Discussion What do you think happens when we die?

[StrugglingSienna]

I had always believed that nothing would happen after you die, but after spending a lot of the last few months reading about NDEs and past-life memories, I'm not so sure. Maybe it's all just cope, because I sure would like a do-over, as a cis woman this time.

Also, a little bit of a morbid observation: a lot of the people on here who very vehemently argue that absolutely nothing happens after death, they often seem to have very high post counts compared to everyone who believes in or at least considers other possibilities. Food for thought.

 

[CantDoIt]

I think that something does happen after we die for a number of reasons. First, accounts of NDEs - some may say that hallucinations play a part in this, but there don't appear to me to be any reasons that the brain would prepare for death in such a way. Secondly, reports of past life memories from young children. The only reasonable other way I could explain these off would be superpsi, which is just as far-fetched as reincarnation.

There was a megathread here at some point with various afterlife beliefs which goes into great detail about various theories and the mechanisms for those theories.

 

[ctb2soble]

I think that, whatever your opinion, it probably needs to start from a theory of consciousness. A lot of people tend to go with a religious view of afterlife, and even non-religious people will often come up with some derivation of religious ideas - this is to be expected, as religion has historically been the principal source of information on the subject, and the topic has been left more or less untouched by the natural sciences due to obvious practical limitations. Although I have no interest in reverse-evangelizing people out of their religious beliefs, I do think that - if you are a non-religious person who believes in some version of the afterlife - you should probably recognize that this view is derived from religious precepts, and ask yourself why you would expect religion to be an accurate predictor of reality in this instance when you don't expect it to be an accurate predictor of reality anywhere else.

I actually grew up in a religious household that did not teach that an afterlife existed. I was taught that when you die you cease to exist at all unless God resurrects you into a new body and that the soul/spirit does not exist in the way that mainline Christianity believes it to exist. I didn't come to believe in an afterlife until I became agnostic bordering on atheist.

 

[Saturn_]

 

[tshirt]

one time i was dehydrated on shrooms and i had a panic attack. i blacked out for like a good 20 seconds. and it felt like i was a rock. like, an inanimate object. no movement, no thoughts, no nothing. it was just grey nothingness. i kinda think thats how death is gonna go. it probably depends on how you die too, if you still have some brain activity there's probably some weirdness that goes on there during the death process (could explain NDAs if they even are legit). but if you're obliterated its probably just straight to nothing. computer off. its absolutely horrifying, but i'd rather that than eternal hell and suffering

so although i'm pessimistic in that regard, i don't think its wrong to speculate that there is supernatural things out there, like, other universes full of life, full of shit we can't comprehend. but i think we are personally limited to the organism that we are. this is all we will ever experience. i just can't see how, after dying, there's anything left for us