Discussion Struggling to Think What Death is Like

[OutOfThisBody]

People compare death to sleeping forever. It's hard to picture this because you aren't aware that you're sleeping when you're sleeping, nor are you even aware that time is passing.

I have realised that a living thing can't picture what death is like because it is impossible to experience it while alive. So I won't have to worry about what death feels like while I'm dead because I won't even be able to feel anything. I have decided to let go of worrying what death is like.

I am hoping it will feel like life was all a bad dream that will fade into nothing as I die.

Perhaps the law of conservation of energy means when I die, my soul or something has to move into a new body or new form. Idk I'm not smart enough for this shit.

 

[Leopard2023]

Maybe it will feel like the eternity before you was born.

 

[CantDoIt]

I have this same issue. Although I appreciate the comparison to "before we were born," I think we know that this doesn't really feel like something specific. As you mentioned, it's impossible to imagine. Feeling as if we're "gone" only feels like something in comparison to feeling like we're alive. In this way, I find it difficult to make any meaningful comparisons. It makes it difficult for me to imagine and sort of makes me believe what others have said:
That we'll close our eyes, die, and then 'wake up' as someone else. This seems crazy but I just cannot understand what else it could be.

 

[yowai]

The brain shuts down so no more thoughts and feelings or memories, that for sure, the rest is up to interpretation

 

[rocketman99]

It's impossible to think death. It isn't like anything. It is the absence of experience, which is impossible for the mind to grasp.

 

[WhatCouldHaveBeen32]

Exactly like the first sentence.

Death is like an infinite gap, the same as sleeping but on steroids on all terms, when you sleep, well, when you sleep and don't have nightmares like I do , you can't really tell that you are asleep, hell you can't really tell that you had parents, or that you played games, or that you ate that day, I'm pretty sure you can't, I can't, only the moment you wake up you remember yourself going to sleep. it's like an entire 10 hour gap.

People can't experience being dead, nothing can experience being dead, the moment your brainwaves are over , everything is over, time is meaningless for "you", space is meaningless for "you" , the universe might aswel end before even a "second" passes from "your" perspective. Just like before you were born, "you" were in an infinite waiting line, that doesn't even apply to you since no laws apply, that's why you can't recall anything before being born, because infinite time for someone who is not part of the universe and it's laws, feels like nothing. It's like me trying to do photosynthesis when I don't have clorophile.

If we go by this theory, "you" also waited an infinite amount before you were born. Don't understand "you" as the actual you, the "you" I'm using is just so you can put yourself in perspective because if you actually waited an infinite amount of time before coming here, it would lead to another form of existential crisis, where you would just mentally snap since you waited for so long just to have so little time to have an impact on the world, but that's not the case as established.

 

[FuneralCry]

Non-existence is all I personally wish and hope for, I wish to never think or feel anything ever again, the fact that non-existence is permanent and that once I'm gone I won't be able to suffer is exactly why it appeals to me.

 

[outrider567]

Death same as anaesthesia, if you've ever been put under for any length of time

 

[ShatteredSerenity]

Once the electrical signals in your brain fade past a certain point, there will be no more thoughts and sensations. This is not something you can experience, because past that point there is no "you" remaining to have any experiences.

Maybe it's easier to picture your death as a detached external observer would. After approximately 13.8 billion years of the universe existing without you, your parents conceieved you and your DNA caused you to spontaneously assemble yourself into a sentient being. You then proceed to spend a certain amount of time in existence, having experiences and accumulating memories, until you eventually die. You're like a candle that was lit by your parents and burns for a brief moment of time until your death.

When you die it's like the flame of the candle dies out, once the combustion process has ended the flame simply ceases to exist. Past that point it no longer makes sense to ask what color the flame is, or how hot it is, or any other properties of it because there's no longer a flame to have any properties whatsoever.

During your existence you interacted with other people and did things that changed the world in various ways. Similarly the candle heated the air, emitted gases (which might smell nice), generated light, and did other things that impacted people and the environment around it. When the candle dies it stops producing those effects, but the effects will continue to linger for some time longer as they slowly fade away. After your death the marks you made on the world will similarly fade away over time, as memories fade, things you did are undone, and eventually everyone who ever knew you will be dead as well.

The big difference between a candle and a person is that people are self-aware. So we percieve our environment and our actions and reflect on them, and feel emotions about them. This self-awareness is a trap because we can't imagine anything outside it. But we're also physical entities like the candle, and the moment we die we loose our self-awareness to become a simpler entity like the candle. So I think the candle metaphor can be a helpful device to at least partially escape the self-awareness trap in order to contemplate the physical reality of our brief existence on Earth.

Finally, regarding the conservation of energy, this doesn't imply anything exciting in the metaphysical domain like reincarnation. It's really more just about mundane bookkeeping, and some of it is a little gross. Your body contains a certain quantity of energy in various forms, and that exact same quantity of energy will continue to exist to eternity (or the end of time), but it will be moved and transformed countlessly many times. Your corpse will slump, releasing gravitational potential energy. Your body heat will slowly warm the air around you. Energy stored in molecules in your cells will get transferred to microorganisms living inside you. If you're cremated, energy in tissues will be transformed into heat.

 

[theater]

Death is absence. So I think death is analogous to absences we can experience. For example, we cannot see directly behind our head. There is a pure absence of vision behind us, and we don't even notice this massive 80 degree absence of vision.