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What happens when you die?

I believe you just stop existing. Sure, it's a horrible thing to think about; moving on and leaving all your loved ones behind. But everyone will experience it. Everyone before us, Everyone after us. I'm scared of leaving my loved ones here, and the life I live, but I'm not scared for what lies beyond. For one, there's no need to fret over the inevitable. Second, if we were to cease existing; like we were before we were born. It wouldn't be a terrible experience. Just try and think about before you were born; you can't. So my guess is that death and the afterlife will be a similar experience. Or lack there of? If that makes sense.
 
Portillo, it's a topic that usually has at least one active thread devoted to it. Having read this forum for years, I've realized the topics are mostly cyclical -- the most popular topics always have one or more active threads going, while the less popular ones come round a couple times a year, and don't generate much discussion each time. Every now and then one comes around that's completely unique, and those are the ones to archive.
 
You're duped into believing you are your name, past experiences, career, etc. In short, you're duped into believing with conviction that you are your mind/thoughts. When you die, your mind/thoughts dissolve. Then the essence of who you truly are shines through.
 
Quote "A state of non-existence. Just like before you were conceived."

Implying that you had some degree of consciousness before you were conceived?

Otherwise, how can you determine existence from non-existence?
 
^ No degree of consciousness was implied. A state of non-existence entails a lack of consciousness. Perhaps one can only determine existence from non-existence when they are conscious (and therefore existing)?
 
When the brain is no longer alive, you cease to exist. When the brain stops working 'you' are gone too. I do wonder if people could be raised from the dead if only there was a way to stop the brain and body degrading as soon as its essential requirements (oxygen, glucose etc) weren't being met.
 
capstone said:
^When I was 17, had a car accident that killed me for near 2 minutes. These are the things I feel I saw, but yes, I make it a point to study all religions.
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I envy your insight, the closest thing I've had to a near death experience was surgery under total anesthesia. It really freaked me out how my consciousness just skipped over 4 hours and reappeared. I knew it would happen like that but the experience felt so strange to me, like where do we go when the power gets shut off? Am I still the same person who sat down in that dentist's chair or did that guy whisk off somewhere else as I took his place? I personally believe in "universal consciousness". I think we all feel like different people only because we store memories in separate bodies.
 
footscrazy said:
I do wonder if people could be raised from the dead if only there was a way to stop the brain and body degrading as soon as its essential requirements (oxygen, glucose etc) weren't being met.
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Yeah. It's called life support. In the US if you end up on it things can get really messy.
 
footscrazy said:
When the brain is no longer alive, you cease to exist. When the brain stops working 'you' are gone too. I do wonder if people could be raised from the dead if only there was a way to stop the brain and body degrading as soon as its essential requirements (oxygen, glucose etc) weren't being met.
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Just remember, sometimes what comes out of the ground isn't what you put in. ;)
 
Nexus6 said:
I envy your insight, the closest thing I've had to a near death experience was surgery under total anesthesia. It really freaked me out how my consciousness just skipped over 4 hours and reappeared. I knew it would happen like that but the experience felt so strange to me, like where do we go when the power gets shut off? Am I still the same person who sat down in that dentist's chair or did that guy whisk off somewhere else as I took his place? I personally believe in "universal consciousness". I think we all feel like different people only because we store memories in separate bodies.
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I also envy people who've had a near death experience, though I've not had the guts to say so. I've had some experiences that were borderline mystical or visionary. I've even had a couple strange experiences that were well within the realm of paranormal. But having read so much about NDEs, and the way they profoundly affect the people they happen to, and their views toward life and death both, I have to say I hope the great cosmic wheel selects me to have one.

Anyhow, take what you're saying a step further. If your conscious mind can skip over 4 hours when it was pharmacologically shut off, then couldn't it work the same way when you die and are reborn? It seems to me that if reincarnation is true, there's no subjective 'waiting period' between existences. Right now the universe is looking at itself with your eyes. Seems to me there'd be no subjective gap between this and the next place and time it's able to look at itself with a different pair of eyes (or other sensory apparatus. :) ) because in these intervening eons, there are no eyes to do the looking.
 
When you die you do not end, and you never began in the first place. You are Eternal, you are God. We are all One. You have lived in, or rather had control over ;), many physical incarnations before this one, and you most likely have at least a few to come, maybe many many more. It IS possible to remember these past lives, because many people have before. So anyway when you die you return to the high, etheric spiritual realm of your essence, the part of you which is real and eternal, and after eternity or 49 physical days (according to Tibetan beliefs - this figure might not be accurate, I can't be sure) you come into a fetus and are subsequently Reborn. Only when you become fully conscious of this process and of yourself and reality can you escape the cycle of death and rebirth. It is possible to sustain your consciousness even through sleep, completely unbroken but it takes a very long time usually, it is very much work and requires a lot of patience. I have not (yet) achieved this but I hope one day to be able to. However there are definitely people who have achieved this. At this point, once you have become fully conscious of higher existence, what lies beyond death is already a living truth for you in every moment, and therefore when you die you can simply leave your body behind and continue on as soul and spirit totally uninterrupted. At this point you have achieved Eternal Life and Immortality in the spiritual realm, having fully developed your spiritual organs and learned the lesson, "won" the game. This life is but an illusion, just a game, a dance... that being said it is entirely necessary. Death is a necessary part of life. The spiritual world birthed the physical world for this purpose, so that death could plant the seeds of life into the future, or something like that.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
I also envy people who've had a near death experience, though I've not had the guts to say so. I've had some experiences that were borderline mystical or visionary. I've even had a couple strange experiences that were well within the realm of paranormal. But having read so much about NDEs, and the way they profoundly affect the people they happen to, and their views toward life and death both, I have to say I hope the great cosmic wheel selects me to have one.

Anyhow, take what you're saying a step further. If your conscious mind can skip over 4 hours when it was pharmacologically shut off, then couldn't it work the same way when you die and are reborn? It seems to me that if reincarnation is true, there's no subjective 'waiting period' between existences. Right now the universe is looking at itself with your eyes. Seems to me there'd be no subjective gap between this and the next place and time it's able to look at itself with a different pair of eyes (or other sensory apparatus. :) ) because in these intervening eons, there are no eyes to do the looking.
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But if there is no 'connection' between this life and the next - how is it really 'you' that is being reicarnated? Wouldn't it just be another consciousness being born? It seems to me that if once you die you are reincarnated but you have no memory of any previous lives, it's the same as saying that when you die that's it, you're gone forever.
 
I don't adhere to the concept of reincarnation.

If a kitten survives long enough to be rescued and lives, it is still a cat. I have one. It's genetic blueprint contains more than enough instructions. what some would call "instinct" for it to develop without a parent to guide it.

We don't think much of people and "instinct" except in extremes, but it is the same, just much more complex.

Those strange memories, inexplicable deja vue, etc. To some it is "a previous life". To me it is the gentle whispers, the soft tugs of a thousand ancestors who passed me some little piece of their own unique genetic code. My instinct, my genetic heritage.

I am unique. Just a fleeting speck of dust in the eye of time, but still my time is mine alone. I have not lived before, and I will not live again in this sphere of existence, not as a bug, not as a person, not as anything.

I am me. There is not another.
 
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