Do we lose our addictions when we die?
Question
Dear Gramps,
A friend says when we die we lose the physical addictions we had in mortality. Hence, if you are a compulsive eater who eats from stress/depression/etc. you automatically lose that addiction when your body dies. But doesn’t that fall under one of the weaknesses we are given that we need to depend on the Lord to overcome. Any thoughts?
Kathy
Answer
Dear Kathy,
Seems to me that you have a bit of doubt about what your friend told you. Congratulations! Much could be said about the subject, but let me just recount a couple of incidences from the book “Return from Tomorrow,” by George Ritchie, printed in 1978. In this book Dr. Ritchie recounts an out-of-body experience he had when about 20 years old. He is reported to have died on an operating table, and returned to life nine minutes later. During this experience the Savior showed him a number of things related to mortality and its consequences. As part of this experience, the Savior gives him a tour of four different dimensions in the afterlife.
Two accounts bear directly on your question. In one account, they both fly toward a large city on earth where they notice a group of assembly-line workers on the job. He witnesses the spirit of a woman trying desperately to obtain a cigarette from the workers who are oblivious to her presence. This woman died severely addicted to cigarettes.
In the other Jesus shows George a bar filled with sailors who are heavily drinking. The spirits try desperately and in vain to get a drink or to control the sailors’ alcoholic behavior. These spirits are from humans who die severely alcoholic. He is horrified as he observes a drunken sailor pass out and an alcoholic spirit jump into the body of the sailor.
Dr. Ritchie’s account varies sharply with what your friend had to say about losing our physical appetites when we die. In a word, death is like taking off a coat–the coat being our body. When we “take off our body” we are the same person we were before. The mind does not die. However, at death, the loss of memory we experience in mortality no longer exists. We will be able to recall all the things that we ever did or ever thought. In the words of Alma the Younger in a general epistle to his people—
I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?
Or do ye imagine to yourselves that ye can lie unto the Lord in that day, and say–Lord, our works have been righteous works upon the face of the earth–and that he will save you?
Or otherwise, can ye imagine yourselves brought before the tribunal of God with your souls filled with guilt and remorse, having a remembrance of all your guilt, yea, a perfect remembrance of all your wickedness, yea, a remembrance that ye have set at defiance the commandments of God? (Alma 5:16-18)
Gramps
“Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.” Alma 34:34
The context of this scripture indicates that “the spirit wich doth possess your bodies” is not meant our spirit body, instead it says that it could be one of two spirits: the Spirit of the Lord or the evil spirit; that’s all. So it doesn’t support the idea of “when you die you will take your addictions with you”.
Hartman Rector, Jr.
“Sometimes we make excuses for ourselves, when we do what we should not do or fall short of what we should have done. We use such expressions as, ‘Oh! the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.’ With such rationalizations we insinuate that it is completely our physical body’s fault that we sin. In my opinion, this is not true. I believe the physical body is a very strong part of us and is of great benefit to us. Among other reasons, it was given to us to help us overcome our addictions, bad habits, and evil desires. The body is very obedient; generally speaking, it will do exactly what the spirit tells it to do. So it is not the physical body that we are struggling with; it is the spirit we must bring into subjection.
“Sometimes we seem to get the idea that in the spirit world, we will be completely different individuals; we will suddenly undergo a miraculous change in our character when we die. But nothing could be further from the truth. We, our spirits, do not change at death; we are still the same. Amulek, a great Book of Mormon prophet, tells us plainly what the conditions in the spirit world will be.” (Conference Report, Oct. 1970, p. 73)
Harold B. Lee
“…we are our own judges of the place we shall have in the eternal world. Here and now in mortality, each one of us is having the opportunity of choosing the kind of laws we elect to obey. We are now living and obeying celestial laws that will make us candidates for celestial glory, or we are living terrestrial laws that will make us candidates for either terrestrial glory, or telestial law. The place we shall occupy in the eternal worlds will be determined by the obedience we yield to the laws of these various kingdoms during the time we have here in mortality upon the earth.” (Conference Report, Apr. 1947, p. 46)
Mental addiction vs. Physical addiction. The Physical addiction is caused by the body producing its own drug to condition itself to repeat the act for the reward again. Be it drugs, alcohol, food, sex, etc the body will be hooked for the reward. The mental (mind and spirit) is taught and conditioned by the physical addiction. Without the body after death there is the mental addiction that remains.
I see a few problems with this answer.
First – trusting George Ritchie’s account. Why should I believe anything he says? Ritchie’s account contradicts what the Book of Mormon teaches that “all men are taken home to that God who gave them life”. Don’t we believe that the dead go to the spirit world and not Joe’s bar? I’ll take the Book of Mormon over George Ritchie.
Second – “we are the same person we were before” – Do the mentally handicapped remain the same? Might want to rethink that whole line of reasoning.
Third – (this is a response to will7370’s comment) the oft quoted Alma 34:34 as if the dead cannot repent and change. Why are we sending missionaries to the dead if there is no chance for repentance and change?
Fourth – my father was an alcoholic and a smoker. He died of cancer. A few years after his death my mother, my brother, and I were sealed as a family. My father was seen by one person in the temple. Now, do I think the sealing ordinance will be effective? Probably not, but the fact he was in the temple tells me that people do repent and change after death.
Bryce, “Gramps” isn’t saying it’s impossible to change after death. However, we have been told that it’s much more difficult to overcome some things when we no longer have our body.
I remember well the Temple Pres. Counselor at the Mesa Temple, President Garn told one of the youth that had asked the same type of question, that we take our addictions with us because they are addictions, habits that we have cultivated in this life and they will remain with us, even a grouchy attitude or being sassy or sweet, whatever. Only the physical does not go, every thought, habit, good or bad, go with us beyond the veil. That is why it is so important to overcome these habits. If it is something due to a severe mental condition, that will be removed as it was probably something the spirit agreed to on the other side as a trial or a trial for someone else. This was in Spring 1978.
How comforting to a parent who has lost their child to addiction/overdose! Their child will continue to suffer?!? If one near-death experience is considered authoritative, perhaps it would be better to consider all of them, the majority of which show that good people, even those who suffered from physical addictions will be happy and at peace after death. I believe God is far more merciful than we give Him credit for and that the atonement covers much more than we believe, otherwise we’d all be out of luck.
I also believe that we may not understand the role addiction plays in our lives and in God’s plan for us. It may be a learning tool given to us by a loving Father who knows what we need to progress the most in this life. It may also be the same as a physical illness which ceases with death. We just don’t know. It may be easy to look at others suffering from addiction and think that they are weak, but we could put ourselves in danger of God’s judgment by doing so.
Perhaps Alma 34:34 is best used to remind ourselves to live righteously while on this earth and not to procrastinate. I don’t know that it applies to this situation, unless the church has stated unequivocally that addiction is a spiritual sin/state and not a physical illness (which medical research does not support).
Gramps, I think you got this one wrong!
I remember listening to a talk by Elder Holland on what happens after we die. He said the only change that happens is our body and spirit seperate and that is it. We still struggle with our addictions, and that is why we need to work so hard this life to correct them so we don’t have to on the other side because not having a body makes those addictions much worse to deal with. . I have been trying to find the video he did on it, but i am not having any luck so far, but i will keep searching. It was very eye opening.