Ohferpetessake.....worry about something Real!

I have felt the physical reaction of what one could call a "ghost", if you will. I believe that people can extend on as energy, but I don't necessarily believe that there is any form of religiously dictated afterlife.

now, that being said, that does not mean our consciousness or identifying essence passes on.

No. I don't even think religeon is often saying there is a real conscious after life. Sometimes I think it is a figurative representation how one is remembered by the flock.

Yes, and the study of that is actually quite interesting. There are many stories of people "visited" by friends just after they pass away. It would be interesting to do a scientific study of these phenomena, but you can't do it in an environment where you are constantly overwhelmed by ridiculous fairy tales.

For my money, maintaining a belief in anything for which there is no verifiable evidence could fairly be said to be "religious" behavior, at least in the sense that most of us use the word "religious" today, to mean superstitious.

On the other hand... if "afterlife" is taken to mean 'life after the death of ego-identity', instead of 'life after death of the body'... then there would be no need to lean on superstition, and many of the religious metaphors would suddenly make a lot more sense as well.

"Religion" in this sense could be practiced completely free of superstition, similarly replacing literal interpretations with metaphorical ones... in full harmony with science.

I would think such a thing was a myth. Thinking that some constructive form of energy would suspend your essence would not be scientific.

Yes. Depends of your definition of after life.