Death. -

[Astaroth]

I'm terrified of the process of dying. I know it can be peaceful in some cases but if brought on by an accident or whatever it can be really fucking painful and scary, at least up to a certain point. And loved ones' deaths really hit me hard.

Death itself, I don't really mind the idea of not existing (in this form lol) anymore. I'm religious so I do believe in an afterlife but if it turns out to not exist, no problem. An eternity of nothingness actually sounds kind of nice.

 

[kenham]

I'm old-ish, yes. And I do not fear death anymore.
I do fear pain and suffering, so death will be a merciful release from this mortal coil.

If you truly feel that way, I admire you.
Personally, I fear situations with unforseeable outcomes, particularly if there's the possibility, that I might lose an ability I had before. And I think most people do.
A lot of people fear death, because death is the ultimate example for this. You might ascend a higher plane of consciousness or you might fade to exist. Only one thing is clear: Nothing will be as it was before. You will lose the ability to walk on this earth and interact with things the way you're used to. And I'm fucking terrified of that, as are most people, I think.

 

[cioro]

I don't like my life or myself. I wish I could have the courage to take my life, because all I want to do is sleep, but I'm scared of not being able to have a chance. I look back at times where I seriously considered suicide and wonder if I'd be happy not having any experiences I had between then and now. If my boyfriend leaves me, I'll probably kill myself.

 

[kookerpie]

I work on healthcare and we have to deal with the dead and dying regularly. People who are dying do a lot of weird shit to cope. One woman remindef me of the elderlylady from A Brave New World. She would turn on three televisions and two radios and surround herself with them. She also started tying bows made out of string onto every available surface, and eventually getting out help to do this when she could no longer manage it.
We have another woman who spends all day and night talking and sometimes arguing with an invisible person or group of people.

 

[Michel]

I wish I was dead every day!

 

[Funnybone]

I'm one of those optimists that thinks consciousness itself is too fucking weird and random for there NOT to be something after we parish. I'm not aligned with any religion so I don't have any firm belief on what there would be but darkness just doesn't make sense to me.

As for the actual process of death I really hope by the time I'm old and crippled (hopefully I live that long) elective euthanasia will be allowed wherever I end up. I just want a peaceful, controlled death-- surrounded by friends and maybe even during a little party.

 

[WOKE_AF 95]

I know this is going to sound cliched and passe, but here I go.

I've been an agnostic atheist my entire life and believed with certainy that death is the eternal end, that after death there is simply nothing. It wasn't until 2 years ago I had my views on death challanged by psychedelic drugs. Drugs didnt convince me that there is an afterlife, but they dissolved my certainy that there isn't one. Psychedelics can cause you have to have all sorts of weird ideas about conciousness and existence, and it could certainly be just drug induced nonsense, but my personal experiences certainly imply it's not simply nonsense.

I don't want to get preachy, and I dont think I understand more about death than any of you. Its just my personal opinions, and is probably just as unjustified as any other views on death

 

[WOKE_AF 95]

I'm one of those optimists that thinks consciousness itself is too fucking weird and random for there NOT to be something after we parish.

This is kind of my view as well. When you really start thinking about consciousness, qualia, and how weird it is to be an existing thing that is a center of experience, it becomes impossible to imagine non existence. I mean, how does conciousness arise? If you built a super computer could it potentially become a center of experience just like we are? It could be that we are nothing more than walking super computers (by which I mean a brain) that are making this thing called concious experience out to be more profound than it is, but I too tend to be an optomist and like to think something more profound is going on.

 

[Todesfurcht]

There's definitely some sort of afterlife, they have science now to prove that the consciousness lives on after the initial death.
It may not last forever, but I am certain that it is not an alarming experience. Talk to anyone who's had a near-death experience and they'll tell you about how pleasant and calming it was. Your brain is your greatest friend, and it will release the calming hormones you need when the time comes.

Todesfurcht
Meaning: Fear of Death

 

[WOKE_AF 95]

There's definitely some sort of afterlife, they have science now to prove that the consciousness lives on after the initial death.
It may not last forever, but I am certain that it is not an alarming experience. Talk to anyone who's had a near-death experience and they'll tell you about how pleasant and calming it was. Your brain is your greatest friend, and it will release the calming hormones you need when the time comes.

Todesfurcht
Meaning: Fear of Death

While I agree conciousness is a strange phenomenon and I myself believe some sort of aterlife is possible, Im not familiar this "science that proves the concioisness lives on after death". And as far as near death experiences go, there were lots of people in this thread who said they had near death experiences where they experienced nothing at all. Also, its certainly not true everyone dies peacefully, in the last few moments of my grandfathers waking moments (he died from cancer), he was thrashing and had a look of pure terror in his eyes.

 

[Todesfurcht]

While I agree conciousness is a strange phenomenon and I myself believe some sort of aterlife is possible, Im not familiar this "science that proves the concioisness lives on after death". And as far as near death experiences go, there were lots of people in this thread who said they had near death experiences where they experienced nothing at all. Also, its certainly not true everyone dies peacefully, in the last few moments of my grandfathers waking moments (he died from cancer), he was thrashing and had a look of pure terror in his eyes.

I'm not sure what is considered a valid news source among the Kiwi forums, but here are a few articles in regards to the consciousness after death:

Spoiler

One (Scientists)
Two (Scientists)
Three (Personal Experiences)

I read nearly all of the posts here and no one really "died" per say, consciousness may have been lost but was the pulse lost as well? I'm not trying to disrespect or debunk any of the previous posters, but many didn't clarify.
I think at a certain point in the process of death, the brain shuts everything down and throws out as many hormones as it possibly can. I'm sure some death is painful at first, yes, but I don't think it's an on-going agonizing pain. I'd like to believe that animals and people aren't suffering in horrific accidents.

 

[002]

Death is so terrifying to me. Just the thought of dying before beeing able to fix your life and feeling real joy is horrible me, suicide isn't an option, never been born would be much nicer.

 

[Fatcat]

I just hope i won't die in painful circumstances, instant death sounds good to be honest.

 

[Chiang Kai-shek]

I'm worried about losing others to death than I am my own. I hope there's an afterlife but I can't say for sure. In the meantime Monty Python offers us this piece of wisdom:

 

[Jacquetta]

I'm another agnostic atheist so I don't believe in an afterlife, obviously.

I mean, it sure would be nice if there is one (... ideally with some sort of opt out clause after a couple milennia because that might get really old), but I don't exactly see the point in putting all my faith on there being a better life after I've croaked like some of my relatives seem to do. If I want to do anything, I'm going to have to do it here.

 

[ZeCommissar]

It is better to die for The Emperor than live for yourself.

In all seriousness I could die tomorrow and not give a fuck. Why? Well because dead people can't give a fuck.
Also I don't believe that your consciousness, what makes you "you" exists anymore. While I do feel a slight melancholy at the aspect of not being able to interact with people and things anymore one day, honestly death doesn't seem too bad really. If the billions of people in history can die, you can to.

 

[DrainRedRain]

While I do feel a slight melancholy at the aspect of not being able to interact with people and things anymore one day, honestly death doesn't seem too bad really.

I feel the exact same way. I'm not afraid of 'eternal damnation' or expecting a 'heaven' for me. I have the belief that we just... cease to be. That's a little comforting to me.
But the only thing that makes me a little sad is, as you said, not being able to be me anymore, interact with things I love, etc.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I think at a certain point in the process of death, the brain shuts everything down and throws out as many hormones as it possibly can.

This could be an interesting read: Hallucinatory Near-Death Experiences. Turns out the light at the end of a tunnel thing seems to be mostly a Western thing.

Even though NDEs seem to be hallucinations, that doesn't necessarily mean there can't be an actual afterlife somehow (a kind of resurrection or dualism is somehow able to work after all), but NDEs don't seem to prove life after death either.

 

[Nobody]

I'd like to think that when we die, we reincarnate. Not necessarily another human being, though. Buckle the fuck up, the below read is quite a journey through the local cosmos.

We're all made up of a bunch of atoms. Biomass, I guess. Somehow, you are these atoms that make up your body, compared to other fully-assembled organisms around you.

I'd like to think we are a singular atom, sitting somewhere in the brain. Or perhaps we're a group of atoms led to believe we are "one". Regardless, you are here, sitting there in front of your screen, probably touching yourself at this very moment.

If you were to die, the established atomic/molecular/biological system that makes you "alive"... shuts off. You are now just a pile of "non-living" atoms, destined to decay, which is really just your masses of atoms being recycled elsewhere: bug shit, fungi food, soil nutrients, people food, etc.

When you die... you, the atomic "soul"... you just get pushed around elsewhere in this earth. Your old body rots behind, you get eaten by a maggot that found its way into your old brain, you then become a protein to create a nutrient to an adult fly, the fly gets eaten by a frog, the frog metabolizes the fly into frog parts to build its muscles, the frog gets captured and eaten by a drunk Korean guy, the protein from the frog gets transferred to the Korean guy's balls, you then become a sperm in the testicles, then the Korean guy hits it up with a whore in the red light district of Seoul, and boom! You are now a miserable Korean baby! Shit like that.

Hopefully, you don't get aborted, let alone get beaten to the egg by the millions of other sperms (they will end up in the toilet or just dry up as leg-dribble). There's also variables such as... well, being here on Earth, the only planet for trillions of miles around that's able to support an environment for molecules to wiggle together, coalesce, and become fucking LIFE. Here's to hoping this planet won't explode soon!

It could be a year, a decade, a century, a millennium, or even longer before you become another sentient being. It's the beautiful circle of life. You won't remember anything about your past "life"; all of your memories died with the old body. You just exist; you're a traveling little figurative "soul" going for a fun ride in the universe, vessel to vessel. You probably have eons of afterlife to spend as a boring blood cell or something. You probably won't be a human next time. Maybe you'll be a plant.

Rest assured, the concept of time and boredom likely resides in our human minds. When we reincarnate into boring shit like cells and plants, it'll all happen in a human blink of an eye! You'll become another sentient thing before you know it!

That's what I like to think when it comes to death.

I also believe we should eat each other if we want to ensure our reincarnate fates as another human. Just a very good suggestion.

 

[ZeCommissar]

*snip snip*

I agree with this mostly and pondered about it. I still believe that once whatever makes your conciseness is gone, it's gone for good. But I have pondered on this idea before.

Anyway if that theory is true, then wouldn't you branch off into multiple consciousnesses? Like the atoms that make your conciseness right now will be split apart, so wouldn't they just branch off into different beings?