Come the End, our bodies and minds will be regenerated, and those bodies and minds will be us for the same reason that Junior remains Junior regardless of his actual appearance: because his creator says so... whereas without a higher mind to verify these things, we can't even be sure of continuity from one mundane instant to the next.

Basically, viewing self as signified, rather than signifier, means that afterlife is possible without bringing in Platonic mind-body dualism.