I belive that I will rot, like all organic matter.

U R right...but I'm betting on what I have been investing in the past several decades... I believe in the Bible...and what it says.  check out John 3:16....Peace is what I have about heaven...My mom died this last year.  I had a year of grief and deep thinking.  But...I'm back to a peaceful resolution...Jesus was in the beginning and in the beginning was the word.  I find peace, daily strength in reading the bible...and then journaling...almost like chatting with God...while I write...I have to say that the Lord has been loyal to me.  In good and bad days...he sits with me, counsels me...and in the next life...eternity...it will be the same...me with Him forever.  I'm absolutely certain of this.  I refuse to believe that I will be worms in a box or ashes in the sea...my flesh yes...but my soul...no...It will be with God as it is now.  I hope that this offers you some peace or thought to ponder as you rest. 

I really haven't a clue as to what happens after you die.  I am a Christian, so I do believe in Heaven, but that is just belief; I don't know there is a Heaven, so I speculate on this a lot.

Assuming Heaven is real, would it look like we all picture - sitting around on clouds, wearing robes, and plucking at harps?  Personally, for a place of eternal happiness, that doesn't sound too great to me.  And it is that that has led me to my belief: Heaven is different for everyone.

It could be like Terry Pratchett idea that we get the afterlife we believe we will get (Hence why missionaries should be shot on sight; no one goes to Hell if they don't know about it), but what seems more likely is that, since everyone likes different things, we get to shape Heaven for ourselves, doing what we want to do, outside of any rules or punishments (presumably, if you got into Heaven, you wouldn't make it into a hotbed of sins).  Who knows?  Maybe we all get the chance to be God of our own Universe, if we so choose.

All over the world, and probably all though human history, a great many people have had a very realistic experience of talking with dead loved ones.

I am not here saying that the experience is what it seems.  However, it is very hard to debunk.  It is an absolutely true fact that this experience is very common and often has details about it that are convincing to a rational skeptical person.

If you would like to observe this phenomenon in a safe and anonymous setting, see if you can find a Spiritualist church in your community and attend a public service.  Pagan movement events are also a pretty good bet.  See it happen and try to figure out what it means.

And I'm sure this common worldwide experience has had a strong impact on philosophers and teachers of religion when they discuss death.

The idea of life after death is - among other things - a way for people to invite themselves to think of their own death freely in order to distract themselves from life. Without this idea, many people find a final death as too depressing to think about. Perhaps one could seize thinking about death and occupy him/herself with thoughts of what there is to be done during life, for the benefit of one's own life and others, present or future, as well. I fear that many people have worried far too little about their current life because of their assumption that a following life would be the final and most important one. These people might stall many would-be-significant actions only to find (or lack the ability to find) that their death is, in fact, final and what was important all along has now been lost. Death is death, try and live with it.

Who knows?

Theres so much mysteries in our world. Paranormal activity, reincarnation, seers and communication with the dead. Traits passed on from people who donated organs, etc. Its hard to say what happens, but when it comes down to it, we know what we ARE. We are a collection of electronics and photons, swirling around. We're completely energy, passing a temporary illusion of solid matter. Energy is never created nor destroyed. All the achievements of science can only pinpoint where our mind operates, but not what makes it operate. Our true essence has never been found by science.

Your body is left to the earth (ashes to ashes dust to dust)!tHE SOUL is set free to have to live agian through another body (so do the best you can w/ what your given )!The soul will have to live with its faults over & over agian!As far as the other souls that you come in contact w/ in life ,you shall  never forgot them (Good _Bad ect...)! The sensces are what you lose at death!(NO touch , feel ,smell ect...)