Death.

[Mister Lister]

How is it anything other than a thought experiment though?

It seems to me like a way for people to explain how time travel to the past might be possible without paradoxes occurring even though that's just another thought experiment with no basis in reality.

Isn't anything connected to life after death basically a thought experiment?

 

[Pickle Inspector]

Isn't anything connected to life after death basically a thought experiment?

Pretty much but I can understand why people wouldn't want to have nihilistic views.

 

[DuskEngine]

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And once it does come, we no longer exist.

 

[Lefty's Revenge]

I'm a Christian so I believe in an afterlife. I know this is not the end so I don't fear death. I'm actually quite fascinated with it. Especially with people who seem to be aware that they won't live long. Like a MLK or even a Tupac. I'm fascinated by people who live their life with such burning purpose that they don't even blink at the thought of dying.

As for my own mortality, I believe I was put on this Earth for a purpose. Once its served I will cease to live. And I'm okay with that. I love it actually. I view my time here on earth as extremely temporary. A short blip where I can make a difference here in one way or another. I love my family and my parents but I view us all as people playing a role for a short time. The Bible is unclear on whether or not you'll actually recognize someone you met in this life in the next but I'm comfortable with the idea that once they pass I may never see them again as they were here on this Earth. That, for all intents and purposes once my mother or father passes away they will cease to exist as I knew them.

And as far as my time here on earth, I just view it as incredibly short and thats what makes it beautiful. I'm less concerned with enjoying myself because, strangely, simply enjoying myself doesn't make me happy. Leaving an impact, being useful, helping people overcome fears and obstacles, overcoming my own. All of that makes me happy.

Sometimes I wish I could express some sort of hesitation or doubt about an afterlife but I just don't have it anymore. I have my days when I question God's existence but that always gets stomped out before it goes far. I did some exploring for answers before I became a Christian. I know where my fate lies. I'm at peace when it comes to death.

 

[bearycool]

Okay, I'm bringing this thread back up, because lol resurrection.

This is going to be REALLY long, but I will try to summarize it all at the end. I will also try to lay this out in subjects. Though this TRIES (emphasis on TRIES) to be objective, there are still subjective areas, and many things are based off logic and some math, which can prove things "in theory," but MAY not exist in physical reality if we don't have empirical data. Take that in mind.

Likewise, don't get mad because viewpoints may conflict with yours: I'm obviously not God and can't give a perfect paper on things like Death. It's okay to be emotional, but don't let it cloud your logic and make you reactionary.

Preface to the Argument

I will be trying to define death in as objective a matter as possible, and stating terms when need be that have to be defined in great detail. I will namely focus my thoughts on a specific argument, which will be defined in the next section.

I will first begin with the concept of "nothingness," for this seems to be a problem in understanding death. Afterwards, we will then discuss the specific argument and its issues that have not been addressed in relationship to "nothing." This post will try to logically lay these concepts out and in concise, understandable detail. After each section, I will place in red text a very brief summary on important details.

This preface is to discuss each point in the argument, how it will flow, and how I will summarize everything for the audience.

On Nothingness

I would like to address the argument of "What happened before you were born? that is what death will be like. It is nothingness."

To start, let us define "Nothing".

Nothingness does not exist, or is non-existence (no shit). However, let's go further. Nothingness has no existence, has no form, no color, no taste, no thought, no measurement, no perception at all, etc. It has no qualities, as it would then define it and would make it "exist" in a sense. In fact, the word "nothing" is a misnomer: nothingness does not even have a name, as a name implies an "object". A "word" to better define nothingness is the ellipses. Or, in other words, this:

"..."

Except get rid of the periods and any form of perception on nothing. That is the true absolute of nothingness: we can never perceive it, as it just "is not." No characteristics or anything. It is not even a void, as, again, we have concepts of "voids", and nothingness is in of itself a non-concept. Also, nothingness is NOT space, as, again, space itself is a concept which we map our perception, and can measure. It is also not zero, as this is something we can define and place a concept on, and actually do manipulation with mathematics. Space and zero are close approximates, but they aren't "nothing".

For nothing cannot be defined nor perceived. We place ANYTHING in it, and it becomes something which we can manipulate, and that's not correct. In fact, this entire definition I am giving is incorrect, as I am placing "objects of thought" into nothingness. It is why it is as impossible to understand nothingness as it is to understand the infinite: our brains functions make it impossible, just in different terms.

Now concerning before birth and nothingness: obviously in a physical manner, our brains are not there. Without our brains, our thinking, we then achieve the absolute nothing, as we cannot think. This is the prerequisite to actually "understand" the formless form of nothing, which logically means you can't actually ever understand nothing: to not think, to not perceive, to not have the capability to "understand". When we obtain consciousness or a brain, we loose this ability to "understand" nothing. Our mind creates a "Black blankness" to map out this "experience." The only true time we eve know nothingness is when we don't exist, which we may say is before birth.

But then it ceases to be nothing, for you then "Experience" this blackness in a sense, and thus can debate it on existence. When it becomes measured, it is not nothingness, but, at best, a "zero" or a "blank space." The only true time we ever know nothingness is when we don't exist and don't know we don't exist, which we may say is before birth. However, how can something gain form when there is no form to start with? How can consciousness/life/brain mechanics etc. even come about from that which "is not?" How can even the concept of existence come from its counterpart? As the old saying goes, nothingness begets nothingness. Change that, and it become "something."

Therefore, the blackness we see in our memory before our birth is not actually nothingness, but just a perception or "memory." This is interesting, and then leads me to my next argument.

Summary: Nothingness cannot be defined, as its form has no form. Zero, space, and void are just close approximates, but they "Exist" in a sense, as we can perceive their concepts. Even the word nothing itself exist, and is not actually nothingness. Its essence is no essence; its form, formless.

Therefore, our "perception" of a blackness before birth is not actually nothing, but is just a perception or even a "memory." Nothingness begets nothing likewise, and thus cannot create consciousness, the brain, or physical reality itself.

On Memory and Perception

As a neuroscientist, I have seen the physical effects of case studies of those who loose their memory everyday, and just bring up a "blackness" for their entire lifetime. However, just because they cannot remember, does not mean the things they did cease to exist; just to them it ceases to exist. This is also the basis of Locke's memory theory in which he posits that someone becomes a different "person" when they achieve irrevocable amnesia. However, I wish to modify this theory by saying that one can be two different persons, but if the events/memories still exist in a sense in space time, those two persons are connected; I.E. the action still occurred in the past and is not erased in the person's history even if the memory is. If you want to know more on memory theory, I will post an academic paper I made in regards to this below in a sub-section. For now, just keep the simple preface of "memory creates the person, but 'existence' of events allows for two 'person' to exist and be connected to one another unconsciously."

With this empirical evidence in mind as the basis of my argument in this section, I will derive a concept of memory in regards to death and "nothingness."

Lack of memory does not mean something cannot be. You can go a whole lifetime, and then suddenly forget it all in an instant. This is a biological thing found in the brain, and it thus calls into question on if loosing your memory thus creates a sort of nothingness as you cannot perceive or recall it.

But that is a bit odd, as we have just said that your life does not suddenly just stop existing; you just forget it. Forgetting is not a form of nothingness, but is just a weird sort of perception that occurs due to the faulty storage of the brain. But this does suggest our consciousness is indeed linked to our brain.

However, how it is linked is a different story. The brain could be a "transmitter," much like a radio picks up radio waves, and it just has an ability to pick up a certain strand of consciousness and memory. Or, consciousness is directly made from the brain, and thus ceases to be when the brain stops. Or even consciousness derives from a higher "brain," and we are but mere projections.

This concept I will return to in the next section, but for now let us focus back again on memory.

Now, if a person forgets, to them that memory "does not exist" for the time they don't remember it. However, when they recall it, it suddenly comes back and you "forget that you forgot." This is found is a lot of amnesia cases, and someone even mention the phenomena of "de'ja vu" when they were on a disassociative drug trip, which is a seizure of the mind in which it loops data back again in a feedback. All of these quirks of memory are what we create our subjective reality.

And the fact consciousness has these quirks brings into question the sustainability of memory in death, and the "blank blackness" before birth.

This part is a subjective concept, and it cannot be falsified at this time. For now, take it as a philosophical food for thought.

If our memories are so iffy, then how can we absolutely say we never had any memory before the birth? How can we absolutely be certain that we did not just forget all our past lives before our inception in this life due to either the destructive nature of death itself, or because we "willed" it to happen? Who is to say that a higher being made it so we forget for some purpose? Something that is infinite in consciousness can easily manipulate that which is finite in consciousness.

This all can happen, because we have the potential to forget even when we are alive. It happens all the time when we go to sleep: we forget that we forgot. And with something as drastic death which takes the entire brain away, who is to say that we just loose all memory and go onto another life, blissfully ignorant of our old selves?

You cannot say the phrase "Well, I only remember THIS lifetime," because maybe you said that hundreds of times in other lives. Again, this is all subjective and is just to get the concept that because of the natural way our memories work, we cannot say objectively that the blackness before birth or during death is nothingness, because that may be just where you forgot your old past life memory. If you say that if someone changes into a different person, then that's considered death, and the old you inherently does not exist "anymore." In that case, I ask you read the paper in the sub-section to get a little understanding of memory theory.

For now, let's get objective again and say we are just our brains, memories, etc. And when we loose our brain, we loose ourselves.

Going subjective again. But what if, and this is what if, when you die, there suddenly, in some universe, there is an exact brain as yours, with the same exact circuity, memory, texture, and quirks. It is a carbon copy of you, but in another universe. Can our consciousness just "jump" to that brain? Think Quantum Suicide if you want. However, we can't measure this again!

Or can we?

We actually can. Let us assume you die. If it is true that you die and an infinite time passes, by the laws of probability if it exists at all, given enough repetition it will happen. And if you are dead for infinity, then you are giving an infinite amount of chances for an exact brain for your consciousness to return, and that infinite scope of time just being a perceived few seconds of "Darkness."

This is on the postulate that we are just our physical brains, and our consciousness can ONLY exist in a brain EXACTLY like ours in the EXACT space. And since we are assuming we are dead for an infinite amount of time and space, it will be absolutely easy for our "Brain/consciousness" to transfer over in a sense, provided our physical reality can still "be" in a sense and move data/information around. I mean, if we are just information, can not information just transfer over? The only problem would be if the universe would just eventually die too and there is just "Nothingness" forever. But as we last talked about, nothing does not really exist for many reasons, and in many models in science, there seems to always be "something."

[THIS SECTION ITSELF IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS]

sub-section: Locke's Memory Theory


Locke and Memory Theory: a Modified Conjecture
By: Bearycool (not the actual name irl obviously)

In this paper, I will discuss Locke’s viewpoint and my own modified viewpoint on the problems of amnesia, and the extreme version of irrevocable amnesia.


To Locke, if someone attains absolute amnesia and cannot connect themselves to the past, they lose that past self and in a sense one person is lost, and a new one is gain— the post-amnesiac persona. However, if there is any potentiality for one to regain their memories, this other “personal identity” is not lost, but rather just hidden away for a time until the person remembers again. This is the basis of memory theory.


Now onto my personal view, I believe this viewpoint is alright per se, until we get onto the concept of irrevocable amnesia, which is vague in Locke’s argument. I will use an argument to describe how someone can be two persons, while still in a sense being connected to the two personas.


Let us assume this is what happens when you change lifetimes, hence why you “remember” only blackness before birth, as to gain a new “self” or personality, but these different selves are of the same “soul.” Is it possible for two different “persons” to still be the same person?


My reply is yes, only because the memory/event, even if forgotten, still existed in time and space. Even if you forget the memory, the events that this person experienced still occurred, and this form of “just being” allows for an irrevocable amnesiac to be two different “persons” while still be connected to these two persons/egos/personas etc. This is why it is still okay for someone to call you a different person after amnesia, but it is not right for them to say you never were that person prior to the amnesia. Consciousness can change form just like matter, but it is still consciousness, even if it changes. It is what connects the person unconsciously, and, in my opinion, spiritually to a sort of “higher person,” who encompasses many persons in a unified manner.



[WORK IN PROGRESS! PLEASE STANDBY; I AM GOING TO CONTINUE TO WRITE THIS OUT]

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I don't care about death because in the future I will have offspring carrying my genes. (and the heat death of the universe is too far away for me to say anything about)

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Okay, I'm bringing this thread back up, because lol resurrection.

This is going to be REALLY long, but I will try to summarize it all at the end. I will also try to lay this out in subjects. Though this TRIES (emphasis on TRIES) to be objective, there are still subjective areas, and many things are based off logic and some math, which can prove things "in theory," but MAY not exist in physical reality if we don't have empirical data. Take that in mind.

Likewise, don't get mad because viewpoints may conflict with yours: I'm obviously not God and can't give a perfect paper on things like Death. It's okay to be emotional, but don't let it cloud your logic and make you reactionary.

Preface to the Argument

I will be trying to define death in as objective a matter as possible, and stating terms when need be that have to be defined in great detail. I will namely focus my thoughts on a specific argument, which will be defined in the next section.

I will first begin with the concept of "nothingness," for this seems to be a problem in understanding death. Afterwards, we will then discuss the specific argument and its issues that have not been addressed in relationship to "nothing." This post will try to logically lay these concepts out and in concise, understandable detail. After each section, I will place in red text a very brief summary on important details.

This preface is to discuss each point in the argument, how it will flow, and how I will summarize everything for the audience.

On Nothingness

I would like to address the argument of "What happened before you were born? that is what death will be like. It is nothingness."

To start, let us define "Nothing".

Nothingness does not exist, or is non-existence (no shit). However, let's go further. Nothingness has no existence, has no form, no color, no taste, no thought, no measurement, no perception at all, etc. It has no qualities, as it would then define it and would make it "exist" in a sense. In fact, the word "nothing" is a misnomer: nothingness does not even have a name, as a name implies an "object". A "word" to better define nothingness is the ellipses. Or, in other words, this:

"..."

Except get rid of the periods and any form of perception on nothing. That is the true absolute of nothingness: we can never perceive it, as it just "is not." No characteristics or anything. It is not even a void, as, again, we have concepts of "voids", and nothingness is in of itself a non-concept. Also, nothingness is NOT space, as, again, space itself is a concept which we map our perception, and can measure. It is also not zero, as this is something we can define and place a concept on, and actually do manipulation with mathematics. Space and zero are close approximates, but they aren't "nothing".

For nothing cannot be defined nor perceived. We place ANYTHING in it, and it becomes something which we can manipulate, and that's not correct. In fact, this entire definition I am giving is incorrect, as I am placing "objects of thought" into nothingness. It is why it is as impossible to understand nothingness as it is to understand the infinite: our brains functions make it impossible, just in different terms.

Now concerning before birth and nothingness: obviously in a physical manner, our brains are not there. Without our brains, our thinking, we then achieve the absolute nothing, as we cannot think. This is the prerequisite to actually "understand" the formless form of nothing, which logically means you can't actually ever understand nothing: to not think, to not perceive, to not have the capability to "understand". When we obtain consciousness or a brain, we loose this ability to "understand" nothing. Our mind creates a "Black blankness" to map out this "experience." The only true time we eve know nothingness is when we don't exist, which we may say is before birth.

But then it ceases to be nothing, for you then "Experience" this blackness in a sense, and thus can debate it on existence. When it becomes measured, it is not nothingness, but, at best, a "zero" or a "blank space." The only true time we ever know nothingness is when we don't exist and don't know we don't exist, which we may say is before birth. However, how can something gain form when there is no form to start with? How can consciousness/life/brain mechanics etc. even come about from that which "is not?" How can even the concept of existence come from its counterpart? As the old saying goes, nothingness begets nothingness. Change that, and it become "something."

Therefore, the blackness we see in our memory before our birth is not actually nothingness, but just a perception or "memory." This is interesting, and then leads me to my next argument.

Summary: Nothingness cannot be defined, as its form has no form. Zero, space, and void are just close approximates, but they "Exist" in a sense, as we can perceive their concepts. Even the word nothing itself exist, and is not actually nothingness. Its essence is no essence; its form, formless.

Therefore, our "perception" of a blackness before birth is not actually nothing, but is just a perception or even a "memory." Nothingness begets nothing likewise, and thus cannot create consciousness, the brain, or physical reality itself.

On Memory and Perception

As a neuroscientist, I have seen the physical effects of case studies of those who loose their memory everyday, and just bring up a "blackness" for their entire lifetime. However, just because they cannot remember, does not mean the things they did cease to exist; just to them it ceases to exist. This is also the basis of Locke's memory theory in which he posits that someone becomes a different "person" when they achieve irrevocable amnesia. However, I wish to modify this theory by saying that one can be two different persons, but if the events/memories still exist in a sense in space time, those two persons are connected; I.E. the action still occurred in the past and is not erased in the person's history even if the memory is. If you want to know more on memory theory, I will post an academic paper I made in regards to this below in a sub-section. For now, just keep the simple preface of "memory creates the person, but 'existence' of events allows for two 'person' to exist and be connected to one another unconsciously."

With this empirical evidence in mind as the basis of my argument in this section, I will derive a concept of memory in regards to death and "nothingness."

Lack of memory does not mean something cannot be. You can go a whole lifetime, and then suddenly forget it all in an instant. This is a biological thing found in the brain, and it thus calls into question on if loosing your memory thus creates a sort of nothingness as you cannot perceive or recall it.

But that is a bit odd, as we have just said that your life does not suddenly just stop existing; you just forget it. Forgetting is not a form of nothingness, but is just a weird sort of perception that occurs due to the faulty storage of the brain. But this does suggest our consciousness is indeed linked to our brain.

However, how it is linked is a different story. The brain could be a "transmitter," much like a radio picks up radio waves, and it just has an ability to pick up a certain strand of consciousness and memory. Or, consciousness is directly made from the brain, and thus ceases to be when the brain stops. Or even consciousness derives from a higher "brain," and we are but mere projections.

This concept I will return to in the next section, but for now let us focus back again on memory.

Now, if a person forgets, to them that memory "does not exist" for the time they don't remember it. However, when they recall it, it suddenly comes back and you "forget that you forgot." This is found is a lot of amnesia cases, and someone even mention the phenomena of "de'ja vu" when they were on a disassociative drug trip, which is a seizure of the mind in which it loops data back again in a feedback. All of these quirks of memory are what we create our subjective reality.

And the fact consciousness has these quirks brings into question the sustainability of memory in death, and the "blank blackness" before birth.

This part is a subjective concept, and it cannot be falsified at this time. For now, take it as a philosophical food for thought.

If our memories are so iffy, then how can we absolutely say we never had any memory before the birth? How can we absolutely be certain that we did not just forget all our past lives before our inception in this life due to either the destructive nature of death itself, or because we "willed" it to happen? Who is to say that a higher being made it so we forget for some purpose? Something that is infinite in consciousness can easily manipulate that which is finite in consciousness.

This all can happen, because we have the potential to forget even when we are alive. It happens all the time when we go to sleep: we forget that we forgot. And with something as drastic death which takes the entire brain away, who is to say that we just loose all memory and go onto another life, blissfully ignorant of our old selves?

You cannot say the phrase "Well, I only remember THIS lifetime," because maybe you said that hundreds of times in other lives. Again, this is all subjective and is just to get the concept that because of the natural way our memories work, we cannot say objectively that the blackness before birth or during death is nothingness, because that may be just where you forgot your old past life memory. If you say that if someone changes into a different person, then that's considered death, and the old you inherently does not exist "anymore." In that case, I ask you read the paper in the sub-section to get a little understanding of memory theory.

For now, let's get objective again and say we are just our brains, memories, etc. And when we loose our brain, we loose ourselves.

Going subjective again. But what if, and this is what if, when you die, there suddenly, in some universe, there is an exact brain as yours, with the same exact circuity, memory, texture, and quirks. It is a carbon copy of you, but in another universe. Can our consciousness just "jump" to that brain? Think Quantum Suicide if you want. However, we can't measure this again!

Or can we?

We actually can. Let us assume you die. If it is true that you die and an infinite time passes, by the laws of probability if it exists at all, given enough repetition it will happen. And if you are dead for infinity, then you are giving an infinite amount of chances for an exact brain for your consciousness to return, and that infinite scope of time just being a perceived few seconds of "Darkness."

This is on the postulate that we are just our physical brains, and our consciousness can ONLY exist in a brain EXACTLY like ours in the EXACT space. And since we are assuming we are dead for an infinite amount of time and space, it will be absolutely easy for our "Brain/consciousness" to transfer over in a sense, provided our physical reality can still "be" in a sense and move data/information around. I mean, if we are just information, can not information just transfer over? The only problem would be if the universe would just eventually die too and there is just "Nothingness" forever. But as we last talked about, nothing does not really exist for many reasons, and in many models in science, there seems to always be "something."

[THIS SECTION ITSELF IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS]

sub-section: Locke's Memory Theory


Locke and Memory Theory: a Modified Conjecture
By: Bearycool (not the actual name irl obviously)

In this paper, I will discuss Locke’s viewpoint and my own modified viewpoint on the problems of amnesia, and the extreme version of irrevocable amnesia.


To Locke, if someone attains absolute amnesia and cannot connect themselves to the past, they lose that past self and in a sense one person is lost, and a new one is gain— the post-amnesiac persona. However, if there is any potentiality for one to regain their memories, this other “personal identity” is not lost, but rather just hidden away for a time until the person remembers again. This is the basis of memory theory.


Now onto my personal view, I believe this viewpoint is alright per se, until we get onto the concept of irrevocable amnesia, which is vague in Locke’s argument. I will use an argument to describe how someone can be two persons, while still in a sense being connected to the two personas.


Let us assume this is what happens when you change lifetimes, hence why you “remember” only blackness before birth, as to gain a new “self” or personality, but these different selves are of the same “soul.” Is it possible for two different “persons” to still be the same person?


My reply is yes, only because the memory/event, even if forgotten, still existed in time and space. Even if you forget the memory, the events that this person experienced still occurred, and this form of “just being” allows for an irrevocable amnesiac to be two different “persons” while still be connected to these two persons/egos/personas etc. This is why it is still okay for someone to call you a different person after amnesia, but it is not right for them to say you never were that person prior to the amnesia. Consciousness can change form just like matter, but it is still consciousness, even if it changes. It is what connects the person unconsciously, and, in my opinion, spiritually to a sort of “higher person,” who encompasses many persons in a unified manner.



[WORK IN PROGRESS! PLEASE STANDBY; I AM GOING TO CONTINUE TO WRITE THIS OUT]

I think all of this is wishful thinking and that no epistemologically rational being would postulate such a scenario

 

[dickwad]

So I don't have the access to the coping thread I will post this in here cause its related. Bare with me.

So I have a little hoarding problem. I build a lot of stuff like furniture, little projects and tools etc. I tough I was smart saving all the knick-knack from finished projects like little pieces of wood, motors, lead (hard to come by in europe), clothing etc and bundle them to a closet. So I made a positive change on that subject and starting coldly throwing that stuff away (it was that bad I was saving beer cans in the hopes that I would smelt and cast some aluminum objects) that I really don't need.

Half year ago my father died. Most of his belongings came to me and now I have a new sort of problem. Like a hybrid of hoarding and feeling quilt when throwing that stuff away. Its like I'm destroying the memory of my father and killing him myself. Theres like unusable items like old clothing, guns, books etc. That I see defined my father to a some point. Lots of memories from the childhood etc. Those things don't have really any value (well some do) but its really hard to just throw them to the garbage. I'm over the grieving part but all the old objects just raise the memories that I had with my father. My small house is full to the brim with this stuff and I need space but still I can't just throw them away. Fuck. I hope my father was here to sort this shit out with me.

 

[Len Kagamoney]

Jeez we were just talking about this in philosophy
Speaking of, Socrates states we shouldn't be afraid of death, as we don't know what comes afterward, and those who fear it cling to life.
If reincarnation isn't a thing, we'll spend majority of our very existence dead. It happens to us all so it's something we have to come to terms with.
I am not, and have never been afraid of death. I don't know what happens when you die, so there is no use worrying about it.
I am afraid of how I will die, like most rational people I don't want to burn or suffocate/drown (the feeling of not breathing is a horrible one and squicks me out when I see scenes like those in movies)
I'm also afraid for how long it will take, I just want to go out like a light
Like everyone, I just want to go in my sleep without realizing it

I do, however, find death very interesting and I love the macabre and spooky. I spent a lot of my time the past few years studying ghosts and the like and the science behind them, so part of an afterlife may be earthbound. That's a whole other topic though.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Remember that time before you were born?

Death is like that.

 

[Sanae Kochiya]

I'm an extreme bleeding heart and I personally don't like it when other people I know and love die or are dying. I can get really emotional about it.

That being said, I'm actually not really concerned about my own inevitable demise. imo, if I die, I die. I'll deal with it when it happens. I'll give a shit about the afterlife when the afterlife happens.

 

[Overcast]

The concept of death has always fascinated me to some point.

No one truly knows what happens when they die, since they can't really come back after they die.

Part of me likes to believe that people reincarnate after they die, because I kinda find the idea of dying and essentially becoming nothing within nothingness is really hard to comprehend. Like, would you know if you were in such a state? I suppose it would like if you were dreaming. You'd just be feeling a bunch of different things while you're unconscious of what's going on around you.

At the end of the day, I'd like to have lead a fulfilling life before I die. Knowing that I didn't do much with my life right before dying is probably one of my biggest fears.

 

[Derbydollar]

Death is non-existence, a lack of all awareness and being. It's also the cycle that we as humans have evolved into.
Flora and fauna, including humans, will be made of what used to be you in the future.
It's pretty surreal to think about where all the proteins, nutrients, and other building blocks that make you up came from...

I'd like to say that I'm totally cool with dying or whatever because I control my destiny or it's inevitable or something, but I can't.
Death is when you leave the stage, and I'm up for having a very long career.

Personally, I'm pretty interested in the idea of biological immortality. This might be the last generation that has to die of old age.
That's mostly optimism, though. People have been promised immortality in the afterlife since time immemorial. I'm not of the opinion that they received it, either

 

[Bertram]

Death is, by its very nature, impossible for us to comprehend. My thoughts are that we ultimately won't care much about death as we'll be dead.
However, time and space continue infinitely so I feel it's safe to say there's ultimately something after death. It's like the idea that a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters will eventually write out the complete works of Shakespeare.

 

[SP 199]

Been there, got the t-shirt

 

[The Knife's Husbando]

Don't know where this thought stream came from.

I'm the youngest sibling from a really big family, and I'm a pretty big fella, so it's been my duty for more times than I care to remember to be pallbearer. My dad, my brother, my Grandmother on my wife's side, my father-in-law, My aunt, two of my best friends. And with most of the people in my family & my wife's family getting older, I don't know how many more folks I care about I'm going to have to carry that final mile in my time.

We buried my daddy two days before Christmas, a a tiny rural cemetery slap in the middle of the woods in Alabama. All oaks and dogwoods. The day was clear, cold, and the wind cut like a razor. The road up to the burial plot was so steep- better than forty five degrees- that my wife's car spun out on the wet asphalt & leaves and we ended up having to walk the last hundred yards or so to the hearse. The funeral director put me in the back because I was the biggest, and then after everyone had gotten a grip on the casket, he said "Okay fellas, I'm going to cut this loose." We all nodded, and then he said "No. You don't understand. I'm going to cut this loose. You'll all have to bear the weight for a minute on this steep as hell hill." In that one moment, I had a crazy vision of my papa- who was a right mad bastard that gave zero fucks- busting loose from the lot of us and going for one last ride down the hills he'd spent so much time hiking in- Wham-bonk-bonk-bonk-bonk-wham!

And then he did it. And when I felt the weight in my arms and shoulders, It finally sank in what we were doing. And I lost it.

But I held my end up.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

You know how when you pass out or get knocked unconscious you don't remember the time you spent unconscious or have any concept of the lost time? That missing time is allegedly what death is like; no thoughts, no imagination, no awareness of anything & no memory of it. The absence of being. The void.

By the way, the "darkness" you remember is not what it "looks like", that was what you first saw as you woke up; the inside of your eyelids. You just retroactively assigned the first thing you saw upon your reemergence to an experience you never experienced. I imagine that actually being resurrected from the dead would be no different, with no perception of time passing between death and relife. Nodding off to lunge awake; a hypnic jerk.

If we're talking about what dying is like, white tunnel & dopamine burst followed by warmth just before the end.

On another note, I often ponder something; when my cells disintegrate & eventually form into a new life form, will I still be me? Will I still be me in spite of having none of my current memories, in spite of starting fresh? I wonder because I'm curious as to why I was born as me & not anyone else I've ever met or could have been. What is so special about who I am as I am that I see through these eyes as opposed to someone else? What does it mean to be who I am & why do I perceive? Why do I not see myself as I see others? Is my life in some manner unique? What cuts me apart from the rest? Is everyone else even real? Am I even real? Are they real but I'm not? What am I to them? What am I to them, not as a person or individual but as a being? Do they perceive as I do? Do they perceive at all? If I saw through their eyes would I become them or would they become me? If they become me then does that mean identity is a lie? If I become them does that mean the mind is a lie? Do they operate like machines or do they also wonder why they are who they are? Are these thoughts a threshold between being machines & being alive? If so what does it mean when we forget & go back to what we were consumed with before? Is life outside these moments meaningless? They must be because they feel small by comparison at this moment. Nothing is more important than this question:

Why am I me?

 

[Magpie]

I got a rude welcome to the concept of death early on in life. Through a terrible accident of which I somehow still feel responsible for (even though I was barely three years old at the time), my sister died. She was on life support long enough for my dad to get back in state so we could all be there to say goodbyes. When the plug was pulled, my mom says that I flat out said "she's dead." There was no "she's just going to sleep" or some other sugary coating to make that bitter pill go down. Apparently for weeks following her death I would cry out and say I could see her in our bedroom. I don't remember that, nor the hospital really. I just remember the accident.

I don't personally believe there is an afterlife, at least there won't be one for me. There is still a lot of me that hopes there is, if only for my sister at the very least. I'd like to think the dreams I have where she comes and talks with me as an older her is something with a bit of reality to it instead of my brain playing the "what if" game. She barely had any life here, of course I hope that there is something more for her.

I have dealt with a lot of death in my relatively short life. I'm not numb to it, per se, but I readjust to it a bit smoother than others I guess. Granted, most other deaths were those of extended family - usually old age or cancer after a life well spent.

I mostly just dread the impact my death will have on my loved ones, provided they outlive me. Have already had a taste of that once in my lifetime and I don't know if I could bear it again. Otherwise, I can deal with the idea of falling into a void and being forgotten in time. What matters more is what I do here and now.

... I say as I frequent a forum where we laugh at autists on the Internet. At least I went out and fed some birds today.

 

[bearycool]

As it is, death may mean you go into nothing, but like passing out or going brain dead and being revived, you might just be woken up. How, where, when, or even who you will be when you wake up is a mystery. We are contingent beings, balancing between existence and nothing. If we can fall one way, who's to say we cannot fall another? Who knows. It's okay to assume the worse. It's okay to be scared. But you have the choice to go into the great void prior with acceptance and curiosity.

Just for now, enjoy this idea:

You are at the edge of a great, wide void. Behind you lies all the monstrous valleys and mountains of life that you've passed through, and below your feet gray rocks stand in solemn homage. And this great chasm, yawning beyond even the boundless eternities beckons you forward. You know countless others have gone before you, but know all must go into it alone, and without any aid, knowing not where they'll go. You will not find a mark there; the place itself is void of color, even black. It destroys you just to look out towards those unknown horizons of no-color. But you must go; the gray rocks turn into sand and start sliding downward-- the sand disappearing into nothing as well.

You now have choice: try to crawl out, screaming for useless help; or you can jump headfirst with the most sublime serenity. As it is, you chose the latter.

You decided that before you were taken, you would feel your heart pump a few more times of that sanguine mystery that we call "love". The love for life itself filled you. You wanted to remember and act out all the scenes of those you love with such deep affection, and taste in your memory the beautiful sights of the world of life: those long walks in a crisp morn in fall; the relief of warmth from the biting winter cold; the calming effects of rain during spring storms; and the delicious greenery as you feel the warmth of another's hand in summer. And you see them: the faces of your love ones. They smile at you, and you smile back, even though you must depart from them. That sweet love penetrates you, even as you fade. Fading only makes you love all the more.

And the last thought you have before thought itself cannot exist in that place, you say: "It's okay... into nothing I go... into nothing I become... But oh, how I'm excited to know what that means, and if maybe one day I'll become something again!"

And you disappeared with all the others.

 

[Red]

I'm a pretty spiritual person in all honesty. I do believe there is something after death-- not necessarily life after death, but something. Going into detail would just derail the thread with my personal beliefs and be stupid, but I will say that we're apes who are good at communication and finding patterns, not all-knowing rulers of the earth. There's no way we'll ever know for sure, and there's quite a good chance that if there is something, we wouldn't be able to understand it.