I use to think about it often when I was younger but luckily too busy to be bothered by it as much now that I'm older, but to be on the safe side I try to not think about it since it is something that I know I can not really figure out on my own. In this way I guess my position is sort of a 3 in some ways and a 5 in others but I voted 5 since it is the best answer to this problem if you don't believe in an after life.

As to the question as to whether I sometimes think I would be better put out of my misery, I would have to say that at one time in my twenties after drinking too much, and too many different drinks, I suffered what is know as alcohol and was closer to dying then I can remember at any other point in my life. While the alcohol allowed me not to feel any pain (which was very pleasant in it's own way), my inability to get up mover around, etc made me fill paralyzed which wasn't fun at all. If you can imagine what it is like trying to crawl through one of those small underground cave tunnels without any light and getting stuck than you might be able to sort of imagine this experience. To make a long story short, I don't know if this is what everyone experiences while they are either near death or it is just me, but I'm in no hurrying to find out or go through that again.

From what I do know about death, is that it is pretty unpleasant ;since often one's own body is making some last ditch efforts to save itself, and such measures are not meant to be 'fun' for whomever is residing in it at the time that this happens. Also it isn't 'instant' after the heart stops since the brain can survive for several minutes without oxygen. When they use to execute people by cutting one's head off there are some reports of a severed head being able to respond to it's own name for a couple minutes after getting cut off. I don't know what happens in such situations, but I know that nobody is in a hurry to really look into such unpleasantness either.

If you are really worried about it you might what to research something called cryogenics., which is where they basically freeze one's body (or just the head) and take a few other measures to preserve it until medical technology is advance enough to revive them. Whether or not the technology will ever be available and even if it is available will society at that time want to revive such people is debatable, but since the all other alternatives for after you die are not so good it might be considered an opition if you can afford it.

The dying process might be sucky, but I actually think that the nothingness that I expect to result from that process has its charms. Before I experienced a certain sense of completeness of self-realization, this nothingness was something to be tolerated. It did at least put a limit on individual suffering. Also it makes every possible mistake in life merely temporary --at the cost of doing the same to every possible success.

So I don't give cryogenics much thought. If I was extremely rich, I might think it over. But perhaps the real problem is aging. I'd love to be 17 again without losing what I've learned since then. I do so many things differently. I suspect that this is a common fantasy. Even if a person is fairly happy, they can probably look back at lots of wasted opportunity and unnecessary compromise/settling.

Death is certainly closer for me than it used to be -- I'm 71. I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens. (full disclosure: Woody Allen joke)

I don't really expect anything to follow death, and if one is lucky the process of dying will proceed speedily, and one will soon be unconscious, then more deeply unresponsive, till the heart and breathing stops. Of course, death may not be in a hurry, in which case one will suffer during the dilly dallying around.

"How We Die" by Dr. Sherwin Nuland is a cause-by-cause explanation of how death comes about. It was published in 1994. You can read it for free here.

There is also an interview with Dr. Nuland here. In the interview he was saying that many people say

"Anything is better than death.

Well, you know, that's not true. It's not true that anything is better than death. As a wise oncology nurse said to me, there are many people, more than you would dream, and many of our listeners I think probably fall into this category, for whom what you have to go through in order to come out on the other side alive is simply not worth the effort." — Dr. Nuland

Nulland died in 2014.

My husband of 30 years died a slow death from cancer; it was quite painful, and the initial surgery was quite disfiguring (it was a very aggressive cancer in the lymphatic system in the jaw). He felt well for a while after the surgery, radiation and tough chemo. It was all for naught -- the cancer had already spread to the bones of the neck, and eventually into the brain. He spent 4+ months in hospice, needing total care. He could speak, and breath, but had little control over his arms and none over his legs. Swallowing was a problem. His care was excellent; he was as comfortable as one could be. He was alert and talkative. About 3 weeks before his death he started a visible decline -- less alert, less conscious, less interest, then unconsciousness, and finally death. It was 1 year, first symptom to death.

If there is nothing after death, then why would it be upsetting to ponder it? Why does anyone even care about the "investments" and things they did while they were alive? It makes no difference if you are alive or dead. We all will die, like it or not. Why do you have joy in life, knowing that you will become nothing very soon? Knowing that you will be forgotten, why do you care about being you? What joy is there in helping others or indulging in pleasures? The people you loved and cared for are nothing also, the pleasures are meaningless.
If there is nothing after death, then there really is nothing to face after death; life is but an empty dream. A breath of wind, here one moment and gone the next. In the face of eternity, regardless if there is life after death, one merely changes matter and energy from one form to another. Mankind is powerless to create or destroy. A worthless being all together! So why worry about existence now or ever?
But if there is life after death, then an entirely new perspective is available. It becomes possible, based on works or faith in this life to spend eternity in heaven, hell, or to be reincarnated as some believe. So the real question that remains is, what if the idea of no life after death is wrong? What could happen then? Does one truly want to remain in ignorance by not thinking about it until it is too late to pick a new course?

Many years ago I took a trip to the Cornish seaside with some friends - LSD it was. So I was scrambling about on the rocks, wondering if the sea shaped the land or the land shaped the sea, when I saw one my friends waving to me from the top of the cliff. So I started to climb up to him. Unfortunately, about twenty feet from the top, and about a hundred and twenty feet from the bottom, I came across a layer of very crumbly rock; I grabbed at the next handhold, and a five kilo lump came away in my hand. I watched fascinated as it floated gently down and smashed itself to dust on the rocks below.

I considered trying to climb down, but climbing down without a rope is much harder than climbing up, because one's eyes are at the wrong end for seeing the next foothold. There was nothing for it but to fly rapidly up the crumbly rock, touching it as little as possible. So I did.

There are two possibilities: either I managed by a miracle to finish the incredibly dangerous climb in spite of being completely off my box, or I am lying broken at the base of the cliff, hallucinating these subsequent 50 odd years as I die. Well actually there are loads of other possibilities as well, but anyway, the possibility of already being dead, and this being an afterlife takes the sting out of death completely.

I've looked into different views of what happens after we die.

Aristotle: Believed the soul survived, but also that there would be no consciousness, so no afterlife

Epicureans: They believed that death was the end, so no afterlife. They compared death to the time before one was born. You don't have negative thoughts about the time before you were born, so why would you have negative thoughts about the time after you die?

Stoics: It was a little complicated because at least some of them believed that some (especially virtuous?)conscious souls lived on after death, but even those souls would eventually be destroyed in the great conflagration, and then everything would be recreated again. They seemed to console themselves with the notion that we all would be living our lives over and over again.

My brain cannot precive the total lack of concuouness, I cannot precive "nothing", I cannot predcive no exsistance.

If you do not exsist, you do not have the awareness to care about anything, suffering requires awareness.

This is why I see no need to belive that their is no afterlife other than achiving a certain feeling of certainty within this life. The sense of certainty that you will never again suffer after your death.

The most important fact about death is no one really knows what happens during and after death.

So, all talk of an after-life, or not, is mere speculation.

That said, we can make some reasoned guesses on the matter.

If we look at death, as objectively as possible, restricted to only the observable, it appears death is a full-stop to existence. That's to say there's no soul, and no after-life. In short, science doesn't seem to support the existence of a soul which is necessary for an after-life to make sense. It can be argued that the soul, being immaterial, can't be scientifically examined like, for instance, a rock.

Personally, I'm confused. On one hand we have sleep - which, to me, is what's death-like - and the existence of a soul seems improbable.

On the other hand, there are many instances of strange events that seem to speak otherwise - making the existence of a soul probable.

I'm undecided on the matter. Perhaps one has to die first and find out for oneself.

Why does anyone even care about the "investments" and things they did while they were alive? — Lone Wolf

If such was the case, I don't think they would care after they're dead, but they would obviously care while alive, because they will have to live with the consequences of their choices until they die.

Why do you have joy in life, knowing that you will become nothing very soon? Knowing that you will be forgotten, why do you care about being you? What joy is there in helping others or indulging in pleasures? The people you loved and cared for are nothing also, the pleasures are meaningless. — Lone Wolf

This:

Even if we did not know that our mind is eternal, we would still regard as of the first importance morality, religion, and absolutely all the things we have shown to be related to tenacity and nobility [...]

The usual conviction of the multitude seems to be different. For most people apparently believe that they are free to the extent that they are permitted to yield to their lust, and that they give up their right to the extent that they are bound to live according to the rule of the divine law. Morality, then, and religion, and absolutely everything related to strength of character, they believe to be burdens, which they hope to put down after death, when they also hope to recieve a reward for their bondage, that is, for their morality and religion. They are induced to live according to the rule of the divine law (as far as their weakness and lack of character allows) not only by this hope, but also, and especially, by the fear that they may be punished horribly after death. If men did not have this hope and fear, but believed instead that minds die with the body, and that the wretched, exhausted with the burden of morality, cannot look forward to a life to come, they would return to their natural disposition, and would prefer to govern all their actions according to lust, and to obey fortune rather than themselves. These opinions seem no less absurd to me than if someone, because he does not believe he can nourish his body with good food to eternity, should prefer to fill himself with poisons and other deadly things, or because he sees that the mind is not eternal, or immortal, should preffer to be mindless, and to live without reason. These [common beliefs] are so absurd they are hardly worth mentioning [...]

Blessedness is not the reward of virtue, but virtue itself; nor do we enjoy it because we restrain our lusts; on the contrary, because we enjoy it, we are able to restrain them — Benedictus de Spinoza

So the real question that remains is, what if the idea of no life after death is wrong? — Lone Wolf

Yeah, I too think that the idea of life after death is scarier than the idea that death is the end in many regards.

Death is very scary for me but also comforting when I'm suffering. The notion that one day the Earth will rotate without me on it is incomprehensible to me. But the notion that there is an end to suffering is also relieving.

Most of the time I wish I could die, without like, actually dying.

Unfortunately, about twenty feet from the top, and about a hundred and twenty feet from the bottom, I came across a layer of very crumbly rock; I grabbed at the next handhold, and a five kilo lump came away in my hand. I watched fascinated as it floated gently down and smashed itself to dust on the rocks below.

I considered trying to climb down, but climbing down without a rope is much harder than climbing up, because one's eyes are at the wrong end for seeing the next foothold. There was nothing for it but to fly rapidly up the crumbly rock, touching it as little as possible. So I did. — unenlightened

>:O Did you actually panic when you saw that?

My prediction: I don't think you really panicked, maybe you were just very afraid, but you still believed you could do it. You still had some faith left. Because it happened to me when I first practiced climbing a cliff that I panicked in the middle of it, and actually fell off lol - I was lucky because it was practice and I was attached with a rope from above. If you get that scared then reason and everything else goes away, and you can do something stupid just to escape from the fear, including something that kills you lol. I was in 10th grade back then. But I remember the feeling distinctively.

There are two possibilities: either I managed by a miracle to finish the incredibly dangerous climb in spite of being completely off my box, or I am lying broken at the base of the cliff, hallucinating these subsequent 50 odd years as I die. — unenlightened

>:O

in spite of being completely off my box — unenlightened

I had to research what this strange expression meant. But now that I have, I will speculate that you escaped not in spite of being completely off your box, but rather because of it. It probably prevented you from getting so scared that you lost all control.

Well actually there are loads of other possibilities as well, but anyway, the possibility of already being dead, and this being an afterlife takes the sting out of death completely. — unenlightened

Yeah but that "possibility" is like the possibility of the sun not rising tomorrow. Logical possibility alone isn't sufficient to justify a position.

But the notion that there is an end to suffering is also relieving. — darthbarracuda

What if you go to the fiery pit? O:) >:)

Well to tell you that dying doesn't scare me is stupid. I doubt there exists any person who does not feel fear somewhere along in the process. It's natural, since your body wants to stay alive, and will do anything in its power to do so. That includes making your mind feel fear so that it forces you to do something to keep it alive.

So although I would feel fear, I don't think I would despair. In other words, I would be able to keep the fear in check through the use of reason and my character. But then, I do believe in an afterlife :P

since your body wants to stay alive, and will do anything in its power to do so — Agustino

Your body might do anything to stay alive when it is healthy and merely being chased by a long-legged ferociously angry feminist wielding an already bloodied axe. However, when it is dying, I think the situation is different. At some point in an illness one passes the point of recovery and starts down hill to the grave. The body is no longer strong, suffering is constant, and death becomes more welcome as time passes. The dying are not necessarily in terrible mental shape -- they can be reconciled, patient, and even cheerful while they lay in bed.

It is vital that the dying not be given false hope, so they can reconcile with their dying. "Oh no, there is always hope" is cruel bullshit when there really isn't any hope.

As for the fiery pit... it is another piece of cruel bullshit cooked up by vindictive theologians.

Did you actually panic when you saw that? — Agustino

No. I realised I was in a precarious position and paused to consider - left, right, up, down, but not for too long, as the longer you stay in a strained position, the weaker the muscles get. Beautiful place tho.

Logical possibility alone isn't sufficient to justify a position. — Agustino

Of course not. I wouldn't dream of trying to justify it. It's just an observation, that having faced death in that rather graphic way, that was the thought I had immediately afterwards, because it was surprising to me that I was at the top of the cliff not the bottom, and ever since then, the difference between top and bottom, life and death, has just seemed trivially small at the personal level - a clump of grass that does, or does not bear your weight for a second.

But this is not to recommend free climbing with no experience on hundred foot cliffs while on LSD.

Your body might do anything to stay alive when it is healthy and merely being chased by a long-legged ferociously angry feminist wielding an already bloodied axe. — Bitter Crank

>:O >:O

The dying are not necessarily in terrible mental shape -- they can be reconciled, patient, and even cheerful while they lay in bed. — Bitter Crank

It is hard to imagine though. I have a family member who is almost 100, and he suffered a stroke recently. He has recovered very well, but I can tell you 100% that he is very scared of death (his own admission), even while he was recovering. He was also very angry at doctors, nurses, family members, etc.

It is vital that the dying not be given false hope, so they can reconcile with their dying. "Oh no, there is always hope" is cruel bullshit when there really isn't any hope. — Bitter Crank

But there actually is always hope :P . It's just a fact of nature. Even when you're almost 100 there is hope, even when everyone says there isn't, so you really never know. Chances may be very big that you're going to die, but miracles are always possible.

This is one of the things I've learned about life. Even in the most impossible situations, there is still hope. It may not come to pass, but things can turn around very rapidly.

No. I realised I was in a precarious position and paused to consider - left, right, up, down, but not for too long, as the longer you stay in a strained position, the weaker the muscles get. Beautiful place tho. — unenlightened

Ahh see - the LSD helped you :P

the difference between top and bottom, life and death, has just seemed trivially small at the personal level - a clump of grass that does, or does not bear your weight for a second. — unenlightened

Well, I would say that's right since life is very fragile.

But this is not to recommend free climbing with no experience on hundred foot cliffs while on LSD. — unenlightened

Well why do you think because of LSD you'd be in a worse position? I think you might be in a better position because of diminished fear response.

When is an atheist all dressed up with nowhere to go?

Yes, there is always hope -- the blade of the guillotine begins it's rapid decent. Let's see... why would there be hope here? Oh yes, an explosion a second before the blade was released sends a beam into the certain trajectory of the slicer and knocks it athwart, saving the victim till things can be put back in order. Then the execution resumes.

Yes, there is always hope -- the plane has exploded and one's miraculously intact body and mind are plunging toward the earth. But just then a flying saucer catches you in its tractor beam and sets you down on the ground, while your flight mates rain down all around you, along with the plane and the cargo. Then an ambulance rushing to the scene runs over you, squashing you to death.

Yes, there is always hope -- the metastatic cancer has romped all over your abdominal and thoracic cavities, multiple organ failure is in progress, you are comatose. Suddenly a doctor rushes in with a miracle cure, and 15 minutes later you are demanding your clothes so you can go home.

Magical thinking. 100% of all persons who are healthy, merely sick, or terminal die. Miracles do not intercede on behalf of the hopeful 999 out of 1000, and then it wasn't a miracle at all. In 1 case out of 1000 it was a mis-diagnosis and when the wrong medicine was suspended grandma got better and lived another 3 weeks.

Bad faith, too. "The helicopter crashed, but my two relatives survived while the rest of the 8-man crew died in a fiery crash." God performed a miracle." a Deaconess told me. Miracle, indeed! If God performs miracles, why save just her not particularly remarkable relatives and send the 6 others to an agonizing death? Maybe God performs miracles. I didn't step off the curb and was therefore not run over. A miracle. I decided not to come visit you in Europe so I missed the latest bombing in London that injured 22. Another miracle. I didn't feel like potato salad, so I missed the the salmonella that were swarming in the bowl, and later killed several people at the picnic. A miracle.

999 times out of 1000 isn't "hope" it's grasping at straws which 999 times out of 1000 will be very disappointing.

What you need to do, Agustino, is plan on dying one of these days. Have you seen the Bergman film, Seventh Seal? You should see it before it is too late. I hope you have time -- it's one of those films one should see before one dies.

If I go to a fiery pit then it will be for unjust reasons. An infinite punishment for a finite sin is unjust, especially when I didn't ask to be a part of this cosmic drama.

So, all talk of an after-life, or not, is mere speculation. — TheMadFool

I hear you. But it's also logically possible that I'm a pink dragon in the midst of a long dream of being human. I don't find the afterlife plausible. I personally have no attachment for an insincere agnosticism. Don't get me wrong. For you it may be sincere. For me it would be fake. I don't pretend to doubt what I don't doubt.

As for personal immortality, I don't see its purpose. The highest part of me is not particular to me at all. Nothing so precious about this body or these memories. I truly live in "universal" thoughts and feelings, the usual passions and the shared realm of language. Fortunately we can (through language) inherit the work of those who precede us. They continue on in us. As a philosopher, I am inhabited by my influences. Their work is not lost, not all of it.

I think it was Schopenhauer who described corpses as the shit of the species, just as shit is the shit of the individual. I love this flesh, this vehicle...but I love it as a still-healthy vehicle. The flame passes from melting candle to melting candle. The real death is that of the species. I'm even at peace with that, somehow. Nothingness is OK. The adventure of being is glorious and terrible. I'd prefer the continuation of the human adventure. But there are worse things than nothing at all.

Ginsberg was supposedly exhilarated, but he had lived quite a life and was probably ready for a new experience. "A consummation devoutly to be wished." I think death can have a beauty even for the happy. Indeed, a certain kind of constant dying is arguably identical with constant rebirth. Nobby Brown contrasted "life-death" as a Dionysian unity to something like Apollonion un-death. or un-life. To really live is also to die, while a different force wants to freeze the chaos, cease the cycle. Perhaps philosophers especially want to stop the wheel. They are "undead." The flux is frozen or converted into snapshots, "eternal truths." We can find this perhaps in an ambivalence toward "the woman." The "male" energy might be said to yank the individual out of the mother and out of nature --out of the flux. Death is the womb, the mother. Horror to the anti-natural silver rocket of the masculine principle. Kinch didn't like baths in Ulysses. Henry Flowers liked taking baths a little too much. Hence their fusion or reassembly as the theme of the book.

But to be clear, I'd feel some fear if faced with dying in the morning, for instance. But I wouldn't lose my mind. I'd buckle down for the supreme test of my philosophy. Going out like a boss.

Whose death?

Yes, there is always hope -- the blade of the guillotine begins it's rapid decent. Let's see... why would there be hope here? Oh yes, an explosion a second before the blade was released sends a beam into the certain trajectory of the slicer and knocks it athwart, saving the victim till things can be put back in order. Then the execution resumes. — Bitter Crank

Nope. Do you know the life story of Dostoyevsky? He was saved from death row right before it was his turn.

Miracles do not intercede on behalf of the hopeful 999 out of 1000, and then it wasn't a miracle at all. — Bitter Crank

Sure, so what? The gods pick and choose whom they shall exalt, and whom they shall crush. The Ancients all were keenly aware of this, that their own life ultimately did not lie in their hands.

Bad faith, too. "The helicopter crashed, but my two relatives survived while the rest of the 8-man crew died in a fiery crash." God performed a miracle." a Deaconess told me. Miracle, indeed! If God performs miracles, why save just her not particularly remarkable relatives and send the 6 others to an agonizing death? — Bitter Crank

Simple, God can pick and choose who dies and who lives. I don't think this is bad in any sense of the term. Human beings are not in charge of their own lives. God's sun shines on the wicked and on the good. The good may be crushed, as Job was, and the evil may be given power. Or the contrary.

God saved you and allowed 10,000 others to die. Praise God! His sun shines on the wicked and on the good.

I didn't feel like potato salad, so I missed the the salmonella that were swarming in the bowl, and later killed several people at the picnic. A miracle. — Bitter Crank

In many ways, it is.

999 times out of 1000 isn't "hope" it's grasping at straws which 999 times out of 1000 will be very disappointing. — Bitter Crank

You don't have much of an alternative. It's a strategic choice. If you chance of success is 0.00001% then you better play it to the best of your abilities. What, it's better to just drop your weapons and make your chance go to 0%? Whenever I find myself in a terrible situation, I am pessimistic, but still hope for a miracle. As Heraclitus said, unless you expect the unexpected, you will not find it.

And of course, a miracle is very unlikely. That's why in the worst situations it takes a miracle - something extremely unlikely - to save you. It's very likely it won't happen. But it may.

I don't think it's disappointing so long as you realize it is very unlikely, but still possible. This means you need to be a realist. Your attitude is not a realistic attitude, it's a defeatist pessimistic attitude since it doesn't take into account that slim chance of success which does exist, even if it is small. You need to see things for what they are.

What you need to do, Agustino, is plan on dying one of these days. — Bitter Crank

I disagree, I don't see my days as under my control, so whether I plan for it or I don't, I'll still have to die at the same time. So I'd rather plan for other things.

Have you seen the Bergman film, Seventh Seal? You should see it before it is too late. I hope you have time -- it's one of those films one should see before one dies. — Bitter Crank

No, haven't seen it. Thanks for sharing it.

If I go to a fiery pit then it will be for unjust reasons. An infinite punishment for a finite sin is unjust, especially when I didn't ask to be a part of this cosmic drama. — darthbarracuda

Oh well, if you sense of injured justice will make you feel better while in the center of the pit, sure, why not? >:)

It's hard for me to take seriously the notion of an entity that is so powerful he created the world, but has it in his mind that it's right to punish people who don't believe he exists.

I think that it's astonishing that anyone thinks that they're in a position to judge the creator of the fucking universe. The immeasurable arrogance of people... always the smartest, beatest most righteous ones that ever lived... nothing worthy of subordinating themselves to, they're just that awesome.

Weakness is strength, ignorance knowledge, and self-indulgent self pity mirrored off of anything seen in similar states are the highest good, as everything worked for, hard, difficult, or not freely given and unearned is wicked...