Looking back on 2025, quite a lot has happened, but the entire year felt like a blur. |My grandma passed away in February. My grandpa followed in July.| Between all the grief and sorrow, the topic of death was all around us. One thing that this made me think about was my religion and view on death.
Beyond this massive event, last year was also one of my most busy years in my university life. It also takes quite a bit of mental energy to write this up. I only have some spare time right now to work on this blog post.
Religion
|What is my religion? I don't know, to be honest.|
My father is a Taoist (quite typical for traditional Hongkongers) while my mother is a Christian. Every school I went to throughout my life were also Christianity-based, because western-religion schools were brought into Hong Kong by the British. There were quite a few times they almost convinced me to be a Christian, but almost every time I found it too annoying to be one, with all the fellowships and stuff. Fun fact for you: I actually really hate staying at school. In primary school I joined an orchestra which often stay after school for practice and I always want to go home.
Beyond both Chinese tradition and Christianity, I am also a massive science fan, and you know how those people view God.
This is a principle I developed throughout my life: "Pick the path that gives the most opportunity." It's like a greedy algorithm, and so far it has been working out quite well. With that principle in mind, the path with the maximum opportunity in religion is to |not pick a religion.|
It's not exactly Atheism. I would accept there being a God in existence, or even multiple Gods. I also accept there being no Gods. It's like quantum superposition. I want to be in every state possible.
Death and Religion
Why am I talking about religions anyway? Well, I think one of the main reasons that religions exist is to calm people's mind about death, because death is scary. Death is the idea that, one day, you will disappear from this plane of existence, but we have no idea what is beyond that. |Religions are the thing that fills this fear of the unknown we have about death.|
In different religions, there are different suggestions on how death works.
Some say you go to |heaven|.
Some say you go to |hell|.
Some say you |reincarnate|.
Some say you simply |stop existing|.
Some say |the world disappears|.
The possibility really are endless.
So, what do I think about it?
Well, I also don't have an answer.
My Grandparents' Death
My grandparents' death definitely triggered this thought. In all the sadness and chaos of the mind, you can't help but think about this kind of stuff.
"Where did they go?"
"How are they doing?"
"Will they remember us?"
Both of my grandparents were Taoists, so their funerals were also Taoist-style: Big hall with incense, a lot of people, family folding 'money' for them, etc. It may not exactly match other Taoist funerals you may have seen, as different regions of Hong Kong has slightly different style on the same religion, just like accents in languages.
After they are officially in their graves, we have visited them quite a view times in the past year. My dad said every time they went up there, there is a yellow butterfly and a wasp, which we think corresponds to my grandma and grandpa. There is somewhat of a reincarnation in Taoism.
|Honestly, I do find it very calming.| It feels like they are still here with us, but not in the way of grief.
My Theory
Guess what? From all the thinking that happened, I have come up with my own theory of death. Please DO NOT take this seriously, as once again, none of us knows how death works.
I call this: |The Dimensional Ascension Theory|
This is a very much math-based theory, but it should not be too difficult to comprehend. Allow me to explain.
The world we are currently living in is 4-dimensional, with 3D space and 1D time. But what if, |after every death, we simply ascend 1 dimension?| So after we die in the 4D space-time, you would realize the 4D life was simply a part of the 5D life, and when your 5D life runs out, you will be in a 6D life.
This theory implies that we have experienced 3D, 2D, 1D and 0D lives. |Why do we not remember them?| Because they are too simple for us to remember.
I recall watching a video years ago about intelligent life under 2D space, and the video explains that life in 2D would be much simpler compared to 3D, because neurons wouldn't be able to connect to other neurons without crossing another one's path. Imagine it is like one of those childhood puzzles (or shovelware mobile games) where you need to connect dots without the lines crossing each other. In comparison, 3D life is much more complex. So complex that, we forget about the 2D even existed.
|We are simply living the life of a being in infinite dimension, and every ascension we are basically experiencing a part of the life.|
Does this sound stupid? Probably, when you compare it to thousands of years of religious establishments. But when you think deep about the origins of religions, you would appreciate someone coming up with the thought of how death works.