What do you believe happens to you when you die?

[Booze Zombie]

I'll cease existing, just like before I was born.
Only difference being that I can maybe leave some memories behind for others to interact with, I'm unsure if I'll do anything that could effect more than 100 people, though.

 

[The Arc of Eden]

One of 2 things:
1. You fade to black and all that is your consciousness becomes nothing, leaving your dead lifeless body an empty husk that should be used by scientists and doctors to help them learn more about what-the-fuck-ever killed you and practice their trade.

2. Your consciousness remains and is severed from that of your mortal flesh but is more or less still trapped inside your body, forcing you to endlessly watch without rest anything that your body may see. After many years, or just those with strong senses of self-awareness, may find ways to move and escape their trappings resulting in what we call paranormal activity.

I have no scientific proof. I do not care what you think. This is mere speculation.

 

[Cry Wolf]

Sadly, I am one who believes in the depressing reality of no life after death. I really wish I felt belief as other do on their spirituality, as my perception of death is bleak, but I don't.

I guess in a round about way I'm saying I believe in reincarnation, although we'll have no memories of a previous life. That'd be nice.

Given that you wouldn't have any memory of your past life, is it really you being reborn, or is it really you being recycled?

Yeah I guess it probably would be, it would be nice to think that we would be exactly the same person, albeit with some minor graphical enhancements and just no memories of a previous existence but that wouldn't explain why similar, more outspoken entities (like Hitler or Ghandi) haven't kept popping up more often with the same goals but a different face. I mean it's not like it doesn't happen but if we did reincarnate then by averages it should happen a lot more.

I suppose the difference in interpretation come down to how we both define how we became to be. If you are to believe we would be reincarnated as the same person, then you likely believe that we're born the way we are. I on the other hand believe we are the sum of our experiences, and thus if I were to be reincarnated without memory then I would not be the same person.

Or, I completely stuffed up and made assumptions about your beliefs which were incorrect.

If we are a completely different person then is it still reincarnation?

This is really where I was coming from. I've thought long and hard when it comes to life after death and spirituality, trying to find or create something I can truly believe in. I've pondered many times the idea of reincarnation, and the idea has always been somewhat unsettling to me. How I define myself as a person is forever linked to what I have done, and the idea that it might be taken from me is more than a little daunting.

As for how much is inherent to the soul, what is a soul? I find myself as somewhat of a materialist, and I believe spirit and the mind are one and the same. Given this presumption, what is inherent to the soul is merely the strongest element of human nature - survival.

Also, I don't believe there are really any strange beliefs - even less so the apparent composite of multiple already conceived ideologies. I don't think anyone person should be confined to the ideas of another - which happens to be one of my problems is personally finding faith in religion.

Closer to the topic: Does believing in more-than-death bring peace to you? I've never found ease with any philosophies on death and I was wonder if there really was peace to be found.

Very interesting view on what the soul is. I find myself wondering if such a thing exists quite a lot. The closest I have come to some how explaining it to myself is that the soul is literally just what makes a person individual, the collections of personality traits that are unique to you and you alone.

Are these personality traits really unique to you? Can they not be found in others? I believe what gives someone a unique set of personality traits are experience, learnt behaviours and reactions to survive and enjoy. These traits can be found in others, but given the complexity of the human mind are extremely rare to match exactly.

How will humanity advance or even if we will at all.

This is one of the greatest sadnesses of my current outlook. What makes it so bleak is knowing I'll never see and do everything I want to do and never seeing the amazing things humanity as a collective produces in the future.

I'm not sure it beings me peace, I prefer the idea to the alternative of just nothingness for eternity. But I think a lot of it comes from me wanting to know what will come after me. How will humanity advance or even if we will at all. I'm still very questionable about the matter, I think in all likelihood there is nothing and that saddens me a little, it gives a sense of futility sometimes, but then it also spurs people into motion, knowing that time is short makes you live each day with with more vigour, forget mistakes and move on looking for new experiences. In a way, believing that there is nothing may even bring more peace than believing that there is more.

If one is spurred to action, is that not the opposite of peace? The gurantee an afterlife gives is that there shall be infinite time for action is that which would put me at ease. This is why I really do hope I eventually find true belief in something, as I know my death will come - likely sooner than others, given my health - and I'll never truly be ready to leave in an infitely complex reality.

Given the idea the soul is a seperate entity, do you believe that through science we will be able to cheat death? Would reviving the body bring someone souless?

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Personally, I think your consciousness/soul/spirit/you/WHATEVER returns to the universe, like your body returns to the earth.

So you then know everything, but also lose your individuality and become one with everything else.

 

[agouraki]

The soul is immortal but the body isn't when we die the soul drifts off till it get pulled in a new "vessel" (during conception) but because the memories are stored in the brain chemically and aren't stored in the soul we reset everything.

People that experience past lifes "memories" might be explained if certain events scar so deeply emotional the person that leaves a mark upon the soul.

 

[evilartist]

My organs will be harvested and my bones will be fashioned into a xylophone, like in those old-school cartoons.

 

[sageoftruth]

Well, being agnostic, I'm open to many possibilities. Still, it has been accepted by many that we hate being uncertain and accepting that some things are simply inconceivable to us. No one can conceive the complete absense of senses, so it definitely makes sense that people would create a more conceivable fate like remaining concious and entering another realm, rather than something we cannot conceive, like ceasing to sense at all. Still, until other possibilities have been disproven, I'm just going to dismiss any possibilites.

What I'm really curious about is how long we remain conscious after our bodies cease to function. If I were to be shot in the head, would I still be conscious (and very loopy) for a few moments while I lay unmoving on the ground? I doubt it, since the brain is integral to all senses, but are there deaths where the body gives out before the mind does?

 

[ten.to.ten]

Termination of consciousness. I'd sure like there to be an afterlife but I don't think it's likely.

 

[DJDarque]

Sadly, I believe that when we die there is only nothingness.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Nothing.

All of nothing happens. You're consumed by the nothing and become a part of it.

Well that's my belief anyway. I wouldn't mind something happening afterwards, but I see no indication of that being true. Of course this is death we're talking about, so there naturally isn't going to be that much evidence either way.

I got a better question: What do you think happened to you before you where born?

Was it the same thing that happens to you when you die? I mean if we are supposed to have some immortal spirit wouldn't it have existed before we were born as well?

It always struck me as odd that nobody bothers to address this in religions. Well except the concept of reincarnation, which still doesn't add up as there are as more people around then ever before, so where there souls just hanging around in limbo waiting for a spare body to open up?

You know, this is a pretty interesting question. For someone who shares my beliefs (you simply don't exist before birth), it isn't that complex, but it does seem alot more interesting when poised to a philosophy where souls are immortal.

 

[Ranorak]

1)You run into her

Take a big hit on the head and feel like crap for 30 minutes.

2) You run to your corpse and wake up shaking your head.

3) you log off in frustration.

 

[HasimirFenring]

My money's either on some sort of eternal sleep or something simply too amazing for us mortals to comprehend

 

[Raven's Nest]

I don't think about it really. I've looked at different religions and haven't found an answer that satisfies me. I've considered the idea that you fall into nothingness, but that's a rather downer answer. I just can't wrap my head around the concept of an afterlife, but I can't imagine me not existing either.

We've all felt non-existence before. Remember what it was like before you were born? No neither do I, so I wasn't bothered by it then, why should I be bothered by it later?

I have absolutely no firm belief in what happens next but I am positive the body dies and decomposes.. If my consciousness (or at least the essence of my ego) lives in my brain, I will cease to exist. If it is somehow seated in the soul, perhaps there is a transition to an as of yet undetermined meta-physical plane of existence...

 

[Mittens The Kitten]

Sadly, I believe that when we die there is only nothingness.

Right, much sadder than eternal fiery torture.