creative force and be a master of a new world. A planet I guess you could say. I hope it will be somehow close to Kolob. Secretly I think that is the greatest reward. But, I guess, it is less about a physical space and more about the relationships you will have. Purified, grand and elevated. So, I guess, exaltation for me is less about the physical realm and more of me getting closer to God. However, I do believe it to be important to have my own space after I die. If at all possible. I will definitely bring it up with Joseph [Smith, editor’s note] when I get up there.

 

Ben Evans, stand-in model for McDreamy, entrepreneur, twin, and frequent online chatroom visitor. Newport Beach, Orange County.

When you die. Nothing happens. UNLESS! You freeze your brain in a cryo chamber so it’s there to be brought back online in the future. This is the only way to live forever. I hope that when I awake in that distant future. There’s no more flesh. Just internet. Or what they will call internet in the future. I love the internet. Connecting with people.

 

Francesca Vargas, international jewel thief. Whole wide world.

I’ve actually had a near death experience so I feel pretty certain I know what’s going to happen. It was a profound and life changing experience. I met Jesus. We talked and he told me about the mysteries of life. We were traveling in time and space and beauty. Seeing and hearing were not separate in this place. I could feel the visual beauty of the golden bodies of the angels above. I could see the music and I could hear the paintings. Everything was everywhere, yet distinct. Everything that’s ever been, and ever will be. Like the rich and intermingled designs of a Persian carpet; or a butterfly’s wing.

I say the human mystery is belittled by science. Claiming materialism and measurability is superior to the mysteries and the spiritual world. We must recognize we are spiritual beings, not the product of  ”brain activity”. There is something more to humans. We are exceptional. You know, it’s really what Søren Kirkegaard said: there are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. Don’t let yourself be fooled. Believe in what is true. Believe in Heaven!