I used to be a necrophobe...

The rational thinking side of me decided to confront the concept of death. Ever since I was young, I can remember always asking everyone around me "what happens when we die?" Of course the usual answer was "you go to heaven" or "you are born into another body." As I got older however, I began to think of death through a more scientific approach. What happens when we die? Well, I can make a rational argument for what I believe will happen. By doing this I am going to ignore and disregard the metaphysical and unknown aspects because I have no solid evidence or proof for non-scientific phenomenon.

From a scientific perspective, death to me at least seems rather neutral. We live life in this physical world and ultimately will die an inevitable death some way or another. When this happens, our biological, physiological, psychological and chemical functions cease to exist. This technically means that you will not be able to feel, smell, touch hear or see anything. What this further means is that you will NOT have the capacity to allow these things to function. Your thoughts, desires, regrets and memories evaporate into nothingness.

The thought of this, compiled with the belief that I cannot stop this from happening (out of my control), has helped me come to terms with my eventual demise. All those childhood thoughts of "years and years and years going past after I die" doesn't scare me as much. What is the point me in worrying about something that will likely leave me incapable of acknowledging that I am dead or gone? It actually won't matter after 5 years, 10 years, 1 billion years...my existence will have ceased in the physical world.

So yeah I guess this thread is to sort of help the necrophobes out there that cannot stop worrying about death. But most importantly, I hope you realise that you MUST live your life to the fullest and always keep going no matter what. We know in life what we can and cannot do, we know how to overcome despair and do things that make us feel happy or more fulfilled as human beings. Whether it is the taste of that authentic Pizza, rhyhm of that beautiful music, plot of that TV drama - these are real things that we know do exist and can be enjoyed. Regardless of your circumstances, all humans have potential to take part in things that make them happy and fulfilled.

Death on the other hand is unpredictable; nobody can prove or show what happens after this life ends. We cannot confirm whether religion is correct or if there is a higher power that will judge us. This is even more reason to hold on to the things we do have in this life and the people who still remain with us. Sometimes it seems like we would prefer to dissolve into a form of nothingness to escape our troubles. But remember, even then the concept of nothingness can only be grasped when we are alive. The feelings of relief, calm, relaxation, contentedness, happiness and ecstasy can ONLY be experienced whilst we are living. Live and enjoy your life as best you can and don't allow the thought of death to be a burden on your potential to achieve happiness in this physical world.

[edit on 12/4/2009 by Dark Ghost]

Look up "NDE".

There's just too many of them to dismiss them. Also many of them have proof of acknowledging serial numbers on the top of light fixtures, and goings on in other rooms, substantiated by those in the other rooms. 1 lady even saw an old nike shoe with a hole where the big toe is .... on an inaccessible roof, later substantiated by the doctor who was handling her case.

should put you at ease my friend

reply to post by Dark Ghost


The only thing that worries me about death is that I might miss next episode of "Lost."

Really, what does it matter if one leaves a mark on the world as far as remembrance goes?

You will live on in the hearts of those who loved you until they no longer exist as well. That's good enough for me.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


I too worry about death, but for far different reasons (I won’t go into here on this thread).

A few things to bring to the table here - I hope they will help, than again I don’t want it to make you more paranoid.

Anyway, I’ve heard (seen) three deaths recently and all three really effected me.

First, a 12 year old - only son of an older couple - the LOVE and MEANING of their existence.
He went just *down the road* (not even a city block) on his scooter (not new, he’d had for a year or more) - and of course, like always - even if barely going a city block he wore his helmet.
When he reached the store he got off his scooter, went to put the kickstand up, slipped on the cement, fell to the side and hit the side of his helmet on the steps, the visor slashed sideways cutting his carotid artery and his neck nearly to the bone. He died at the scene.

The second, a man was going to work on his vespa, not a cloud in the sky gorgeous day, little wind, etc. Traveling down a long straightaway road where ONE tree grew...The tree dropped a large branch - in the very second he drove under it - killing him instantly.

A woman with breast cancer - went through all the hell of chemo and lived. She and her family thanked God every day she was alive. She choked to death on a piece of food at her niece’s birthday party only three weeks after being diagnosed cancer free.

So...

When it’s your time, it’s your time.
Somehow you need to live while you’re here without being overly preoccupied with the reality at some point you’ll die.

Ten out of Ten of us do.

Peace

Great Post.

From someone who has battled the reaper many times, Ex fire/rescue, you are so right, what we have is what we have and we have to enjoy it. I have lost old people to children. (children always the hardest, which is why i dont do it any more.. one to many calls where we lost a little one in a fire.)
You never know what tomarrow brings and what looks like a crappy situation now, may turn out to be the best thing that could have happend. You just have to have faith that everything is for a reason.
Even thoug you may not see the reason for many years to come.

Enjoy the people you are with and where you are, if not, then move where you can. life is short, very short. Never stop learning, never stop caring even though a lot of times you get screwed over.

My best advice to anyone. Enjoy the little things.. big things come and go, its the little things that you remember.....

These NDE's are just hallucinations as your body is shutting down and slowly dying. Since a lot of people have different beliefs etc, when they are dying they'll imagine it a lot more vividly, and if they live, they think "it must be true!" because it was so vivid and it happened exactly the way they imagined it was.

I've had vivid dreams, does that make them real? No.

reply to post by Dark Ghost


I have re-read this thread a couple of times, and looking to see what other people have to say.

I can only say about death, in my experiences with asking people about what they think, is that mostly it is a fear of the unknown. People really don't know what happens, or at least none have ever survived death for say a month or so, to come back and let us know what it is.

You seem to be a young person, so I do believe your fear does come from not knowing what it actually is. You don't mention what your religious or spiritual background is on the subject, or possibly I missed that somewhere. But, I did want to add, that I have noticed in older people, that some really do fear death, especially the ones that have not led such savory lives. I believe for some of these people, that they believe that they will actually be held accountable for things not nice they have done in the past. So, for some the fear of death is, GUILT, and that is what religions are banking on, for your dollars.

Originally posted by shadowland8
These NDE's are just hallucinations as your body is shutting down and slowly dying. Since a lot of people have different beliefs etc, when they are dying they'll imagine it a lot more vividly, and if they live, they think "it must be true!" because it was so vivid and it happened exactly the way they imagined it was.

I've had vivid dreams, does that make them real? No.

If it was a hallucination than how do these NDE's hallicunate factual experiences? I.E. the Nike shoe with ahole in it on the top of a roof, where it is likely that the woman never traveled too, although not out of the question. Or serial numbers on a fan, or what people are doing or saying in another room at a particular time.

You do not address this, in fact you completely dismiss it mistaking it for something else.

Im not really sure what to believe about NDE's or anything of this sort... but one theory i can believe easier than the theory of heaven/hell is the idea the writers of The Matrix used

Very awesome thread and very nicely worded. Because yes I do worry so much about death. Its actually unhealthy. Because whenever my sister wants me to go out with her I start worrying about all the things that can go horribly wrong.

I think the death of my cousin definetly boosted this fear. And I often consider if I have post traumtic stress though im not sure.

The thought that fears me the most, I think, is being forgotten. Or doing nothing important in life so as when I die, Ill be forgotten in the matter of years, and any thoughts that I have thought or anything that I have done that I thought was important, will mean nothing at all in the end.

Im alost extremely afraid of the nothingness part. Although its very true that if there is nothing, you wont know it anyways, for some reason is still truely scares me. I want there so bad to be a heaven or some sort of place we go to. Which is why stories of when people have died and saw light and heaven really comfort me. For it gives me hope that there IS something.

I dont want the life I lived to be nothing but a moment in time in which was unimportant.

I read a book also called "The Five People You Meet In Heaven." The author wrote it from an experience that he had when his Grandfather was clinically dead for a few minutes. He said when his grand dad woke up, his grand dad told him while he was dead, he saw 5 people standing in front of him that were loved ones that had passed away.

So ill include some quotes from the book if its okay! =]

"Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else."

"I learned something very important in the end. That there are no random acts. that we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”

"Eddie shook his head. “We were throwing a ball. It was my stupidity, running out there like that. Why should you have to die on account of me? It ain’t fair.” The Blue Man held out his hand. “Fairness,” he said, “does not govern life and death. If it did, no good person would ever die young.”

“My funeral,” the Blue Man said. “Look at the mourners. Some did not even know me well, yet they came. Why? Did you ever wonder? Why people gather when others die? Why people feel they should?

It is because the human spirit knows, deep down, that all lives intersect. That death doesn’t just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between being taken and being missed, lives are changed.

You say you should have died instead of me. But during my time on earth, people died instead of me, too. It happens every day. When lightning strikes a minute after you are gone, or an airplane crashes that you might have been on… We think such things are random. But there is a balance to it all. One withers, another grows, Birth and death are part of a whole.”

“No life is a waste,” the Blue Man said. “The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.”

reply to post by Jess_Undefined


Wow, that is an insightful reply. It sounds like this avoiding going out thing is becoming a phobia. Maybe you should consider contacting a mental health professional, who can help you address and overcome these fears.

The reality is that I can slip on the ground after having a shower, smash my head and die. But the chance of this happening is so minuscule that it is irrational for me to stop showering because of this fear.

Like I said, when I was younger I used to have very disturbing thoughts towards accidents and dying. But having this mind set will result in you feeling alone and isolated. Don't go out and take unnecessary risks, but do make an effort to have fun and spend time with others.

Not to be a party popper but this thread does not belong in the "Predictions & Prophecies" forum.

This is not about any predictions, but rather on the total lack of any sort of spiritual, or even scientific experience of a young man, who finally decides is better to think there is nothing after death, and to live life at it's fullest. No prophecy, or prediction here.

To respond to the young OP, you might have reached this decision by yourself, but there is no way you can debunk the spiritual experiences that thousands of people have lived through, and show there is a lot more to life than just death.

Death is the beginning to another world, it is just part of another cycle, and I don't say this in fear of death but in the knowledge and experiences I have had throughout my entire life.

As for the other member claiming in hallucinations, sorry, but you are wrong. There is no way a child can hallucinate a past life and say things about his/her previous life in which surviving people who were part of this previous life the child can remember can testify that the child knows things no other person could have known.

To the Orignal Poster, you obviously haven't studied enough about science, because even science itself states that energy can never be created or destroyed, it just transforms from one form of energy to another.

In case you are wondering this is known as the Law of Conservation of Energy in Physics.

We are as much energy as we are matter. Our thoughts are energy, as well as our emotions, hence they are never really destroyed, but transformed from one form of energy into another. Our whole material body is controlled by electrical currents, and just like the law of conservation states, even after death, and after all of our fluids are dissolved back into the world, part of our energy, and most probably the strongest of the energy which is part of us survives.




[edit on 8-6-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

The afterlife and our immortality via the conservation of energy is the evolution of technology and our creation of a synthetic computational matrix that will someday exist outside of space and time within a singularity that it will forever harness to become immortal itself. At this point in time, which is at the end of our universe, "God" will be born and this God will go throughout every moment of the universe via time displacement and institute a way for our "souls" to be backed up in an afterlife that may be eternal or may be the vehicle for us to be reborn in the next cycle of creation or perhaps via a parallel universe.

In summary, we will create computers that will create computers that will expand and fill a large percentage of the universe in a seamless network, converting dumb matter into smart matter, assimilating as much of the universe within reach. When the "big crunch" occurs and contraction puts the rest of the universe within reach it will continue, evolving, perfecting itself until the big crunch puts it within a single space where the universe is collapsing within itself, creating a point outside of space and time. It is at this point that the entire universe will be converted into a highly advanced intelligence, a "God" which can exist outside of space and time, and know and see all. So we, as humans, or perhaps another alien race, will inadvertently create "God" by setting technology into motion which will continue at an increasingly faster pace until the end of the Universe. Once it reaches this immortal final moment, it will be able to be everywhere, in every time at once, and will catalog the memory of every atom in the known universe, backing it up in its vast memory, and creating in essence an afterlife kingdom that will be immortal and eternal. An exact carbon copy of the known physical universe as it existed in every moment throughout all of time. "God" will even be able to manipulate the time line to maximize the final product at the end of the universe/time and become even more powerful.

So we will create "God" and we will live forever. We might even already be living in this "matrix" reality. Scientifically speaking, Death will not be the end.

"The Last Question" by: Isaac Asimov
www.multivax.com...


"The Last Answer" by: Isaac Asimov
destructionoverdrive.blogspot.com...

Documentary by: Ray Kurzweil

TechnoCalyps - Part I - TransHuman
video.google.com...

TechnoCalyps - Part II - Preparing for the Singularity
video.google.com...

TechnoCalyps - Part III - The Digital Messiah
video.google.com...

Upcoming Documentaries by: Ray Kurzweil

The Singularity is Near
singularity.com...

Transcendent Man
www.transcendentman.com...



[edit on 9-6-2009 by DJM8507]

I am sorry but you lost me at "synthetic computational matrix". Well to tell the truth you really lost me even earlier at "the evolution of technology and our creation".

There is no need to try to sound too mystical about all of this. Some people try too hard. No offense intended really.

Anyway, i logged on early this morning and saw this on the news.

2 Year Old Boy Remembers Past Life as WWII Pilot

The video is insightfull, however the responses that i saw some people give were mind-boggling, just because some people have never experienced anything spiritual there are people whose life goal seems to be to try to belittle, and laugh anything, and everything they can't understand.



[edit on 9-6-2009 by ElectricUniverse]

"dumb matter into smart matter". There is no such thing as "dumb, or smart matter", and there will never be. I really can't read that response anymore.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse

"dumb matter into smart matter". There is no such thing as "dumb, or smart matter", and there will never be. I really can't read that response anymore.

I'm sorry to hear that you were unable to understand my response.

Perhaps you would consider visiting one of the many links I provided?

Originally posted by shadowland8
These NDE's are just hallucinations as your body is shutting down and slowly dying. Since a lot of people have different beliefs etc, when they are dying they'll imagine it a lot more vividly, and if they live, they think "it must be true!" because it was so vivid and it happened exactly the way they imagined it was.

I've had vivid dreams, does that make them real? No.

I don't think they are hallucinations--there was a case that confounded the science world when a blind patient had an NDE.
She later described everything and everybody in the room even though she had been blind all her life. How can this be ??
Sorry I saw this on a beeb documentary a couple of yrs ago so have no links for this.

Originally posted by ElectricUniverse
Not to be a party popper but this thread does not belong in the "Predictions & Prophecies" forum.

This is not about any predictions, but rather on the total lack of any sort of spiritual, or even scientific experience of a young man, who finally decides is better to think there is nothing after death, and to live life at it's fullest. No prophecy, or prediction here.

Sorry I am replying so long after you posted, but I forgot about this thread and didn't think people were still commenting in it. This thread has been moved back and forth several times by moderators and I am not sure why. Originally I think I did put it in this section (Psychology, Philosophy, and Metaphysics) and for whatever reason the thread was moved back and forth, back and forth. Maybe there was disagreement amongst mods about where it should go.

To respond to the young OP, you might have reached this decision by yourself, but there is no way you can debunk the spiritual experiences that thousands of people have lived through, and show there is a lot more to life than just death.

I am not trying to debunk anything and I don't know why you feel this post was an attack on spirituality? I was simply trying to show that worrying about death is no real use. I was trying to show this from a purely logical view that worrying about death is futile - whether or not you believe in an afterlife.

Death is the beginning to another world, it is just part of another cycle, and I don't say this in fear of death but in the knowledge and experiences I have had throughout my entire life.

That is your opinion and I respect it. Unfortunately, you cannot provide solid irrefutable evidence that death is the beginning of another world. I cannot prove that it is NOT, but similarity you cannot prove that it is.

As for the other member claiming in hallucinations, sorry, but you are wrong. There is no way a child can hallucinate a past life and say things about his/her previous life in which surviving people who were part of this previous life the child can remember can testify that the child knows things no other person could have known.

I admit the story of this child seems amazing. However, it does not provide definitive proof that this child has had passed lives. It sure implies that is is a very likely possibility, but there is no hard evidence.

To the Orignal Poster, you obviously haven't studied enough about science, because even science itself states that energy can never be created or destroyed, it just transforms from one form of energy to another.

I have briefly studied all the major sciences at one time or another at school. In high school I studied biology and psychology but did not do chemistry or physics.

In case you are wondering this is known as the Law of Conservation of Energy in Physics.

We are as much energy as we are matter. Our thoughts are energy, as well as our emotions, hence they are never really destroyed, but transformed from one form of energy into another. Our whole material body is controlled by electrical currents, and just like the law of conservation states, even after death, and after all of our fluids are dissolved back into the world, part of our energy, and most probably the strongest of the energy which is part of us survives.

This is very interesting and must admit I have not thought about humans in this way. You might be onto something with these points, thanks for sharing these concepts.

Nevertheless, could one not argue that Computer Systems are made up of parts of energy too? Sure, parts can be replaced such as processors and motherboards, but if a computer is not plugged into a power supply of some sort, how does it run (live)? What happens to these energies when they have no supply of power to keep them running?

[edit on 14/8/2009 by Dark Ghost]