Discussion what do you think happens after death?

[A Beautiful Walk]

I'd like to think you go to whatever you believe in after you die. People talk about the chance of rebirth, but that's a problem in itself for me. There is also the whole "black screen" thing which I would usually try to comprehend in my sleep, but alas, my mind's desire to exist is too strong and I end up terrifying myself.

 

[Holu]

Nothingness, albeit with a caveat.

I think that our brain basically defaults to a dream where we see generally what we feel, assuming the brain isn't in a critical condition where it can't function. It could be a vision of heaven, hell, and old memory, family members, and so on.

My general reasons for saying this is based around a couple things.

NDE(near death experiences) that have been documented generally have themes lights, tunnels, relatives, and any amount of cultural expectations. For instance, a Muslim might see what they expect of Jannah, a Buddhist might see the start of their rebirth, or a Christian might see heaven.

Additionally, the brain starts going crazy before death. There have been a decent amount of studies on humans and a good amount of studies on rats which show that pre death, the brain on an EEG shows surges of high frequency gamma activity in areas that are activated during dreaming and memory recall.

As such I generally believe that we simply enter a dream like state, before the brain shuts down entirely and functioning ceases all together. At that point I imagine it's like how it was before we were born.

But this is just my personal hypothesis and interpretation. I don't wanna step on anyone's religious beliefs <3. In the end nobody knows what happens after death. Make of it what makes you feel best.

 

[Fall_Apart]

the self is a model, and that consciousness can arise when a system represents itself as itself — not due to a soul or essence, but due to structure and process.

the question is not why am I me, but rather why is there any experience at all, and why does it feel like this?

consciousness is seen as an emergent property of information-processing systems (like brains, or potentially, machines).

So your reasoning goes something like:

Consciousness arises when physical systems (like brains) reach a certain complexity or configuration (like installing an OS).

Countless such systems are constantly forming in nature.

We've each found ourselves "awake" once before — subjectively existing — in this kind of universe.

Therefore, nothing prevents that from happening again… and again… and again.

Since the new consciousness wouldn't remember the previous, it's not you in any continuity sense, but it would still feel like being you, in the same first-person sense — just with different memories, different circumstances.

Therefore, death might not be an escape, just a door to the next conscious moment, somewhere, as someone or something else.

There's no opt-out — because even if this consciousness ends, the "lottery" of existence continues elsewhere.

Worst of all, this could mean suffering — even extreme suffering — is not a one-time risk, but potentially an eternally recurring possibility.

Maybe death really is dreamless sleep. Maybe it's even oblivion. And in a strange way, maybe that's the only peace there is.

Exactly. You have perfectly understood what I wanted to express. This thing scares me because in the "wheel of fortune" there are many more possibilities of experiencing a new consciousness in the form of an animal or a person living in terrible conditions of poverty, disease or abuse. According to this hypothesis, perhaps we have already experienced other consciousnesses millions of times that we have no memory of, but this means that we are condemned to an infinite cycle of consequential consciousnesses with all the suffering to experience for the rest of eternity. This is a catastrophic scenario from which we perhaps cannot escape.