Does conscioussness survive death?

[Great Britain]

What are your beliefs about death. Does our soul live on and move onto some other plane of existence, are we reincarnated, do we go on some colorful journey throughout space as energy, do we come back as ghosts or is death the end of the line with nothing after it? Science points to the latter, religion to the former, much of the rest to something in between. What do you guys believe?

[Insomniac]

I would like to think so, but I don't really think so. What did they say in the Sopranos? "It's like cutting to black"? Except actually, it's like cutting to non-color, the stuff a person born without eyes sees.

Heaven would be divine of course, but I think I'd be content with nonexistence if only I got to see what happened to humanity before I went. Do we get off this planet and bend the universe to our will, do we wipe ourselves out, or does nature erase all traces of us? I'd like to know, and I don't think I'll live long enough to see any sign in any direction.

[yard]

i would like to think that we move on to another plane of consciousness

[Distortion]

I think our energy or spirit moves into a different plane of existence definately, whether it be heaven or back into the all encompassing energy of existence. To me the real question is whether or conciousness and "self" is part of our energy/spirit or does it exists solely in the physical body? If our concious and self exist soley in our energy then i think there is no doubt a heaven, if conciousness is just a by product of our energy taking on human form then there is no heaven and existence is one large peice of connected energy that we go back to. One thing i feel sure of is that when you die there is no "nothingness", that would be too easy. But no way to know till you die... here borrow my gun

[willydong]

One thing i feel sure of is that when you die there is no "nothingness", that would be too easy.

But there was "nothingness" before i was born. Why would that state change after death?

[Claydon]

When a person dies, all chemical activity (minus degradation of tissue) ceases therefore there is no "spirit" or "energy" or "fairy dust" left over to move on to nirvana, heaven, or whatever.

[}{arlequin]

I believe that you are a shitty fucking country.
i believe there's a neg in his future

[halfabubbleoff]

I would like to believe there is something beyond this mortal coil. However, I believe that something to be beyond my current ability to comprehend and beyond my current concept of senses.

It all comes down to the concept of a soul, or some intangible/unmeasurable aspect of existence that can and does continue on after the failure of the mortal body. To be honest, I don't really worry too much on what might happen after my mortal days are finished. On one hand, I don't want to be let down when I am reincarnated into a slug, the pearly gates are rusted, or Valhalla is not wired with broadband connectivity. On the other hand, if there really is nothing after this, and my life is nothing more than a snuffed candle, I won't care.

I know this is a problem that has vexed humanity since the beginning. It just is not one that has ever bothered me that much. I have lived my life well with a minimum of regrets, so I feel secure that I will move on to a "better place" should there be an afterlife. No matter what that place is, I will be happy with it by definition. Either happiness or oblivion, I will be fine with it in the end anyway. Both outcomes point to an end to mortal suffering, so I have something to look forward to either way.

Depending on your outlook, my views are either enlightened, morbid, or just plain stupid. I can live with that.

[Distortion]

But there was "nothingness" before i was born. Why would that state change after death?

how do you know? because you don't remember? I don't remember last friday, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

[Pike Bishop]

I'm hoping for a transfiguration of consciousness. But I'll take what I can get, seeing as how I don't really have any choice in the matter.

[Chimbo]

I think we just die and that's it. Bye. Game over insert another coin.

[Distortion]

but if you just die then whats the point of good and evil, why does it exist, why does balance exist if theres nothing to balance

[Monster Joe]

When a person dies, all chemical activity (minus degradation of tissue) ceases therefore there is no "spirit" or "energy" or "fairy dust" left over to move on to nirvana, heaven, or whatever.
If only we had sight over everything going on right now, it would really be that simple to make predictions about the future. Too bad, really.

[storm]

but if you just die then whats the point of good and evil, why does it exist, why does balance exist if theres nothing to balance

Good question, but I think there may not be a 'point' to it as such. By which I dont think there's necessarily a plan of some kind. Good and Evil are just the way we look at things that happen in the world, usually referring to human behaviour.

It's hard to say if they are balanced. I see a very different picture of the world depending on where I look.

In the news we see lots of bad things happening all around the world, but 'news' is just a selection of reports chosen from potentially millions of events that a producer/editor has decided to present to us. Sometimes those decisions are biased towards events that are highly dramatic or controversial in order to achieve attention and ratings.

If I look around my community I seen way more good things happening than bad. e.g. friends helping each other out, hospital auxillaries, church groups doing aged care visits, meals on wheels, helping elderly people accross the road etc. I rarely see anything bad happen and not much bad happens to me.

[Grieves]

It existed before you were born, it will exist after your body dies.

[Stax]

but if you just die then whats the point of good and evil, why does it exist, why does balance exist if theres nothing to balance

They don't. You can't stick something in a vat of chemicals and measure the level of goodness or evilness in it. Good and evil are labels ascribed by human beings to various acts. What is a sexual atrocity to a Christian is everyday normal life to a Roman. What is murder to a modern, urbanized human is a daily tribal clash to the Yanomamo.

As for balance, what exactly do you mean?

[Crack]

Did you ever expect to open your eyes for the very first time? Was that not unforeseeable?

So how can you "not expect" for them to open again in the unforeseeable?

[Archetype]

What are your beliefs about death. Does our soul live on and move onto some other plane of existence, are we reincarnated, do we go on some colorful journey throughout space as energy, do we come back as ghosts or is death the end of the line with nothing after it? Science points to the latter, religion to the former, much of the rest to something in between. What do you guys believe?

Heaven is me skull fucking your corpse.

[Sir Droopy]

I believe you die and await a resurrection. Nothing in between. No waiting room.

[billy1980]

I think Im going to reincarnate as a Jalapeno Pepper. A really really hot one.

[Archetype]

They don't. You can't stick something in a vat of chemicals and measure the level of goodness or evilness in it. Good and evil are labels ascribed by human beings to various acts. What is a sexual atrocity to a Christian is everyday normal life to a Roman. What is murder to a modern, urbanized human is a daily tribal clash to the Yanomamo.

So what, the human brain is just a squishy hard drive now? Last I checked, thinking is still a human faculty. Not all of it can be confined to empiricism, and just because it can't does not immediately equal relativism, that's a cheap fucking cop-out.

[phule]

I believe we had conciousness before birth, and that we'll have it after. I've definitely seen some two year olds with very developed personalities. My niece, for one, was born Pure Evil. There's no way she could have developed as much evil genius as she has in just two short years.

[iolas]

but if you just die then whats the point of good and evil, why does it exist, why does balance exist if theres nothing to balance


You are assuming there are forces of good and evil. There is none.
Some people do good things and others do bad things...it's as simple as than.

[}{arlequin]

if there is some sort of afterlife, then i hope not.
if there isn't, then i'd like a bit of consciousness so i could have time to enjoy the religion lulz.

[Roll]

If one's mind's in a heavy state of stress at the time of death, I really believe that residual energy from the brain can linger and not dissipate completely. hence the ghost phenomenon.

As far as consciousness goes, I don't believe in a Heaven manifested. If you die, you just cease to be consciousness and all. The closest thing I can figure to the idea of Heaven is being able to die truly content and going poof "correctly." Happiness + Death = Heaven.

Most people try to make "GOOD" decisions because I imagine that it inevitably determines whether a person is satisfied with his life or not, from my atheist perspective anyway.

[Bill Paxton]

"What pretension everlasting peace! Everything must cease." - Bad Religion

I have no clue. I think it would be great if there were something like reincarnation or heaven, but I have my doubts. Though I do think it is kind of pretentious of us to think that we might get some kind of eternal happiness. Do slugs go to heaven? What about amoebas?

What about those really smart dolphins and cat and dogs?

Or that monkey that learned sign language?

Are there a bunch of dinosaurs floating around in limbo right now? Or Cro-magnons?

Where do we draw the line? I feel that reincarnation would be the most logical form of afterlife since it would imply that deep down every animal or plant has some humanity in it and that there is a cyclical nature to existense.

The idea of a "heaven" is a little big more difficult to swallow, though if it exists it would be pretty kick ass.

I try to live my life as fully and decently as I can while still enjoying myself and I think that is all you can really shoot for. I am not worried about what happens when i die, at least not yet anyway, and for better or worse im gonna find out one day.

[dantino]

I certainly hope not. When I'm dead I hope it is all done, life's enough of a f-ckwad, an afterlife to boot would just be too much.

[riseabove!]

I'd hate life-after-death consciousness. disembodied-consciousness has no point, the dead can't physically affect the living.

[Archetype]

Allegedly.

[Morfin]

I believe you die and await a resurrection. Nothing in between. No waiting room.

I swear to God, we need some sort of limit on who can post in these threads.

Let me get this straight, Einstein: You die and AWAIT a resurrection, but there is no WAITING room.

[IHaveNone]

I find it hard to believe that once you are dead that everything is done. I want to believe that something lives on. I am not a religious person and don't want to get into that discussion. I just want to believe that the end isn't the end.

[Archetype]

I swear to God, we need some sort of limit on who can post in these threads.

Let me get this straight, Einstein: You die and AWAIT a resurrection, but there is no WAITING room.
What else would you call Limbo?

[Void]

There are many tantalizing stories out there that suggest that possibility that human consciousness transcends physical death. Near-death experiences, past-life memories, "psychic mediums" communicating with the dead, ghost sightings, etc. While a lot of them can be discounted as pure bullshit for various reasons, taken as a whole, I find them intriguing. Far more so than the promises, and threats, of religion.

But the evidence is hardly conclusive. They remain, for the most part, subjective in nature; unable to be verified in any satisfactory manner. They could all be the product of purely natural (psychological or neurological) causes.

So, if anything, I remain an open-minded skeptic on the issue. But I must admit that I have a sincere hope that death isn't the end for us. It would be good to live on the farm after you buy it.

[kijo52]

Questions like these make me wish I was still a little kid, when believing in anything was easy. But the older I get, the harder it gets to just rely on faith alone. I sincerely hope there is an afterlife as of right now,because I am still young and there are so many things I haven't done. But I guess if I lived a good life and had no regrets, simply ending wouldn't be so bad.

[Ghostrider]

Heaven and hell are most likely your mental energy made up of positive and negative experiences in life. When you kill yourself your brain is obviously hurting pretyy bad if you go there so that is the feeling you relive from life until your energy is recycled into another vessel.

[Okie Medicvet]

I find it hard to believe that once you are dead that everything is done. I want to believe that something lives on. I am not a religious person and don't want to get into that discussion. I just want to believe that the end isn't the end.


I feel the same way.

[runlive]

Maybe consciousness like your dream state consciousness...you just never wake up.

[Blacklion]

Everything ends, I certainly hope so. Im not saying that this life has been a piece of shit, I haven't even lived that much to say that, but I wouldn't want to see the world again after im dead, this is a fucked up place right now, what about a few hundred years from now. And the heaven thing, would it really be nice to live for eternity in a so called paradise?
When we die we die. We wont see darkness and we wont know anything. We are dead. It's simple but people make it complicated. At least I think so.

[Okie Medicvet]

I just want to believe what the song sez that I want played at my funeral..because to truly believe that would be pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDWQ8w829tY

[JohnQRotten]

I don't believe in a literal heaven either ie one where everyone is in white robes hanging out on clouds, breaking bread with the saints. However, I do believe in life after death. I think everyone's consciousness returns to a kind of communal "stewing pot" and mixes together. The more at peace you were when you died the more you mix with everyone. You lose part of yourself but gain part of almost everyone else that has ever lived and died. This "stew" is constantly pouring out, filling the new babies being born. The reason some people have past life memories is because they received a bit of someone's consciousness that didn't dissolve completely in the "stew". Ghosts, on the other hand, are people who were so traumatized when they died that they unconsciously refused to slide into that nice, warm "stew pot". Sometimes they go a bit insane from the knowledge that they're dead but still around. This is Hell. If they stick around long enough they can convince themselves that they were never human. These ghosts often believe themselves to be demons.

Anyhow, those are my beliefs. They may be wrong or they may be right...

[Void]

I don't believe in a literal heaven either ie one where everyone is in white robes hanging out on clouds, breaking bread with the saints. However, I do believe in life after death. I think everyone's consciousness returns to a kind of communal "stewing pot" and mixes together. The more at peace you were when you died the more you mix with everyone. You lose part of yourself but gain part of almost everyone else that has ever lived and died. This "stew" is constantly pouring out, filling the new babies being born. The reason some people have past life memories is because they received a bit of someone's consciousness that didn't dissolve completely in the "stew". Ghosts, on the other hand, are people who were so traumatized when they died that they unconsciously refused to slide into that nice, warm "stew pot". Sometimes they go a bit insane from the knowledge that they're dead but still around. This is Hell. If they stick around long enough they can convince themselves that they were never human. These ghosts often believe themselves to be demons.

Anyhow, those are my beliefs. They may be wrong or they may be right...Interesting, but not very appealing...for me, anyway. I'd rather not get mixed into a "stew"; it seems pretty much equivalent to death for the individual.

Sticking around as a ghost, even if the experience is somewhat unpleasant, might be preferable if you know the alternative is being shoved into some sort of celestial blender.

[JohnQRotten]

Interesting, but not very appealing...for me, anyway. I'd rather not get mixed into a "stew"; it seems pretty much equivalent to death for the individual.

Sticking around as a ghost, even if the experience is somewhat unpleasant, might be preferable if you know the alternative is being shoved into some sort of celestial blender.

I understand where you're coming from but the upside is that you'd be one with everyone that came before you and would know the answer to every question you ever had about anything. Imagine knowing who built Stonehenge, how they built the pyramids, or what happened to Amelia Earhart.

[Void]

I understand where you're coming from but the upside is that you'd be one with everyone that came before you and would know the answer to every question you ever had about anything. Imagine knowing who built Stonehenge, how they built the pyramids, or what happened to Amelia Earhart.The problem is that it's not really "you" or "me" that would gain this knowledge, it's some giant amalgam of you and me plus all the billions of other human beings who've ever lived. Individuality ceases to exist in this paradigm, which to me is equivalent to death.

What's worse, it might not just be nifty factual knowledge "you+billions" might become aware of, but feelings and experiences. And not just the good ones.

I could deal with not knowing with 100% certainty that OJ did it, if that also means I have to know how Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman felt when the knife slashed their throats.

[Area Man]

I don't believe we maintain our personal consciousness nor do we maintain the sort of linear perspective of time that we experience now. I think some different kind of consciousness might be possible, but without attachment to our mortal lives and self interests, I think that experience would be completely different. Without the human goals, desires, needs, impluses, etc. I think we would lose some of our idea of identity and instead mesh back into the universe, existence, or God.

[TheImpossibleMan]

I would think no. There is no evidence to suggest that consciousness survives death, as far as I'm aware.

[JohnQRotten]

I don't believe we maintain our personal consciousness nor do we maintain the sort of linear perspective of time that we experience now. I think some different kind of consciousness might be possible, but without attachment to our mortal lives and self interests, I think that experience would be completely different. Without the human goals, desires, needs, impluses, etc. I think we would lose some of our idea of identity and instead mesh back into the universe, existence, or God.

That's kind of what I've been saying. I think that the way I've put it sound unappealing because we're looking at it from a living human perspective. Without the bodies needs and desires, as pure consciousness, it wouldn't be so bad to be mixed with everyone that has ever lived.

As far as experiencing their bad memories, that is true but you'd be looking at them from the perspective that everything worked out in the end. The biggest part of what makes death scary to humans is that we don't know what happens next.

[freegood]

Does it really matter?

Either way, you have to accept the fact that you will die.

[bdjlo09]

Consciousness is beyond our knowledge.

[DeMartini Sands]

When a person dies, all chemical activity (minus degradation of tissue) ceases therefore there is no "spirit" or "energy" or "fairy dust" left over to move on to nirvana, heaven, or whatever.

That's what I think as well, It's nice to think otherwise, but unfortunately not very logical...........

[jtsteen12]

the illusion that the consciousness we have of ourselves is the only consciousness possible is what makes this question worth asking. Death relieves us of that consciousness by the end of "self" we take on the universal consciousness of the cosmos and return to where we were before our conception. We came from dust and to dust we return as we melt back into the life cycle.

[Morfin]

These are two quotes, from the same person, made within five minutes of each other.

Another textbook example of why people should not over-indulge in drugs.

the illusion that the consciousness we have of ourselves is the only consciousness possible is what makes this question worth asking. Death relieves us of that consciousness by the end of "self" we take on the universal consciousness of the cosmos and return to where we were before our conception. We came from dust and to dust we return as we melt back into the life cycle.

american tv rules wtf! how could you not enjoy it? what else allows you to virtually do nothing, think of nothing, and forget you are alive for hours at a time?

[Marshy]

As someone who has spent years of his life looking for answers into the unknown and life after death, this topic is quite hilarious and entertaining to see different perspectives.

I've explored different sides of the debate from religious, philosophical, psychic, metaphysical, and scientific sides. And from all I have learned, I will say this....

Life after death is not objective because life during life isn't objective. It's all subjective.

Now while I wait for the great minds who piss away their time here to debate my last sentence with quotes and studies from other people, I will say this about science. As much as you want to say that science is objective, that too is subjective because all we know about the world, universe, and life itself from science is only from the human perspective.

Try to understand all that we know from a bug's perspective for instance. To us, a small reaction like throwing a 5lb rock is easy. To an ant, it's more complex. The study of physics behind both situations is now changed from each perspective.

During my time researching the after life, have I seen what I believe is a ghost? Yes. Do I expect you to believe in life after death or even ghosts for that matter without experiencing it yourself? No.

I can take all the objective evidence that I want in studies, photos, audio, video, etc. but a subjective personal experience will always outweigh my objective evidence. Why? Because life is personal and subjective.

That is all I shall add to this conversation because I have things to continue with.

[Izayus]

If I'm able to float around, ie ghostly. Then I could probably handle it. Death would be like a big tv show. What are my kids up to today? Is that woman upstairs still doing chores nude?

My greatest fear is consciousness after death, with no sensory input. Just my mind. Eternity. ~shiver~

[Deadhead Derek]

no, it doesn't

[freegood]

Life after death is not objective because life during life isn't objective. It's all subjective.


That'd be an interesting point if you weren't so defensive and douchey in delivering it.

[Kerjack]

It lives, I know, I just watched Flatliners on Hulu.

[IHaveNone]

"
Now while I wait for the great minds who piss away their time here to debate my last sentence with quotes and studies from other people, I will say this about science. As much as you want to say that science is objective, that too is subjective because all we know about the world, universe, and life itself from science is only from the human perspective. "

That is very well said. It is a very similar argument I have had throughout my education career with many professors.