Pantheism does not preclude the possibility of post-mortem survival

Abstract

If, as pantheists assert, God is identical with the universe, what place can there be for ongoing conscious existence after death? Contra those who maintain that pantheism and conscious post-mortem survival are not compossible, this chapter argues that pantheism does not preclude the metaphysical possibility of surviving death. The plausibility of an account of post-mortem survival that is inspired by some of Spinoza’s remarks in the Ethics and builds upon a proposal offered by John Leslie is defended. The chapter maintains that if it is metaphysically possible that there are spatial dimensions of the universe that we can identify as hyperspace that exist beyond the three dimensions of length, width, and breadth, then our conscious mental lives may continue in some subregion of hyperspace. On this account, we can be resurrected after death, with our mental lives “uploaded” and embodied in a very different way. The chapter considers an objection to the effect that any post-mortem survival on pantheism would not involve survival of a person. It argues that while the resurrection of persons is transformative and results in a significant change to them as persons, they can still be truthfully described as having survived the transformation.