Discussion Fearing the Afterlife

[Robbyna]

Does anyone else fear the afterlife? Whenever I get close to trying to CTB I am struck with terror at what could await me. We truly don't know what the afterlife is like. Even if you are religious the description of what the afterlife is like seems quite vague.

 

[fisil]

Most people seem to belive here it's the infinity of nothingness and stop exist in any form.

In the end we don't know it and you can't avoid it anyway.

 

[TheDevilsAngel]

Im terrified it runs through my mind the thought of nothing the thought of not knowing but i know in the end whether we like it or not we all have to face it.......

 

[Robbyna]

Most people seem to belive here it's the infinity of nothingness and stop exist in any form.

In the end we don't know it and you can't avoid it anyway.

It's true. One thing is for certain we will all one day get our wishes and die.
I don't think there is a nothingness. I have the feeling there is something, but I don't know what or whether or not it will matter how I get there.

 

[JadedGray]

Does anyone else fear the afterlife? Whenever I get close to trying to CTB I am struck with terror at what could await me. We truly don't know what the afterlife is like. Even if you are religious the description of what the afterlife is like seems quite vague.

I used to, but I think about my alternative (being stuck living my miserable life until a natural end) and nothing about death can scare me anymore, even if there is an afterlife. It would be hard for it to be worse than the life I've lived. I feel I've already been through Hell anyways.

 

[TheDevilsAngel]

I feel at least if i try think there is something it gives me hope that i did not do all this suffering to just be dead and completely gone with never a chance of happiness.. or something, anything but the pain and suffering.....

 

[Empty Smile]

My thoughts??

It's the same as before you were born.

Nothing.....

 

[BridgeJumper]

I fear hell so badly I started going to church again after like 15 years of not caring (yet I try to hang myself or jump off a bridge a few times every year). I feel the 'nothing could be worse, Ive already been through hell' statement is not true, especially if were talking about literal hell as in fire and brimstone. Would you say the mental pain you feel, felt for several years or decades, is worse than the pain of your skin being melted off over and over again for eternity? I think not. And to make things worse, I hate fire. I cant bring myself to start up a cooker or light a match. So yeah, I fear the afterlife real bad. Even if hell is supposed to just be 'coldness and crippling loneliness while being surrounded by other people calling for help and not paying attnetion to me' as described by some person who attempted suicide but was revived I read about, its still scary.

 

[Halo13]

Im terrified it runs through my mind the thought of nothing the thought of not knowing but i know in the end whether we like it or not we all have to face it.......

It bothers me I have gotten a taste of it. I was resuscitated after an overdose a decade ago and later told I was dead and began to flat line after the resuscitation. As I faded out, there was nothingness. Just like restful sleep. Blackness and nothingness, no emotion or thoughts. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, honestly. It made me uncertain if there is an afterlife.

 

[Empty Smile]

I fear hell so badly I started going to church again after like 15 years of not caring (yet I try to hang myself or jump off a bridge a few times every year). I feel the 'nothing could be worse, Ive already been through hell' statement is not true, especially if were talking about literal hell as in fire and brimstone. Would you say the mental pain you feel, felt for several years or decades, is worse than the pain of your skin being melted off over and over again for eternity? I think not. And to make things worse, I hate fire. I cant bring myself to start up a cooker or light a match. So yeah, I fear the afterlife real bad. Even if hell is supposed to just be 'coldness and crippling loneliness while being surrounded by other people calling for help and not paying attnetion to me' as described by some person who attempted suicide but was revived I read about, its still scary.

Supposedly, according to christians, suicide is the greatest act of sin you can commit against this god. But yet, not one of them have been able to point me to where in the bible it states this.

So if you're fearing hell, and you're going back to church to hope to get on his good side before you do this "act of sin", you're wasting your time since you'll go to hell anyway....

 

[TheDevilsAngel]

It bothers me I have gotten a taste of it. I was resuscitated after an overdose a decade ago and later told I was dead and began to flat line after the resuscitation. As I faded out, there was nothingness. Just like restful sleep. Blackness and nothingness, no emotion or thoughts. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, honestly. It made me uncertain if there is an afterlife.

Damn there goes any hope for me!

 

[Robbyna]

It bothers me I have gotten a taste of it. I was resuscitated after an overdose a decade ago and later told I was dead and began to flat line after the resuscitation. As I faded out, there was nothingness. Just like restful sleep. Blackness and nothingness, no emotion or thoughts. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, honestly. It made me uncertain if there is an afterlife.

But if you remember the feeling then you must've had some level of your consciousness there. So to me your NDE is an indication that there could very well be an afterlife.

 

[TheDevilsAngel]

It bothers me I have gotten a taste of it. I was resuscitated after an overdose a decade ago and later told I was dead and began to flat line after the resuscitation. As I faded out, there was nothingness. Just like restful sleep. Blackness and nothingness, no emotion or thoughts. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, honestly. It made me uncertain if there is an afterlife.

I had often thought there was just nothing and it frightens me so much more than if there was a afterlife.....

I just wonder what is the point of life it seems so pointless we are here, we suffer and then were just gone.

 

[Lost Soul]

I had often thought there was just nothing and it frightens me so much more than if there was a afterlife.....

I just wonder what is the point of life it seems so pointless we are here, we suffer and then were just gone.

Nature doesn't care about our feelings. We are the only animals in the world that fear death, or the possible eternal oblivion that awaits us. Humans have a higher consciousness. We are the smartest animals, it is a blessing and a curse.
The smarter you are, the more you will realize how meaningless, and ugly reality is.

 

[Only Me Here]

Does anyone else fear the afterlife? Whenever I get close to trying to CTB I am struck with terror at what could await me. We truly don't know what the afterlife is like. Even if you are religious the description of what the afterlife is like seems quite vague.

I fear the last few mins alone in this world more then i do about the afterlife, whatever that may be.

 

[Alan James]

I am an atheist and I am sure that after death we completely disappear. I was never afraid of hell (even in childhood) - I liked it much more than heaven, I understood that I would not have a body and physical suffering without a body could not be experienced. If hell really existed, then it is in any case much better than this world. If there was life after death, I would voluntarily choose hell, this is weird, but I always liked it.

 

[Weems]

I fear hell so badly I started going to church again after like 15 years of not caring (yet I try to hang myself or jump off a bridge a few times every year). I feel the 'nothing could be worse, Ive already been through hell' statement is not true, especially if were talking about literal hell as in fire and brimstone. Would you say the mental pain you feel, felt for several years or decades, is worse than the pain of your skin being melted off over and over again for eternity? I think not. And to make things worse, I hate fire. I cant bring myself to start up a cooker or light a match. So yeah, I fear the afterlife real bad. Even if hell is supposed to just be 'coldness and crippling loneliness while being surrounded by other people calling for help and not paying attnetion to me' as described by some person who attempted suicide but was revived I read about, its still scary.

I know what that's like, man. The hell thing stole my sanity even before I was suicidal. The sermon in the middle of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man got into my head and it started to obsess me. This was ten years and two "conversions" ago now. It's a nasty thing those Christians did when they started threatening people with that. How psychotic! "Love me or burn!"

Hey, remember, this is part of a belief system where the progenitors of all the animals on earth came out of one boat 4,300 years ago. It's baloney. You can chill.

 

[Hotsackage]

There is none . Dont sweat it

 

[Shamana]

I go by the bardo thol

 

[Alan James]

Would you say the mental pain you feel, felt for several years or decades, is worse than the pain of your skin being melted off over and over again for eternity?

After death, we will have no body and skin (it will all rot), without a physical body, physical pain cann't be felt. How will you burn in fire without having a body? What will burn? Do you presuppose that you will be given a new physical body in hell or will it be like a simulation, like in the "Matrix"?

 

[Shamana]

After death, we will have no body and skin (it will all rot), without a physical body, physical pain cann't be felt. How will you burn in fire without having a body? What will burn? Do you presuppose that you will be given a new physical body in hell or will it be like a simulation, like in the "Matrix"?

According to the tibetan book of the dying our mind creates a subtle body when our body is dead because it can't handle the groundless vast nature of the mind. A bit similar compared to when we create a dream body in sleep or create a astral body in drug or spiritual out of body experiences. It goes without saying that in buddhism, mind is the creator of all, intead of the other way around.

 

[Ἡγησίας]

According to the tibetan book of the dying our mind creates a subtle body when our body is dead because it can't handle the groundless vast nature of the mind. A bit similar compared to when we create a dream body in sleep or create a astral body in drug or spiritual out of body experiences. It goes without saying that in buddhism, mind is the creator of all, intead of the other way around.

I don't want to sound (too) cynical, but that assert could be probably right if mind was something different than a hyper complex organ. Anyway, according to my philosophy God committed the first suicide and all the existing particles come from that annihilation, so why should we be worried?

 

[Anchors]

Yes I don't want any kind of consciousness after death. I'm scared my pain may follow me into the afterlife and that's one of the things that holds me back. I don't really believe it but it's still a fear in the back of my mind

 

[Conflicted Cat]

Or if there even is one at all. I do hope for a peaceful one though.

 

[Faraway1990]

i am a very spiritual person i believe everything is as it should be most of the time but i know from experience and just good sense this world is not what was originally intended and im tired of its tools of control, money is a big one but not everything. i am not worried about whats next after i have passed neither should you friend

 

[tile66915n]

Does anyone else fear the afterlife? Whenever I get close to trying to CTB I am struck with terror at what could await me. We truly don't know what the afterlife is like. Even if you are religious the description of what the afterlife is like seems quite vague.

No. I have firm belief in the fact that in our next lives everything and everyone will be beautiful. In this life that is simply not the case. I can't cope with not experiencing aesthetic perfection.

 

[Xaphous]

I can't relate to anyone that thinks there is nothing afterwards, but there is no facts only opinion when it comes to it so everyone's opinion is quite equal really. It's one of the biggest factors that stops me from going through with it.

 

[FallenRose]

At first I was afraid of it, but as time went on I told myself it can't be as bad as what I'm facing now.

 

[KnightOfEnceladus]

Everyone, stop fearing the Hell of the Abrahamic religions (Islam, Christianity, some forms of Judaism). It sprang from Zoroastrianism. It's myth. I do believe there is an afterlife of sorts (though it's more like "life never really ends, bodies do").

And that the key is just to let it all go. Understand that all phenomena besides "God"/The Source/The Absolute/etc are just manifestations of it, like how a bubble on a stream isn't its own existence, just a particular configuration of the stream at any given moment, and merge back into it. No more lives. No more reincarnating. Don't let someone say you have unfinished business or karmic debt. Just merge back into Source.

 

[DoomedxFromBirth]

At first I was afraid of it, but as time went on I told myself it can't be as bad as what I'm facing now.

This is exactly how I feel.