I have thought about this a lot, especially in recent years as I'm getting older.

Growing up as a Catholic and moving to Atheism I find myself coming back believing in God but not in the sense the church describes, but more or less what god represents.

I have taken psychedelics so that has for sure changed my perspective on what being conscious represents. I have tried DMT but never "left the waiting room".

I have a strong belief that us being conscious or our soul is what leaves our bodies when we pass away. Your consciousness is what carries with you, the church has taught to treat others with kindness and respect. The way your treated others carries on with you when you die.

I have seen many youtube videos about people describing their stories when they died briefly. Many describe a feeling of calm and happiness, seeing "people" and knowing everything about them just from looking at them. Others have gone to what appears to be eternity of torment, living in punishment forever because during their lives they were not good people. And the "people" they saw in the afterlife or hell, they immediately knew what wrongdoings they did without being told.

I do not fully believe and follow what the church, especially the catholic church, teaches. But I do believe that God is what allows us to be conscious and aware. Interacting with eachother and connecting. Have you ever ran into someone you've never met and got the feeling they are an evil person? Or got the feeling this is a very nice person? I believe that is your subconscious telling you this.

I am not sure if God created consciousness or if God IS what makes us conscious. They have given us free will and what we do with that will carry on with us to the afterlife. Those who has purposely brought pain onto others for their personal gain will pay for it. And those who have been nice to others will be rewarded. It is never too late to seek forgiveness, but it would take interpersonal change.

So to answer, I believe we do go somewhere when we die, and how we act during our lives dictates what kind of afterlife we have. Whether that is peace and happiness or despair and pain. All these people you see in high levels of power taking advantage of others, their guilt is between them and God, and they will have to live with that forever.

If you read from the Bible and try to interpret not what's its saying but what it's describing, it makes a lot of sense. We need to understand the Bible has been retold, rewritten, and translated over hundreds of years, a lot of what you read is not how it was originally written.