Discussion Nothingness is CONFUSING.

[Loaf of bread]

Warning: I do not know what I'm talking about. Please be gentle in the replies and do not take anything I say too seriously.
TLDR: ?!??!

Many people here believe that being dead is absolute nothingness. No senses, no thoughts, nothing.

This might not be true, but let's assume that it is, for the sake of simplicity and discussion.

Some blind people (not all blind people) (I promise this is relevant) see absolutely nothing. Not black, just nothing.

It's impossible for us to comprehend what it's like. We know that it is "nothing", but we don't know what seeing that "nothing" is like. We don't have the qualia. It's completely impossible know what it's like, without having memories of such an experience.

It's already impossible to comprehend having no sense of sight. What is it like to have no senses, thoughts, time, anything???

Well, it's like nothing.

...

The most incomprehensible part of nothingness in my opinion is that there's no sense of time. Time just isn't a thing that can be experienced after death. It's not eternal nothingness, but absolute nothingness. Only nothing.

Nothingness doesn't feel like anything. Nothingness cannot be experienced. It's too "nothing" for any of that. It's just nothing.

???

Hurts my head.

("Nothing" doesn't sound like a word anymore).

Thoughts?

 

[Al Cappella]

If you've ever been under full anaesthesia you'll have some idea what it's like. There's a complete vacuum, that time you were out is completely gone—your mind can't probe it at all. That's been my experience, and how I now think of it. There is of course no actual nothingness, as your bits and bobs go through their thing after life's end.

So now the discussion turns to speculation and such, whether anything of your experiencing self goes someplace else = many worlds scenarios, etc…But no one knows…

 

[jimmy7754]

We are our blood. When we die.. we are no more.

 

[symphony]

I think you're right in that we can't understand it ahead of time. But as you say, in nothingness, there is no sense of time. I don't bother thinking about it too much because (I believe) there won't be a conscious "me" around to experience it and wonder at how weird it is.

 

[markimobzzdeasui]

I absolutely agree with what you have said. As you mentioned with blind people, they are still able to experience time and space and existence through their remaining senses and maybe through some complex mechanisms that I have no idea about! But absolute nothingness can never be completely comprehend. We won't have a body then. We won't have the same consciousness as we have now which is a result of memories, experiences,hard wiring of brain,genes, being with people etc etc. So yes it is impossible to understand that, especially considering the fact that we try to comprehend it with the things we have now, which won't be there in absolute nothingness.
It's crazy knowing that so many complex things,subjects and concepts make up the entire existence which we are just a tiny part of. It is scary as well as confusing and seems like a loop.

 

[ThePaleWhiteLight]

I absolutely agree with what you have said. As you mentioned with blind people, they are still able to experience time and space and existence through their remaining senses and maybe through some complex mechanisms that I have no idea about! But absolute nothingness can never be completely comprehend. We won't have a body then. We won't have the same consciousness as we have now which is a result of memories, experiences,hard wiring of brain,genes, being with people etc etc. So yes it is impossible to understand that, especially considering the fact that we try to comprehend it with the things we have now, which won't be there in absolute nothingness.
It's crazy knowing that so many complex things,subjects and concepts make up the entire existence which we are just a tiny part of. It is scary as well as confusing and seems like a loop.

And could well be one.

 

[Chiisai]

Warning: I do not know what I'm talking about. Please be gentle in the replies and do not take anything I say too seriously.
TLDR: ?!??!

Many people here believe that being dead is absolute nothingness. No senses, no thoughts, nothing.

This might not be true, but let's assume that it is, for the sake of simplicity and discussion.

Some blind people (not all blind people) (I promise this is relevant) see absolutely nothing. Not black, just nothing.

It's impossible for us to comprehend what it's like. We know that it is "nothing", but we don't know what seeing that "nothing" is like. We don't have the qualia. It's completely impossible know what it's like, without having memories of such an experience.

It's already impossible to comprehend having no sense of sight. What is it like to have no senses, thoughts, time, anything???

Well, it's like nothing.

...

The most incomprehensible part of nothingness in my opinion is that there's no sense of time. Time just isn't a thing that can be experienced after death. It's not eternal nothingness, but absolute nothingness. Only nothing.

Nothingness doesn't feel like anything. Nothingness cannot be experienced. It's too "nothing" for any of that. It's just nothing.

???

Hurts my head.

("Nothing" doesn't sound like a word anymore).

Thoughts?

I believe most people perceive nothingness in terms of a visual sense. However, note that there are still other senses that exist such as touch, hearing, smell, etc. If you compare it to blind people, they might not be able to "see" like other humans but they still can see in a sense that is compensated by the other senses that still exist in theirs. Have you experienced waking up mid-sleep hearing something or smelling something? Its because your other senses heighten to compensate for the temporary lack of vision. I believe you have heard that some blind people developed a sense similar to echolocation prominently found in animals that dont rely much on vision. They also use touch or even a walking stick to create an image of the worls around them.

Now if you compare death to nothingness in which is the deprivation or lack of the physical senses well, that may be a simple way to describe death. However, we still have metaphysical senses and even spiritual in which sceince currently still cant fully explain and remains as theories.

So yes, death as nothingness may be a described as lack of physical senses but it might not be entirely nothing in terms of metaphysical and in spiritual sense.

 

[FuneralCry]

I do not believe that nothingness is confusing. There is nothing to be confused about. We simply do not experience anything. We no longer exist. Just think about like how before we were born, time passed and yet we were not able to experience anything. That is what I see death as being like. I look forward to nothingness, it is all I want. I am tired of suffering.

 

[silent staring void]

The part about blind people who can see "nothing" is probably misleading because people that have been blind since birth simply don't know of any colors that they could compare their experience to. If we turned blind right now we would probably perceive is as blackness.
My opinion on the whole thing, idk honestly. Consciousness is probably more special than nothingness in the large scale of things and I find it pretty lame. So I don't think that nothingness would impress me very much either.

And also

I do not believe that nothingness is confusing. There is nothing to be confused about.

 

[NorseHel]

It's impossible to truly comprehend not existing, because all your brain has ever done is exist.

My perception of death is framed by existence, by consciousness. I think: "death will offer me relief," and that's true in one sense of the word, namely the idea of one thing replacing another. Pain replaced by nothingness. When I think relief, however, I think of it in terms of the emotion: the feeling of anxiety replaced by relaxation.
Once I'm dead, though... there is no emotion, no relief, there is only nothing. "death will offer me relief" turns into "death will offer me nothing". And that... that scares me. Between endless suffering and nothingness, I would take nothingness, but it's not a bargain I make lightly.

 

[symphony]

I do not believe that nothingness is confusing. There is nothing to be confused about. We simply do not experience anything. We no longer exist. Just think about like how before we were born, time passed and yet we were not able to experience anything. That is what I see death as being like. I look forward to nothingness, it is all I want. I am tired of suffering.

You said it much better than I ever could. This is just about exactly how I think of it.

 

[ornitier199]

I don't think about what death really is etc. Just that it is the end.

 

[lonerclown666]

For me nothingness is not just to see Black forever is stop existing is not being aware

 

[LifeQuitter2018]

I've been on strong psychedelic mushroom once.

I lost 90% sense of myself (meaning there was still some small percents left of being aware what AM I). But I lost 100% sense of time, it's hard to describe it, but I felt like "eternity". A second can last a millennium, also while being in deep high, there was no "place". I felt like I was in a general very large indescribable place. Only some strange lights and strange images existed.

 

[Hollowman]

I have a sense of what death is like. Every night when I lay down to sleep and close my eyes I see nothing because of aphantasia. And my internal monologue is pretty much non existent. Which is usually tied to a sense of self. I definitely don't know who I am.