Venting I might be ready to CTB, but not ready to be born again.

[Fall_Apart]

I've spent much of my life trying to understand what comes after life. In recent years I have concluded that there is only absolute nothingness like when we are in the deep sleep phase. But then in 2019, I had contact with one of the most important scientists on consciousness. Unfortunately, after numerous conversations with him, I realized that there is not absolute nothingness as I thought, but that there are very strong indications of taking part in an infinite cycle of new consciences that can be established in various forms of life (not exclusively in a human being but also in the animal species). Attention, I mean that we must not confuse the concept of reincarnation, because it is only the result of religious beliefs that are not at all credible. This new point of view has destabilized me to the point that now I am tormented by the thought that this infinite cycle of new forms of consciousness will be just like eternal suffering, where perhaps the next consciousness will find form in an animal, a bad person or any other consciousness also linked to worse suffering than the consciousness I am experiencing now and which I call "life". I would like to know your point of view on this matter. Thank you.

 

[Guy_Smiley]

I've spent much of my life trying to understand what comes after life. In recent years I have concluded that there is only absolute nothingness like when we are in the deep sleep phase. But then in 2019, I had contact with one of the most important scientists on consciousness. Unfortunately, after numerous conversations with him, I realized that there is not absolute nothingness as I thought, but that there are very strong indications of taking part in an infinite cycle of new consciences that can be established in various forms of life (not exclusively in a human being but also in the animal species). Attention, I mean that we must not confuse the concept of reincarnation, because it is only the result of religious beliefs that are not at all credible. This new point of view has destabilized me to the point that now I am tormented by the thought that this infinite cycle of new forms of consciousness will be just like eternal suffering, where perhaps the next consciousness will find form in an animal, a bad person or any other consciousness also linked to worse suffering than the consciousness I am experiencing now and which I call "life". I would like to know your point of view on this matter. Thank you.

Nobody knows what happens after death, and that includes scientists. In fact, any scientist who is worth their weight in salt would readily admit they don't know. That's because any theories on it are literally impossible to test. So, any theories that anyone has ever come up with are untested and thus have zero supporting scientific evidence. They're nothing more than just guesses.

So, perhaps there is some kind of infinite cycle of new consciousness, like your scientist claims. Or maybe there's a heaven and hell. Or maybe there's a giant pink flying unicorn that swoops us up and takes us to a parallel universe or another dimension or something. Any one of these guesses is just as likely as the others, or any other guess anyone has ever come up with.

So, what's the point in worrying about it? Billions of people have died before us and billions will die after us. So, whatever does or doesn't happen, we'll be in great company.

 

[Meteora]

I ve been thinking about that a lot, too. My conclusions are:

- other conciousness means that I won't remember the one I have now (or why else don't I remember past lives?)
-there is no punishment for ending this life cycle
- the next life can be better
- if it is worse than here I trust there will be some back door to exit it, too.

 

[J&L383]

I concur with Meteora: probably nothingness, prepare for somethingness, but I predict unknowingness (at any rate) if/what the nextlifedness is (I'm not going to worry about it). We have this one conscious life, that's all I know for sure, but that's IMHO.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I mean maybe- no one knows for sure but regardless, do you really think it will be YOU who will be preparing for your next life in some consciousness waiting room? Waiting nervously to find out what creature you'll be inhabiting next? Do you remember that happening before your birth? Most likely not. In which case, three scenarios seem most likely:

It didn't happen. Your current consciousness lives and dies with your body.

Or, it did happen but for some reason, you don't remember it. Maybe you were still 'you' but, your memory was erased the moment you died until the moment you were reborn. Although- let's face it- not even then. What is your earliest memory? How many months or years where you alive on this planet before you began to gain self awareness? I think it's that that most people think about when they think of themselves. Everything that makes them them- their memories, their perspective on life. All that stuff is learned. All that stuff is what people who've had bad lives and experiences want to get away from and are presumably afraid of experiencing again in some form if they are reincarnated.

The other option I can think of is- reincarnation is real but, this is your first rodeo and maybe it's the majority of ours too, seeing as so few remember past lives.

I guess I do understand the thought of coming back here as pretty much anything seems horrible but I don't really understand why people seem to fear this as something they will be highly conscious of. If we do start again, I imagine we start with a clean slate. Ok, things may well go wrong again but- unless you don't believe in the influence of genetics, upbringing, financial situation- 'you' won't be you anymore. You'll have been born to different parents in a different location. Just how much of your current consciousness do you think will make it through? You'll most likely have no awareness or memory of who you were before. Effectively- you will be someone else- them. So, you can feel sorry for them and hope they get a better time of things but, I find it likely, very little of the 'you' at the moment will be in them. Quite possibly- none at all. Maybe it's just unfeeling, unthinking, unaware energy that gets passed on. In which case- even if it's real, there's less to worry about.

 

[misthios2040]

I've spent much of my life trying to understand what comes after life. In recent years I have concluded that there is only absolute nothingness like when we are in the deep sleep phase. But then in 2019, I had contact with one of the most important scientists on consciousness. Unfortunately, after numerous conversations with him, I realized that there is not absolute nothingness as I thought, but that there are very strong indications of taking part in an infinite cycle of new consciences that can be established in various forms of life (not exclusively in a human being but also in the animal species). Attention, I mean that we must not confuse the concept of reincarnation, because it is only the result of religious beliefs that are not at all credible. This new point of view has destabilized me to the point that now I am tormented by the thought that this infinite cycle of new forms of consciousness will be just like eternal suffering, where perhaps the next consciousness will find form in an animal, a bad person or any other consciousness also linked to worse suffering than the consciousness I am experiencing now and which I call "life". I would like to know your point of view on this matter. Thank you.

Do you mean that after you die the life cycle is that you become someone else's consciousness? That kinda makes sense. I was always wondering why my thought never aligned with my consciousness it's like my thoughts are one way but than my consciousness tells me that I should feel guilty about the situation. I'm sorry if I don't understand what you are saying. But if my inference is correct and you are saying that we become another living creatures conscious than I would be so unhappy. Imagine the next life being trapped in a body and having to convince a bad person to feel guilty about idk committing mass genocide like Hitler. I can't even convince myself to eat breakfast in the morning. However what you are describing sounds like reincarnation. You die, and are born again I either a good or bad situation. I think @Forever Sleep is right. In your next life you won't remember anything. So the you that exist today won't be the same you in another lifetime. My theory about being someone else consciousness and moral compass seems more terrifying because I'm assuming you have all your memories but you sit aside while the creature you inhabit are making the choices. You just have to be their moral compass and tell them why they should do certain things or feel a certain way based on your own experiences in life.

Nobody knows what happens after death, and that includes scientists. In fact, any scientist who is worth their weight in salt would readily admit they don't know. That's because any theories on it are literally impossible to test. So, any theories that anyone has ever come up with are untested and thus have zero supporting scientific evidence. They're nothing more than just guesses.

So, perhaps there is some kind of infinite cycle of new consciousness, like your scientist claims. Or maybe there's a heaven and hell. Or maybe there's a giant pink flying unicorn that swoops us up and takes us to a parallel universe or another dimension or something. Any one of these guesses is just as likely as the others, or any other guess anyone has ever come up with.

So, what's the point in worrying about it? Billions of people have died before us and billions will die after us. So, whatever does or doesn't happen, we'll be in great company.

Reminds me of the quote:

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."

Mark Twain

 

[conflagration]

Interesting. Who was the scientist?

 

[offtoseethewizard]

Yeah I'd also be interested to know which scientist it was

 

[The Schizoid]

Nobody knows what happens after death, and that includes scientists. In fact, any scientist who is worth their weight in salt would readily admit they don't know. That's because any theories on it are literally impossible to test. So, any theories that anyone has ever come up with are untested and thus have zero supporting scientific evidence. They're nothing more than just guesses.

So, perhaps there is some kind of infinite cycle of new consciousness, like your scientist claims. Or maybe there's a heaven and hell. Or maybe there's a giant pink flying unicorn that swoops us up and takes us to a parallel universe or another dimension or something. Any one of these guesses is just as likely as the others, or any other guess anyone has ever come up with.

So, what's the point in worrying about it? Billions of people have died before us and billions will die after us. So, whatever does or doesn't happen, we'll be in great company.

I think it's not really scientists that claim to know for the most part, it's religious nuts and gurus/spiritual teachers

Afterlife ideas are usually used to control behaviour while people are alive like "if you don't do what the bible says and obey your religious/royal authority figure, you will burn in hell".

"A special place in hell exists for those who commit suicide".

 

[SVEN]

If you don't remember what or where you were before you were born, this time, why would you recall anything next time ?
That is if this scientist's hypothesis is correct. I bet that for every one scientist who agrees with this postulate you can find many others who disagree.