I Don't Understand Death, Nobody Does!

a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

originally posted by: Prezbo369
a reply to: angryhulk

Well going off your posts it seems asthough you do understand, you just don't want to admit it to yourself.

How can I understand? I haven't 'died', nor have you.

originally posted by: Peeple
a reply to: angryhulk

Well there was this article about mice inheriting their parents learned behaviour. Then we got the fact that most scientific discoveries are made approximately the same time from more than one team/person independently. I guess learning and knowing is something that is never lost, like a consciousness cloud, we get uploaded to. Well not we but our thoughts.
We are Deep Thought.
Wouldn't it be awesome, if our collective consciousness would have become a self aware energy being?

Fascinating! Do you know where I can find the article?

originally posted by: angryhulk
a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

That wasn't my opinion. If you had stated your case differently, I'd have given you my opinion. As a matter of fact I discuss death frequently in various long running threads on ATS.

a reply to: angryhulk

We've seen things die, weve seen animals and people pass away. We know that life ends just like any other process ends, including consciousness.

a reply to: angryhulk

Sure: Nature

a reply to: angryhulk

Your title says it all, nobody knows !

It is all supposition and conjecture and of course belief.
I think that it comes down to the basic question of what is consciousness ? ....Is it our soul, the true light inside this physical body ? It is a huge question, with no solid answers.

Although I have read a lot on the topic of Near Death Experiences and Reincarnation and it hasn't got me any closer to real answers. There is a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that our consciousness continues after we die. But no one has ever come back to tell us what it is really like on the other side !

I wonder sometimes if it is the inherent fear of death and the overwhelming need for survival that makes us want to believe that there has to be more after this ends. How disappointing it would be if this was it !... All of our life lessons and time spent in this existence for nothing, just to be worm food ? I can't believe that is true.

I was posting in a similar thread to this just a couple of days ago, and the OP put it to me that reincarnation could be viewed just as unpleasant as there being a nothingness when we die. A never ending cycle of life after life with no end and no progression to a higher self. I guess that too is something that would disappoint.

Put simply, I think that life is so hard and so much of a struggle for so many people that there just has to be a reason for it. A meaning to life, in the present..and in the next.
I am not religious, but I would say that I am spiritual, I have beliefs but I find it difficult to vocalize them properly.

When we die, I think our true self, our soul, analyses it's previous life's experiences and decides if there is something else that it needs to know, or experience. If they need more then the soul is reincarnated into another existence. If they are ready and have lived enough or learned enough then they are elevated to a higher plane of existence, or into another dimensional plane, kind of like a promotion, level up !

I am not afraid to die, at least I tell myself that. Like most, I would prefer, if given the choice, to go peacefully and pain-free. Okay if I am totally honest the act of dying is pretty scary... I don't feel afraid though, about what awaits us when we get there.

originally posted by: angryhulk

originally posted by: MaxTamesSiva
a reply to: angryhulk
Ah, the great mystery!... the end of the ride, maybe we just have to be patient, the day of the unraveling will eventually come regardless of our beliefs and expectations.

We have no choice but to be patient my friend!

Yes, there's both beauty and terror in uncertainty that we have to embrace.

I understand that I've never heard of anybody being confirmed dead for, say, two weeks and coming back to experience or contribute anything to existence. That's pretty much all I need to know about it.

a reply to: angryhulk

I asked the same questions and I found reading the Tibetan book of life and death helped a lot.

And after reading on about reincarnation...things make more sense, perfect sense actually

originally posted by: Prezbo369
a reply to: angryhulk

We've seen things die, weve seen animals and people pass away. We know that life ends just like any other process ends, including consciousness.

Uhu, and how do you know what happens after that? After you pass away? I certainly don't know what happens, I haven't died.

originally posted by: cosmickat
a reply to: angryhulk

Your title says it all, nobody knows !

It is all supposition and conjecture and of course belief.
I think that it comes down to the basic question of what is consciousness ? ....Is it our soul, the true light inside this physical body ? It is a huge question, with no solid answers.

Although I have read a lot on the topic of Near Death Experiences and Reincarnation and it hasn't got me any closer to real answers. There is a huge amount of anecdotal evidence that our consciousness continues after we die. But no one has ever come back to tell us what it is really like on the other side !

I wonder sometimes if it is the inherent fear of death and the overwhelming need for survival that makes us want to believe that there has to be more after this ends. How disappointing it would be if this was it !... All of our life lessons and time spent in this existence for nothing, just to be worm food ? I can't believe that is true.

I was posting in a similar thread to this just a couple of days ago, and the OP put it to me that reincarnation could be viewed just as unpleasant as there being a nothingness when we die. A never ending cycle of life after life with no end and no progression to a higher self. I guess that too is something that would disappoint.

Put simply, I think that life is so hard and so much of a struggle for so many people that there just has to be a reason for it. A meaning to life, in the present..and in the next.
I am not religious, but I would say that I am spiritual, I have beliefs but I find it difficult to vocalize them properly.

When we die, I think our true self, our soul, analyses it's previous life's experiences and decides if there is something else that it needs to know, or experience. If they need more then the soul is reincarnated into another existence. If they are ready and have lived enough or learned enough then they are elevated to a higher plane of existence, or into another dimensional plane, kind of like a promotion, level up !

I am not afraid to die, at least I tell myself that. Like most, I would prefer, if given the choice, to go peacefully and pain-free. Okay if I am totally honest the act of dying is pretty scary... I don't feel afraid though, about what awaits us when we get there.

I love this post, thanks for sharing.

originally posted by: KellyPrettyBear

originally posted by: angryhulk
a reply to: KellyPrettyBear

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

That wasn't my opinion. If you had stated your case differently, I'd have given you my opinion. As a matter of fact I discuss death frequently in various long running threads on ATS.

I don't mean to be rude, but what do you mean?

a reply to: cosmickat

Your title says it all, nobody knows !

It is all supposition and conjecture and of course belief.
I think that it comes down to the basic question of what is consciousness ? ....Is it our soul, the true light inside this physical body ? It is a huge question, with no solid answers.

Everybody knows. It's just that nobody wants to admit it, likely out of fear or superstition.

We bury our dead, a fact that has occurred and replicated throughout human history. The supposition that we are something that isn't buried, that doesn't decay after death, that perhaps floats away in the wind, is contradictory, paradoxical and nonsensical in all realms of reason. Only with that ridiculous supposition already superstitiously and dogmatically adhered to, can one even attempt to make such an argument.

a reply to: angryhulk

With your life and consciousnesses ending, everything that is you ends. We cease to be and that's it, kaput. Everyone knows this deep down, it's whether or not we're brave enough to come to terms with it and embrace our mortality.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: cosmickat

Your title says it all, nobody knows !

It is all supposition and conjecture and of course belief.
I think that it comes down to the basic question of what is consciousness ? ....Is it our soul, the true light inside this physical body ? It is a huge question, with no solid answers.

Everybody knows. It's just that nobody wants to admit it, likely out of fear or superstition.

We bury our dead, a fact that has occurred and replicated throughout human history. The supposition that we are something that isn't buried, that doesn't decay after death, that perhaps floats away in the wind, is contradictory, paradoxical and nonsensical in all realms of reason. Only with that ridiculous supposition already superstitiously and dogmatically adhered to, can one even attempt to make such an argument.

I'm sorry but there is nothing ridiculous about it. I could name a couple of things that one would believe is ridiculous however being given attention such as quantum computers connecting with parallel universes or time travel into the future. I don't see how ones life continuing after death is as bizarre as those ideas.

And anyway, I'm not saying that happens after death, I'm just stating that I think there is something more.

originally posted by: Prezbo369
a reply to: angryhulk

With your life and consciousnesses ending, everything that is you ends. We cease to be and that's it, kaput. Everyone knows this deep down, it's whether or not we're brave enough to come to terms with it and embrace our mortality.

I don't know that deep down? And if it were true, I don't fear death albeit I do greatly appreciate life. The fear of death did not push me to question it. I question it because I am inquisitive.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
I understand that I've never heard of anybody being confirmed dead for, say, two weeks and coming back to experience or contribute anything to existence.

Very true!

originally posted by: Mianeye
It's all spending and recycling of energy, that's the whole meaning with life and it's evident everywhere.

I don't believe in a conscious state after death in any form.

Just as the OP said...

Obviously there was a beginning to it.

Obviously there will be an end to it.

So why does it exist at all? It can't be for the purpose of recycling since that is no purpose at all if there was nothing before one point and nothing after another point in this expanse of infinity.



I personally feel it would be totally pointless to have life without purpose. As the OP also mentioned, the less fortunate people who live life in misery due to many possible reasons... to live only to suffer... Such a sad, sad thing to acknowledge. The same is true to be snuffed out of existence into absolute nothingness. What's the point? May as well make life interesting and do as much collateral damage as you can. Life is pointless, right? So why preserve it for yourself and others if there is seriously no purpose or point? It's rhetorical. But still... You get my point.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

I am not making an argument. .not even attempting to.
The OP put forward the question. What do we think happens when we die, and this is what I think.
I am a glass half full kind of person.