Do you think it's just darkness or is there a chance that there is something more? Specifically after ctb
lwlaiet8887
Embodiment of failure/Doom poster/Compassionate
- Sep 14, 2023
- 288
There's nothingness. Although I think it'd be beautiful if there truly was something on the other side for all of the great souls in this world. Considering the world is so cruel I wouldn't say there's no chance at all...
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Kyrok
Paragon
- Nov 6, 2018
- 970
Beliefs about the afterlife originate tens of thousands of years ago, before there was even a shred of scientific understanding. Our anatomy wasn't understood, the cause of disease wasn't understood, planets and stars weren't understood, etc..
Generally, when someone is tired they don't think as well. When someone drinks booze, they don't think as well... or at least differently. The same applies to many mind altering substances. Likewise, when the brain gets damaged, it affects how one thinks.
The evidence is overwhelming that the brain is responsible for consciousness. Yet afterlife beliefs are vestiges of a pre-scientific conception of the world.
While one can imagine a host of possibilities, it doesn't seem to me there's any good reason to hold on to any belief other than when the brain stops working one's consciousness just stops. Period. End.
If that's wrong, then we have zero basis for adjudicating between Christian, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, or any other myths about the afterlife.
Generally, when someone is tired they don't think as well. When someone drinks booze, they don't think as well... or at least differently. The same applies to many mind altering substances. Likewise, when the brain gets damaged, it affects how one thinks.
The evidence is overwhelming that the brain is responsible for consciousness. Yet afterlife beliefs are vestiges of a pre-scientific conception of the world.
While one can imagine a host of possibilities, it doesn't seem to me there's any good reason to hold on to any belief other than when the brain stops working one's consciousness just stops. Period. End.
If that's wrong, then we have zero basis for adjudicating between Christian, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, or any other myths about the afterlife.
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Deleted User#81194
Staring into space
- May 26, 2023
- 76
Same thing that happens to a cockroach when you step on it. All of your senses ceases to function, you're awareness, feelings, memory, and pain -- it's all gone. you effectively become a nebulous void, complete nothingness and emptiness in the truest sense.
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Pomegranate
"To die is gain."
- Jan 21, 2022
- 78
I genuinely don't know. And I think anyone telling you they know is wrong. My recent awakening was that I was fed a false certainty all my life. Like billions of other people, I was raised to believe in a particular denomination. Per se, that's not enough evidence that that religion is true. So I'm left with wrestling with the thought that this whole universe may very well be the biggest mystery, and that I must proceed with my life while having this anxiety.
That's why I envy religious people. Many can be very sweet and still believe in a higher power, so they live their lives having this conviction that a specific set of events will happen in the afterlife. I'd rather be less anxious and not have to worry about the possibility that there's an all-powerful entity invigilating me. But I just don't see good evidence for it. I could be wrong, though.
Something that makes me feel just a bit better is realize that the god of heaven and hell is not the only plausible explanation for the origins of this universe. Maybe this whole thing is a scientific experiment done by superintelligent aliens. Maybe this is a simulation. Perhaps it's the God of Islam, or Christianity, or Hinduism, or Jainism, or Buddhism. Maybe this is a brain in the vat. Maybe it's a Boltzmann brain.
Maybe I'll go to heaven, or possibly hell, or Elysium, or a spa where I'll be pampered by angels, or a world where everyone is my best friend, or a place full of cats purring at me and asking me to pet them, or a concert where I'm in the VIP seats of a Taylor Swift concert dancing my brain out.
The point is: yes, it's super distressing to start accepting that maybe we don't have a solution to why we're here. But once you step back a bit and realize that there's no way to quantify which afterlife is more probably than another, it's a matter of fill in the blanks. And there's nothing preventing you from imagining that everything will be amazing, rather than defaulting to the worst case scenario.
You'll realize that to not know is to be super humble about our places in this universe. We don't know everything. We aren't the administrative users of this computer called the universe. All we can do is make as good a guess as one can be and try to move forward with our lives. There's no guarantee that tomorrow you won't be struck by a lightning, or hit by an asteroid, or be injured by a stray bullet, or get into a car crash. Yet, that won't stop you from continuing to live life despite the non-zero probabilities of these events, and I hope that's the same for questions such as the origins of this universe and the afterlife.
That's why I envy religious people. Many can be very sweet and still believe in a higher power, so they live their lives having this conviction that a specific set of events will happen in the afterlife. I'd rather be less anxious and not have to worry about the possibility that there's an all-powerful entity invigilating me. But I just don't see good evidence for it. I could be wrong, though.
Something that makes me feel just a bit better is realize that the god of heaven and hell is not the only plausible explanation for the origins of this universe. Maybe this whole thing is a scientific experiment done by superintelligent aliens. Maybe this is a simulation. Perhaps it's the God of Islam, or Christianity, or Hinduism, or Jainism, or Buddhism. Maybe this is a brain in the vat. Maybe it's a Boltzmann brain.
Maybe I'll go to heaven, or possibly hell, or Elysium, or a spa where I'll be pampered by angels, or a world where everyone is my best friend, or a place full of cats purring at me and asking me to pet them, or a concert where I'm in the VIP seats of a Taylor Swift concert dancing my brain out.
The point is: yes, it's super distressing to start accepting that maybe we don't have a solution to why we're here. But once you step back a bit and realize that there's no way to quantify which afterlife is more probably than another, it's a matter of fill in the blanks. And there's nothing preventing you from imagining that everything will be amazing, rather than defaulting to the worst case scenario.
You'll realize that to not know is to be super humble about our places in this universe. We don't know everything. We aren't the administrative users of this computer called the universe. All we can do is make as good a guess as one can be and try to move forward with our lives. There's no guarantee that tomorrow you won't be struck by a lightning, or hit by an asteroid, or be injured by a stray bullet, or get into a car crash. Yet, that won't stop you from continuing to live life despite the non-zero probabilities of these events, and I hope that's the same for questions such as the origins of this universe and the afterlife.
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miserableherself
so miserable
- Sep 23, 2023
- 4
i'm not a religious person, but i believe we go on to a next life and our choices/actions in each life influences what our next life will be like. of course i don't tell people that something devastating happened in their life "becuase you were naughty in a past life lol!", but it is what i believe.
maybe it is a way for me to cope with the idea that there may be nothing afterwards, which is terrifying to me. but there was something my nona always said before she passed that's really stuck with me "there's no need to fear nothingness in the afterlife, becuase if there's nothing you won't know", i've always found it comforting.
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Meditation guide
Always was, is, and always shall be.
- Jun 22, 2020
- 6,089
For some you just sleep until the next lifetime. Others are in a "limbo" a place of dead trees, everything greyish color, the trees are dripping, it's dismal dead and empty and these are those unfortunate people who have been taught in church about a place called "limbo". You sit there under a dead tree until some person comes to lead you out to some place better.
For others you are surrounded by ancestors and family who provide love and comfort and most who ctb end up this way, helped in all ways by ancestors and friends to adjust to a new environment that is like a small town.
For some, you are still on earth but in spirit form, trying to live as you always did but not having a body, trying to be with your loved ones but they can't see you, staying in the same house or apartment as always.
Or walking up and down the same streets. These know they are dead but for some reason trapped in spirit form still but on earth. I don't know why.
It has to do with your expectations. What you expect is what you will get.
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sserafim
brighter than the sun, that’s just me
- Sep 13, 2023
- 9,012
How do you know that there's a next lifetime? And is it random or are you able to choose it?
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azumangadaioh
everything you know will be erased
- Sep 26, 2023
- 16
i always liked to believe there was a nice afterlife after death. 50% of me still believes that, the other 50% just believes that nothing happens and it's all dark. its kinda scary to think about, but compared to everything else going on it would just feel like a more peaceful slumber
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Meditation guide
Always was, is, and always shall be.
- Jun 22, 2020
- 6,089
I have memories of a past life, which were confirmed when I researched names of where I lived. Experiencing trauma as most of us do in this life, pulls us back again to be reborn, or any strong emotions such as love. I don't know if we choose the next lifetime or not. I think it just happens, but at some level there is some reason for who we become in the next life and who we are born to, maybe a connection to our parents from a previous life.
Nobody was more surprised than I was when I one day decided to look up on the internet the place and name of what I remembered (I had assumed it was imagination but always had it in the back of my mind) and sure enough boom there WAS a place with that very weird name, in the state and near the town I kept thinking where it was, and the owner had the same odd first name as I wanted to be called as a young child.
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fishlover
in the end, nothing matters
- Sep 17, 2023
- 114
ive always had this strange certainty within myself, that i KNOW what happens when we die. simply, ceasing to exist, no thoughts or consciousness, just eternal darkness. and due to this certainty is why i havent killed myself yet. its the only thing holding me back. nothing scares me more than the thought of not being me, in a mental sense.
im honestly forever jealous of people who are religious, it must be so nice and comforting to truly believe that theres something after you die.
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