The Feeling Of [Non]Existence

This is something that puzzles me one of the most, because it's not actually a state of being; but a state of non-being. When I think about it, the human race alone has existed for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years. The universe for billions (or thousands), depending on whether you're religious or not. And before the universe existed, time itself did not exist, no? Yet 'something' had to exist in some dimension where the concept of time lingered? So, for me as a conscious being, all those years passed in negative eternity, relative to myself; I'm not sure if that's even the term. But I find it something to think about; that I was nothing. And yet from nothing, which became 2 cells, energy compiled itself into matter. And now here I am---talking to you, and you to me.

However, now that I exist. Now that I understand somewhat the meaning of being alive---of being a conscious observer. I really wonder what it must be like to not exist. Atheist may say that our consciousness is nothing more than a biological anomaly, a byproduct of evolution creating a unique sapient creature.

So, my question is, if there really is no afterlife; any place that you go after the physical shell expires, then what does it mean to not exist? Before there was nothing; Then there came some(one); After, if you try to think about not existing EVER again; do you realize how tragic that sounds. Maybe it isn't, because you figure since you won't exist you won't be able to feel tragedy or loneliness. Yet for some reason I'd prefer to think that I won't be nothing. I don't want to be.

Now, we all know that energy and matter cannot be destroyed. But the question is, after you die does the energy of your consciousness continue on, or was it truly nothing but biology at work. OR, what if consciousness is not even energy as we know. Many scientist are accepting that the physical and the mind are not necessarily bound together. What if the spirit after it's moment of conception can also not be destroyed; and after physical death passes through the walls of this universe into a realm where scientific laws do not apply.

What do you guys think?

my answer is this, i know i exist but i do not know anyone else exist, i might be just a thought and everyone else is my imagination. Think that one over

reply to post by Raelsatu


You should investigate more into esoteric and experience it. Lots of learning awaits you.

I recommend this book, written by a scientist Imants Baruss.
"Authentic knowing - the convergence of science and spiritual aspiration".

There you should meet Carl Rogers, Heidegger, Assagioli....

I recommend also:

"Book of secrets", from Deepak Chopra.

If you are up to digging low and deep (and outside of confort zone):
www.montalk.net

-Robert

Originally posted by thedarktower
my answer is this, i know i exist but i do not know anyone else exist, i might be just a thought and everyone else is my imagination. Think that one over

I have thought that over! =] It was actually talked about in the video I linked. And my response would be that I feel the exact same as you. Neither of us can "prove" the other one exist. Perhaps we both exist as ONE??

Originally posted by RobertPaulsim
reply to post by Raelsatu

 

You should investigate more into esoteric and experience it. Lots of learning awaits you.

I recommend this book, written by a scientist Imants Baruss.
"Authentic knowing - the convergence of science and spiritual aspiration".

There you should meet Carl Rogers, Heidegger, Assagioli....

I recommend also:

"Book of secrets", from Deepak Chopra.

If you are up to digging low and deep (and outside of confort zone):
www.montalk.net

-Robert

Thank you for that! I do really enjoy reading into the esoteric, but there's such a great amount to read I don't know where to start. I'll check out the links/books.

reply to post by Raelsatu


A flower produces a seed. The seed absorbs water and nutrients from the soil. The new flower grows in direct proportion to the amount of water and nutrients absorbed. The flower dies, decays. Bugs eat some of it. They absorb the water and nutrients, which helps the bugs to grow. The rest of the flower decomposes into soil so that other flowers will absorb the water and nutrients. The bugs and new flowers die, and the process goes on and on. It's the same with every living thing. Nothing ever slips away into nothingness.

We don't die. We transform, just not the way we imagine.

We like to think that our minds are special enough to carry on after we transform. Well, the wings of birds are special, but they don't fly away after death. Where would fish be without fins, yet I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a Fin heaven.

No, there is no consciousness after we transform.

perhaps we do exist as one, one consciousness, and one day we will understand this and evolve as a species

When i think about this subject, i find myself being forced to believe that the universe is eternal, because i cannot begin to comprehend the idea of nothingness before the creation of the universe, along with how can something be created out of nothing, have scientist proved that this is possible?, because i cant see how it can be.

Don't we experience "nothingness" everytime we go to sleep, in the periods where theres no dreams. The portions of the brain responsible for conciousness are inactive during those times so in my opinion we get a dose of nothingness every night

reply to post by jiggerj


Interesting take on life. However when I say nothingness, I mean the opposite of sapience. Not being able to think, maybe to feel. Maybe to be of the essence of everything. I heard somebody once say that the human form is a physical manifestation of consciousness. From this you may take that if there are other intelligent/civilized species out there, they may look very similar to us, because it may be a universal design for the expression of.

Yes wings and fins are unique, but they are also physical traits. Then you can say that there is an afterlife for rocks or leaves. So comparing bird wings to the human consciousness is like comparing a tree branch to a horse leg. They're not even close to one in the same.

Originally posted by Hopeforeveryone
Don't we experience "nothingness" everytime we go to sleep, in the periods where theres no dreams. The portions of the brain responsible for conciousness are inactive during those times so in my opinion we get a dose of nothingness every night

Yes that's very true. That nothingness takes place for a very short period of time however. Would it feel the same to not exist for a few hours, as for an eternity? It's mind-boggling.

Originally posted by thedoctorswife
When i think about this subject, i find myself being forced to believe that the universe is eternal, because i cannot begin to comprehend the idea of nothingness before the creation of the universe, along with how can something be created out of nothing, have scientist proved that this is possible?, because i cant see how it can be.

Yea! I find it very hard to believe, that some people don't believe in any form of creator. It doesn't have to be the judeo-Christian God, or Allah, but to think that all this came from nothing just doesn't add up. I try to stay as open-minded as possible when it comes to this.

In my adult life Iv`e come to believe (firmly, I wouldn`t be so arrogant as to say "I know" but to myself, I do know) that non-existence is impossible and that being conscious is something eternal and shared by everything manifest in this physical reality and beyond as there is only one.

...But, as a child of the age of about 6 onwards, I would often ponder non-existence, and it was as impossible then as it as it is now. It`s like a little switch in my brain can`t process the concept, and if I pushed it to really try and imagine it, I always came up with the conclusion that the closest it is possible to come to non-existence is just the non-existence of a physical reality and that thought, consciousness, awareness, intelligence and energy is all pervasive because the very concept of non-existence has to be conceived of, and is relative to an opposite, thus, pretty much impossible.

S&F I like your thoughts OP

Many scientist are accepting that the physical and the mind are not necessarily bound together.

I thought it was the other way round. Physical changes in the brain through disease or accidents cause real change in the observed personality of the people experiencing neurological damage. Are we not the product of the brain ? I knew a guy who was a nice friendly sort of guy but he had a car accident and sufferd brain damage to the front part of his brain - afterwards he was an alcoholic loner type who ended up living in the woods.

I hope we're not just a product of biology but it does seem while we're alive we're surely subject to it's laws.

If we are all one, then there is no such thing as death. When one "dies", they live on as others. If we are all one then we are all the earth. If we are all the earth, then the earth is alive and that means even what seems inanimate. Therefore consciousness is a force from outside the body, and the inside.

reply to post by psilo simon


Thank you for the reply! I agree that it's something which is very hard to understand, because whichever way you look at it, eternity is a long time. At the way that consciousness fits into eternity makes you think even more. Perhaps the entire universe had a conscious moment at one point, and at that moment manifested itself as homo sapien. Perhaps we are only matter like everything else but on the exact frequency to express consciousness. And maybe at higher/different frequencies we will evolve to understand even more. At the rate we're moving, both technologically, culturally, and spiritually, there may come a time very soon in our lifetime that we experience such a moment. =o

Originally posted by Hopeforeveryone

Many scientist are accepting that the physical and the mind are not necessarily bound together.

I thought it was the other way round. Physical changes in the brain through disease or accidents cause real change in the observed personality of the people experiencing neurological damage. Are we not the product of the brain ? I knew a guy who was a nice friendly sort of guy but he had a car accident and sufferd brain damage to the front part of his brain - afterwards he was an alcoholic loner type who ended up living in the woods.

I hope we're not just a product of biology but it does seem while we're alive we're surely subject to it's laws.

That's the thing. It's very true that the neurological aspect affects a great deal of who we are. In that aspect it puts limits on us, or vice versa, and we must live by these laws for the time in this body. One of the reasons we may say that body and spirit are separate is from many things experience, and studies shown. Such as dream sharing, precognition, remote viewing, astral projection, lucid dreaming, and other strange metaphysical and or supernatural occurrences. They may very well fit in with the advance of the field of quantum mechanics or another not yet known theory. We will use this time on Earth to ponder such things.

Originally posted by smithjustinb
If we are all one, then there is no such thing as death. When one "dies", they live on as others. If we are all one then we are all the earth. If we are all the earth, then the earth is alive and that means even what seems inanimate. Therefore consciousness is a force from outside the body, and the inside.

Fits in with the idea of reincarnation. One may pass away and their consciousness moves into the body of a lifeform in the animal kingdom. It may move into the body of another human. Or perhaps it has learned the lessons it needed this time in 4 dimensions, so it is time to move upwards into an even more enlightened self. There is definitely some energy/force connecting everything. Very interesting post.

reply to post by Raelsatu

That's the thing. It's very true that the neurological aspect affects a great deal of who we are. In that aspect it puts limits on us, or vice versa, and we must live by these laws for the time in this body. One of the reasons we may say that body and spirit are separate is from many things experience, and studies shown. Such as dream sharing, precognition, remote viewing, astral projection, lucid dreaming, and other strange metaphysical and or supernatural occurrences. They may very well fit in with the advance of the field of quantum mechanics or another not yet known theory. We will use this time on Earth to ponder such things.

Funnily enough i've experienced telepathy, lucid dreaming (on demand) astal/etheric projection, dream sharing and even though it all seems very real at the time proving it in an objective way to observers is extremely difficult. I've learnt not to discuss such matters with the general public as they tend to think you're a bit of a head case. I've got a whole selection of unusual events if you're interested. PM me if you want the stories.

reply to post by Hopeforeveryone


You can't experience nothing, because there's nothing to experience. There isn't an anything at all! According to that viewpoint anyways, but that seems really closed minded. I think it is naive to assume that you know what its like to die, I just choose to embrace the chance that life continues. (Life is so miraculously random, and the universe is so large, do you really think that this blip of existence we call a life is all there is?)

Originally posted by Hopeforeveryone
reply to post by Raelsatu

 

Funnily enough i've experienced telepathy, lucid dreaming (on demand) astal/etheric projection, dream sharing and even though it all seems very real at the time proving it in an objective way to observers is extremely difficult. I've learnt not to discuss such matters with the general public as they tend to think you're a bit of a head case. I've got a whole selection of unusual events if you're interested. PM me if you want the stories.

I've only experienced astral projection once but it really altered my views of what consciousness/spirit is. Lucid dreaming I've only been able to experience at random so far, but I've had some extremely vivid dreams doing so that I can still remember to this day. And you're right about speaking to some people about it, because they'll think you're either a little psychotic or dabbling in witchcraft. However you do need to be careful with metaphysical practices as doing do may attract negative entities which can be scary. I meditate during summer days under my birch trees and only think of love/attracting positivity. It's quite relaxing/uplifting. =]

reply to post by SpreadLoveNotHate


So when you're unconcious what are you feeling exactly ? thats all i wrote about. I can't see how your response has anything to do with what i wrote. As for being naive about knowing what its like to die can you point out where i refered to anything like that as i can't seem to find it in my post. I think you missed what i meant about awareness being a product of the mind and how when we're asleep we're not quite so aware anymore.

Don't we experience "nothingness" everytime we go to sleep, in the periods where theres no dreams. The portions of the brain responsible for conciousness are inactive during those times so in my opinion we get a dose of nothingness every night

As for their being life after death, I really don't know but if there is then it'll be a pleasant surprise, if not then then i won't know anything about it so it won't matter. I'm keeping an open mind.

reply to post by Raelsatu


Ah yes there are dangers of dabbling in "mystical" practices as one can become fascinated with what one can do and end up going horribly wrong. During meditation you can experience all sorts of strange experiences but its best to take note, enjoy the experience and move on. I've seen a few people end up really damaged from getting too into occult practices.

What you've got to ask yourself is what part of ourselves is changless and doesn't alter with time. The ego or me part of ourselves seems to change often. If there is a part of ourselves which lives after death then i'm betting its not the bit which worries about money, career, status etc