• outlier
    7
    Recently I've been reading some of the discussions here regarding death and afterlife, and been finding it very interesting. For me personally, death has always been a difficult topic to take in, especially as I believe that once you pass away you are gone for good. But I do often wonder whether there is some other dimension, or place for the dead. I feel like I need to do some further thinking on this topic.

    What are your views on death, and why?
  • Shawn
    13.2k
    It's scary.

    Boo!
  • Welkin Rogue
    80
    The less I think about it, and the more attached I become to life, the more appalling the prospect of my own death becomes. But the more I think about it, and in particular about the nature of the self, the more I find solace in the idea that there is no enduring self. To the extent that I don't conceive of my life as 'the journey of one man', attachment to life becomes compatible with equanimity in the face of oblivion. But I don't claim to have reached that point of equanimity.
  • Nort Fragrant
    25
    Death is something we will all do, what will happen after?
    It matters not what you may think may happen, the process will do as it will.
    Do not be worried about it , enjoy it as you only get to do its once. (this life!)
    Our components have been recycled many times, death is just another rotation.
    What your bits were before have remnant energy of its previous state's, that's why if you are aware, you seem to know things from the past !!

    Its recycling at it's best.
  • Rhasta1
    46
    it can be pretty fucking scary, some speak of eternal life, there's no way to disprove that.
    best case scenario we rest dreamlessly. it'd be hell going on without the prospect of death to look forward to
  • TWI
    151
    I suggest you research near death experiences (NDEs)
  • Tzeentch
    3.7k
    Death is the great unknown. Whether we live on or die forever, I aim to have peace with both outcomes. In the case we live on, I will have tried in my lifetime to develop my mind and being in such a way that is constructive for the hereafter. Perhaps, as many religions of the world believe, we reincarnate until we reach a form of spiritual enlightenment, so every life should be a small step towards this goal. If, however, death is the end, I will die knowing I have done what I can to seek truth and lived my life according to the virtues I associate with that truth.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    You die. Your consciousness ceases. Your body decays. That's it. No good reason to believe anything else, as much as we might like to fantasize about other stuff, as much as we might like something else to be the case.
  • TWI
    151
    You die. Your consciousness carries on. Your body decays. That's it. Plenty of reasons to believe that, as much as we might like to fantasize about other stuff, as much as we might like something else to be the case :smile:
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    Plenty of reasons to believe that,TWI

    Are we supposed to be surprised that you can't name a single good reason to believe it?
  • Jake
    1.4k
    If the above posters are mostly young folk, the following might help...

    You've been up since dawn, running around all day doing all kinds of things. You've had some fun, some hassles, some victories, and some regrets. And now it's 11pm, the end of a long day, and what you really want to do next with your life is turn the light out, pull the covers up, and drift off in to nothing.
  • TWI
    151
    I could but I ain't going to!

    Those that know don't talk. Those that talk don't know.

    I think I'll practice a bit of that!
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    I believe that once you pass away you are gone for good.outlier

    Eventually the sleep at death is final (...at the end of this life, if you don't believe in reincarnation, or at the end-of-lives if you believe in reincarnation.)

    It's final, but, for one thing, what's wrong with that?

    You said that you've been looking at other discussions here, on this topic. Maybe you've seen some my posts about it. Let me just briefly repeat a few quotes:

    Barbara Ehrenreich said that death doesn't interrupt life; life interrupts sleep.

    ...which is the natural, normal and usual state-of-affairs. A life can be likened to being awakened by an alarm-clock because there are things that you wanted to do. As Jake pointed out, then at the end of the day, you welcome some rest from it.

    Mark Twain said:

    "Before I was born, I was dead for millions of years, and it didn't inconvenience me a bit."

    But I do often wonder whether there is some other dimension, or place for the dead.

    Yes, there's more to it than you're assuming.

    For one thing, from your own point of view (as opposed to that of your survivors), you don't cease to be. Though the sleep at the end-of-lives is increasingly deep, you never experience Nothing. There's no such thing as "oblivion".

    I'm not saying that your perception continues forever in the same way. Obviously, in the ever deepening sleep, there will be relief from the concerns and hassles, the needs, wants, lacks and incompletion of worldly-life.

    Other dimension? Well timelessness could be called dimensionally-different from your worldly-experience. As I've mentioned in other threads, you eventually won't know that there is such a thing as time or events, or even that there ever was or could be such things.

    Aside from that, I suggest that, if you're in this life for a reason (and I say that you are--your subconscious needs, wants, proclivities, predispositions, inclinations), then if, at the end of this life, that reason still remains, then you'll again be in a life, for the same reason as you're in this life.

    So death might not be as simple as you think. Shakespeare said, "To sleep, perchance to dream."

    and then:

    "Aye, there's the rub." ...for suicides and life-rejecting nihilists.

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    You die. Your consciousness ceases. Your body decays. That's it. No good reason to believe anything else, as much as we might like to fantasize about other stuff, as much as we might like something else to be the case.Terrapin Station

    ...simplistic confusion between your own experience and that of your survivors.

    From the point of view of your survivors, your body will entirely shut down, and you soon will genuinely no longer be, and will be dead, and your body will decay.

    That's your survivors' experience, not yours.

    So, what's your experience at the end-of-lives? Ever-deepening sleep. As I said in my previous post (and elsewhere too), you never reach a time when you aren't. You'll never experience that, though your sleep will become ever deeper.

    Of course it's well-known that dogmatic Science-Worshippers firmly believe that they know all about how things are, as they apply their pseudoscience to everything ...but I suggest that others have no reason to take their word for it (...however assertively it's expressed.).

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    So, what's your experience at the end-of-lives?Michael Ossipoff

    That's what I answered. Your consciousness ceases and you have no experience any longer.
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    That's what I answered. Your consciousness ceases and you have no experience any longer.Terrapin Station

    So Mr. Station believes that he'll have the experience of no experience. :D

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k

    Mr. Ossipoff can't read apparently.
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k


    Mr. Station is describing the experience of his survivors...their experience of the eventual already-shut-down condition of his body, and its eventual decay.

    No one denies that experience by your survivors.

    What the OP was asking about was one's own experience.

    Can't Mr. Station read?

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k


    No, I'm describing what happens to you. Your consciousness ceases. No more experiences.

    "No more experiences" certainly isn't what happens to your survivors. And their consciousness doesn't cease. And they never were able to experience your consciousness in the first place.
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    No, I'm describing what happens to you. Your consciousness ceases. No more experiences.Terrapin Station

    No more waking experience. Eventually no more experience or knowledge about worldly waking-life, with all its concerns, or time or events, or even that there could be such things. Ever-deepening sleep.

    In what sense does Mr. Station believe that there will be "no more experience", from his point-of-view, if he won't experience it? What would unexperienced absence of experience even mean? It's a nonsense phrase.

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    .This post has been replaced by a new version that fixes a word-omission, and adds perhaps-needed clarification.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    No more waking experience.Michael Ossipoff

    No more experience period. Your brain function ceases. Your brain decays. That's what experience is. It's a particular subset of brain functions. You have no point of view when you're dead. And yeah, "unexperienced absence of experience" is pretty word-salady. So why come up with more word salad?
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    best case scenario we rest dreamlessly.Rhasta1

    That's the eventual final outcome and state-of-affairs.

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    No more replies for Terrapin Station.

    When don't reply to Terrapin Station, it won't mean that he's said something irrefutable. It will just mean that he doesn't merit a reply, and I won't continue wasting time replying to him..

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    Note to moderators &/or administrators--

    I flagged Terrapin Station's recent post in this thread because it consists entirely of namecalling, with no discussion-content, in clear and transparently-flagrant violation of these forums' guidelines for conduct.

    I mean, if that doesn't violate guidelines, then what would?

    Michael Ossipoff
  • bloodninja
    272
    ha I found this thread amusing to read :lol:
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    I flagged Terrapin Station's recent post in this thread because it consists entirely of namecalling, with no discussion-content,Michael Ossipoff

    The discussion intent is to get you to stop playing dumb if you are. My suspicion is that you are, because it's difficult to believe that you'd have that much problem with understanding conventional English otherwise. How are you supposed to have sophisticated discussions on philosophy if you have so little reading comprehension for something so simple?

    Even if you're not playing dumb, by the way, you have zero concern for understanding what someone else is saying rather than "scoring points." That sucks for having discussions, too. Simply spamming the board with a repost of stuff you just posted and that was responded to doesn't count as wanting to have a discussion, so maybe give the self-righteous victim b.s. a break.
  • Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k
    ...but I've just noticed that I left a word out of a recent posting, and that should be fixed, as I do below, writing it as I intended it. (I erased the previous version, replacing it with an announcement of this corrected version):

    This isn't a reply to anything since posted by Station. It's just a correction of a word-omission in this recent post of mine:

    Your consciousness ceases and you have no experience any longer.Terrapin Station

    "...have no...any longer" unmistakably refers to a not-having that is ongoing during a passage of time.

    In other words, you experience passage-of-time in which there' s no experience? That's what Mr. Station seems to be saying.

    ...reminding that this discussion, and the OP's question, are about the experience of the dying person, and NOT of his survivors (...who of course experience the complete shutdown of the dead person's body, and could experience its eventual decay.)

    I'll repeat here that I won't be replying to Terrapin again.

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    In other words, you experience passage-of-time in which there' s no experience? That's what Mr. Station seems to be saying.Michael Ossipoff

    English. How does it work?
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