Discussion do you think we would be aware that we are dead?

[manic]

after committing suicide and death kicks in and since afterlife's existence is debatable- do u believe you will be aware that you dead? if after death is nothing for eternity, do u think you have the cognitive ability to be aware even though your brain doesn't function? do u think you be able to go "i am dead"?

 

[Forever Sleep]

Most likely not. Were we 'thinking': I'm so bored- I can't wait to be born, before we came into this world? I worry I might dream I'm in hell before I die and that might feel like a long time. Like- a very vivid nightmare. That seems entirely plausible seeing as I'm likely to be anxious. I think it likely we need to be conscious to some level to think though and I feel it likely that consciousness dies when the brain does. As for out of body experiences, NDE's etc. those people surely weren't actually dead. I imagine the brain can conjure up all sorts while it's still functioning to some level.

 

[manic]

Most likely not. Were we 'thinking': I'm so bored- I can't wait to be born, before we came into this world? I worry I might dream I'm in hell before I die and that might feel like a long time. Like- a very vivid nightmare. That seems entirely plausible seeing as I'm likely to be anxious. I think it likely we need to be conscious to some level to think though and I feel it likely that consciousness dies when the brain does. As for out of body experiences, NDE's etc. those people surely weren't actually dead. I imagine the brain can conjure up all sorts while it's still functioning to some level.

yea i agree with you on this- i also worry about the same thing and how people talk about how you relive your life when you die too. i agree the brain could make up crazy scenarios before death when its semi conscious but that also makes me anxious.

 

[ElVato]

I sure fucking hope not haha.

For me, the prospect of "life" continuing after death is truly horrifying. Can you imagine?

"Yeh, you are now a depressed spirit."

I try to keep Epicurus' quote as a mantra:

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

But it's still something that haunts me... Maybe it's some sort of subconscious SI?

 

[Darkover]

I don't think so. Most views on death, particularly from science and neuroscience, suggest that our awareness depends on a functioning brain. When the brain ceases to function, it's like a light going out—awareness simply isn't possible. Without brain activity, there would be no consciousness to register an experience of "being dead." So, rather than being aware of death, it would be a state of not being aware at all, similar to before birth.

 

[manic]

I sure fucking hope not haha.

For me, the prospect of "life" continuing after death is truly horrifying. Can you imagine?

"Yeh, you are now a depressed spirit."

I try to keep Epicurus' quote as a mantra:

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

But it's still something that haunts me... Maybe it's some sort of subconscious SI?

maybe it is subconscious SI but i struggle with SI a lot normally too

I don't think so. Most views on death, particularly from science and neuroscience, suggest that our awareness depends on a functioning brain. When the brain ceases to function, it's like a light going out—awareness simply isn't possible. Without brain activity, there would be no consciousness to register an experience of "being dead." So, rather than being aware of death, it would be a state of not being aware at all, similar to before birth.

this makes a lot of sense and this is what i think too- when i mean "nothing after death" i am talking about nothing like no awareness and nothing is there

 

[ijustwishtodie]

Nope, there should be no awareness after death. It's just permanent non existence. Just like how a person who is asleep isn't asking to wake up but rather that they simply and spontaneously wake up, a dead person can't ask to be alive again as they are dead

 

[L'absent]

Consciousness is a tool of understanding provided by evolution to survive in the environment and is useful if we are alive and works if we are alive. It has no use beyond our existence, also because there is no split between life and consciousness. Our sensory systems do not make us see reality, but reconstruct it. That's why we invent stupid things like the afterlife. The state of consciousness depends on whether we are alive. If the neurons shut down and die, there can be no state of consciousness. And this is proven precisely by the fact that fainting and/or going into a coma depend on a malfunction of the system.

 

[theolivanderroach]

I think no. When you're having dreamless sleep are you able to think "I am sleeping"? Even when people are dreaming most people can't think "I am dreaming". So I think just before death, if you are unconscious while still having brain activity you might be in a dream-like state but you won't be aware that's what it is. And then when you are dead it's nothingness with no awareness.

 

[SVEN]

Well, I don't recall anything before I was born.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

Consciousness needs a lot of energy. When you block the bloodflow through your brain you shut down the energy supply of your brain and it goes in its energy saving mode, you become unconscious. If the bloodflow ramains blocked you will never regain consciousness and die. Your last sensations and thoughts bevore passing out differ a lot from all your other sentations because you will never be able to remember them. Something you cannot remember is a little like you have never experienced it.

 

[vanillamilkshakes]

I doubt we do. I don't remember anything before I was born, so why would we be conscious in death?

 

[FuneralCry]

No and that is why ceasing to exist would be the only relief for me. Personally I see it to be such a futile and torturous burden to be conscious in this existence I always saw as a terrible tragic mistake, I only hope to cease existing with this existence finally no longer my problem, just being conscious is painful to me and I'm just so tired of it. All I see as desirable is non-existence where all is gone and forgotten about for me and there's finally no more suffering, I only hope to never exist ever again, I just wish to be permanently unconscious of this cruel existence that causes endless amounts of suffering.

 

[MercenariesofMidgar]

If it's lights out after death then no I don't think you'd even have the capability to be aware you're dead or even have awareness. But hey... you're here now, maybe you'll be here again.

 

[Shadows From Hell]

Do you realize when you are asleep?

I think death reacts the same way as sleeping. Either way, you are unaware it has happened.