What do you think happens after we die?

[rambo1220]

http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/An_Egg

also holy forget that was a good read

You beat me to it.

I was literally going to post what you said.

proves the stories point

you are him, and he is you.

not trying to jump on my high horse but what other explanation is there besides minds thinking alike.

kek

[Ad Bot]

[Steve5451²]

I'm 25 and have been declared dead three times. Though the circumstances leading up to the event were all different, heart failure was the ultimate ruling for each death. Whenever it comes up in conversation I have no qualms with saying what happened and how, but I put on a fake smile and talk about the 'light' or the 'other side' when people ask about the afterlife, heaven and whether or not there were voices or tunnels, etc.

When asked about the actual dying as opposed to asking about some kind of afterlife, THAT'S when I can tell the truth. Those people aren't asking for comfort, they're asking for my perception or experience of death. Don't read further if you don't want to know the feeling of dying.

It was an odd feeling, but the same each time, it begins by being completely adrift in empty, black space. It isn't warm or cold, I'm not flying or falling, it's simply a secession of the world. There's some mild distortion to the abyss, a sort of old TV-static effect, oddly blue/gray fuzz that's only barely detectable and some random, pulsing colors blending effortlessly with the darkness.

My mind is intact but not completely self aware. Sounds are still around me and sometimes, at the beginning, I could still hear what's going on around my body but it's like listening through water or a muffling wall and sped up too fast. Things blur together until it's just incoherent noise, the mind begins to see ghostly colors in the black as it struggles for some kind of stimuli when there is none.

I was aware of my limbs without seeing them, they shook violently as my body shut down but the feeling was of dull thuds on body parts mostly numbed. They calm and slump to my sides, then they fade. Slowly at first with a bit of static tingling, starting from the fingertips and toes, the sensation inches closer to the core. I somehow knew in the back of my mind that I was slowly dying and fading into the void, but there's no panic, no fear or anxiety. Simple recognition of a transition, from something real and solid into... nothing.

I became oddly aware of my chest and gut as well, feeling the muscles in my barrel twitch and spasm, ultimately going silent. As arms and legs were fading, so too went the rest of the body piece by piece. Some of the more obvious ones were there right away; the lack of a heartbeat, the emptiness of breath and yet no burning in it's absence, the growling of a stomach now made useless and some other oddly specific spots in the gut that twitch and numb.

But then the smaller things, like despite the generally ambient feeling of the emptiness surrounding me, a chill goes up my spine and spreads the cold throughout me. Much like the sensations of stepping from a cool spring day's sunlight into a shadow. It isn't a biting chill, no shock to be had, just a simple change into a lower energy state, barely noticeable... but there just the same. It travels upward, just ahead of the vanishing line of the body parts and chills the tissue. Nerves go silent, muscles release tensions held unknowingly, blood sinks back and changes the weight of my body ever so delicately.

Once my limbs and body had faded, complex thought was dying rapidly, I figure that the oxygen content in my brain must have gotten low enough at this point. Things like not recognizing the faint bluish-gray background static behind ghostly colors of the void. The deep crimsons, emeralds and violets gently pulsing adrift in the endless abyss. Any sensory input the mind could hold on to starts slipping, becoming more along the lines of 'dark... not dark, but dark'. Wondering about those distant muffled sounds around me, auditory and cognitive functions winding down and becoming 'sound, not sound... a loud quiet'. Whatever is making the hushed buzz is as interesting to me as a distant conversation about the stock exchange is to a fish.

No recognition of what was once the 'self' or how I was simply reduced to shapeless thoughts left adrift, dissipating into shadow. I can't exactly put it into words, probably because I as dangling dangerously over the brink at that point, but I saw this comic posted a while back and the mental steps in the beginning are fairly close to how my mind faded (in reverse, obviously). http://imgur.com/gallery/oCFzf

But then...

Light slammed into me. It burned my eyes and set the whole of existence aflame. Pain was everywhere, my body made flesh again. Lungs burned and heaved, heart pounded angrily against my ribs and pushed heavy blood back through limbs I thought were long lost. Terrible, impossible electricity wracked my muscles as my nerves reawakened and my very guts writhed in protest. Down. I was down. Need to get up, get away, get off the floor. The floor was cold, each and every time I was revived. But I could feel it, the cold, I could feel warmth in the air. I struggled but my hands couldn't move far, and my legs were pinned. Straining my spine to lift only revealed weight upon me, urgent sounds loud in my ears.

The EMTs had brought me back and my brain reeled at the overload of stimuli and confusion took over. I simply gave up and lay there, wide eyed and filled with a desperate, fleeing panic as my consciousness rebooted. After a minute or two, I was back, I was alive and at least mildly aware of what had happened within the last five to fifteen minutes while my classmates or coworkers had been giving me CPR, waiting for paramedics. Luckily, each of the three times I had died so far there were people around who could handle that kind of thing, so I guess that counts for something.

[sir dooble]

Understandable, but your interpretation of ceasing to be may stem from your fear of not existing in this physical form.

My interpretation stems only from a lack of evidence for a soul.
To the best of my knowledge my consciousness/self/'soul' is just the illusion of millions of neurons firing in my fatty lil' brain.

Hence when I die my neurons stop firing, even degrade, and I am no more. The illusion of me is destroyed.

But I may be wrong. There may be an intangible/immeasurable soul within me. But without evidence of it this jiggly brain, soul or not, chooses not to believe in one.
If I do have one though, won't it have egg on its face when it realises it just spent 20+ years having an existential crCIA about itself.

[Freek]

wow

[Nonnel]

nothing happens. you're dead.

[Akio-]

I cannot comprehend ceasing to exist as a whole..

I'm very aware of my thoughts and the feeling and sound of my fingers typing right now. I've always comforted myself with consciousness. Basically "If I'm aware right now, then it's impossible for me to lose this sense of awareness because there is everlasting consciousness." However, I was soon put down by the realization that it's possible that I'm basically not even conscious right now. Sure, I think I'm aware of what I'm doing right now, but in a few weeks or months I may never recall the feeling or sound of typing this ever again. This probably reads awkwardly but it's because I can't really mold my idea into words.

On topic though, I really want there to be an afterlife. But even if there isn't, I won't be aware that there's not.

[The Resonte!]

hooray for philosophy

there is one thing you can be sure of in reality: you existor not

and that's the absolute truth
or not

[Maxx°]

i need to point this out
nobody knows exactly what factually happens because there has been no scientific background to this
we can't really say its fake or real in this sense because theres no objective proving the other one wrong or right
so in this sense we dont know if its fake and we dont know if its real

i mean theres been a kid who says he went to heaven and back or some stuff but we still dont know if thats fake

tbh i'll just believe that theres some afterlife out there and if there is atleast i'll get in
and i mean i'll do good stuff so when the time comes atleast i did good stuff

[rambo1220]

My interpretation stems only from a lack of evidence for a soul.
To the best of my knowledge my consciousness/self/'soul' is just the illusion of millions of neurons firing in my fatty lil' brain.

Hence when I die my neurons stop firing, even degrade, and I am no more. The illusion of me is destroyed.

But I may be wrong. There may be an intangible/immeasurable soul within me. But without evidence of it this jiggly brain, soul or not, chooses not to believe in one.
If I do have one though, won't it have egg on its face when it realises it just spent 20+ years having an existential crCIA about itself.

exactly, I see your point of degrading and being no more, but remember neurons and literally everything physical about you have no connection to your immeasurable soul, well, kinda.

this may be the last person you want to hear talking about this but it's very informative, wasn't life changing for me as I've heard "deeper" things than this (oh look my high horse), but puts the specific subject of having a soul/consciousness into perspective.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcozMNhnjAI

I cannot comprehend ceasing to exist as a whole..

I'm very aware of my thoughts and the feeling and sound of my fingers typing right now. I've always comforted myself with consciousness. Basically "If I'm aware right now, then it's impossible for me to lose this sense of awareness because there is everlasting consciousness." However, I was soon put down by the realization that it's possible that I'm basically not even conscious right now. Sure, I think I'm aware of what I'm doing right now, but in a few weeks or months I may never recall the feeling or sound of typing this ever again. This probably reads awkwardly but it's because I can't really mold my idea into words.

On topic though, I really want there to be an afterlife. But even if there isn't, I won't be aware that there's not.

actually I completely understand you, and you bring up a very good point, I doubt it's true but no one can prove or disprove wether or not your conscious right now. And in those few weeks or months those feelings will be irrelevant to begin with, or maybe entirely, it's honestly up for you to decide.

[Akio-]

hooray for philosophy

there is one thing you can be sure of in reality: you existor not

and that's the absolute truth
or not

It's impossible to validate the existence of yours or anything else's consciousness. For all you know, you are alone in the world.

[Foxscotch]

For all you know, you are alone in the world.

I frickin wish, dog. but nope, I gotta share it with weebs and other freaks

[sir dooble]

I cannot comprehend ceasing to exist as a whole..

I'm not sure it's possible to.

Even trying I just imagine blackness, but how can there be a colour/absence of colour if I'm not there to be aware of it?

It's impossible to validate the existence of yours or anything else's consciousness. For all you know, you are alone in the world.

If the rest of the world is a fiction of myself though, then boy do I have a morbid and depressing mind. Beautiful and sweet too, but just as dark and twisted.

[Steve5451²]

i need to point this out
nobody knows exactly what factually happens because there has been no scientific background to this
we can't really say its fake or real in this sense because theres no objective proving the other one wrong or right
so in this sense we dont know if its fake and we dont know if its real

i mean theres been a kid who says he went to heaven and back or some stuff but we still dont know if thats fake

tbh i'll just believe that theres some afterlife out there and if there is atleast i'll get in
and i mean i'll do good stuff so when the time comes atleast i did good stuff

I've been choked out by a friend before and experienced much of the same near the beginning.

[Foxscotch]

If the rest of the world is a fiction of myself though, then boy do I have a morbid and depressing mind. Beautiful and sweet too, but just as dark and twisted.

how are you supposed to figure out whether you're the one imagining everyone else, or someone else is imagining you? maybe the meaning of life is to find out who is the one doing the imagining

[sir dooble]

how are you supposed to figure out whether you're the one imagining everyone else, or someone else is imagining you? maybe the meaning of life is to find out who is the one doing the imagining

All the awful, unexpected and meaningless deaths there are in the world?
We're in George R. R. Martin's mind.