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Where do you believe we go after death?

OP, you're asking the wrong question. It's not a matter of where we go, but what we become. ;)

being said:
I see the need to ponder about ones afterlife as mechanics of the human ego (the mind) - a delusional view, which arises from the the dysfunctional belief, that we are somehow separate of the world we live 'in' or that there's something about 'us' that is separate. These thoughts about afterlife are fueled exactly by these delusional views. Since we are life, we want to survive as long as possible and when the mind comes in, it creates an individual who wants to survive, when in fact there is no separate individual, but merely an appearance of one.
But on the other hand it's completely natural and there's nothing inherently wrong with this. Just a step in human evolution.
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I agree that the next life shouldn't be an object of focus lest we fail to make the most of this one -- being in the present moment and all that.

But as a student taking psychiatry right now, I have to quibble that believing in some continuation of this current sentience is a delusion. Delusions are demonstrably false beliefs that are not prompted by anything external, and are held with certainty and fixity. Beliefs taught to you by others and shared by social groups never meet the definition of delusions, because they are prompted by an external source: other people.

There are well-developed philosophical arguments for something of "I" surviving death, as well as there being some component to "I" that is not materially based. Feel free to find them convincing or not (I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you don't :) ). But please give them credit as based in logic and firsthand experience; they don't deserve to be lumped together with unfounded notions that come to people entirely out of the blue (a.k.a. delusions).
 
Catullus the roman poet said: " soles occidere redire possent sed nobis cum semel lux brevis extincta, nox est una dormienda". (Suns may set and rise again, but for us, once our brief light is quenched, there is one long night, in which we sleep forever.)
I think that says it best.
 
I prefer Socrates' words from the Apology

" But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O friends and judges, can be greater than this? ...Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. ...What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions! For in that world they would not put a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is said is true.
Apology 40C-41C

I believe, like Socrates in the immortality of the soul, as we shed this material body, and ego, which are obstacles in a truer perception of reality.

PAX
 
There is no after death is there? Just like before the Big Bang. Then again, I'll get recycled till the end of time... which might happen.
 
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@Petelad

Belief in life after death, or the immortality of the soul is a persistent human belief, that crosses cultures, and goes back as far as pre-history.

One might not agree with the concepts, but these views are held by probably the majority of humanity (A fact that does not necessarily make them true)
 
nowhere, born again with a blank slate for memory with no recollection of past lifes
 
I don't know since I have not been there yet, and since I am not quite sure exactly what consciousness is. One can say it is a combination of cellular processes within a finite system, but I would have to say that is only one aspect of it, since consciousness doesn't simply exist at the cellular level. It goes much further than that. I am not suggesting that we have an incomplete understanding of the nature of consciousness simply because of my attachment to it.

But, what of the other question... where would you prefer we go after death? I would respond: to a state of omniscience. Even if it were brief, it would be well worth any suffering during our time on this world.
 
Pythagoras said:
I believe, like Socrates in the immortality of the soul, as we shed this material body, and ego, which are obstacles in a truer perception of reality.
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I really realllyyy like this. Ive read through this whole thread and though many interesting theorys have been brought up for some reason just this one sentence hit me the hardest.

Ive never really looked through this section of bluelight but all the topics being discussed here are very interesting.

I just wish i knew more about philosophy and spirituality to discuss with you all.
 
I like to believe in non-linear reincarnation. When you die, your soul is taken into a life based on who you were previously. It's hard to explain how exactly you're judged, but it's not just based on morals and traditional ideas of good and evil. My how your subconscious viewed yourself throughout that life.
 
With every possible choice we end up into the nature.
As a fertiziler.

Spiritially I don't believe in afterlife, reincarnation or anything like that.
 
Fwiw, it's helped me to take this one ('what happens when I physically die?') out of the category of "the unknown", and put it into "the unknowable".

The mind cannot conceive of absence. Any attempt at such constitutes the presence of "something" (blankness, anything).

Thus, one will not be absent or "disappear". There's no such idea, thus no need for concern at all. If one can live with its unknowability, the issue becomes sort of moot.
 
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Interesting Dedbeet. I think you are spot on with the inability to conceive of what 'lack fo life' is. It is indeed unknowable(?) which most can't handle, and so relegate to either the unknown, or further yet, employ religious or spiritual beliefs to make it a 'knowable', or even a 'known'.

Not that I believe there is any problem with engaging with such possibilities.
 
i sometimes think that maybe time is on an infinite loop and we are destined to relive our same lives for eternity.
 
Pythagoras said:
Interesting Dedbeet. I think you are spot on with the inability to conceive of what 'lack fo life' is. It is indeed unknowable(?) which most can't handle, and so relegate to either the unknown, or further yet, employ religious or spiritual beliefs to make it a 'knowable', or even a 'known'.
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People are too over-concerned with death, what happens after death, etc. (IMO).

And I think the reason is that it reflects the primary difficulty people have with life: It is itself the unknown.

I don't mean mental life, the life the mind conceives of that spans from when one was born until one's death.

I mean life as it is actually lived.

It's lived from moment to moment, but people prefer to live as if there was really, truly a time-span involved, not just memories and predictions of the future.

There is NOT really, truly a time-span. There is moment-to-moment existence, and thinking about time spans.

The death people really fear is the death of the pseudo-reality called the "time-span", which is the mind, ego, psyche, self/other, human history, life as we know it, pick whatever term ya like.
 
^ this

i think death is gonna be like when you go into a deep sleep... your completely unaware of anything until you wake up. except you dont wake up. we have no recollection of anything before we were alive, we have no concept of anything after.

although DMT has kind of changed my thoughts on this. im not sure what to think. we'll soon see
 
i read this theory that its impossible to kill yourself because your conscience always carries on in an alternate universe or something.
 
ColtDan said:
^ this

i think death is gonna be like when you go into a deep sleep... your completely unaware of anything until you wake up. except you dont wake up. we have no recollection of anything before we were alive, we have no concept of anything after.

although DMT has kind of changed my thoughts on this. im not sure what to think. we'll soon see
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What I appreciate about psychedelics bringing to the picture is how (A) They bring you to the here and now, and you're experiencing instead of thinking. In this sense, I think acid hallucinations are actually "more real" than thoughts about what college I might end up attending in five years. They're happening now, and you're involved.

(B) They offer a subjective experience that cannot be objectivized, even imaginarily. Something happened to you that you basically can't share with anyone else, and it was very real to you. Such a thing can open doors in terms of the relative reality one lends to subjectivity, vs. objectivity. Not to mention, open deeper and more dangerous passages into examining whether *any* experience can be or is ever actually shared.

Peace...
 
I don't believe the universe is chugging along through time in some linear fashion, and that it has just happened to have reached this point after however many billions of years. What I believe is that there is a particular experience of this moment, and I am that experience. Why? Because someone has to be, and it just happens to be me. You just happen to be another different particular experience of this moment, and so we are together in time, making it now, making the universe be at 2011. It's only 2011 because that is what we are. Someone else is 2010, and for them it's 2010. How could I ever die, being something that is alive? I am alive right now, not because of some sequence of events, but because I exist.
 
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