Hi Robin,You asked, "If we create our own reality, is it possible that those who don't believe experience nothing?"
In the face of their being fully alive, with a substantial body in a substantial world with threes and buildings and other people speaking to them, they are startled. Many believe they're dreaming and will soon awaken. Others, such as firmly materialist scientists, spend time trying to figure out how a materialist explanation can account for their life in this new land.
They don't experience "nothing," and those who believe they are going to hell don't experience a hell.
Those who come through from the next planes of life tell about Christians who believe they're "sleeping" until the resurrection. They are with others who believe the same thing, so they're just hanging out, believing this is what the "sleep" is like. However, there are helpers, guides, and teachers who help them grow out of that.
We do live in the reality we expect. We don't really "create" it, because there's no thought involved. We simply are where we would expect to be or are comfortable in being because it's familiar to us. An aborigine from Australia will be in a circumstance that looks like the outback of Australia, while a Mongolian from Asia will be in an environment that looks like the Asian plains. We aren't shocked into being in a different environment. We're just in surroundings we expect to be in.
You asked, "Or are they surprised to find themselves on the next plane despite their earth-held beliefs?"
Yes, they're surprised. Many can't believe they're dead but alive, away from their Earth body but with a body quite as substantial and real, although whole, healthy, and young. They have to grow into understanding what happened to them.
You asked, "If the latter is true, has there been contact with these people? I'd love to know what their reactions were!"
Yes, there has been much contact with those on the next plane of life about what happens when people cross over. Go to this link on the adcguides.com Web site and listen to their reactions: http://adcguides.com/afterlife1.htm.
Love and peace, Craig