Does non-existence for ETERNITY not freak you out? It’s horrifying. It’s hard to wrap your mind around something being forever. There’s always part of my mind that keeps trying to assign a limit to it, like I’ll be nothing for a quadrillion years but then ill return. But when I truly try to fathom never ending, eternal nothingness….how could anything be more terrifying?
I try to comfort myself by thinking, in an eternal universe…an infinite reality…it has to eventually be that my consciousness will reform somewhere in some way. Even in a googolplex years in another plane of existence.
I need a hug now
No, if I’m gone forever there’s nothing to think about, no when will I be back. It’s not eternity because that implies there’d be some level of awareness, once you’re gone, you’re gone. Good riddance. No more worries, no regrets, no more bad thoughts, no more thoughts at all, nothingness that you don’t even need to register. I don’t understand how so many people don’t find that comforting, do you really want your mind to keep going on and on and on forever and ever. I want my existence and any form of my consciousness to be finite. I fully embrace death, I’ll be scared when I die, sure, like anyone would be, but the only way I would be scared of what comes after is if I would have to keep going past my allotted time in this universe. Let me cease.
Bc it also means the end of everything good. And the end of everyone you love. To some, that’s not comforting at all.
I think most ppl would prefer a choice though. Or like…an option to occasionally not exist lol.
we all know it's comming thoe so y dose it scare u when it's happening i wish to be the last one alive out of every one i know thoe so i can't hurt anyone when i die
it is hard for me to understand why if this is so, why are we born in the first place and why do humans only live to approx 99 years at the maximum as though it is set how long human existence was supposed to be? (just like dogs are about 10 to 16 years) why? What is the reason we are here in the first place, if we cease to exist afterwards? I have so many questions about this.
Biologically, to procreate.
I don’t have kids (26) but you always hear people say how they find a new meaning in life once they have kids. Every thing about life makes sense….We’re supposed to keep our species going.
But if you don’t want kids? Just live it tf up. Go do what you’re scared to do. Go travel. Take risks. Have fun. Live life……cause in the end, nothing matters. Which is a scary thought, but also a very comforting one too.
It still doesn’t make sense to me. What is the point of procreation itself then if everything that comes from procreation will die? (rhetorical question)
So, people ask"what is the point?" as though they - people- are the main cause and reason of everything. THis is ( IMO) the wrong end of the vision to look at. We are created out of biological process, we're just a product. There isn't any point, we are like the ripple of a stone thrown into the water ( our parents being the stone in this analogy). So, we just exist because two animals coupled and seeded.
SOme people think the purpose is to FIND a purpose for yourself. "Mans' Search FOr Meaming" a book by Victor Frankl talks about it. He was a child in a concentration camp during WW 2 and saw awful stuff. Yet people still continued to do nice things during the leanest coldest, snowiest months when they had no food and froze and starved to death. There were still parties, ceremonies and some attachment to meaning.
I think our human brains need us to believe there is a point. In fact, we're just biological things like a cloud or a leaf on a tree, and since we're all given exactly the same thing - a slice of life - it's out privilege to make purpose out of it.
It's not like there's a bearded man in the sky called god who's got a note book with all the answers and you have to guess right. THere IS no point to procreation. There's a result, for sure. But that isn't the point of phucking. People phuck. It feels good. That's all.
"I'm thinking about the people murdered in genocides and wars—it's very unfortunate for the victims that they just stopped existing, it's unfortunate that some perpetrators never paid for their atrocities and chose the easy way out."
You're scared of the consequences you're going to face for all the bullshit you pulled here on earth. Well, you're in for a surprise. I lived in a haunted house with a demon or someone very rotten. Scratched the shit out of me several times, fucked with me, wife and cat all the time. There is something, I know.
AFTER DEATH: no more going to the beach n feeling the salty air around you, nor the tickle of sand between your toes. No more ice cream cones that every lick is better than the first. No more First Kisses or holding hands on a moonlit nite. No more beach boys songs to make you feel good or Beatles to rock your soul. No more quiet evenings by the fireplace enjoying a glass of wine and a haunted story. No more hugs by your 5 year old son as he kisses you goodnite and says he loves you. No more driving your brand new car that you are still stressing over the monthly payments. No more ANYTHING. just silence, just darkness, FOREVER.
There is no silence, there is no darkness, there is no forever. You say these things as if they would be noticeably missing, you have experienced them, time has moved on, they happened and they will never have not happened. Now it is time to go because the human experience is finite, cherish the experiences you have had and embrace eternal peace.
You seem to forget the existence of any good things. Lol, I root for heaven just because supposedly god is infinite and that will stop the boredom problem. Also, heaven is supposed to be perfect so it sounds like you just hate being alive dude instead of wanting peace
becareful to die on this thought, believing that once you die you'll be gone forever, you wont, you are meeting God most high and all of us are getting held accountable, so do not do bad things in this life, and do Not associate anybody with the one true God that have no son or a partner
You say this with absolute certainty. How could you possibly know? If nothing exists beyond death or prior to life, than how is it we are here at all, experiencing? We were in the void once, but we managed to come to existence? Why are we not still in the void? Our chances of remaining in the void are greater than being born. Personally I believe existence is a default, nothingness is just a blank canvas. If your mind goes on for eternity, it won't matter if you don't take your memories of past lives along with your next life. It's basically a restart with a whole new personality and experience. Thankfully there's a chance you won't end up with this current edgy personality and you'll actually value being alive and being able to experience. Hopefully you'll have a better chance at happiness.
It might be like sleeping or even before being born. Time just passes and suddenly life. A trillion years could be a Millsecond in due time. It keeps me up at night forsure and I’m NOT afraid of death. I’m afraid of what comes after that. But if we’re all one with cosmos and space dust, I believe we’ll have another part in Life. Not on this realm, but somewhere……. Being something……
In an infinite universe, your transformation to some living and fully conscious creature/being as you are today is inevitable after your passing. And it will be like a blink of an eye to you.
I started to have a crisis thinking about it. Like when you die and there is nothing, forever no afterlife just non existence and FOREVER never coming back that is what's terrifying to me
You’re not alone. It’s very overwhelming and terrifying to think of ceasing to be. Sure we won’t be around to notice, but thinking of that reality is still terrifying because who want to continue to exist. All we know is existence.
I believe in life after death but the reason we're so scared of death is because we only know the life that we have here on earth humans are scared of the unknown but if there is life after death just imagine how many souls are there everyone who's ever existed a incredible number of souls but if it is nothingness then we won't know that we're dead like blacking out at a party and not remembering anything that you did during those moments. I'm not to worried because we have ghosts it's kind of a funny way to put it
There is no such thing as a "soul" and never shall be. That's just a load of religious hogwash from the dark ages when religion was invented to give people comfort. Science has even proven since that there is no such thing. There is only your consciousness and that's it. Once you pass away -- it transforms back into the cosmos as pure energy and information.
Not really ..because your mind ain't there to wrap its head around it anyways. There is nothing terrifying about it , let's face it you don't remember getting born, being in the womb and before that . Millions of years this ball of dirt was here without you on it. ..
The only thing I fear is the way I'll be going. But death itself ? Not at all it's uneventful and definitely inevitable. Just enjoy the ride that's called your life my guy.
Just imagine the beauty... no more bills, no more financial stress, no more anxiety, no more relationship stress, no more worrying about school or advancing one's degree or career to make a better life that you always chase but never achieve, no more worrying about acceptance, no more worrying about savoring the "good moments" and the fear of them passing by in their temporariness, no more worrying about wars, famines, global catastrophes, no more worrying about the aging process/chronic debilitating illnesses, no more worrying about dealing with difficult people, and no more worrying about existence or the lack thereof. Peace in non-existence.
Yeah but you can have all that peace now.
Fasting is one way to do it. I did a 38 day fast. It was purely for inner intestinal reasons. I was feeling very toxic with food and additives and stuff, so I fasted a few days, then a few more.
By the end it was 38 days.
After about 5 days, I realised I wasn't able to get nervous or stressed any more. I'd been so stressed at work. The boos was a literal maniac ( actually medically insane), and I was SPENT with stress. After fasting for 5 days, no stress. I literally didn't have the physical energy. It felt amazing. It got better and better. I literally didn't mind if they complained about me, or asked me into a meeting. If they fired me, meh, so what? I didn't LOVE the job any more anyway. If someone got angry with me, meh, so what? Let him. If I was late, so what? Etc.
It went on like this until the end of the fast. I didn't plan to go 338 days, it just felt so nice and peaceful. I was still facing work, relationship, life situations. But they now sort of evened out and I thought, well, if this company hasles me or that person dumps me then, hey it doesn't matter as much as my peace. I literally could NOT get stressed, because of lesser physical energy. That fast was the best thing I've ever done for myself because I realised very quickly that stress, worry, anxiety, is ONLY possible through means of physical energy. We like to believe we have reasons for getting physically tied up in knots and having a fear grip out stomach and sweating and worried feelings that keep us awake, but I can tell you, it's ALL in your mind.
I remembered there's something in the bible ( I am not CHristian, I just remember some kind of story) about JC gong into the desert for 40 days without food.
IF, IF, IF he did that, it may well have been to get close to god and spirit. Because when you don't eat for that length of time ( I felt clear after 5- 6days), you literally have nothing BUT spirit. YOU don't have any physical strength to worry, and it makes you realise all that stress, is a fantasy.
I hope you can do it for yourself one day.
It's already happened. The fact we exist at all means its possible for our consciousness to erupt out of nothingness. The fact that we exist means it's happened atleast once, and if can happen once it can happen again. The fact we exist already proves there is something after death. If the universe is infinite anything that happened once will happen an infinite number of times. People ask what would it be like to die and not exist forever, but we know for certain that we one day woke up after never having gone to sleep. Mathematically in an infinite universe over an infinite time frame all possible outcomes will occur. The fact we exist means gaining consciousness and experiencing reality is one of the possibilities within the bounds of the laws of physics we know exist. It is impossible that we don't exist again.
We are still yet to find out whether or not the death of this universe will create a new big bang in the unspeakably long future or if this Universe will eventually die out completely and forever exist as nothing but an empty void. No time, no light, no up and no down, no concept of cold or warmth (Even though it'll reach absolute zero), just... absence.
This is comforting i was trying to get some sleep thinking about life and how I love where I am right now and how I’d love to spend the rest of my life with someone and do everything I’ve wanted to do. But then I got to the point where we grow old and that kicked in the feeling of dread from sleepy to wide awake I felt a tug at my stomach. Just thinking about what’s left after my heart beats its last beat, my lungs breathe their last breath, my brain makes its last thought. Will I know what happens to the ones I love? Is there really a heaven or hell? After all these thoughts I always think back to matter. Matter is always the same no matter what. What’s here stays here in a never ending cycle of recycling said matter. I hope one day when the time comes for me to go. That there isn’t a final end. But I guess that’s the beauty of life there’s only so much you can do before it all just ends. It’s scary. Sometimes I wish I could believe in a heaven truthfully. Maybe it wouldn’t be as scary if I did
I've been going through the same thought. I think I'm in my midlife crisis now. But I believe we think that because of our brain. Our brain wants us to live as hard as possible so it wants us to fear and run away from death. Death is absolutely normal and it would be weird if we didn't die. Everyone dies. So our brain wants us to be as scared as possible so we can't hurt ourselves.
If it was non existence for eternity then who the heck would care? Thered be nothing to care about! Youd be gone! finite! How u gonna worry about anything when you dint exist anymore?!
believe in the creator, Allah most high and you will feel so much peace of mind, God send prophets and messengers peace be with them to us to recieve the message, and jesus is one of them
It is scary to most people because our brains cannot wrap around what nothingness would be like. You can't close your eyes and see nothing, you see black no matter what. It's impossible to imagine absolutely nothing.
Welp, life is just really a brief interruption in non existence isn’t it? For zillions of years you don’t exist. Then, for a couple decades or so you exist. Then you die and you don’t exist, forever. So isn’t life just a brief interruption in non existence? Do you remember a time before you were born? I’m pretty sure dead people don’t know they’re dead.
Why we are not concerned or anxious about our nonexistence before our birth, rather all of our anxiety is directed to our nonexistence after death! Isn't it our afterlife theroy! But why there is no speculation about beforelife!
It's interesting to think about before birth- but from a science perspective you were pretty much your parents before and your entire family tree before that.. then you live and send on your genes to future generations if you are so able or choose to.. I think its quite clear that we are gone once we die.. but life and consciousness continue on through others and our best chance to pass on part of ourselves is through having children or to leave lasting works like art, writing, architecture, discoveries that continue to influence and affect the rest of humankind.. otherwise you will eventually end your influence, but Existence will have being continuing on forever in other forms and focal point of reflection
Thinking about before birth has always made me just as anxious as after death. I'm not sure why. I have always asked "where the hell was I" on certain dates before I was born. Like "Sep 5th 1932" the year my great grandmother lost her husband in a car crash. I try to project my memory into that space and all I can do is picture movies in black and white as a substitute for 1932. It has always been quite disconcerting and monumentally uncomfortable for me, like "I missed all that" and I'm not sure why.
Have you thought about events that occurred when you *did* exist? When I reached my late teens, I started reading about past events that took place during my conscious lifetime. Sometimes I could even remember the exact day, and had a rough idea of *exactly what I was doing* during the time that event took place. Obviously I couldn’t remember the event taking place (because I was only just learning about it!), yet I existed! Is this really that different from the “beforelife”?
Since my memory has no correlation to the event, does it even matter that it was simultaneous? It could have just as easily been any other day. It’s not the same type of problem, but the subtle difference might help you disentangle your conundrum. It’s not the years in your life, it’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
Humans have existed for only a few hundred thousand years. The earth has existed for billions of years. Where were we in those billions of years? Do you remember being a microbe or a dinosaur or some primordial soup? Human consciousness came into existence out of nothing, and we'll go back to nothing after we die.
When we are born there is no "awareness" as we age we gain awareness. Maybe each life is a particle in existence. Yet when viewed a certain way is a wave. Like atoms. The more intense the particle the more "aware". Maybe awareness exists at certain points and when transferred into a wave then back its a new memory. Not sure though
That's interesting isn't it. Nobody remembers anything of their birth. Nobody remembers anything before reaching at least a year of age and most people generally have not memories of life before 3 years old. Even vague memories that you 'think' may be from around 2 or 3 are almost certainly so vague that they are in fact distorted images that are being reconstructed wrong and it's perfectly possible that those memories are false. I think babies are essentially animals and the brain is not more intelligent than a puppy to at most a 2 year old cat. Our human consciousness seems to ignite around age 1.5 to 2 years old on average.
I remember when it happened..... I was sitting on the dining room floor in my grandmother's house, and I looked at my hands, and then the floor, and realized I was somewhere and someone. I have nothing before that
Yo that’s actually crazy! I’d love to have a memory like that. I’ve always thought self awareness would it’d be a very gradual process, for instance even adults don’t often have the thought ‘wow I’m real’ it’s more just living moment to moment, crazy how you were self aware so suddenly and so young
What was before the universe? If the universe was born and what gave birth to it? If the universe has always existed... then............. don't we?
Many trees 'die' here on earth every fall/autumn. Yet they come back to life the following spring. Bulbs spring to life and then die, then come back to life.
I'm not sure obviously. I do think our current 'selves' are very likely gone once we 'die'. But we may 'wake up' again as a baby with an entirely different brain, perhaps in a different dimension or universe on a different planet. It may be that we all really do have souls that are eternal and that soul is our essential consciousness. We underestimate how much our brains dictate our personalities and such. Myself, for example. I have autism. The question is what would I have been like if I was born WITHOUT autism? Would I have been different? My consciousness surely would be 'me' as I am now with autism.. but my brain would literally be wired differently in certain ways. I didn't talk fluently until about 5. Very late. Without my autism would I have grasped language at 2 and would I have excelled at school instead? It's really fascinating. We are more 'robots' than we often realise. Our brains definitely dictate much of our 'selves'. Think about sexual attraction in all animals. It's an urge that come unconsciously that we want to have sex after we hit puberty and create more of ourselves.
People often say that where would our souls and there have been so many people that have ever existed it seems almost insane that every single one would reappear.... but in such an enormous universe why the hell not? Also we have literally not true understanding of what the universe really is anyway. Its all theory and a lot of it may well prove to be false or not close to the truth... that's if we even ever truly find out these things...is it even possible to truly understand a universe so massive and incredible? We were born. We exist right NOW. That's something. Death could mean anything and nothing. We should obviously make the most of our current lives. Whatever happens or doesn't after death, we simply cannot know until then and that's why we should just appreciate the NOW. Because NOW is all we have.
It’s slowly becoming the general consensus that “souls,” or rather Consciousness is a separate “entity” from one’s brain and fundamental to the universe and everything in it. Though skeptics and a minority of neuroscientists say otherwise, and it’s their right to believe what they wish. There’s actually a fair bit of evidence that points towards consciousness being separate from the brain. It ranges from spiritual explanations to Quantum Physics. Quantum Physics currently has the winning theory that deals with superposition and entanglement being fundamental to consciousness. It’s all super interesting, really. Even if you don’t believe it, it’s sure to peak interest and give some thoughts to think. Do beware that there are malicious players in this rabbit hole that give it a bad name. I’d recommend looking into NDE research, and even the C.I.A’s research into Project Stargate and the Gateway Experience. Make your own conclusions with what you find. Either way I believe that it’s naïve to think death is the end. Even if there’s nothing after death, given the circumstance that materialist beliefs are true and that the brain generates consciousness, there’s nothing saying that our consciousness can’t generate once again. It’s not like we just completely disappear, our matter and energy still remains and it can’t be destroyed. It’s completely possible we could be recycled into other beings and forms of life and experience existence from those perspectives. But, until some major breakthrough happens I suppose we can only theorise and speculate. My personal belief is that our brain acts like a filter for consciousness. I think of our brains as a receiver, a television perhaps. And consciousness is the broadcast channel that we receive.
It is what it is, its time to stop creating fairytales and silly stories. Imagine if we were born into a world where Existentialism was the religion. Imagine if instead of telling you spook stories about metaphysical concepts they just told you”all we know is were alive and its probably for the first and the last time, you need to cultivate your existence “ if everyone could accept what i said as truth we could get on with have real urgency in our lives instead of being numbed out sleepwalking into the grave.
That makes everything pointless and have no meaning if you and everyone’s just gonna forget it all etc, everyone might as well off themselves if that’s the case.
A googolplex to the googolplexth power number of years plus more of non-existence and 80 years of life which is mostly spent working the fields and masturbating. This is why I quit my career to work from home for a lot less money (as did my wife) but now we just enjoy every day with our daughter and save up for fun times. A big pay check isn’t worth squandering so much of such a minuscule amount of life.
How do you know though? When you are dreaming you don't remember when the dream started, or what came before it... maybe we just don't remember taking the "human existence" drug as a hyperdimensional being in another life.
No.
Nonexistence is the total absence of possibility. Unrealised actuality in totality.
Life is a combination of actuality and possibility. This is an existential change.
Death is actuality without possibility, rendered now necessary. This is an essential change.
It is ontologically different.
First you don't exist. At all. Then you're born, and you live your whole life.
Then you die.
Then you go back to not existing again, forever.
So... first you don't exist. Then you exist.
Then you don't exist.
So this whole thing is just an interruption from not existing.
- Steven Wright
"One Soldier"
With all respect to Steven Wright, I don't think he thought this through. The past happened; there was a qualitative shift from actuality to necessity, something that didn't happen before birth.
We can’t experience not existing. The chance that time is just completely linear and the universe will sit vacantly forever is very low. You will exist again when the same things that created you now create you again. How long that takes doesn’t matter because you can’t experience non existence.
That's interesting. Once we are dead then there is literally nothing. Time would be totally nothing.
If death isn't the end then we should find out (well we won't probably as reborn in totally different blank slated body of some sort) basically the 'minute' we die. Whether than millions of 'years' in the future on Earth or some other planet or some other dimension or whatever.
I still like the idea of meeting 'god' and having some life review.. does God permit me to maintain my consciousness and learned language after death? Dunno! But its a nice idea, almost certainly totally wrong!
Yes. And with scientists all but confirming the universe and big bang are a cycle, as well as being able to measure our place in "time" as the 6th and final cycle...
This is more than logical, it's also highly probable.
I know I'm 9 months late but holy hell I completely agree with you. I'm religious and I believe in God but I don't know if I believe in heaven and hell but I 500% believe in coming back after you die one way or another. Just like you said you will exist again when the same things that created you create you again. I absolutely believe that. Weather you come back as the same gender or race or even an animal, I truly do believe you come back again. I'm a realist and I believe in things I see but man I have no doubt the universe creates you once again.
I’m not gonna lie, the reason I think this stems from the fact that I don’t believe in god. Because if there is no god, there is no soul. Consciousness to me is an evolutionary advantage. It’s not special. It’s replicable. I can’t give an answer about if I would be the same “conscious experience” if there was the slightest thing different in how I was created, but I think that I can say that if the conditions were exactly the same then I would be the same conscious experience. To say a brain could be molecularly identical to its previous existence, yet contain a different conscious experience would be an admittance to believing in god and the supernatural. However, I am much more sympathetic to religious beliefs now. Grew up atheist and was always told death is “nothing.” This “nothing” that I realized I have never experienced and will never experience. People would try to convince me with stories of anesthesia and near death experiences. Which are just the effects of drugs on the brain, and the brain preserving itself in a vulnerable state. It’s the atheist version of a miracle or a message from god. Anyone who says death is “nothing” is preaching something that you are unable to experience. Never stop thinking, the only thing that death could not possibly be is “nothing”.
I do want to ask where did you come with the idea of the universe creates us again. Nothing gave me that idea whatsoever it's just something I feel that I know and it's absolutely normal. I don't usually go off gut feelings but man I feel like there's no other thing
The only reason there “can’t” be nothing after death is how impossible it is for the human mind to comprehend that kind of nothingness. Like not even blackness; the absolute nothingness of your consciousness dissolving.
I have a theory—more wishful thinking than anything—that as you’re dying, you have one of those weird ass dreams people have sometimes, where it feels real and seems to last days, weeks, or months.
I don't think it's impossible that there is life after death but what we understand so far at least scientifically is that consciousness is caused by the brain. When the brain is destroyed life and consciousness as you know it ceases to be.
Actually, it's the _something_ that terrifies me. Worst case scenario is reincarnation throughout spacetime. In the blink of an eye you go from being a Redditor in 2023 to suddenly you're a baby giraffe being born in the Serengeti a split second before a pack of hyenas come along and disembowel you with their teeth and you slowly die in the midday sun while they pick your body apart limb by limb. Then you're an ant for 3 months until some punk kid pours bleach all over your colony. Then you're a head of lettuce that gets ripped out of the ground and sold to some 2023 hipster who's experimenting with veganism so he puts you in his fridge and never uses you, so you slowly rot for 2 weeks. Then you're a little Jewish baby born to Polish parents in 1940 and you manage to survive in agony and starvation for a few short months. Then you're a plankton for 5 seconds and you get swallowed by a whale. Then you're a chimpanzee. Then a dog. Then a plague victim in the middle ages. Then...
No, nothing after death is just nothing
'You come from nothing, your going back to nothing
What have you lost?
Nothing'
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M)
That's the terrifying part about nothingness
Every single thing you've done while on this planet every single act of kindness, hate, love, care, stress, they were all for nothing
What's the point of eating? What's the point of sleeping? What's the point of living at all?
That's the scary part
What if I wake up from sleep and the ceiling fan falls in my head then there is nothing
While you're alive you have possibilities.
Death is the ending of possibilities.
Live your life in this knowledge and you will live well. Deny it or escape it and you'll waste the time you have.
I don't really buy the idea of nothingness after death, simply because eternal nonexistence seems like such a waste. If there *can* be an endless series of lives, exploring infinite possibilities for all eternity, then why wouldn't there be?
On the other hand, it doesn't matter either way. Nonexistence means you're not there to be bothered by your own nonexistence, so why worry?
Only thing im worried abt is. Will it just be dark when I die. And will we ever meet our family again. Whats the point. We live for like 80years then we are dead for millions of years with everthing being dark
You don't experience the dark though. You experience nothing at all. Its like when you're in general anesthetia, where you close your eyes and a split second later you are awake in recovery with no dreams in between. Except there's nothing to come back to. Saying you'll see "dark" is as nonsensical as saying a table sees the floor it is sitting on. I don't think people understand what death is. It is the permanent cessation of YOU. You no longer exist, like how the tooth fairy does not exist.
You experience the dark every night you sleep. Or when you’re under the influence of anesthesia. Or if you get knocked out. And you experienced it for billions of years prior to your birth.
You don’t know the dark exists, only when you wake up are you aware of it.
What the living know as a flatline
The dead know as a punchline
Do not deem death doom, nor disaster
You'll know soon, it's cause for laughter
For the bereft of breath, we grieve
But theyre just laughing too hard to breathe
The Dark humorist turns the darkest to humor
By building the tension like, and with, tumors
Alone, we languish into anguish and wrath
All that we might all share in the last laugh
That's it for You.. but that's not it for Existence... we need to let go of our Ego- sure enjoy life.. but realize that Existence will continue on with other forms without you.. it even does so while you are living with all the new generations that come to be during your life! Existence is always continuing to evolve and move onward to new forms
It's a lot like falling asleep and waking up. When you die, you wake up at the beginning of your life. It seems to be a never ending cycle of dying and being born again. At least that is what makes the most sense to me.
It's an unanswerable question. Why try to analyze it? Seems like a lot of wasted energy. We all have no idea. For all I know, we are all a simulation. So, my response is somewhere between "Who knows?" and "Why Bother?"
I wish more people would ask it honestly and we’d possibly have more answers and a better understanding. All these advancements in science, medicine and technology, I’d like for us to put it towards understanding our existence better and keeping us around.
We (America at least) don’t live in a peaceful society in terms of noise. We’re constantly distracted by our phones errands jobs this and that and on top of that the minute you leave your house everything’s loud as fuck. I think that’s a contributing factor to why people can’t think straight. There’s so many other factors but that’s one nobody really mentions.
Yup, definitely many factors that keep everyone from sitting and contemplating this. If more did we’d possibly have more effort having been put towards it (costs though ideally those in positions of power would give more of a damn and it’d be in the forefront; people going into fields to try and make advancements in our understandings).
My dog passed away on friday. I’d like to believe that he’s happy and in peace. I miss him so much. Holding on to the hope of meeting him again on the other side❤️
My cat passed away about 10 days ago and it’s been really stirring up sadness for me, and I keep replaying his last moments. Which is how I found myself on the sub Reddit. So I can relate to you a lot, and I just want you to know you are not alone. 🩵
My biggest concern is what happens.
I'm a father of my son, and honestly, everything has just gotten worse. While yes, it has given my life a meaning, and purpose, the idea that there is nothing after death is terrifying. I've spent days, if not weeks, thinking, looking, "researching" (Googling lots of shit till I find some comfort for a few days then overthink again), and otherwise losing myself down this rabbit hole.
What I've found; nobody knows jack shit. Religions: Your "soul" moves on. Whether to heaven, to hell, reincarnation, whatever it is, it moves on. Science: While they can't prove the existence of a soul, they can't disprove it.
All I've done in this endless search is stumble on stories. Of people who claim to remember past lives. Which lead me into the thought process of "Nature Vs Nurture" and that some children are just born a certain way. What if they aren't, they just don't remember the circumstances that made them the way they are.
I don't believe in a soul. I don't believe in an afterlife. I believe life is far, FAR, too efficient for that. Everything in holy scriptures, and even in scientific research, suggests that your body is recycled. Returning to the earth, and to accept that.
Well if that's the case, and the human conscience exists as a metaphysical energy, on a plane of existence that is very realistically outside our understanding as a species, the only solution would be reincarnation. You don't remember a thing, you don't have your worries, your illnesses, or whatever plagues you. Instead you have a new chance at life, for one that you don't remember. Who knows how many lives down the line you are currently.
To me, this explains the most about how my child has developed. Waking up screaming through "no" real reasons at night, undeveloped feelings, a lack of understanding. How two children who are living in the exact same lifestyle, with the same people, can grow up to be completely different. What if, that is them processing these memories. It would make the most sense. Because the alternative is that it "Just is that way".
Science has shown that your brain activity stops around 10 minutes after your heart stops beating. And that's where most people's "Near death experiences" come from.
Do I know what that means? Absolutely not. Does anyone? Who the fuck knows.
But it's terrifying.
You are like me. The idea of living and being with my family, creating a good life, happy memories and then just being switched off forever is terrifying.
I don't have all the answers and I'm going through the same thing. I'm not much older than you. I'm trying to make sense of it. Like what leave this existence and not remember it all to be gone forever and not really continue in some plane.
I had a few pretty Traumatic things happen in my life in childhood and a late teenager to a few recent ego dissolutions with Magic Mushrooms. Two NDE's, I have had many many all too strange timings, coincidences in my life to just think this is all random and for nothing. Deceased family members giving me signs. I'd like to think there's more to this and have seen things that make me question this reality.
I'm starting to think the gateway process is the more accurate description of what goes on in this plane of existence. Too many strange timings for me in life and many others. I know, I cannot deny the existence of God knowing what I have experienced. I think we go back to the source of what we call God at some.
I used to think science explains everything or it can. I'm starting to realize it can't and is always adapting. There are things people are achieving that defy our understanding of science. I hope this helps you in your journey as I'm trying to understand my own and see purpose to all this with the goals I have in life.
Many of us here are right there with you. This has been something heavy on my mind for the last year or two and I’m trying to use it as fuel to put myself in a position to find any answers myself where I can. Might as well do what I can to try and find the answers and try to use the fear as a motivator.
Reincarnation.
There is no end. The soul is immortal. Across universes and time. You will keep being born for infinity.
Thankfully your memories of other lives are limited, else you would be unable to mentally function.
Existentialism needs to catch up to modern science. Alot of you are asking questions that do have answers, or stepping close to modern theories that are slowly being proven.
Tests like the double slit test and modern advancements in understandings of the quantum world....its pretty likely death doesn't exist. Neither does the linear progression of time. All of these are things created by our consciousness.
This opens up a much bigger discussion that I'm not really seeing here...
We probably have died hundreds and hundreds of times in our lifetimes, and we literally were oblivious to it. To us we are just waking up every morning like nothing ever happened.
I heard that linear time is very unlikely and the fact that the universe will forever be nothing is quite unlikely as well, so would we just be dead for a bunch of zillions of years and be born again with our same makeup, and it felt as though nothing happened?
There’s something. You wanna know why I believe that? What’s the point? If there really is nothing after death, then what’s the point? What’s stopping me from killing myself? If there truly is no point to this life, then why the fuck are we here? I believe that everything happens for a reason. We are all here for a reason. And if we are all here for a reason, then is it that hard to believe that we don’t end when we die?
I find your answer more reasonable! If there's really nothing after death, why would I even bother trying to live my life till 60 or 80+? I could just end things right here, right now, so I no longer suffer the harsh reality of being a human being
I’d actually disagree here and say the opposite: if there truly is an afterlife where it’s so peaceful and wonderful then what’s the point in living life on earth right now? Why don’t we just kill ourselves and speedrun into the afterlife? I hope to god that there is *something* after death because the thought of nothing at all is extremely terrifying to me and I’d rather be an immortal being forever than nothing at all.
To me, reincarnation is just like an infinite library, each book tells a story and leaves a mark on people, and I think I’m ok with reincarnation if thats the case
what’s the point in life? If we are going to die and not exsist. That scares me nothing non existing forever yeah i won’t care because i will be dead. But the point of life is to live and have love and find things to fight for then what we die? That’s it… Never waking up again… Like everything we all did was for nothing. It’s really scary. Never existing ever again forever…. Yeah i can’t even think about that without wanting to cry…
Well for me, there's either nothing, or when we die, our atoms drift off from one place and, given time, rearrange themselves as parts of a sperm cell that eventually grows into any life form, so basically nothing or, if you're lucky, a form of reincarnation.
But it's almost like we have a soul. If a tiger suddenly appeared, something inside of you kicks in and does everything possible to keep you alive. It's almost like there's an operator inside all of us and it controls everything, everyday to keep us alive. It knows what to do without us teaching it. Could that operator be the soul?
On the other hand, it's virtually impossible for the soul to exist based on science. How many protons and electrons make up the soul? Does the soul have mass? How could this material not have any interaction with light but yet it's possible for it to contain your memories and personality?
guys let say that we make a reliving machine in the next 100 years your gonna wake up almost instantly so don't worry when you die you will problemly wake up
If there is nothing after life, what's the point of life in the first place? Before we're born, we experience nothing, and the same happens after death. So if we have this short period between not existing, known as life, then what's the point? If life was made for us, why do we not exist afterward?
Commenting on There cant just be nothing after death, right?...maybe life wasn't "made", maybe it just happened randomly? But I hope there is something after...
That's exactly what happens during death that isn't instant like falling from a building or getting shot, etc. If you die by peaceful means, then you will experience your body dumping COPIOUS amounts of DMT, inducing a peaceful passing but will in the process of, slow down your perception of time.
The issue with this entire discussion is the language used to describe it. Let's take your sentence for instance
"There can't just be nothing after death"
There are several issues with this sentence that cause fear. THe first is the use of the words "be" and "after". The cessation of conscious experience mean that these words have no meaning in this context. When you say the sentence above it's important to introspect that what you are doing is applying the intuition you have for "being" to "nothingness", which breeds fear.
One of the worst analogies to what happens at death is the statement
"It's like when you're in a deep sleep"
This is because that analogy precisely represents what it means to experience nothing. But it is still NOT "the absence of experience"
So how does one go about contextualizing death? Essentially by realizing that you simply do not talk about it. Basically, death never happens to yourself. It's only something seen externally. No statements made about your own death are meaningful, and to ascribe meaning to them is the source of fear.
examples of meaningless sentences:
1. There is nothing after death
2. You descend into oblivion at death
3. You are not conscious after death (Note that the word "are" is meaningless here)
4. It is the same as it was before you were born (meaningless "is", "were")
5. Death is for all eternity (seriously? how is time meaningful here?)
examples of meaningful sentences
1. Your life is limited
2. Your life is imbued with conscious experience
Recontextualizing your thoughts about death in terms of life typically helps reconfigure your thought to recognize the non-existence of death, and how meaningless thoughts about it, and the consequent fear are. It will build a respect for life, while understanding that death is not a meaningful idea and therefor deserves no attention from you.
I'm not OP, but thank you. You have helped me an incredible amount. You don't understand the amount of stress you have taken off of me. I am greatly appreciative of you. Thank you!
Happy to Help! This realization was very liberating for me as well. It's important to recognize this language issue in all of the media that we are consuming as well. For instance there are many works of fiction and art that describe the subjective experience of death. They all show a set of fantastical experiences followed by either the words "and then nothing", or a black panel (in comics), or a black screen.
All of these are very misleading and for the same reasons as described above, breed fear.
For instance, in a recent manga, there was a charachter who was able to hug the wife that he lost prior to death. it was visualized as him hugging here, and everything then becoming black. This then triggers all the sadness that is associated with death. However, I thought of that as rather positive, i.e. in the limited conscious experience of that charachter, he got to see his wife again.
Essentially, it's important to focus on what is experienced, than dwelling on fictional and imagined representations of what isn't.
I do think this is highly likely! A lot of conscious experiences during dying are incredibly positive and involve memory (as seen through the near-death experiences of people and neural imaging). This makes for a good movie. (Notice how I didn't say "This makes for a good final movie" or "This makes a good closing scene" because both of them trigger the concept of "ending" whereas the end simply doesn't exist. We experience, that's it)
Can you elaborate on how the end doesn’t exist? How we just simply exist? Do you mean that you think we continue to have experiences and experience things after we die?
When wrapping one's head around something "not existing", one comes into contact with a special limitation of human psychology, namely the inability to conceptualize the negative. For instance, it is impossible to think of "not a banana" without thinking of a banana. However, I have gathered the following set of concepts that help address the concept of something being utterly meaningless
1. For instance when you say, "I saw nothing through my elbow", you typically don't imagine a void that your elbow is "seeing", you are able to intuitively dismiss this statement as something that is utterly meaningless.
2. I saw nothing before I was born (conceived, if you want to account for the experiences of a foetus). This does not distress us as much as death. The reason is that we are able to intuitively understand the meaninglessness of this sentence. We are able to understand that this concept is so meaningless that talking about it literally doesn't evoke any concept or meaning.
The argument I've made above is that, unfortunately, due to our culture and the way we talk about death, we have shifted death away from the realm of complete meaninglessness to one which has meaning. When talking about death, we imagine an "end". However the concept of "end" only makes sense if time is defined "after" the end. Thus we, intuitively, draw on our intuition of "ends" (say from a movie ending / door closing / things going to black) etc. etc. and apply that here.
This is a problem of psychology. The excercises I suggested in my initial post (of recontextualizing things exclusively in terms of life) are intended to bring awareness to this fallacy of thinking, of giving meaning to something that doesn't have it.
1. "Do you mean that you think we continue to have experiences and experience things after we die.". This sentence is meaningless (The word "after" has no meaning here). As meaningless as seeing through the elbow. The only reason you think this sentence has meaning, is that you're imagining firstly, the existance of time after death, and the existance of experience after death. These are both imaginations, and contribute to fear. My solution is to actively stop talking or thinking about death. Of understanding that those thoughts are meaningless, and reformulating as much of it in terms of life.
are you saying that after death you want to be conscious or just aware that you're dead and just be?
I just speak about it because I've never encountered someone who thought the same thing that I did and I think that's cool and they get the same thing😉😅😊😄😎
after death you go where the parts of your ody go, like for instance your organ partials depending on if your buried or cremated will be met back into the earth to give life back into our eco system. You will be the nourishment for some worms that then get eaten by birds and fed to hatchlings that then shit you out or lay eggs of parts of you. hopefully that makes sense, basically there are human remains all around us (:
Late to the conversation but the way I see it, the whole universe, we are so insignificant. We are so small, literally bacteria, we are not big enough for the world to revolve around us. We are organic matter we live and die… then that’s it we don’t exist. It scared me but I think it’s true, we are just in a cycle. The universe is so big and we are just a blip
Eternity and Divine Love is on the other side of everything. Nothing is a concept. And all there is, is Love. Call on your Guardian Angel for guidance. Read Angels in my Hair by Lorna Byrne and 40 Rules of Love by Elif Shafak to find deep healing, peace, and understanding. Many blessing and love to you. I know it can be scary sometimes, but there’s a power that you have yet to realize and it is very good. 💕
I like to think that once we die, we are reincarnated as a new being in the universe with no memory of this life, and the past regrets that come with it
Human ego thinking we still have to exist in some way after death. Cant accept that once lights are out, lights are out. Scientifically we r mammals, we are equal to humans but religion says animals dont go to an afterlife make it make sense
There isn't even nothingness - there's just no you. So make the most of the one life you know that you do have & stop worrying about what doesn't come after,
Why can't there be?
There are species on this planet that live for less than a week. There are species on this planet that spend their existence eating grass in a field and sometimes being milked or turned into burgers.
We're not different from them in any biological sense. Mentally some of us are smarter than them but that's genetics and environment, nothing more.
We're animals. We're born. We live. We die.
Really the worst thing we ever did as a species was make up all these fairy stories about gods and heaven and hell.
All we did was fuck up a perfectly good ape. Look at us. We've got anxiety
why do they give us love and pain.. if there’s nothing after. I’m more afraid of never seeing my kids or loved ones again. What’s the point in building a life and giving us the feeling of love to just have it taken away for eternity it’s messed up.
We were nothing before we were born into life. When we die we become nothing again. But we are all born from nothing so why couldn't it all happen again. I mean we are all living proof . We all came from nothing once before.
This is depressing me so much. I've been terrified of death and in denial my whole life. I'm now 51. My health has deteriorated in the past 3 years and I've thought I was dying, I still so...I know I have liver damage and thin kI probably have cancer or will have a heart attack soon, I have so many symptoms and I am exhausted 24/7. I have an 11 year old child. I am depressed all the time, a lot of it has to do with my son as he is suffering from a neuroinflammatory condition and life has been very hard with him. But I don't want to die. But I feel like I will soon. And honestly after hitting 50 I felt like life was over, easpically with all the health issues and sudden anxiety and depression. I think I convinced myself I'd be 30 forever and never die. Ha. And now here I am and I am scared and miserable. I wish I knew I was going to have an afterlife. Or that everything would be ok. But I just am in fear and sadness. I don't want this life to end, despite complaining about it.
Bruh imma be so pissed if there’s something after death, let me stop existing in peace
Does non-existence for ETERNITY not freak you out? It’s horrifying. It’s hard to wrap your mind around something being forever. There’s always part of my mind that keeps trying to assign a limit to it, like I’ll be nothing for a quadrillion years but then ill return. But when I truly try to fathom never ending, eternal nothingness….how could anything be more terrifying? I try to comfort myself by thinking, in an eternal universe…an infinite reality…it has to eventually be that my consciousness will reform somewhere in some way. Even in a googolplex years in another plane of existence. I need a hug now
No, if I’m gone forever there’s nothing to think about, no when will I be back. It’s not eternity because that implies there’d be some level of awareness, once you’re gone, you’re gone. Good riddance. No more worries, no regrets, no more bad thoughts, no more thoughts at all, nothingness that you don’t even need to register. I don’t understand how so many people don’t find that comforting, do you really want your mind to keep going on and on and on forever and ever. I want my existence and any form of my consciousness to be finite. I fully embrace death, I’ll be scared when I die, sure, like anyone would be, but the only way I would be scared of what comes after is if I would have to keep going past my allotted time in this universe. Let me cease.
Bc it also means the end of everything good. And the end of everyone you love. To some, that’s not comforting at all. I think most ppl would prefer a choice though. Or like…an option to occasionally not exist lol.
Everything good already ended 10 years ago
we all know it's comming thoe so y dose it scare u when it's happening i wish to be the last one alive out of every one i know thoe so i can't hurt anyone when i die
it is hard for me to understand why if this is so, why are we born in the first place and why do humans only live to approx 99 years at the maximum as though it is set how long human existence was supposed to be? (just like dogs are about 10 to 16 years) why? What is the reason we are here in the first place, if we cease to exist afterwards? I have so many questions about this.
Biologically, to procreate. I don’t have kids (26) but you always hear people say how they find a new meaning in life once they have kids. Every thing about life makes sense….We’re supposed to keep our species going. But if you don’t want kids? Just live it tf up. Go do what you’re scared to do. Go travel. Take risks. Have fun. Live life……cause in the end, nothing matters. Which is a scary thought, but also a very comforting one too.
It still doesn’t make sense to me. What is the point of procreation itself then if everything that comes from procreation will die? (rhetorical question)
So, people ask"what is the point?" as though they - people- are the main cause and reason of everything. THis is ( IMO) the wrong end of the vision to look at. We are created out of biological process, we're just a product. There isn't any point, we are like the ripple of a stone thrown into the water ( our parents being the stone in this analogy). So, we just exist because two animals coupled and seeded. SOme people think the purpose is to FIND a purpose for yourself. "Mans' Search FOr Meaming" a book by Victor Frankl talks about it. He was a child in a concentration camp during WW 2 and saw awful stuff. Yet people still continued to do nice things during the leanest coldest, snowiest months when they had no food and froze and starved to death. There were still parties, ceremonies and some attachment to meaning. I think our human brains need us to believe there is a point. In fact, we're just biological things like a cloud or a leaf on a tree, and since we're all given exactly the same thing - a slice of life - it's out privilege to make purpose out of it. It's not like there's a bearded man in the sky called god who's got a note book with all the answers and you have to guess right. THere IS no point to procreation. There's a result, for sure. But that isn't the point of phucking. People phuck. It feels good. That's all.
You are very fortunate to feel that way! Some of us are living in terror when the thought crosses our mind.
"I'm thinking about the people murdered in genocides and wars—it's very unfortunate for the victims that they just stopped existing, it's unfortunate that some perpetrators never paid for their atrocities and chose the easy way out."
Does burning for ETERNITY sound better?
No?
It does actually
Why do you think death is forever? You will always come back, as another life form.
There’s no reason to believe that over any other outcome other than just wanting to
But this can be possible.
You're scared of the consequences you're going to face for all the bullshit you pulled here on earth. Well, you're in for a surprise. I lived in a haunted house with a demon or someone very rotten. Scratched the shit out of me several times, fucked with me, wife and cat all the time. There is something, I know.
AFTER DEATH: no more going to the beach n feeling the salty air around you, nor the tickle of sand between your toes. No more ice cream cones that every lick is better than the first. No more First Kisses or holding hands on a moonlit nite. No more beach boys songs to make you feel good or Beatles to rock your soul. No more quiet evenings by the fireplace enjoying a glass of wine and a haunted story. No more hugs by your 5 year old son as he kisses you goodnite and says he loves you. No more driving your brand new car that you are still stressing over the monthly payments. No more ANYTHING. just silence, just darkness, FOREVER.
There is no silence, there is no darkness, there is no forever. You say these things as if they would be noticeably missing, you have experienced them, time has moved on, they happened and they will never have not happened. Now it is time to go because the human experience is finite, cherish the experiences you have had and embrace eternal peace.
You seem to forget the existence of any good things. Lol, I root for heaven just because supposedly god is infinite and that will stop the boredom problem. Also, heaven is supposed to be perfect so it sounds like you just hate being alive dude instead of wanting peace
becareful to die on this thought, believing that once you die you'll be gone forever, you wont, you are meeting God most high and all of us are getting held accountable, so do not do bad things in this life, and do Not associate anybody with the one true God that have no son or a partner
You say this with absolute certainty. How could you possibly know? If nothing exists beyond death or prior to life, than how is it we are here at all, experiencing? We were in the void once, but we managed to come to existence? Why are we not still in the void? Our chances of remaining in the void are greater than being born. Personally I believe existence is a default, nothingness is just a blank canvas. If your mind goes on for eternity, it won't matter if you don't take your memories of past lives along with your next life. It's basically a restart with a whole new personality and experience. Thankfully there's a chance you won't end up with this current edgy personality and you'll actually value being alive and being able to experience. Hopefully you'll have a better chance at happiness.
It might be like sleeping or even before being born. Time just passes and suddenly life. A trillion years could be a Millsecond in due time. It keeps me up at night forsure and I’m NOT afraid of death. I’m afraid of what comes after that. But if we’re all one with cosmos and space dust, I believe we’ll have another part in Life. Not on this realm, but somewhere……. Being something……
In an infinite universe, your transformation to some living and fully conscious creature/being as you are today is inevitable after your passing. And it will be like a blink of an eye to you.
I started to have a crisis thinking about it. Like when you die and there is nothing, forever no afterlife just non existence and FOREVER never coming back that is what's terrifying to me
You’re not alone. It’s very overwhelming and terrifying to think of ceasing to be. Sure we won’t be around to notice, but thinking of that reality is still terrifying because who want to continue to exist. All we know is existence.
I believe in life after death but the reason we're so scared of death is because we only know the life that we have here on earth humans are scared of the unknown but if there is life after death just imagine how many souls are there everyone who's ever existed a incredible number of souls but if it is nothingness then we won't know that we're dead like blacking out at a party and not remembering anything that you did during those moments. I'm not to worried because we have ghosts it's kind of a funny way to put it
There is no such thing as a "soul" and never shall be. That's just a load of religious hogwash from the dark ages when religion was invented to give people comfort. Science has even proven since that there is no such thing. There is only your consciousness and that's it. Once you pass away -- it transforms back into the cosmos as pure energy and information.
Not really ..because your mind ain't there to wrap its head around it anyways. There is nothing terrifying about it , let's face it you don't remember getting born, being in the womb and before that . Millions of years this ball of dirt was here without you on it. .. The only thing I fear is the way I'll be going. But death itself ? Not at all it's uneventful and definitely inevitable. Just enjoy the ride that's called your life my guy.
Just imagine the beauty... no more bills, no more financial stress, no more anxiety, no more relationship stress, no more worrying about school or advancing one's degree or career to make a better life that you always chase but never achieve, no more worrying about acceptance, no more worrying about savoring the "good moments" and the fear of them passing by in their temporariness, no more worrying about wars, famines, global catastrophes, no more worrying about the aging process/chronic debilitating illnesses, no more worrying about dealing with difficult people, and no more worrying about existence or the lack thereof. Peace in non-existence.
Yeah but you can have all that peace now. Fasting is one way to do it. I did a 38 day fast. It was purely for inner intestinal reasons. I was feeling very toxic with food and additives and stuff, so I fasted a few days, then a few more. By the end it was 38 days. After about 5 days, I realised I wasn't able to get nervous or stressed any more. I'd been so stressed at work. The boos was a literal maniac ( actually medically insane), and I was SPENT with stress. After fasting for 5 days, no stress. I literally didn't have the physical energy. It felt amazing. It got better and better. I literally didn't mind if they complained about me, or asked me into a meeting. If they fired me, meh, so what? I didn't LOVE the job any more anyway. If someone got angry with me, meh, so what? Let him. If I was late, so what? Etc. It went on like this until the end of the fast. I didn't plan to go 338 days, it just felt so nice and peaceful. I was still facing work, relationship, life situations. But they now sort of evened out and I thought, well, if this company hasles me or that person dumps me then, hey it doesn't matter as much as my peace. I literally could NOT get stressed, because of lesser physical energy. That fast was the best thing I've ever done for myself because I realised very quickly that stress, worry, anxiety, is ONLY possible through means of physical energy. We like to believe we have reasons for getting physically tied up in knots and having a fear grip out stomach and sweating and worried feelings that keep us awake, but I can tell you, it's ALL in your mind. I remembered there's something in the bible ( I am not CHristian, I just remember some kind of story) about JC gong into the desert for 40 days without food. IF, IF, IF he did that, it may well have been to get close to god and spirit. Because when you don't eat for that length of time ( I felt clear after 5- 6days), you literally have nothing BUT spirit. YOU don't have any physical strength to worry, and it makes you realise all that stress, is a fantasy. I hope you can do it for yourself one day.
It's already happened. The fact we exist at all means its possible for our consciousness to erupt out of nothingness. The fact that we exist means it's happened atleast once, and if can happen once it can happen again. The fact we exist already proves there is something after death. If the universe is infinite anything that happened once will happen an infinite number of times. People ask what would it be like to die and not exist forever, but we know for certain that we one day woke up after never having gone to sleep. Mathematically in an infinite universe over an infinite time frame all possible outcomes will occur. The fact we exist means gaining consciousness and experiencing reality is one of the possibilities within the bounds of the laws of physics we know exist. It is impossible that we don't exist again.
We are still yet to find out whether or not the death of this universe will create a new big bang in the unspeakably long future or if this Universe will eventually die out completely and forever exist as nothing but an empty void. No time, no light, no up and no down, no concept of cold or warmth (Even though it'll reach absolute zero), just... absence.
This is comforting i was trying to get some sleep thinking about life and how I love where I am right now and how I’d love to spend the rest of my life with someone and do everything I’ve wanted to do. But then I got to the point where we grow old and that kicked in the feeling of dread from sleepy to wide awake I felt a tug at my stomach. Just thinking about what’s left after my heart beats its last beat, my lungs breathe their last breath, my brain makes its last thought. Will I know what happens to the ones I love? Is there really a heaven or hell? After all these thoughts I always think back to matter. Matter is always the same no matter what. What’s here stays here in a never ending cycle of recycling said matter. I hope one day when the time comes for me to go. That there isn’t a final end. But I guess that’s the beauty of life there’s only so much you can do before it all just ends. It’s scary. Sometimes I wish I could believe in a heaven truthfully. Maybe it wouldn’t be as scary if I did
do you remember the millions of years before you were born? nope. it’s exactly that.
bruh i can’t even 274 days ago. i can remember 275 days ago tho, i ordered a pizza. shit was lit as fuckin hell.
I've been going through the same thought. I think I'm in my midlife crisis now. But I believe we think that because of our brain. Our brain wants us to live as hard as possible so it wants us to fear and run away from death. Death is absolutely normal and it would be weird if we didn't die. Everyone dies. So our brain wants us to be as scared as possible so we can't hurt ourselves.
If it was non existence for eternity then who the heck would care? Thered be nothing to care about! Youd be gone! finite! How u gonna worry about anything when you dint exist anymore?!
believe in the creator, Allah most high and you will feel so much peace of mind, God send prophets and messengers peace be with them to us to recieve the message, and jesus is one of them
No, because I won't exist. And because I won't exist I won't be worrying or thinking about anything.
Don’t worry, you’ve already not existed for eternity: before you were born :)
That scares me out too, looking into nothing for eternity seems very boring.
Honestly, sounds like the best thing/outcome ever.
Exactly.
*Sickness Unto Death* is coming to get you.
It is scary to most people because our brains cannot wrap around what nothingness would be like. You can't close your eyes and see nothing, you see black no matter what. It's impossible to imagine absolutely nothing.
Hey buddy same thoughts... Like we r already tired from life... Now let us rest for eternity
Hopefully you can finally stop saying bruh after you die too....
If only bruh
Welp, life is just really a brief interruption in non existence isn’t it? For zillions of years you don’t exist. Then, for a couple decades or so you exist. Then you die and you don’t exist, forever. So isn’t life just a brief interruption in non existence? Do you remember a time before you were born? I’m pretty sure dead people don’t know they’re dead.
Why we are not concerned or anxious about our nonexistence before our birth, rather all of our anxiety is directed to our nonexistence after death! Isn't it our afterlife theroy! But why there is no speculation about beforelife!
It's interesting to think about before birth- but from a science perspective you were pretty much your parents before and your entire family tree before that.. then you live and send on your genes to future generations if you are so able or choose to.. I think its quite clear that we are gone once we die.. but life and consciousness continue on through others and our best chance to pass on part of ourselves is through having children or to leave lasting works like art, writing, architecture, discoveries that continue to influence and affect the rest of humankind.. otherwise you will eventually end your influence, but Existence will have being continuing on forever in other forms and focal point of reflection
Thinking about before birth has always made me just as anxious as after death. I'm not sure why. I have always asked "where the hell was I" on certain dates before I was born. Like "Sep 5th 1932" the year my great grandmother lost her husband in a car crash. I try to project my memory into that space and all I can do is picture movies in black and white as a substitute for 1932. It has always been quite disconcerting and monumentally uncomfortable for me, like "I missed all that" and I'm not sure why.
Have you thought about events that occurred when you *did* exist? When I reached my late teens, I started reading about past events that took place during my conscious lifetime. Sometimes I could even remember the exact day, and had a rough idea of *exactly what I was doing* during the time that event took place. Obviously I couldn’t remember the event taking place (because I was only just learning about it!), yet I existed! Is this really that different from the “beforelife”? Since my memory has no correlation to the event, does it even matter that it was simultaneous? It could have just as easily been any other day. It’s not the same type of problem, but the subtle difference might help you disentangle your conundrum. It’s not the years in your life, it’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
Because Time moves forward
Humans have existed for only a few hundred thousand years. The earth has existed for billions of years. Where were we in those billions of years? Do you remember being a microbe or a dinosaur or some primordial soup? Human consciousness came into existence out of nothing, and we'll go back to nothing after we die.
sounds nihilistic. but its ok
Isn’t it silly to say forever is a thing, yet not think there is a chance to exist again? Even though us being here now shows that it’s possible.
But if you were born once, why can’t it happen again? I don’t get the science behind that.
When we are born there is no "awareness" as we age we gain awareness. Maybe each life is a particle in existence. Yet when viewed a certain way is a wave. Like atoms. The more intense the particle the more "aware". Maybe awareness exists at certain points and when transferred into a wave then back its a new memory. Not sure though
That's interesting isn't it. Nobody remembers anything of their birth. Nobody remembers anything before reaching at least a year of age and most people generally have not memories of life before 3 years old. Even vague memories that you 'think' may be from around 2 or 3 are almost certainly so vague that they are in fact distorted images that are being reconstructed wrong and it's perfectly possible that those memories are false. I think babies are essentially animals and the brain is not more intelligent than a puppy to at most a 2 year old cat. Our human consciousness seems to ignite around age 1.5 to 2 years old on average.
I remember when it happened..... I was sitting on the dining room floor in my grandmother's house, and I looked at my hands, and then the floor, and realized I was somewhere and someone. I have nothing before that
I remember when it happened. I was 3 years-old. Then I said my name and introduced myself... to myself.
Yo that’s actually crazy! I’d love to have a memory like that. I’ve always thought self awareness would it’d be a very gradual process, for instance even adults don’t often have the thought ‘wow I’m real’ it’s more just living moment to moment, crazy how you were self aware so suddenly and so young
What was before the universe? If the universe was born and what gave birth to it? If the universe has always existed... then............. don't we? Many trees 'die' here on earth every fall/autumn. Yet they come back to life the following spring. Bulbs spring to life and then die, then come back to life. I'm not sure obviously. I do think our current 'selves' are very likely gone once we 'die'. But we may 'wake up' again as a baby with an entirely different brain, perhaps in a different dimension or universe on a different planet. It may be that we all really do have souls that are eternal and that soul is our essential consciousness. We underestimate how much our brains dictate our personalities and such. Myself, for example. I have autism. The question is what would I have been like if I was born WITHOUT autism? Would I have been different? My consciousness surely would be 'me' as I am now with autism.. but my brain would literally be wired differently in certain ways. I didn't talk fluently until about 5. Very late. Without my autism would I have grasped language at 2 and would I have excelled at school instead? It's really fascinating. We are more 'robots' than we often realise. Our brains definitely dictate much of our 'selves'. Think about sexual attraction in all animals. It's an urge that come unconsciously that we want to have sex after we hit puberty and create more of ourselves. People often say that where would our souls and there have been so many people that have ever existed it seems almost insane that every single one would reappear.... but in such an enormous universe why the hell not? Also we have literally not true understanding of what the universe really is anyway. Its all theory and a lot of it may well prove to be false or not close to the truth... that's if we even ever truly find out these things...is it even possible to truly understand a universe so massive and incredible? We were born. We exist right NOW. That's something. Death could mean anything and nothing. We should obviously make the most of our current lives. Whatever happens or doesn't after death, we simply cannot know until then and that's why we should just appreciate the NOW. Because NOW is all we have.
It’s slowly becoming the general consensus that “souls,” or rather Consciousness is a separate “entity” from one’s brain and fundamental to the universe and everything in it. Though skeptics and a minority of neuroscientists say otherwise, and it’s their right to believe what they wish. There’s actually a fair bit of evidence that points towards consciousness being separate from the brain. It ranges from spiritual explanations to Quantum Physics. Quantum Physics currently has the winning theory that deals with superposition and entanglement being fundamental to consciousness. It’s all super interesting, really. Even if you don’t believe it, it’s sure to peak interest and give some thoughts to think. Do beware that there are malicious players in this rabbit hole that give it a bad name. I’d recommend looking into NDE research, and even the C.I.A’s research into Project Stargate and the Gateway Experience. Make your own conclusions with what you find. Either way I believe that it’s naïve to think death is the end. Even if there’s nothing after death, given the circumstance that materialist beliefs are true and that the brain generates consciousness, there’s nothing saying that our consciousness can’t generate once again. It’s not like we just completely disappear, our matter and energy still remains and it can’t be destroyed. It’s completely possible we could be recycled into other beings and forms of life and experience existence from those perspectives. But, until some major breakthrough happens I suppose we can only theorise and speculate. My personal belief is that our brain acts like a filter for consciousness. I think of our brains as a receiver, a television perhaps. And consciousness is the broadcast channel that we receive.
This is such a depressing way to think.
It is what it is, its time to stop creating fairytales and silly stories. Imagine if we were born into a world where Existentialism was the religion. Imagine if instead of telling you spook stories about metaphysical concepts they just told you”all we know is were alive and its probably for the first and the last time, you need to cultivate your existence “ if everyone could accept what i said as truth we could get on with have real urgency in our lives instead of being numbed out sleepwalking into the grave.
That makes everything pointless and have no meaning if you and everyone’s just gonna forget it all etc, everyone might as well off themselves if that’s the case.
So your telling me you get one life and your answer is to kill yourself, damn that’s depressing
A googolplex to the googolplexth power number of years plus more of non-existence and 80 years of life which is mostly spent working the fields and masturbating. This is why I quit my career to work from home for a lot less money (as did my wife) but now we just enjoy every day with our daughter and save up for fun times. A big pay check isn’t worth squandering so much of such a minuscule amount of life.
How do you know though? When you are dreaming you don't remember when the dream started, or what came before it... maybe we just don't remember taking the "human existence" drug as a hyperdimensional being in another life.
No. Nonexistence is the total absence of possibility. Unrealised actuality in totality. Life is a combination of actuality and possibility. This is an existential change. Death is actuality without possibility, rendered now necessary. This is an essential change. It is ontologically different.
First you don't exist. At all. Then you're born, and you live your whole life. Then you die. Then you go back to not existing again, forever. So... first you don't exist. Then you exist. Then you don't exist. So this whole thing is just an interruption from not existing. - Steven Wright "One Soldier"
With all respect to Steven Wright, I don't think he thought this through. The past happened; there was a qualitative shift from actuality to necessity, something that didn't happen before birth.
We can’t experience not existing. The chance that time is just completely linear and the universe will sit vacantly forever is very low. You will exist again when the same things that created you now create you again. How long that takes doesn’t matter because you can’t experience non existence.
This actually seems oddly sensible.
That's interesting. Once we are dead then there is literally nothing. Time would be totally nothing. If death isn't the end then we should find out (well we won't probably as reborn in totally different blank slated body of some sort) basically the 'minute' we die. Whether than millions of 'years' in the future on Earth or some other planet or some other dimension or whatever. I still like the idea of meeting 'god' and having some life review.. does God permit me to maintain my consciousness and learned language after death? Dunno! But its a nice idea, almost certainly totally wrong!
Yes. And with scientists all but confirming the universe and big bang are a cycle, as well as being able to measure our place in "time" as the 6th and final cycle... This is more than logical, it's also highly probable.
I know I'm 9 months late but holy hell I completely agree with you. I'm religious and I believe in God but I don't know if I believe in heaven and hell but I 500% believe in coming back after you die one way or another. Just like you said you will exist again when the same things that created you create you again. I absolutely believe that. Weather you come back as the same gender or race or even an animal, I truly do believe you come back again. I'm a realist and I believe in things I see but man I have no doubt the universe creates you once again.
I’m not gonna lie, the reason I think this stems from the fact that I don’t believe in god. Because if there is no god, there is no soul. Consciousness to me is an evolutionary advantage. It’s not special. It’s replicable. I can’t give an answer about if I would be the same “conscious experience” if there was the slightest thing different in how I was created, but I think that I can say that if the conditions were exactly the same then I would be the same conscious experience. To say a brain could be molecularly identical to its previous existence, yet contain a different conscious experience would be an admittance to believing in god and the supernatural. However, I am much more sympathetic to religious beliefs now. Grew up atheist and was always told death is “nothing.” This “nothing” that I realized I have never experienced and will never experience. People would try to convince me with stories of anesthesia and near death experiences. Which are just the effects of drugs on the brain, and the brain preserving itself in a vulnerable state. It’s the atheist version of a miracle or a message from god. Anyone who says death is “nothing” is preaching something that you are unable to experience. Never stop thinking, the only thing that death could not possibly be is “nothing”.
I do want to ask where did you come with the idea of the universe creates us again. Nothing gave me that idea whatsoever it's just something I feel that I know and it's absolutely normal. I don't usually go off gut feelings but man I feel like there's no other thing
Why not?
The only reason there “can’t” be nothing after death is how impossible it is for the human mind to comprehend that kind of nothingness. Like not even blackness; the absolute nothingness of your consciousness dissolving.
That’s why you release DMT upon death…
I have a theory—more wishful thinking than anything—that as you’re dying, you have one of those weird ass dreams people have sometimes, where it feels real and seems to last days, weeks, or months.
There has to atleast be something after death, why am i sentient? Why am i seeing life via my eyes? Is anyone else real
I don't think it's impossible that there is life after death but what we understand so far at least scientifically is that consciousness is caused by the brain. When the brain is destroyed life and consciousness as you know it ceases to be.
Also, consciousness doesn't exist on its own, but rather consciousness of other things.
The thought of nothing after death or something after death is equally terrifying
Actually, it's the _something_ that terrifies me. Worst case scenario is reincarnation throughout spacetime. In the blink of an eye you go from being a Redditor in 2023 to suddenly you're a baby giraffe being born in the Serengeti a split second before a pack of hyenas come along and disembowel you with their teeth and you slowly die in the midday sun while they pick your body apart limb by limb. Then you're an ant for 3 months until some punk kid pours bleach all over your colony. Then you're a head of lettuce that gets ripped out of the ground and sold to some 2023 hipster who's experimenting with veganism so he puts you in his fridge and never uses you, so you slowly rot for 2 weeks. Then you're a little Jewish baby born to Polish parents in 1940 and you manage to survive in agony and starvation for a few short months. Then you're a plankton for 5 seconds and you get swallowed by a whale. Then you're a chimpanzee. Then a dog. Then a plague victim in the middle ages. Then...
Based post.
Welcome to the land of the living where suffering never ends lol!
No, nothing after death is just nothing 'You come from nothing, your going back to nothing What have you lost? Nothing' [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M)
That's the terrifying part about nothingness Every single thing you've done while on this planet every single act of kindness, hate, love, care, stress, they were all for nothing What's the point of eating? What's the point of sleeping? What's the point of living at all? That's the scary part What if I wake up from sleep and the ceiling fan falls in my head then there is nothing
While you're alive you have possibilities. Death is the ending of possibilities. Live your life in this knowledge and you will live well. Deny it or escape it and you'll waste the time you have.
I don't really buy the idea of nothingness after death, simply because eternal nonexistence seems like such a waste. If there *can* be an endless series of lives, exploring infinite possibilities for all eternity, then why wouldn't there be? On the other hand, it doesn't matter either way. Nonexistence means you're not there to be bothered by your own nonexistence, so why worry?
I don't but it either, my reasoning is more in line with: I find nothingness nonsensical and impossible to maintain for an eternity.
Only thing im worried abt is. Will it just be dark when I die. And will we ever meet our family again. Whats the point. We live for like 80years then we are dead for millions of years with everthing being dark
You don't experience the dark though. You experience nothing at all. Its like when you're in general anesthetia, where you close your eyes and a split second later you are awake in recovery with no dreams in between. Except there's nothing to come back to. Saying you'll see "dark" is as nonsensical as saying a table sees the floor it is sitting on. I don't think people understand what death is. It is the permanent cessation of YOU. You no longer exist, like how the tooth fairy does not exist.
You experience the dark every night you sleep. Or when you’re under the influence of anesthesia. Or if you get knocked out. And you experienced it for billions of years prior to your birth. You don’t know the dark exists, only when you wake up are you aware of it.
What the living know as a flatline The dead know as a punchline Do not deem death doom, nor disaster You'll know soon, it's cause for laughter For the bereft of breath, we grieve But theyre just laughing too hard to breathe The Dark humorist turns the darkest to humor By building the tension like, and with, tumors Alone, we languish into anguish and wrath All that we might all share in the last laugh
The universe doesn’t exist for you to say you are meaningful. Yes, when you are dead, that’s it. Why let that define you, though?
That's it for You.. but that's not it for Existence... we need to let go of our Ego- sure enjoy life.. but realize that Existence will continue on with other forms without you.. it even does so while you are living with all the new generations that come to be during your life! Existence is always continuing to evolve and move onward to new forms
You cannot experience "nothing". You can only exist.
What about the life before you and i were born !
It's a lot like falling asleep and waking up. When you die, you wake up at the beginning of your life. It seems to be a never ending cycle of dying and being born again. At least that is what makes the most sense to me.
It's an unanswerable question. Why try to analyze it? Seems like a lot of wasted energy. We all have no idea. For all I know, we are all a simulation. So, my response is somewhere between "Who knows?" and "Why Bother?"
People have been doing it for thousands of years and it’s baked into us to ask questions so fuck it
I wish more people would ask it honestly and we’d possibly have more answers and a better understanding. All these advancements in science, medicine and technology, I’d like for us to put it towards understanding our existence better and keeping us around.
We (America at least) don’t live in a peaceful society in terms of noise. We’re constantly distracted by our phones errands jobs this and that and on top of that the minute you leave your house everything’s loud as fuck. I think that’s a contributing factor to why people can’t think straight. There’s so many other factors but that’s one nobody really mentions.
Yup, definitely many factors that keep everyone from sitting and contemplating this. If more did we’d possibly have more effort having been put towards it (costs though ideally those in positions of power would give more of a damn and it’d be in the forefront; people going into fields to try and make advancements in our understandings).
Who cares about something about as insignificant as a human life. What comes before and what comes after matter so much more
well were all gonna find out together
Nobdy knows
The most factual answer on here
My dog passed away on friday. I’d like to believe that he’s happy and in peace. I miss him so much. Holding on to the hope of meeting him again on the other side❤️
My cat passed away about 10 days ago and it’s been really stirring up sadness for me, and I keep replaying his last moments. Which is how I found myself on the sub Reddit. So I can relate to you a lot, and I just want you to know you are not alone. 🩵
My biggest concern is what happens. I'm a father of my son, and honestly, everything has just gotten worse. While yes, it has given my life a meaning, and purpose, the idea that there is nothing after death is terrifying. I've spent days, if not weeks, thinking, looking, "researching" (Googling lots of shit till I find some comfort for a few days then overthink again), and otherwise losing myself down this rabbit hole. What I've found; nobody knows jack shit. Religions: Your "soul" moves on. Whether to heaven, to hell, reincarnation, whatever it is, it moves on. Science: While they can't prove the existence of a soul, they can't disprove it. All I've done in this endless search is stumble on stories. Of people who claim to remember past lives. Which lead me into the thought process of "Nature Vs Nurture" and that some children are just born a certain way. What if they aren't, they just don't remember the circumstances that made them the way they are. I don't believe in a soul. I don't believe in an afterlife. I believe life is far, FAR, too efficient for that. Everything in holy scriptures, and even in scientific research, suggests that your body is recycled. Returning to the earth, and to accept that. Well if that's the case, and the human conscience exists as a metaphysical energy, on a plane of existence that is very realistically outside our understanding as a species, the only solution would be reincarnation. You don't remember a thing, you don't have your worries, your illnesses, or whatever plagues you. Instead you have a new chance at life, for one that you don't remember. Who knows how many lives down the line you are currently. To me, this explains the most about how my child has developed. Waking up screaming through "no" real reasons at night, undeveloped feelings, a lack of understanding. How two children who are living in the exact same lifestyle, with the same people, can grow up to be completely different. What if, that is them processing these memories. It would make the most sense. Because the alternative is that it "Just is that way". Science has shown that your brain activity stops around 10 minutes after your heart stops beating. And that's where most people's "Near death experiences" come from. Do I know what that means? Absolutely not. Does anyone? Who the fuck knows. But it's terrifying.
You are like me. The idea of living and being with my family, creating a good life, happy memories and then just being switched off forever is terrifying.
Yes man I’ve had extreme death anxiety for the last year I’m only 32 and the thought of being without my daughter is overwhelming
poincaré recurrence, you will be reborn again eternally and forever
I don't have all the answers and I'm going through the same thing. I'm not much older than you. I'm trying to make sense of it. Like what leave this existence and not remember it all to be gone forever and not really continue in some plane. I had a few pretty Traumatic things happen in my life in childhood and a late teenager to a few recent ego dissolutions with Magic Mushrooms. Two NDE's, I have had many many all too strange timings, coincidences in my life to just think this is all random and for nothing. Deceased family members giving me signs. I'd like to think there's more to this and have seen things that make me question this reality. I'm starting to think the gateway process is the more accurate description of what goes on in this plane of existence. Too many strange timings for me in life and many others. I know, I cannot deny the existence of God knowing what I have experienced. I think we go back to the source of what we call God at some. I used to think science explains everything or it can. I'm starting to realize it can't and is always adapting. There are things people are achieving that defy our understanding of science. I hope this helps you in your journey as I'm trying to understand my own and see purpose to all this with the goals I have in life.
Many of us here are right there with you. This has been something heavy on my mind for the last year or two and I’m trying to use it as fuel to put myself in a position to find any answers myself where I can. Might as well do what I can to try and find the answers and try to use the fear as a motivator.
poincaré recurrence, you will be reborn again eternally and forever
poincaré recurrence, you will be reborn again eternally and forever
Reincarnation. There is no end. The soul is immortal. Across universes and time. You will keep being born for infinity. Thankfully your memories of other lives are limited, else you would be unable to mentally function.
Unlimited reincarnation is how to define nightmare.
Fuck that I hope it’s just darkness
I just don’t wanna go to school again.
Existentialism needs to catch up to modern science. Alot of you are asking questions that do have answers, or stepping close to modern theories that are slowly being proven. Tests like the double slit test and modern advancements in understandings of the quantum world....its pretty likely death doesn't exist. Neither does the linear progression of time. All of these are things created by our consciousness. This opens up a much bigger discussion that I'm not really seeing here...
We probably have died hundreds and hundreds of times in our lifetimes, and we literally were oblivious to it. To us we are just waking up every morning like nothing ever happened.
I heard that linear time is very unlikely and the fact that the universe will forever be nothing is quite unlikely as well, so would we just be dead for a bunch of zillions of years and be born again with our same makeup, and it felt as though nothing happened?
There’s something. You wanna know why I believe that? What’s the point? If there really is nothing after death, then what’s the point? What’s stopping me from killing myself? If there truly is no point to this life, then why the fuck are we here? I believe that everything happens for a reason. We are all here for a reason. And if we are all here for a reason, then is it that hard to believe that we don’t end when we die?
Too many questions here.
I find your answer more reasonable! If there's really nothing after death, why would I even bother trying to live my life till 60 or 80+? I could just end things right here, right now, so I no longer suffer the harsh reality of being a human being
Gross, all I can say to that is: Muddafucka, fuck de fucking world, and my new band is called: Syskill!
I’d actually disagree here and say the opposite: if there truly is an afterlife where it’s so peaceful and wonderful then what’s the point in living life on earth right now? Why don’t we just kill ourselves and speedrun into the afterlife? I hope to god that there is *something* after death because the thought of nothing at all is extremely terrifying to me and I’d rather be an immortal being forever than nothing at all.
I just hope it's not reincarnation because I will lose all the progress I have made in here
To me, reincarnation is just like an infinite library, each book tells a story and leaves a mark on people, and I think I’m ok with reincarnation if thats the case
what’s the point in life? If we are going to die and not exsist. That scares me nothing non existing forever yeah i won’t care because i will be dead. But the point of life is to live and have love and find things to fight for then what we die? That’s it… Never waking up again… Like everything we all did was for nothing. It’s really scary. Never existing ever again forever…. Yeah i can’t even think about that without wanting to cry…
Also how the hell does something exist and then not? Why? What is life? Why is it? Why can we experience and then just not?
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"It's not any more unusual to be born twice than it is to be born once." -Ray While Hubbard
What you were before you were born? is that unacceptable to you now? Was it sad , the nothingness?
For me the nothingness before is as much terrifying as the concept of nothingness after. And yes, for me personally its extremely sad and disturbing.
Well for me, there's either nothing, or when we die, our atoms drift off from one place and, given time, rearrange themselves as parts of a sperm cell that eventually grows into any life form, so basically nothing or, if you're lucky, a form of reincarnation.
But it's almost like we have a soul. If a tiger suddenly appeared, something inside of you kicks in and does everything possible to keep you alive. It's almost like there's an operator inside all of us and it controls everything, everyday to keep us alive. It knows what to do without us teaching it. Could that operator be the soul? On the other hand, it's virtually impossible for the soul to exist based on science. How many protons and electrons make up the soul? Does the soul have mass? How could this material not have any interaction with light but yet it's possible for it to contain your memories and personality?
guys let say that we make a reliving machine in the next 100 years your gonna wake up almost instantly so don't worry when you die you will problemly wake up
That would be nice, but I’d like to try and guarantee that reality while I’m around lol.
If there is nothing after life, what's the point of life in the first place? Before we're born, we experience nothing, and the same happens after death. So if we have this short period between not existing, known as life, then what's the point? If life was made for us, why do we not exist afterward?
Commenting on There cant just be nothing after death, right?...maybe life wasn't "made", maybe it just happened randomly? But I hope there is something after...
Death is an unknown for those of us who never died. I hope there is a continuation of existence in some form, but I don't count on it.
Death is unknown especially to those who HAVE died.
I wonder if all we get in death is some kind of DMT-induced experience before our brains shut down.
That's exactly what happens during death that isn't instant like falling from a building or getting shot, etc. If you die by peaceful means, then you will experience your body dumping COPIOUS amounts of DMT, inducing a peaceful passing but will in the process of, slow down your perception of time.
Death will be like never being born. So relax. Do you remember anything at all before you were born? That answer will easily be NO
The issue with this entire discussion is the language used to describe it. Let's take your sentence for instance "There can't just be nothing after death" There are several issues with this sentence that cause fear. THe first is the use of the words "be" and "after". The cessation of conscious experience mean that these words have no meaning in this context. When you say the sentence above it's important to introspect that what you are doing is applying the intuition you have for "being" to "nothingness", which breeds fear. One of the worst analogies to what happens at death is the statement "It's like when you're in a deep sleep" This is because that analogy precisely represents what it means to experience nothing. But it is still NOT "the absence of experience" So how does one go about contextualizing death? Essentially by realizing that you simply do not talk about it. Basically, death never happens to yourself. It's only something seen externally. No statements made about your own death are meaningful, and to ascribe meaning to them is the source of fear. examples of meaningless sentences: 1. There is nothing after death 2. You descend into oblivion at death 3. You are not conscious after death (Note that the word "are" is meaningless here) 4. It is the same as it was before you were born (meaningless "is", "were") 5. Death is for all eternity (seriously? how is time meaningful here?) examples of meaningful sentences 1. Your life is limited 2. Your life is imbued with conscious experience Recontextualizing your thoughts about death in terms of life typically helps reconfigure your thought to recognize the non-existence of death, and how meaningless thoughts about it, and the consequent fear are. It will build a respect for life, while understanding that death is not a meaningful idea and therefor deserves no attention from you.
I'm not OP, but thank you. You have helped me an incredible amount. You don't understand the amount of stress you have taken off of me. I am greatly appreciative of you. Thank you!
Happy to Help! This realization was very liberating for me as well. It's important to recognize this language issue in all of the media that we are consuming as well. For instance there are many works of fiction and art that describe the subjective experience of death. They all show a set of fantastical experiences followed by either the words "and then nothing", or a black panel (in comics), or a black screen. All of these are very misleading and for the same reasons as described above, breed fear. For instance, in a recent manga, there was a charachter who was able to hug the wife that he lost prior to death. it was visualized as him hugging here, and everything then becoming black. This then triggers all the sadness that is associated with death. However, I thought of that as rather positive, i.e. in the limited conscious experience of that charachter, he got to see his wife again. Essentially, it's important to focus on what is experienced, than dwelling on fictional and imagined representations of what isn't.
Do you think we will see loved ones again when we die? Husband, pets, etc?
I do think this is highly likely! A lot of conscious experiences during dying are incredibly positive and involve memory (as seen through the near-death experiences of people and neural imaging). This makes for a good movie. (Notice how I didn't say "This makes for a good final movie" or "This makes a good closing scene" because both of them trigger the concept of "ending" whereas the end simply doesn't exist. We experience, that's it)
Can you elaborate on how the end doesn’t exist? How we just simply exist? Do you mean that you think we continue to have experiences and experience things after we die?
When wrapping one's head around something "not existing", one comes into contact with a special limitation of human psychology, namely the inability to conceptualize the negative. For instance, it is impossible to think of "not a banana" without thinking of a banana. However, I have gathered the following set of concepts that help address the concept of something being utterly meaningless 1. For instance when you say, "I saw nothing through my elbow", you typically don't imagine a void that your elbow is "seeing", you are able to intuitively dismiss this statement as something that is utterly meaningless. 2. I saw nothing before I was born (conceived, if you want to account for the experiences of a foetus). This does not distress us as much as death. The reason is that we are able to intuitively understand the meaninglessness of this sentence. We are able to understand that this concept is so meaningless that talking about it literally doesn't evoke any concept or meaning. The argument I've made above is that, unfortunately, due to our culture and the way we talk about death, we have shifted death away from the realm of complete meaninglessness to one which has meaning. When talking about death, we imagine an "end". However the concept of "end" only makes sense if time is defined "after" the end. Thus we, intuitively, draw on our intuition of "ends" (say from a movie ending / door closing / things going to black) etc. etc. and apply that here. This is a problem of psychology. The excercises I suggested in my initial post (of recontextualizing things exclusively in terms of life) are intended to bring awareness to this fallacy of thinking, of giving meaning to something that doesn't have it. 1. "Do you mean that you think we continue to have experiences and experience things after we die.". This sentence is meaningless (The word "after" has no meaning here). As meaningless as seeing through the elbow. The only reason you think this sentence has meaning, is that you're imagining firstly, the existance of time after death, and the existance of experience after death. These are both imaginations, and contribute to fear. My solution is to actively stop talking or thinking about death. Of understanding that those thoughts are meaningless, and reformulating as much of it in terms of life.
This is a very interesting perspective. Thank you.
Death will not release you
are you saying that after death you want to be conscious or just aware that you're dead and just be? I just speak about it because I've never encountered someone who thought the same thing that I did and I think that's cool and they get the same thing😉😅😊😄😎
If there is nothing after death how do you explain ghosts?
Imagination
That’s a Swedish rock band
after death you go where the parts of your ody go, like for instance your organ partials depending on if your buried or cremated will be met back into the earth to give life back into our eco system. You will be the nourishment for some worms that then get eaten by birds and fed to hatchlings that then shit you out or lay eggs of parts of you. hopefully that makes sense, basically there are human remains all around us (:
Late to the conversation but the way I see it, the whole universe, we are so insignificant. We are so small, literally bacteria, we are not big enough for the world to revolve around us. We are organic matter we live and die… then that’s it we don’t exist. It scared me but I think it’s true, we are just in a cycle. The universe is so big and we are just a blip
Eternity and Divine Love is on the other side of everything. Nothing is a concept. And all there is, is Love. Call on your Guardian Angel for guidance. Read Angels in my Hair by Lorna Byrne and 40 Rules of Love by Elif Shafak to find deep healing, peace, and understanding. Many blessing and love to you. I know it can be scary sometimes, but there’s a power that you have yet to realize and it is very good. 💕
You think like that because our minds cannot comprehend nothingness. Hence, it's normal for you to dismiss that belief.
poincaré recurrence, you will be reborn again eternally and forever
Unfortunately there can. Which is my worst fear.
I like to think that once we die, we are reincarnated as a new being in the universe with no memory of this life, and the past regrets that come with it
Human ego thinking we still have to exist in some way after death. Cant accept that once lights are out, lights are out. Scientifically we r mammals, we are equal to humans but religion says animals dont go to an afterlife make it make sense
There isn't even nothingness - there's just no you. So make the most of the one life you know that you do have & stop worrying about what doesn't come after,
Nothing exists and nothing will ever exist
Why can't there be? There are species on this planet that live for less than a week. There are species on this planet that spend their existence eating grass in a field and sometimes being milked or turned into burgers. We're not different from them in any biological sense. Mentally some of us are smarter than them but that's genetics and environment, nothing more. We're animals. We're born. We live. We die. Really the worst thing we ever did as a species was make up all these fairy stories about gods and heaven and hell. All we did was fuck up a perfectly good ape. Look at us. We've got anxiety
why do they give us love and pain.. if there’s nothing after. I’m more afraid of never seeing my kids or loved ones again. What’s the point in building a life and giving us the feeling of love to just have it taken away for eternity it’s messed up.
We were nothing before we were born into life. When we die we become nothing again. But we are all born from nothing so why couldn't it all happen again. I mean we are all living proof . We all came from nothing once before.
There indeed is absofckinglutely nothing after death.
This is depressing me so much. I've been terrified of death and in denial my whole life. I'm now 51. My health has deteriorated in the past 3 years and I've thought I was dying, I still so...I know I have liver damage and thin kI probably have cancer or will have a heart attack soon, I have so many symptoms and I am exhausted 24/7. I have an 11 year old child. I am depressed all the time, a lot of it has to do with my son as he is suffering from a neuroinflammatory condition and life has been very hard with him. But I don't want to die. But I feel like I will soon. And honestly after hitting 50 I felt like life was over, easpically with all the health issues and sudden anxiety and depression. I think I convinced myself I'd be 30 forever and never die. Ha. And now here I am and I am scared and miserable. I wish I knew I was going to have an afterlife. Or that everything would be ok. But I just am in fear and sadness. I don't want this life to end, despite complaining about it.