Death is a scary concept

[SuicideByBelt]

No more consciousness forever. You don't get to see what happens next or the reaction to your death. You're just gone. Forever.

 

[Root]

It sounds relieving. No more worrying about things or pain.

 

[R_N]

To me death is both the relief and fear of dying and being dead.

 

[Despondent]

Same thoughts. That's why I try to recognize that it's best not to be impulsive about ctb. I don't know if me being impulsive in a single moment will want me to be dead forever. Literally forever.

 

[theguineapigking]

I get what you mean. The fact though,is that we don't know what comes after. No matter what anyone says,no matter how confident they are,we don't actually know. There could be an afterlife of sorts. Or maybe we do cease to exist. Just keep in mind there may be an afterlife. Maybe consciousness is separate than our bodies. Maybe our energy forms go into physical bodies to learn and experience things in such a way that our conscious awareness expands.


Maybe we cease to exist and that's that. There's no longer any"you" to perceive that you died. Or maybe you "wake" up and realize that you came here to learn how stupid people can be and how bad things really can be.


Honestly,it's overwhelming to think about... I hate life and the fact that most people appear to be absolute idiots or assholes.

I do hope that dying brings about some form of "peace".


I wish you the best.

 

[BipolarExpat]

I get what you mean. The fact though,is that we don't know what comes after. No matter what anyone says,no matter how confident they are,we don't actually know.

That's it.

Try the op in a Buddhist community...they'd look at you like......"whaaaaa?"

Life feels cheaper there. After all (to them) it's a super-sized karmic wheel of life after life after life, so this particular life/death isn't all that important

But that's just one religionist view of things.

Not a popular stance on this forum (fair enough). The most popular theory here seems to be the atheistic view of impermanence or descending into a nothing state. While not all atheists believe in nothingness, (atheism is more about no God) there are plenty of alternative ideas as to what happens next...all just as valid as the next, imo.

A few:
- Nothingness
- Heaven or heaven-like
- Reunification with family/ancestors/angels
- Suffering continues
- Consciousness & Free will continue
- Hell or Hellish
- Reincarnation / Karmic wheel
- Other life forms, planetary systems, galaxies, universes
- Anything else you can dream up

Is there an afterlife? Different religious views on death

Different religions have their own beliefs on whether there’s an afterlife and what happens to someone after they die.

www.frazerconsultants.com

Edgar Cayce: Evidence of reincarnation, karma and past lives

Clairvoyant Edgar Cayce offers compelling evidence that we've lived before, and are accountable for...

www.karenmblack.com

Skeptical psychiatrist finds proof of reincarnation

I have long wanted to write about Dr. Brian Weiss, a prominent American psychiatrist, whose books about reincarnation and past life hypnotic regression have helped thousands of people in the United…

www.google.com

 

[jgm63]

My view :

Spoiler: post-479607

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/have-you-ever-thought-of-afterlife.26403/post-479607

This may also be helpful :

Spoiler: Seeing Through Death

 

[Freedom Believer]

If nothing is there then we can't complain about it, since we're dead. If there is an afterlife, I'll take it.

 

[Manja]

I wish it was nothingness, but I'm into the wheel more and more...I feel that I'm coming back and thats such a drag, theres no escape from suffering one way or the other...

 

[Heart of Ice]

Yup. Anyone who says they don't fear death either a) have experienced it before (basically had an NDE) or more likely b) trying to convince themselves more than others.

 

[voyager]

Well, I've voiced my thoughts before, but since none of us know, the best I can come up with is be prepared for everything and nothing if you will. Death is inevitable anyway, so acceptance is the best we can do to face it.

Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back - Marcus Aurelius (The pic was too big, sorry)

 

[calendulo]

I am agree with that concept. To die is so akward, although you are gone... why to be worried for what happens next if you do not get to see it, but you are......
It is true, death is a scary concept.
to have lived your life like a crazy..... to die like a rational human being or at least try it.

 

[Empty Smile]

Death itself isn't scary, it's the unknown that awaits on the other side.



Wow.... Did I just say that?

 

[SugarbushMtn]

Sounds good. Eternal sleep.

 

[Ghost2211]

I'm right there with you. I'm not afraid of the process of dying, but rather the unknown after the fact. I would never want to ctb if I haven't made peace with death, so I'm taking it as a sign of not being ready and properly prepared.

 

[JoeFailure]

I just can't get on board with the forever nothingness thing.

What I keep coming back to is this...on an infinite timeline of forever and eternity, even if there is no God or higher beings or anything like that...it's so hard for me to believe that out of whatever nothingness the universe and the big bang and all that stuff came out of, wouldn't occur again, and whatever perfect storm of atoms and neurons and all that shit that created "your" consciousness wouldn't ever form again.

I just think forever is too long of a timeline for this to never happen like that again. So yeah, I believe in some form of eternal recurrence. But not necessarily that our lives would turn out the exact same way, because maybe there are some split second decisions you'd make differently the next time around, or some that others made that caused a butterfly effect.

 

[Flippy]

I've thought about this from lots of points of view. Some scientists think that the universe, time, reality just repeats itself over and over. We may have done all this an infinite number of times. So if that's true then there is some sort of afterlife. The thing that isn't comforting about this, for me at least, is that you can only ever repeat all this over again. Some quantum physicists believe that we don't even have free will at that level, we are just atoms etc in motion. Increasing entropy.

I have great anxiety over not being able to do anything about what happens after I die. It's comforting to think that I won't have any consciousness and I wouldn't have any cares or anything else for that matter. Then I think, lots of people die every day, it just happens all the time. Most of them probably don't want to, yet they do it. Then I wonder why I find it so hard.

 

[Exitforme]

It sounds relieving. No more worrying about things or pain.

Exactly this! How eternal peace and nothingness is not bliss to some is very very weird to me.

Death is a fate which all men eventually face. It need not be feared.

 

[chris8000]

Haha, not quite @BipolarExpat, the Buddhist view of this life is not that it is unimportant because there are many more lives, but that it is important because in this life there is the potential to realise nirvana and exit the cycle. So actually there is great importance of this life according to this philosophy.

This system is also within Hinduism and Sikhism, both believe in reincarnation, karma, and their point of life is to experience enlightenment. So it isn't confined to Buddhism.

Although I like the way you link to Edgar Cayce, his life is an interesting story. He was a Christian who decided reincarnation happened because he had some mystical experience, and I find the stories of his readings... intriguing.

Reincarnation is as valid a perspective as any other I've encountered, including the nihilistic belief we vanish into nothingness and life is pointless.

Personally nothingness sounds pretty good to me, that's what I used to think happened, but my own belief is this reincarnation thing has something to it.

 

[BipolarExpat]

Haha, not quite @BipolarExpat, the Buddhist view of this life is not that it is unimportant because there are many more lives, but that it is important because in this life there is the potential to realise nirvana and exit the cycle. So actually there is great importance of this life according to this philosophy.

I hear you but having lived in a Buddhist country for a decade (and being directly associated w/ it for over 2 decades) there is a noticeable and prevailing "meh" attitude when it comes to the death of others that's kinda hard to ignore.

For individuals, it may stem (just wild guessing) from the understanding that 'ok, this life...I've lied, cheated, stolen, etc. I don't think I've made a whole lot of progress this time around."

I dunno...

Are their attitudes better/worse than western perspectives? No point in debating that - it's just different.
They send em' off right....no rush, patiently then get on with it.

Cayce was a remarkable individual. His foundation's library A.R.E. in VA beach looks well worth visiting.
*sigh* maybe another lifetime.

 

[TAW122]

When I was younger, yes I had a fear of death, I feared that it would mean no more conscious and possibly painful. However, as I grew older, I realized that death itself isn't pain, but the process to reaching the state of 'death' is (for most methods at least). As someone who doesn't believe in an afterlife (but not saying that there isn't one; we just don't know for sure) and an atheist, my understanding and belief is that during death, it would be non-conscious, void, darkness, and even the inability to perceive anything (touch, taste, smell, sound, etc.). It would be like the time before one was conceived (or born), or similarly, an dreamless sleep.

 

[Shamana]

No more consciousness forever. You don't get to see what happens next or the reaction to your death. You're just gone. Forever.

Its not a fact that mental phenoma ceases on the death of body.

 

[RainAndSadness]

Oh yeah, I agree with you. Death is a very scary concept. Like, the idea of dying and disappearing forever, for the rest of eternity, is scary and that's what has kept me alive - despite strong determination to commit suicide. I've went all the way to the last step in the past but I was unable to let go and just do it. It's frustrating because I don't seem to miss out on anything anyway. It wouldn't have made a difference for my life if I left now or 5 years ago, to be honest. I've reached the bottom. Nothing is changing anymore. But despite the fear of dying, at the same time, it's also reliving and comforting to know that all of this pain and struggle will ultimately end someday. Nothing lasts forever, right? And you'll just fade away into nothingness, into a neutral, colorless state, free from all the struggle. I kinda like that idea. But as you said, death is a very difficult concept and impossible to really understand.
And yeah, taking matters into your own hand and leaving is unbelievably difficult and the largest obstacle you could ever overcome in this universe, because you're essentially working against your own biological instinct to stay alive. I've been there and I'm trying to understand why suicide is so difficult for many of us and almost impossible to complete. And I think I found the answer. You're basically refusing to follow your natural programming and you're breaking free from this cycle of suffering with the act of suicide. It's not natural for sentient beings to take their lives, that's why humans are basically the only ones who do it, because we have the mental capacity to intellectually, rationally question and fight the survival instinct and examine the value of our life in the first place. That's really the one thing that seperates us from other animals. We can logically make the decision to end the suffering and commit suicide if the pain and struggle outweighs positive aspects in life - and I'm not even sure if there are any, to be honest. Being alive itself is a complete mindfuck. As I said in other posts, existing in my situation is a nightmare and I would have preferred to avoid birth altogether - if I knew what was coming. I think even late stage abortion would have been more pleasant and tied to less struggle than going through years and years of a never ending downward spiral filled with nothing but suffering and pain. At least it would have been quick, compared to a slow death like mine, and that's essentially what I'm experiencing as long as I'm still alive, in this rotten, hopeless state. And once you exist, once you've been born, it's too late already - because you're already stuck in that dilemma, between life and death and there is basically no escape anymore. You're forced to experience this sheer cold and brutal existence and the only exit out of life is extremely difficult to pull off. It's kinda like a trap. Once you're in there, you stay there. For some decades, at least. It's truly a mindfuck and I'm still trying to understand it.
Anyway... I'm not sure how people do it, but a lot of people are successful at suicide and I envy them a lot. That's what I'm learning from this forum. Those people must have been in a state of mind I wasn't able to reach yet and I hope I'll join them someday.

 

[RedPanda]

I really like the concept of entering the void. Never knowing what happens after, having no recollection about anything. Just an endless..bliss, free from everything.

 

[bigoutfit]

I have always gone with nothingness, like before you were born. But just lately I have been thinking. If consciousness is a by product of our brains (which I believe it is) and everything including us comes from stars, then what is stopping my brain being recreated somewhere else in the universe at a different time in the far off future and me coming back to life that way. Reincarnation I guess.

Say 10 trillion years time or something I could wake up on another planet just by pure chance, with a memory of my previous life or no memory but just like the first 13.8 billion years I wasn't around it goes in an instant.

On a long enough time scale I guess anything is possible. I guess we will all find out one day.

 

[HannahB]

Isnt it odd? It's so hard to think about nothingness. I think that's what makes it scary. But in truth it's just like nights you dont dream. So maybe it isnt scary maybe something else is scary that we dont understand enough to seperate from death. Hmmm

 

[EndItQuickly]

I wish it was nothingness, but I'm into the wheel more and more...I feel that I'm coming back and thats such a drag, theres no escape from suffering one way or the other...

If it really is endless, that can be pretty terrifying. However, if we do return perhaps it's by choice and we have no memory of the time between lives. If that's the case maybe there's a purpose to our suffering. I personally don't believe that we continue to return after this death, considering the absolute vastness of the perceivable universe. Maybe every living thing knows the answer, but we choose to forget for the sake of experiencing this organic life.

 

[justwantdeath]

Nobody actually knows what happens after death. Materialism tends to ignore evidence that contradicts the hypothesis that the brain is the source of consciousness, while supernaturalists tend to believe any new age garbage must be true. The fact of the matter is we have no fucking clue. We aren't even sure about the big bang or how life even started. All we can do is make educated guesses based on what little evidence we have to go by. To me, NDEs are as close as we can get to death without the source of information reaching a point where they can no longer report the experience of temporary death, and following that evidence, I believe there is an afterlife.

 

[WhiteEyes]

Say 10 trillion years time or something I could wake up on another planet just by pure chance, with a memory of my previous life or no memory but just like the first 13.8 billion years I wasn't around it goes in an instant.

I did think about this too, but the universe is finite due to heat death.
And if recreated may have different physical laws.
I guess we assume the existence of time to be real and so maybe the laws will repeat...
idk.