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[wolfmat]

To be honest, I don't care what actually happens after I die. I'm interested however in what other people think happens then, as long as it's some crazy fairytale thing like getting to heaven and blowjobs at breakfast for eternity. Because it conjures amusing pictures.
Like hell, for example. If you take hell for real, well, then we're not actually on the same page. But I enjoy thinking about what that place would look like, and hearing other people fantasize about it.

 

[teh_pwn]

Understanding what time is vs how we perceive it could change our perception of death.

Mathematically, the probability that you are alive at any point in time is basically 0. Time is infinite, your life span is finite.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Spirituality has answers for many things, but my biggest problem with so much of that is it tries to explain what happens after we die. Religion and spirtuality should be so, so much more about not trying to "save" your "soul" for the after life, or your karma, and more about being good in the only life you have.

Although I wholeheartedly agree with you, one might say the outcome of such a religion would be that the person tries to be a better person in life, even if he's ultimately "fishing for rewards" by doing so. Still, in my opinion, this is management by fear, since "you won't go to heaven if you don't do good" or whatever. I personally can't aknowledge such religions.

To be honest, I don't care what actually happens after I die. I'm interested however in what other people think happens then, as long as it's some crazy fairytale thing like getting to heaven and blowjobs at breakfast for eternity. Because it conjures amusing pictures.
Like hell, for example. If you take hell for real, well, then we're not actually on the same page. But I enjoy thinking about what that place would look like, and hearing other people fantasize about it.

Good. Then WE are on the same level of this discussion.

 

[livestOne]

Could you go into that last part a little more teh pawn

 

[Souldriver]

I'm not ruling anything out, cause nobody knows what happens after death, but the best "estimated guess" or whatever is that there's nothing. You stop existing, your body rots away and your mind is gone.


You know when you have to go under narcosis for surgery: you fall asleep and BAM you wake up and it's five hours later? You didn't dream, didn't feel, didn't think, you experienced nothing. Or better: you had no experience. You simply weren't there. If I have to leave the abstractness of "nothing" and try to link a feeling/experience to death, I always think of narcosis.

 

[Samara]

You either go to heaven or hell or in between (ghost)
I wanna go to my Lord and protect those left behind. I remember when my grand-dad died, I had a dream, and I asked him what he will do (he's death is a mystery) He said: Child, I'm in Heaven, I don't have nothing to worry. I wanna be as badass as he is!

 

[Sapiens]

Personally? I'm hoping to be eternally fused within a cybernetic neural network. Become part of a collective of consciousness.

 

[teh_pwn]

Could you go into that last part a little more teh pawn

finite/infinity = 0

Basically I'm trying to say that the likelihood that your life is occurring now is so astronomically low. It could be that we exist now and that we perceive time to march forward because that's all our brain allows us to comprehend. Time could actually be more like a 4th dimension, and we're objects that always exist in this 4D space. We always exist in a sense, but we can only comprehend time as we do.

For example, we could be at this moment in space/time, and then time could shift outside of your lifespan, and then to your childhood. You wouldn't be aware of this, because your brain has been wired to collect memories and only be aware of events in a linear fashion.

In other words, I'm on better terms with death because I've realized we have no fucking clue what we are, and what our universe is.

Here is a video about some crude studies showing the "time slows down" effect with an adrenaline rush.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjlpamhrId8&feature=related

And remember how relatively recently, Einstein showed us that we didn't understand time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

And general relativity isn't just a theory. We have to slightly adjust the clocks on satellites so that they sync up with clocks on the ground because clocks on the ground are closer to a massive object (earth).

 

[TheCardPlayer]

I assume it's like sleeping only without dreams. I love sleeping and it's the same thing only without the hassle of waking up and getting out of bed. :lol Why be afraid? I can't avoid it anyway, plus it's not like you realize that you are dead anyway.

I imagine that most religious people are so because they desperately want to believe that they are forever.

 

[Replicant]

All I want after I am dead is to be able to (spiritually) be with the people that I love at a place that I choose.

 

[Anticitizen One]

I think a better question would be...assuming everyone dies and thats it oblivion...what happens at the end of time? zillions of years in the future (which would seem like seconds to a dead person). Is the universe just going to reboot and start again. So do we get reborn and do this life all over again?

Has this life happened hundreds of times before? is that where deja vu comes from? hmmm

 

[Anticitizen One]

Maybe he's just really scared of the 2012 elections?

In 2012 Sarah palin will get elected president, nuke the world, then our UFO overlords will come to reclaim us.

BELIEVE

 

[Nizz]

All I want after I am dead is to be able to (spiritually) be with the people that I love at a place that I choose.

This right here.

 

[ice cream]

But what about the question if we have a SOUL? Do inanimate objects have a soul? Do souls even exist? How would you obtain a soul?

Or is a soul just energy?

 

[Extollere]

No clue...but I've actually been giving this some thought recently. The most logical assumption one can possibly make is that we cease to exist. We return to the void that we came from and no longer perceive time, emotion, consciousness or being. The other possibilities are that there is an afterlife of sorts (Heaven, Hell..whatev..) We are reincarnated and continue yet again on this Earth. Or lastly, the possibility of something we haven't been able to think of yet because it cannot be thought of with our minuscule brains and limited experiences.

I highly doubt that we all each go to our respective rewards, religiously. I.E. Christians go to their Heaven or Hell, Muslims to theirs, Catholics, Jews, Mormons all to theirs and atheists and w/e else experience what they choose. I doubt this could happen, and I doubt that anyone religion or belief will be proven correct. I.E. we all get judged according to Christian standards. Whatever happens when we die will most likely happen to all of us, that I think is most logical, whatever it is.

But the question I have been mulling over is why? or even if there is a why. If we cease to exist after death and the lights turn off, we will be none the wiser. All will be lost and forgotten, it will be as it never happened. If so then why? What was the point of our life, and what difference does it make if we choose to do good things, or bad things? Will it matter if we were mass murderers or some kind of virtuous peace loving protestants? Will it make any difference if we seek out self enlightenment, personal gain or enrichment or if we just sit on our asses in a trailer park drinking beer every day? If there is no point, then what is the point of being conscious to experience it?

If we reincarnate, we would obviously retain little to nothing of our past lives, and continue yet again anew. What would we seek to gain individually? This of course seems to benefit the movement of mankind, but to what extent? To simply be a self perpetuating planet of survival, when we know that eventually huamity will become extinct itself?

Ultimately I'd like to personally believe that our life, and our consciousness will live on in some form. That we'll continue to experience life, and the people we love and know after death. This is not the most logical conclusion scientifically, or even logical based any facts or events, but it's the one that makes me the most pleased. Of course I'm not so arrogant to believe that it's the truth, or to even expect it. It makes sense to me in the sense that what we will have done, and they way we chose to live may have some impact, or meaning after we are gone (not just to the world left behind), but in our new form of life - however... then what? If so ... does life continue on...forever? If it continues forever, then there is really no movement of time at all other than what we measure and graph. Will we retain further memories forever...come to a point where every individual has experienced every variable, and every moment, and learned every lesson, every language, every culture? Will we all become timeless entities void of emotion, feeling, and wrongness in due "time"? Or...will the afterlife itself have a time limit as our life here does?

All the possibilities and thinking...it's really just endless. Point is, I really can't be disappointed with any outcome as it's logical for me to believe that whatever happens will happen and will hardly be changeable by any means that I can provide. Anyways... chill and enjoy life. Worry about death when you die (or don't worry about it at all because maybe you won't be able to).

 

[riskVSreward]

But the question I have been mulling over is why? or even if there is a why. If we cease to exist after death and the lights turn off, we will be none the wiser. All will be lost and forgotten, it will be as it never happened. If so then why? What was the point of our life, and what difference does it make if we choose to do good things, or bad things? Will it matter if we were mass murderers or some kind of virtuous peace loving protestants? Will it make any difference if we seek out self enlightenment, personal gain or enrichment or if we just sit on our asses in a trailer park drinking beer every day? If there is no point, then what is the point of being conscious to experience it?

Why even mull this over? You're right, it won't matter to you once you're dead, it will only matter to others. Do you care what others think? Maybe now, but when you're dead you won't. Why? Do in life what makes you happy, then you're at least happy while you're alive.

Do what feels good man.

 

[teh_pwn]

But what about the question if we have a SOUL? Do inanimate objects have a soul? Do souls even exist? How would you obtain a soul?

Or is a soul just energy?

Going just by the rules of science, we can only conclude we need more information. Because by asking if we have a soul, you're indirectly asking what the nature of life is. How it was created. I think that the primordial soup idea is off. The idea of amino acids boiling in a soup and by chance forming the highly advance code of life seems almost like a Genesis explanation about how life started. Something we can't see, or a energy field that we can't see much have life encoded into it.

They're finding out a bunch of crazy stuff in the subatomic world. Maybe the answer lies in there or in a sub-subatomic world.

 

[Haly]

Understanding what time is vs how we perceive it could change our perception of death.

Mathematically, the probability that you are alive at any point in time is basically 0. Time is infinite, your life span is finite.

Time and space is intertwined, when this universe ends, time will end with it as well. If you say time is infinite then you also assume our universe will exist forever, and there's no proof of that.

 

[Extollere]

Why even mull this over? You're right, it won't matter to you once you're dead, it will only matter to others. Do you care what others think? Maybe now, but when you're dead you won't. Why? Do in life what makes you happy, then you're at least happy while you're alive.

Do what feels good man.

Sorry... bad use of the word. I don't mull over it but it does cross the mind. I haven't accepted the idea of ceasing to exist after death, only questioned the idea of why? It's a possibility, out of the many. But yes... you are right, do what makes you happy Life is brief.

 

[wolfmat]

Mathematically, the probability that you are alive at any point in time is basically 0. Time is infinite, your life span is finite.

ACTUALLY...

Time is infinite as a linear concept, it's basically just a sequence of moments, with no other rules opposed on that.

It is unclear though whether or not time as an actual physics phenomenon is really finite or infinite.

It's exactly the same with space, and that should be no surprise. Because what you did is take an abstract concept for realz, which is a rather common jump into crazyville.

--

Furthermore, you state that our life span is finite. YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY KNOW THAT.
Of course, the things you hear about everyone dying are rather convincing, but it may very well happen that we humans find a way to recycle body parts or whatever would be necessary to make us live forever.
Or even more drastic, as someone else said: Why not detach our consciousness from the actual body?
As long as we don't really know how all that stuff works, you can safely say that it's not set in stone that humans will die forever.

--

You're stating that the probability that we're alive at any point in time is basically 0.
But however you came to that conclusion, it is in fact false. The probability that we're alive at any point in time is 1 because it is factually true. You are alive, I am alive, there's basically no diceroll to be made.
It's like saying "The probability RIGHT NOW that I would have thrown a 3 A MINUTE AGO although it actually was a 5 is non-zero". That is false. The error you made is attaching probability to an already unprobabilistic fact because it's happened.
Making statements about the past in a probabilistic way is not a good idea simply because the past only contains fixed events. Referring to probability makes sense when you take things you've observed in the past, came to conclusions that indicate some probabilistic behavior as time passed, and then make GENERAL statements about the HYPOTHETICAL case that this and that may occur while referring to your observations.

So you say "Okay, I threw the dice 1,000 times, each number came roughly equal times, so they seem to be equally probable, the dice has 6 sides, well, then the probability for a number to occur if I throw this thing again is 1/6".

--

Now I know that you wanted to say "The probability for ANYONE to have lived at any point in time is 0". And that's also false. It is simply unknown. It could very well be 1.

 

[Napoleonthechimp]

probably something like before you were born


consciousness is just a mix of chemical processes, once those stop you can't longer perceive reality and you cease to exist

You see this? This is a typical Newtonian view of the universe and one that is very out of date.

There are a lot of theoretical physicists who believe that reality itself is total bullshit. The way I see it is that reality and individuality is an illusion, that we are merely different parts of one giant field of information and consciousness... sort of like fingers on a hand if you will. The interactions between these illusionary elements create new information which is the whole goal of existence.

If we do survive after death then it'll be nothing like you could possibly imagine.

EDIT: Actually you know what really fucks me up? If reality is one big illusion then everything I experience could be a construction of my consciousness.

 

[wolfmat]

There are a lot of theoretical physicists who believe that reality itself is total bullshit. The way I see it is that reality and individuality is an illusion, that we are merely different parts of one giant field of information and consciousness... sort of like fingers on a hand if you will. The interactions between these illusionary elements create new information which is the whole goal of existence.

I always liked the idea of the human timeplant. It fucks with my mind.

EDIT: Actually you know what really fucks me up? If reality is one big illusion then everything I experience could be a construction of my consciousness.

That's been fucking up people for centuries upon centuries. It's not really clear if anything exists. I find that fact kind of relaxing because it excuses my ignorance.

 

[Panda Bear]

You see this? This is a typical Newtonian view of the universe and one that is very out of date.

There are a lot of theoretical physicists who believe that reality itself is total bullshit. The way I see it is that reality and individuality is an illusion, that we are merely different parts of one giant field of information and consciousness... sort of like fingers on a hand if you will. The interactions between these illusionary elements create new information which is the whole goal of existence.

If we do survive after death then it'll be nothing like you could possibly imagine.

This is more or less where I stand on the issue.

 

[Freeza Under The Shower]

"after you die"?

How in the world does "you" get to experience the act of DEATH on a conscious level anyway?


I think that "you" is gone long before your body fysically dies. And that there is really nothing "beyond" that dissolving of "you" at all.

And quite frankly it scares me more than any hell or demon ever could. :'(

 

[Sibylus]

I think if we encountered an alien life form that met those "life conditions" (movement, reproduction, consumption of energy, etc), whether it utilizes DNA or not would be kind of irrelevant. The most basic explanation I can think of would be that the conditions it arose in were fundamentally different than our own, but it could still be considered living.

Nope. I know it's hard to 'hear' sarcasm in writing, but none was intended. I really am fascinated by your fear!

*calibrates sarcasm detector*

Darn thing is failing me constantly!

 

[wolfmat]

"after you die"?

How in the world does "you" get to experience the act of DEATH on a conscious level anyway?


I think that "you" is gone long before your body fysically dies. And that there is really nothing "beyond" that dissolving of "you" at all.

And quite frankly it scares me more than any hell or demon ever could. :'(

Why would that scare you though? You're an insignificant blip. Nothing should scare you. Just get out there, make rock music, fuck some chicks and order pizza!


--

What I find interesting is that people tend to imagine the afterlife with elements being similar to what they experienced as they lived. So they assume there's some kind of body you have, it even resembles a human being, so you can see stuff and touch things, feel pain, think, whatever.

But what your intelligence should really make you assume is that, when you say there's some kind of afterlife, it'd be incomparable with what we know right now on a much more basic level than just not having to eat or whatever.

What I mean by that is easily understood if you think about what aliens would be like. You know, living beings originating from another planet.

Just like Stanislaw Lem pointed out over and over again in his stories, there's no reason to assume we'd understand aliens' form of existence even on a functional level. Just be ready to accept that aliens maybe can't even walk or that they don't have senses. So you then should expect to actually encounter something completely alien, in the direct sense of the term. No communication, no understandable function, not even a society as we'd describe it, shapes that you'd be unable to describe, colors you can't see and so forth.

Now when you die and gain consciousness again after walking into the light, you should expect the exact same principle to happen to you - you become uncomparable to what we understand right now. The reason for this is that your environment changes, your body is most likely rotting somewhere else, along with your sensory inputs, memory banks and whatnot. You'd transform into something we wouldn't be able to comprehend, with crazy existence rules and a completely different state of being.

And THAT'S where you should start after you accept some kind of afterlife.

 

[msdstc]

Schuman Resonance also comes up when dealing with Hemi Sync, Brainwave generator, and the concept of binaural tones.

Coast to Coast is definitely interesting but it has it fair share of crazies give george noory's show a whirl he finds some of the most out there shit you can put on the air waves.

Touching the old beliefs is way too much for me as I'm dozing off. Gaia and all stars or planets have their own vibrations and consciousness which effect all entities within or on them. I'm not touching the various concepts of hollow planets. God source, God Seed, and God Creation are of higher reflections of the one existence we share, I say existence not universe because typically at that point you're dealing in multi verse.

wait so... are you serious? It seemed like a fairly intelligent conversation at first, the last few posts were pretty shaky, but this one is beyond. Sorry to sound like an asshole, but it all sounds ridiculous.

 

[mollipen]

I'm not a religious person (though I do believe in God, and some other elements), but it doesn't make much sense to me that there isn't something after this. If we die, and that's it, then it's kind of like spending years to write a book, only to then, the moment you finish the story, take everything you've written and toss it into the fireplace.

If there exists a method in this universe for beings to be born, grow (physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), and truly become individual entities, and then that unique collection of thoughts and feelings and memories is just wiped out never to exist again... the universe is utterly cruel.

I do know that there is no "Heaven" or "Hell" is the traditional religious senses, because those concepts are utterly illogical.

 

[msdstc]

I'm not a religious person (though I do believe in God, and some other elements), but it doesn't make much sense to me that there isn't something after this. If we die, and that's it, then it's kind of like spending years to write a book, only to then, the moment you finish the story, take everything you've written and toss it into the fireplace.

If there exists a method in this universe for beings to be born, grow (physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), and truly become individual entities, and then that unique collection of thoughts and feelings and memories is just wiped out never to exist again... the universe is utterly cruel.

I do know that there is no "Heaven" or "Hell" is the traditional religious senses, because those concepts are utterly illogical.

But that's the thing that's depressing about life, in that in the end it only effects the people of the future, but never us.

 

[Diuretic]

I'm not a religious person (though I do believe in God, and some other elements), but it doesn't make much sense to me that there isn't something after this. If we die, and that's it, then it's kind of like spending years to write a book, only to then, the moment you finish the story, take everything you've written and toss it into the fireplace.

If there exists a method in this universe for beings to be born, grow (physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), and truly become individual entities, and then that unique collection of thoughts and feelings and memories is just wiped out never to exist again... the universe is utterly cruel.

I do know that there is no "Heaven" or "Hell" is the traditional religious senses, because those concepts are utterly illogical.

Whether or not the lack of an afterlife makes sense to us has little, if any, bearing on it being true or false. Cancer sure as hell doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And yet...

The universe isn't so much cruel, as it is indifferent. It just is.

 

[Ela Hadrun]

Am I the only crazy new age lady in this thread? Hmmmm

It's so annoying because I often suspect I'm slightly schizoid. Is there anyone sane around here who's been to extra-physical planes? Come on, guys, represent!

 

[KevinRo]

I'm not ruling anything out, cause nobody knows what happens after death, but the best "estimated guess" or whatever is that there's nothing. You stop existing, your body rots away and your mind is gone.


You know when you have to go under narcosis for surgery: you fall asleep and BAM you wake up and it's five hours later? You didn't dream, didn't feel, didn't think, you experienced nothing. Or better: you had no experience. You simply weren't there. If I have to leave the abstractness of "nothing" and try to link a feeling/experience to death, I always think of narcosis.

This is what I always believed death would 'feel' like.

I always believed that when we die, who knows what or where(in time) we'll come back as, we do eventually come back. Our memories are gone of course, but the amount of time we are gone will depend.

It just sucks that I can't see where humanity will go to. I love history a lot so it's kind of disappointing knowing that there is so much out there to be discovered and documented. Ughh, I wish I was born in the future. This stinks :/

 

[ATF487]

You rot in the ground

 

[koam]

Yes, you die, your family gets all worked up, they have a eulogy and they try to make up things because you didn't do anything worthwhile during your life. A few years later you're forgotten. Generations pass, nothing is left of you, no stories, nothing.

 

[mollipen]

Whether or not the lack of an afterlife makes sense to us has little, if any, bearing on it being true or false. Cancer sure as hell doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And yet...

The universe isn't so much cruel, as it is indifferent. It just is.

But the universe just existing as a cold, hard fact could easily do so without us human beings thinking and creating and living. In fact, it would probably get along better without us doing all of those things. So the fact that we do do those things - live lives beyond what we need to live for the continuation of our existence - makes me wonder. I'm the type who can't believe that we humans would exist as we do and hold such amazing potential over all other life forms (that we currently know about) just so that we can be born, grow old, die, and cease to exist. For a universe that can be so pretty darn efficient in so many other ways, that seems like such a huge waste of resources.

And, so far as cancer goes... maybe it just doesn't make sense to us yet.

 

[Diuretic]

It just sucks that I can't see where humanity will go to. I love history a lot so it's kind of disappointing knowing that there is so much out there to be discovered and documented. Ughh, I wish I was born in the future. This stinks :/

On the bright side, just think about how incredibly, stupidly lucky we are to have been born at all (and in a period of relative comfort, no less). Out of all the atoms in the universe, it was that particular collection of atoms that came together to make up your brain that is responsible for your consciousness right now. Those atoms in your brain could have just as easily been your pancreas. Or a koala. Or a koala's pancreas. Or, infinitely more likely, they would have just been space dust floating in a random galaxy millions of light years away.

Sure, we may be missing out on some rapturous Kurzweil-esque singularity where human intelligence begins to encompass the universe or whatever. On the other hand, the capacity to annihilate ourselves will become easier and easier as technology advances, so perhaps we're near the peak of human civilization. Who knows? We'll all be worm food soon anyway.

 

[Blader]

You see this? This is a typical Newtonian view of the universe and one that is very out of date.

There are a lot of theoretical physicists who believe that reality itself is total bullshit. The way I see it is that reality and individuality is an illusion, that we are merely different parts of one giant field of information and consciousness... sort of like fingers on a hand if you will. The interactions between these illusionary elements create new information which is the whole goal of existence.

If we do survive after death then it'll be nothing like you could possibly imagine.

EDIT: Actually you know what really fucks me up? If reality is one big illusion then everything I experience could be a construction of my consciousness.

So...we're all in the Matrix?

 

[Diuretic]

But the universe just existing as a cold, hard fact could easily do so without us human beings thinking and creating and living. In fact, it would probably get along better without us doing all of those things. So the fact that we do do those things - live lives beyond what we need to live for the continuation of our existence - makes me wonder. I'm the type who can't believe that we humans would exist as we do and hold such amazing potential over all other life forms (that we currently know about) just so that we can be born, grow old, die, and cease to exist. For a universe that can be so pretty darn efficient in so many other ways, that seems like such a huge waste of resources.

And, so far as cancer goes... maybe it just doesn't make sense to us yet.

You describe the universe as "efficient," but that implies it has a function of some sort. What if it's just there, and that's it? No greater purpose, no grand plan. It just exists.

The mere fact that something exists, even if it's beyond what us humans need for the continuation of our existence, doesn't mean that there's some deeper meaning beyond it.

As far as resources goes, all of humanity is but the faintest pinprick compared to the cosmic forces that govern the universe.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Yes, you die, your family gets all worked up, they have a eulogy and they try to make up things because you didn't do anything worthwhile during your life. A few years later you're forgotten. Generations pass, nothing is left of you, no stories, nothing.

Unless you were Adolf Hitler, in which case you're screwed.

 

[LCGeek]

wait so... are you serious? It seemed like a fairly intelligent conversation at first, the last few posts were pretty shaky, but this one is beyond. Sorry to sound like an asshole, but it all sounds ridiculous.

Me and CENOBITE were spitting the shit about beliefs systems and the like. No I wasn't being serious, rarely ever am as I just like injecting way out their concepts in to a discussion about the beyond or possibilities.

 

[Monocle]

When your brain dies, your consciousness is extinguished. It's pretty straightforward.

 

[xabre]

The thing to ask is if this is a simulation. It could well be. If so then all sorts of possibilities become feasible.

 

[Zhuk]

I believe that if I am a good person that god will reward me by letting me be with him and my loved ones again for eternity, that's all one could ever want. Some people want to live forever, but I certainly wouldn't knowing all my friends and loved ones are on the other side while I am stuck in my corporeal form. I dont think any of us could comprehend what it is like, but I am sure that I will be happy and content.

 

[Powerslave]

I'm with the 'there is no afterlife' crowd. The afterlife is a fun little concept for people are afraid of death and are unable to accept that death is the end. Luckily for those people they won't really find out there is no afterlife. :lol

I'm not afraid of death and I believe in an afterlife.






Think about it this way. The dreams you have, as long as they may be, and some dreams are really long, happen in only about 8 seconds in real life. The 'time' in our universe and the time in the afterlife aren't the same. This example can also be applied to other things. For one thing, people keep saying how most things about religion and the afterlife are 'illogical'. Those illogical things are only illogical in this universe. Humans can only comprehend things within their logic and experience. So it's easy to dismiss anything your self has a hard time understanding with.

 

[Keylime]

I think nothing happens, and it scares the shit out of me. Death is the one thing that will give me the chills if I think about it too deeply.

Being raised Roman Catholic and just having an aunt pass way before her time (56 or so), I can easily see how the thought of heaven comforts those left behind. My uncle and cousins were nodding in relief as the priest talked about how my aunt is now in a better place with God. Those words were able to sooth their pain.

It was also odd for me, as it was the first funeral where I felt emotionless through most of it. I loved my Aunt, but for some reason watching her die of cancer and ultimately pass didn't rattle me. My only moment of emotion came from watching her husband and children react to the closing of the casket.

If people truly believed that their loved ones were in heaven, why would they cry? How is someone you love so much going to paradise a sad thing? It's only sad because we will selfishly miss them and think we'll never see them again.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I'm fairly certain it will be a bit like pre-birth. remember that? Why is nobody concerned about this? Oh yeah, cause its already happenend.

 

[dskillzhtown]

I am hoping there is something else. But in the back of my mind I think you just stop being alive. Kind of anti-climactic and it is hard to put your hands around because for as long as we can remember, we have been alive. Of course we will never know until we die and I hope I am wrong, but I think that is it.

 

[TheCardPlayer]

Am I the only crazy new age lady in this thread? Hmmmm

It's so annoying because I often suspect I'm slightly schizoid. Is there anyone sane around here who's been to extra-physical planes? Come on, guys, represent!

It's simple. It wasn't a out of body experience, you were just high. :lol

 

[sebmarine]

How I view life, death and consciousness:

I believe a person is never 2 days (or even hours) the same person. We are evolving life forms. Our cells die and are being renewed constantly. It just takes a couple of years for all the cells in your body to be renewed. Only our memories are what makes us a "person". We forget and we learn new this. Thus we are never exactly the same. The more time goes by, the more you become a different person than you were at a certain point in time. This of course goes against man's need to hold on to structures for a feeling of security. We are given a name at birth that we're supposed to keep for the rest of our lives. When we die, we are remembered for things we did 30, 40, 50 years or longer ago. Some people are tried for crimes they committed decades ago (after all we in the "civilised" west have a justice system based almost entirely on the principle of an eye for an eye).

I don't recognize the person I was 10 years ago as "me". And if I'm still alive in 10 years, I'll be a different person. So, in a certain way, the "me" of now will be dead. Just a memory in the mind of a different person with the same genetic code. Much like I will be a memory in other people's minds after my body dies.

The way I see it, a person constantly dies a little, while a slightly different person constantly comes to life. This continues until the body dies.

I don't fear death. I do fear a painful death. It's like the analogy used by one of the previous posters. I've been under full narcose once, and it just felt like a painless death. I (as a person) was dead for a few hours. Or maybe "unconscious" fits better. But what is unconsciousness but temporary death?

This is how I view life and death. I don't live my life according to this view, because it's pretty much impossible in modern society.

Here's another thing some people find hard to comprehend: lifeforms don't die because their bodies are worn, but because evolution's telling them they've had enough time to spread their genes and now their genes are out of fashion. It's nature's way of making sure new and improved genes are added to the gene pool. You are born with the "die" gene, and one day, scientists will be able to cancel this gene. Try to imagine a world where this is possible, and the moral implications this brings. Is it absurd then to consider the possibility that scientists have already discovered how to do it, but for some reason decide not to make it public? Let the conspiracy theories begin!