Exploring What May Come After Death online forum to start July 22

The Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware will launch its first online learning series Wednesday, July 22, focusing on What Comes Next: Explorations into What May Come After Death.

The three-session series focuses on what death may mean for living. Dr. Len Bowman will moderate the series, which will be conducted online in a private forum on Facebook.

Bowman, co-coordinator of UUSD’s adult education, said, “Online learning is responding to the needs of adults who want to continue learning new things during the COVID-19 restrictions, but are not able or comfortable being face-to-face with others. Our online series is a way we can help meet these needs. This learning is considered asynchronous, which simply means that participants can log in at a time good for them to watch the session’s video, and then, if they choose, they can share their thoughts with others by typing in their comments.”

Bowman explains that people really don’t know what comes after death, if anything. But the world’s religious traditions are rich with images of some kind of afterlife. Over the past 40 years, hundreds of people who were clinically dead and revived have experienced something after death, something that defies explanation. Moreover, many people have experienced memories that appear to come from a prior lifetime. He said, “While we really don’t know what comes after death, there are some very interesting possibilities. We will explore these possibilities in three sessions.”

Near-Death Experiences will be discussed Wednesday, July 22 to Tuesday, July 28. This session will explore near-death experiences – those of people who have been clinically dead and revived, and who described what happened to them while they were…dead.

Reincarnation will be the topic Wednesday, July 29 to Tuesday, Aug. 4. This session will focus on reincarnation and the religious traditions of India, especially “The Tibetan Book of the Dead.”

You Only Live Once will be discussed Wednesday, Aug. 5 to Tuesday, Aug. 11. This final session will focus on western religious traditions, especially Christianity and Islam, which teach that each person lives only one life and then at death faces judgment and an eternal existence.

Bowman, a member of the UUSD congregation, holds a doctorate in theology from Fordham University. He has taught philosophy and religion for over 40 years, and is currently teaching online in the master of liberal arts program of Johns Hopkins University.

The online forum series is limited to 25 participants. The series is free, but donations to UUSD will be accepted. For more information or to register, email Bowman at AdultEd@uussd.org.

UUSD is a welcoming and progressive spiritual community with a mission is to nurture spiritual growth, embrace diversity, work for justice and strive for a loving world.