What happens after death?

[Ashleyrodriguez]

What really happens after death? I have seen many videos where "mediums" people who can supposably talk to the dead say that when you go to the other side by suicide it is painful emotionally. I'm not scared, I'd rather be anywhere than on this earth but I'm just wondering.

 

[rebelsue]

Literally nobody knows. There's no way to know if mediums are real, if near death experiences are revealing something "real" about the afterlife or the process of dying, we don't know. There's no way to test it and really understand what realness even means or what life really is. Is the afterlife a place? Is the white light just brain chemistry in people's dying experiences who come back to tell the tale? Does it matter if it's "just brain chemistry" ? Maybe that IS what the afterlife is, and the concept of a "place" is just made up by humans? Or maybe if we imagine it or "make it up" then it is still real? These are unknowable things. We just have to take the step into the unknown and accept that it is unknowable.

I am not afraid personally...to me it seems that it can't possibly be bad or good. Those are constructs. It has to be a neutral experience ... just what is. When we depart from our bodies, whatever we experience won't be through a human lens because we won't be human anymore. We won't be anything. There might be nothing. There might be something. But I am not afraid of it because I am part of the universe and every piece of matter in the universe likely goes through whatever this process is.

 

[ExitStageLeft]

Infinite recurrence of your stream of perception into disjointed, selfless Boltzmann brains and fetuses in various iterations of the Poincare recurrence until one stream of perception emerges into an arbitrarily similar version of yourself further down the line, which will be (in the case of a closed-loop Poincare recurrence) or may not be (in the case of an open-loop recurrence) self-identical to you now at any given period in your life. There will be many, many more near-variants of you (born, miscarried and, in some circumstances, aborted) who are not close enough to be "you".

All that your manner of death matters is the level of physical and psychological discomfort you experience at the point of death, though this can matter a great deal - there are mental states your brain will pass through en route to true death that will feel much longer than they actually are. Hence the desirability of N or fentanyl.

There will never be, upon achieving actual death a period where "you" perceive "nothing"; nothing cannot perceive nothing. What you will perceive, if you could string it into a whole experience, would be frightening and bizarre and probably quite painful, but you won't have to worry about that.

 

[KiraLittleOwl]

[

Infinite recurrence of your stream of perception into disjointed, selfless Boltzmann brains and fetuses in various iterations of the Poincare recurrence until one stream of perception emerges into an arbitrarily similar version of yourself further down the line, which will be (in the case of a closed-loop Poincare recurrence) or may not be (in the case of an open-loop recurrence) be self-identical to you now at any given period in your life. There will be many, many more near-variants of you (born, miscarried and, in some circumstances, aborted) who are not close enough to be "you".

All that your manner of death matters is the level of physical and psychological discomfort you experience at the point of death, though this can matter a great deal - there are mental states your brain will pass through en route to true death that will feel much longer than they actually are. Hence the desirability of N or fentanyl.

I don't understand, can you please explain like I'm five

 

[ExitStageLeft]

[

I don't understand, can you please explain like I'm five

You'll die, and arbitrarily have NDEs, or experience a painful blackness, or whatever - and then your stream of perception, stripped of identity, will start popping up in Boltzmann brains (which are near-infinitely-but-not-infinitely unlikely quantum fluctuations that produce the exact physical duplicate of your brain), fetuses, &etc. in different Poincare repetitions of existence, to experience whatever hallucinatory and painful experiences they experience, all separate iterations that die out, until one of them, which will bear your stream of perception but not anything like what you identify as yourself, will be born and live a life that could, depending on the nature of recurrence, be either identical to your current iteration or quite radically different from it. There can and will be no continuity in this stream of perception until "you" are born again; each iteration in the sequence would appear as disjointed as the beads on a necklace.

The only interesting thing in this question is whether a recurrent existence is identical to current existence in all iterations (which will be massively unpleasant and numbing for me), or probabilistically different from current existence (which leaves everything in the air). It is almost-certainly the case that history would be self-identical until you were born: Hitler will always have died April 30, 1945; Ronald Reagan will always have been elected November 1980; etc. But is what happens in your life "locked in"? That's the question.

If there are different recurrences close enough that your stream of consciousness is produced in it - and never free will; free will is impossible - how closely related are what has happened in this iteration to what happens the next? Is there some probabilistic set that what happens in this iteration is arbitrarily similar to what happens in the next? I would think the similarities are closest at the point of birth and diverge with time.

But really, you could just listen to this.

 

[The Dark Chaos]

Maybe we'll find ourselves in another world. Maybe we'll reawake as crying. Maybe we'll just find ourselves in another human body, wuth our memories erased. Whatever it may be the afterlife just shouldn't suck like this one..

 

[DyslexicForeigner]

 

[GiveUp]

Use an ouija board and find out.

 

[Deathbydemo]

Infinite recurrence of your stream of perception into disjointed, selfless Boltzmann brains and fetuses in various iterations of the Poincare recurrence until one stream of perception emerges into an arbitrarily similar version of yourself further down the line, which will be (in the case of a closed-loop Poincare recurrence) or may not be (in the case of an open-loop recurrence) self-identical to you now at any given period in your life. There will be many, many more near-variants of you (born, miscarried and, in some circumstances, aborted) who are not close enough to be "you".

All that your manner of death matters is the level of physical and psychological discomfort you experience at the point of death, though this can matter a great deal - there are mental states your brain will pass through en route to true death that will feel much longer than they actually are. Hence the desirability of N or fentanyl.

There will never be, upon achieving actual death a period where "you" perceive "nothing"; nothing cannot perceive nothing. What you will perceive, if you could string it into a whole experience, would be frightening and bizarre and probably quite painful, but you won't have to worry about that.

Dude... that is deep. Very interesting perception.

 

[KiraLittleOwl]

You'll die, and arbitrarily have NDEs, or experience a painful blackness, or whatever - and then your stream of perception, stripped of identity, will start popping up in Boltzmann brains (which are near-infinitely-but-not-infinitely unlikely quantum fluctuations that produce the exact physical duplicate of your brain), fetuses, &etc. in different Poincare repetitions of existence, to experience whatever hallucinatory and painful experiences they experience, all separate iterations that die out, until one of them, which will bear your stream of perception but not anything like what you identify as yourself, will be born and live a life that could, depending on the nature of recurrence, be either identical to your current iteration or quite radically different from it. There can and will be no continuity in this stream of perception until "you" are born again; each iteration in the sequence would appear as disjointed as the beads on a necklace.

The only interesting thing in this question is whether a recurrent existence is identical to current existence in all iterations (which will be massively unpleasant and numbing for me), or probabilistically different from current existence (which leaves everything in the air). It is almost-certainly the case that history would be self-identical until you were born: Hitler will always have died April 30, 1945; Ronald Reagan will always have been elected November 1980; etc. But is what happens in your life "locked in"? That's the question.

Oh shit
I hope there's nothing like that.

You'll die, and arbitrarily have NDEs, or experience a painful blackness, or whatever - and then your stream of perception, stripped of identity, will start popping up in Boltzmann brains (which are near-infinitely-but-not-infinitely unlikely quantum fluctuations that produce the exact physical duplicate of your brain), fetuses, &etc. in different Poincare repetitions of existence, to experience whatever hallucinatory and painful experiences they experience, all separate iterations that die out, until one of them, which will bear your stream of perception but not anything like what you identify as yourself, will be born and live a life that could, depending on the nature of recurrence, be either identical to your current iteration or quite radically different from it. There can and will be no continuity in this stream of perception until "you" are born again; each iteration in the sequence would appear as disjointed as the beads on a necklace.

The only interesting thing in this question is whether a recurrent existence is identical to current existence in all iterations (which will be massively unpleasant and numbing for me), or probabilistically different from current existence (which leaves everything in the air). It is almost-certainly the case that history would be self-identical until you were born: Hitler will always have died April 30, 1945; Ronald Reagan will always have been elected November 1980; etc. But is what happens in your life "locked in"? That's the question.

If there are different recurrences - and never free will; free will is impossible - how closely related are what has happened in this iteration to what happens the next? Is there some probabilistic set that what happens in this iteration is arbitrarily similar to what happens in the next? I would think the similarities are closest at the point of birth and diverge with time.

But really, you could just listen to this.

Anyway we won't remember

You'll die, and arbitrarily have NDEs, or experience a painful blackness, or whatever - and then your stream of perception, stripped of identity, will start popping up in Boltzmann brains (which are near-infinitely-but-not-infinitely unlikely quantum fluctuations that produce the exact physical duplicate of your brain), fetuses, &etc. in different Poincare repetitions of existence, to experience whatever hallucinatory and painful experiences they experience, all separate iterations that die out, until one of them, which will bear your stream of perception but not anything like what you identify as yourself, will be born and live a life that could, depending on the nature of recurrence, be either identical to your current iteration or quite radically different from it. There can and will be no continuity in this stream of perception until "you" are born again; each iteration in the sequence would appear as disjointed as the beads on a necklace.

The only interesting thing in this question is whether a recurrent existence is identical to current existence in all iterations (which will be massively unpleasant and numbing for me), or probabilistically different from current existence (which leaves everything in the air). It is almost-certainly the case that history would be self-identical until you were born: Hitler will always have died April 30, 1945; Ronald Reagan will always have been elected November 1980; etc. But is what happens in your life "locked in"? That's the question.

If there are different recurrences - and never free will; free will is impossible - how closely related are what has happened in this iteration to what happens the next? Is there some probabilistic set that what happens in this iteration is arbitrarily similar to what happens in the next? I would think the similarities are closest at the point of birth and diverge with time.

But really, you could just listen to this.

Anyway we won't remember anything
Even if I live my best life in the other recurrence, me - is my current stream of perception which suck Boltzmann's balls

 

[Yomyom]

No one really knows, there is no even one prove that there is life after death and there is no prove that there isn't.

 

[Deathbydemo]

Life after death is very much subject to ones own beliefs and personal interpretations. There are many theories but not one yet proven to be true. I'd like to imagine we will all come back and relive a life over again, whether it's good or bad, but we will have no recollection of our past lives anyway and won't know if it's better, the same, or worse. So many possibilities.

 

[nztphill]

Stupid,very stupid question

 

[rebelsue]

Infinite recurrence of your stream of perception into disjointed, selfless Boltzmann brains and fetuses in various iterations of the Poincare recurrence until one stream of perception emerges into an arbitrarily similar version of yourself further down the line, which will be (in the case of a closed-loop Poincare recurrence) or may not be (in the case of an open-loop recurrence) self-identical to you now at any given period in your life. There will be many, many more near-variants of you (born, miscarried and, in some circumstances, aborted) who are not close enough to be "you".

All that your manner of death matters is the level of physical and psychological discomfort you experience at the point of death, though this can matter a great deal - there are mental states your brain will pass through en route to true death that will feel much longer than they actually are. Hence the desirability of N or fentanyl.

There will never be, upon achieving actual death a period where "you" perceive "nothing"; nothing cannot perceive nothing. What you will perceive, if you could string it into a whole experience, would be frightening and bizarre and probably quite painful, but you won't have to worry about that.

This is all gibberish. Nobody knows anything about what happens when we die. See my original reply above.

Dude... that is deep. Very interesting perception.

This was not deep. It was pseudointellectual gibberish. The only rational and deep thing to say is that nobody knows and it is unknowable.

 

[ExitStageLeft]

This is all gibberish. Nobody knows anything about what happens when we die. See my original reply above.

It's highly suggested by modern cosmology (though it requires Absolute Infinity as a condition, and mathematicians have hated the concept since Georg Cantor).

 

[GiveUp]

I couldnt believe someone posted the question and then I couldnt believe someone posted an answer claiming it to be scientific *rolls eyes*

 

[rebelsue]

It's highly suggested by modern cosmology (though it requires Absolute Infinity as a condition, and mathematicians have hated the concept since Georg Cantor).

Again, we have no way of verifying any of what modern cosmology "highly suggests." I know actual cosmologists and none of them would ever make such a strong claim about what cosmology can suggest.

 

[ExitStageLeft]

Again, we have no way of verifying any of what modern cosmology "highly suggests." I know actual cosmologists and none of them would ever make such a strong claim about what cosmology can suggest.

Ask them about the scenario I've outlined, given the assumption of Absolute Infinity.

 

[Deathbydemo]

This is all gibberish. Nobody knows anything about what happens when we die. See my original reply above.

This was not deep. It was pseudointellectual gibberish. The only rational and deep thing to say is that nobody knows and it is unknowable.

I don't know... sounds to me like he's been smoking up the funny stuff pretty hardcore lol. I read it as gibberish too.

 

[InTheAirTonight]

Did rationality fly out the window in this thread? Your brain will eventually cease all activity and the cells and neurons will start to rot. Then it's literal nothingness, much like the 14 billion years before your birth. No sense of time or space or anything. There it is. The cold hard truth. I find it very beautiful.

 

[ExitStageLeft]

Did rationality fly out the window in this thread? Your brain will eventually cease all activity and the cells and neurons will start to rot. Then it's literal nothingness, much like the 14 billion years before your birth. No sense of time or space or anything. There it is. The cold hard truth. I find it very beautiful.

What is perception?

If a brain identical to yours at a given point in your personal history - down to the quantum states it occupies at a particular time - does come into existence in an eternally existing universe, would it not follow logically that brain would have your self-perception? I don't mean a clone, which could never share your perception, or a computer simulation, or anything of the sort. An exact physical brain, exactly identical to yours at a highly specific point of time, down to the specific pattern of neurons firing at a particular point in your daily existence now, floating in a universe in which all matter has scattered to the furthest possible point and the universe temperature is near-even across space.

Humor me on it. Because there is a statistically non-zero probability of this happening, and the probability inches ever upwards the longer the universe exists, and becomes exponentially more likely if the universe oscillates, to the point that, given enough time, Boltzmann brain doppelgangers of existing entities, in one form or another, will exponentially outnumber "real" entities like us now. It wouldn't even need to occur in an iteration of the universe which you had previously existed in. It would only need to occur at some point once the temperature of a given universe approaches relative equilibrium.

This. Is. A. Thing. Entire cosmologies are designed to avoid this problem simply because it seems preposterous - and yet no wholly satisfactory solution to the problem has ever been found. Because it's really hard to get around them: if this universe is eternal into its heat death phase, Boltzmann brains will begin existing in just a few hundred billion years. If it's recurrent, that simply means more universes to reach the state necessary for them.

 

[vonvonwantpeace]

The same thing that happens before you're born.

Nothing.

 

[GiveUp]

The same thing that happens before you're born.

Nothing.

Exactly.

 

[one4all]

Philosophical Bullshit

 

[oneside]

Well, I don't know.

All I can say to you is: do not believe in people who claims that they know, because no one really knows.

 

[MartyByrde]

Nothing.

Ever see an animal dead on the side of the road? Same for us humans. It's only our ridiculous egos that make us think or believe there's anything more after this life. As if we're somehow different from every other living thing.

 

[one4all]

Nothing.

Ever see an animal dead om the side of the road? Same for us humans. It's only our ridiculous egos that make us think or believe there's anything more after this life. As if we're somehow different from every other living thing.

Are you telling me my dog didn't go to Doggy Heaven after he died?

 

[MartyByrde]

Are you telling me my dog didn't go to Doggy Heaven after he died?

Only if you believe in Santa Claus.

 

[Erdapfel]

If there was nothing before birth and nothing is after death, who or what brought me to life? Can the same forces that brought me to this hell just put me in the next hell after my death? If there is nothing outside of life, wouldn't it mean that I am nothing myself? How can you bring nothing to life? I don't know what happens after death, but somehow I can't believe that it's just nothingness. It would be too good to be true.

 

[soundsofsilence]

According to a quote once I saw:

Reality is an illusion created by our brains.
You may feel pain and suffer but that is part of the illusion.
When we die the illusion disappears.