Who am i kididng? i am afraid of death and eternal oblivion.

[Daystavro]

I am afraid of death.
What scares me about death is that it's forever.
That once I am dead it's going to be for all eternity.
And I am afraid of being some dead who is buried 6ft in the ground and left to rot, and then become some fucking skeleton, lying there for all eternity, motionless, just a bunch of bones.
With no consciusness or anything.
How do you guys deal with it?
How do you overcome this fear?

How the fuck did anyone of the millions upon millions who have already comitted suicide, how the fuck did they overcome this fear?

 

[Maravillosa]

I think maybe some, perhaps many, of the people who have ctb through the ages thought that they would be in a happy afterlife and/or be reincarnated in happier circumstances. Their body would be buried, left to rot and become a skeleton, but their consciousness would endure. I hope that there is a Heaven, and that my consciousness, my soul, would be there after the death of this mortal coil of mine and that I would gain a perfect spiritual body after the Last Judgment: but I have no means of knowing for sure. Nobody does. If there is nothing after death, then we won't know that for sure either. But that is how I am overcoming the fear of oblivion -- by imagining a perfect afterlife. Perhaps my soul will merge to be part of God, my impurities gently washed away, a perfected raindrop in an immense ocean: the last thing my individual consciousness would experience before being merged is perfect bliss, perfect joy. Those kind of thoughts give me comfort.

 

[Putridsoul]

To be honest, everyone is going to end up like that un the end. In fact in the end not even your skeleton will remain, in a long term everything is going to be irrelevant, our species will become extint like any other, our planet will be gone, the sun will die etc, and with It all records of everything related to you and humanity. Irrelevance and disappereance is unavoidable. Everyone dies, suicidal people is just more efficient about It.

 

[millefeui]

Personally, I am afraid of being born in this Earth and reality again. Being born again doesn't scare me by itself, and eternal oblivion sounds lovely.

 

[Trashcan]

Personally, I'm afraid of failing, reincarnation, an afterlife, or my conciousness somehow continuing. I'm scared of the dying process, but not being dead. The idea of eternal oblivion is appealing to me.

With that said, it's perfectly okay and normal to fear nothingness. Logically you know that you probably didn't exist for millions of years, and you won't be aware of the nothingness, but the fear is still valid and you have every right to feel that way. It's hard for a concious person to comprehend nothingness. And a lot of times suicidal people don't necessarily want to die, they just want the pain to end. @Maravillosa makes an excellent point when she says many people who have ctb in history probably did it thinking they'd go on to an afterlife and be happy. It would be nice if we all had a choice after we died. Do we want an afterlife? To reincarnate? Or nothingness?

Also, death being permanent can definetly cause anxiety. I'm glad death is permanent. But I can also see why that might scare someone, because they know once they do the act, they're gone for good. It is also especially true when death stares at you in the face... I might end up being too scared to hang myself on Monday for this reason.

Everyone will have different thoughts around this. Some find the idea of eternal oblivion appealing while others find it terrifying. But even if someone can't relate, they should at the very least try to see where others are coming from. Even if you disagree with another person, you can still be compassionate, empathetic, and validate how they feel.

 

[No Future]

Everything dies.

Death isn't special or profound. It's cyclical, and entirely necessary. It'll happen whether you want it to or not, so why worry?

Nothing gives unnecessary, dramatic pretense to death quite like people do.

 

[millefeui]

Being able to choose would definitely be wonderful.

 

[Fcancer]

I am afraid of death.
What scares me about death is that it's forever.
That once I am dead it's going to be for all eternity.
And I am afraid of being some dead who is buried 6ft in the ground and left to rot, and then become some fucking skeleton, lying there for all eternity, motionless, just a bunch of bones.
With no consciusness or anything.
How do you guys deal with it?
How do you overcome this fear?

How the fuck did anyone of the millions upon millions who have already comitted suicide, how the fuck did they overcome this fear?

If you're so worried about being a 6ft deep skeleton, why don't you ask to be cremated??

 

[Daystavro]

I think maybe some, perhaps many, of the people who have ctb through the ages thought that they would be in a happy afterlife and/or be reincarnated in happier circumstances. Their body would be buried, left to rot and become a skeleton, but their consciousness would endure. I hope that there is a Heaven, and that my consciousness, my soul, would be there after the death of this mortal coil of mine and that I would gain a perfect spiritual body after the Last Judgment: but I have no means of knowing for sure. Nobody does. If there is nothing after death, then we won't know that for sure either. But that is how I am overcoming the fear of oblivion -- by imagining a perfect afterlife. Perhaps my soul will merge to be part of God, my impurities gently washed away, a perfected raindrop in an immense ocean: the last thing my individual consciousness would experience before being merged is perfect bliss, perfect joy. Those kind of thoughts give me comfort.

But you see, I can't believe in that, because I don't believe there is a god.
I am an atheist.

I believe that our consciousness arises from the cells in our brain and once we die our brain rots and disappears forever and all that is left of us is a fucking skeleton and that's it our consciousness is gone forever.
It scares the shit out of me.

 

[Schopenhauer]

Having no consciousness for ever and ever? Sign me up!

Nothing to be afraid, really. Before you were born, you had no consciousness for 13 billion years.

 

[Daystavro]

Having no consciousness for ever and ever? Sign me up!

Nothing to be afraid, really. Before you were born, you had no consciousness for 13 billion years.

There is one big problem with the whole "you didn't feel anything before you were born" argument and it is that the time I didn't exist before I was born was not eternal because I was eventually born.
So it is dramtically different from the time after my death which probably will be eternal.

 

[Schopenhauer]

There is one big problem with the whole "you didn't feel anything before you were born" argument and it is that the time I didn't exist before I was born was not eternal because I was eventually born.
So it is dramtically different from the time after my death which probably will be eternal.

Do you actually feel a difference between eternity and 13 billion years? Or are you treating eternity as some kind of special category (an ontological primitive, maybe)? Eternity is just a long, long time.

If you have no consciousness, by definition you can't suffer, you can't feel anything. You simply don't exist, just like the infinite potential beings out there who will never experience anything because they aren't instantiated in reality.

 

[NewDelhiGuy]

There is one big problem with the whole "you didn't feel anything before you were born" argument and it is that the time I didn't exist before I was born was not eternal because I was eventually born.
So it is dramtically different from the time after my death which probably will be eternal.

There won't be any eternal for you after you are gone. You will just stop existing. You won't feel , hear, see anything since you won't be there anymore.
It is man s ego that he wants or thinks to have conciousness in some other form.
What happens after death can never be answered, you have to die to find out.

 

[Daystavro]

Do you actually feel a difference between eternity and 13 billion years? Or are you treating eternity as some kind of special category (an ontological primitive, maybe)? Eternity is just a long, long time.

If you have no consciousness, by definition you can't suffer, you can't feel anything. You simply don't exist, just like the infinite potential beings out there who will never experience anything because they aren't instantiated in reality.

There is a huge difference in my eyes between 13 billion years and eternity.
Eternity is a special category,because it's infinitely more than 13 billion, because 13 billion or 13 trillion or 13 quintillion end eventually, while eternity never ends, that's why it's so scary.

 

[Daystavro]

There won't be any eternal for you after you are gone. You will just stop existing. You won't feel , hear, see anything since you won't be there anymore.
It is man s ego that he wants or thinks to have conciousness in some other form.
What happens after death can never be answered, you have to die to find out.

What do you mean there will not be an eternity for me after I am gone?.
There going to be an eternity of non existence.
Because if science is correct ( and I believe in science, I don't believe in religion and incarnation and souls and afterlife and all that) then I am not going to come back to life after I die.
Not a year after, not a trillion after, not a 100 trillion years after and so on forever.
And this is what scares me about death, that it never ends.

 

[Goldie]

I cant say I am afraid. I dont believe in any form of afterlife. :) Once you are dead you are gone, its like turning a computer off imho.
If you are religious then thats fine, i'm just expressing my own views.

 

[Metavoid]

Wasnt there a dr who episode where the beings that died had to suffer in consciousness for eternity or something? They were trapped in their rotting bodies and could see and hear and feel every bit of pain. The way you died determined what pain youd feel for eternity. If you were cremated your consciousness would literally suffer the worst. I cant for the life of me remember the name of the episode or how it actually went because it was years. Needless to say it scared the everliving fuck out of me. Imagine being eternally suffering and conscious after death, feelimg yourself rotting. Fuck that

 

[Daystavro]

I cant say I am afraid. I dont believe in any form of afterlife. :) Once you are dead you are gone, its like turning a computer off imho.
If you are religious then thats fine, i'm just expressing my own views.

Ok, so like me you are not religious and you do not believe in an afterlife of any kind.
So doesn't it scare you that that non - existence, what you refer to as "turning a computer off" is never going to end? That the computer will stay turned off for EVER?.
That the computer (our life/consciousness ) will never turned on again after we die?

 

[Limbo]

I dont believe in eternal oblivion. I refuse to accept that we are so special/lucky that we happen to exist in this one iteration of the universe that will eventually end. I believe in infinite universes or our universe with infinite cycles. If we were born once, we can be born again.

Of course that is a belief, the default is eternal nothingness, and that is better than this hell im currently in too.

 

[Daystavro]

I dont believe in eternal oblivion. I refuse to accept that we are so special/lucky that we happen to exist in this one iteration of the universe that will eventually end. I believe in infinite universes or our universe with infinite cycles. If we were born once, we can be born again.

Of course that is a belief, the default is eternal nothingness, and that is better than this hell im currently in too.

But again, it doesn't scare you that this nothingness, this unconsciousness will last for all eternity?
That we will never be brought back to life again?

 

[Limbo]

But again, it doesn't scare you that this nothingness, this unconsciousness will last for all eternity?
That we will never be brought back to life again?

Thats not my belief, but seeing as it is a possibility...yes it scares the ever living fuck out of me. Do you know why? Because everytime we imagine eternal nothingness, we associate our consciousnesses with it (like having some form of awareness for eternity). Its literally an impossible concept to grasp. Ive pondered and pondered, there is no point...its futile.

My irrational brain will never not be scared of it though.

 

[Daystavro]

Thats not my belief, but seeing as it is a possibility...yes it scares the ever living fuck out of me. Do you know why? Because everytime we imagine eternal nothingness, we associate our consciousnesses with it (like having some form of awareness for eternity). Its literally an impossible concept to grasp. Ive pondered and pondered, there is no point...its futile.

My irrational brain will never not be scared of it though.

Can you elaborate more?
I like where you're going with this.

 

[Limbo]

Can you elaborate more?
I like where you're going with this.

Im not sure how else I could explain it better tbh im tired :p, can someone take over till I re energize?

 

[Daystavro]

Im not sure how else I could explain it better tbh im tired :p, can someone take over till I re energize?

Just explain your last sentence if you can, why does your rational brain will never be afraid of this?.

 

[Limbo]

Just explain your last sentence if you can, why does your rational brain will never be afraid of this?.

Because a its pointless thought, literally pointless. There are two concepts our brain will never comprehend, the infinite and the opposite (nothingness). Thinking about these things is like trying to move an object with your mind.

You cant imagine nothingness while having an imagination. That is like dividing by zero.

 

[Goldie]

Ok, so like me you are not religious and you do not believe in an afterlife of any kind.
So doesn't it scare you that that non - existence, what you refer to as "turning a computer off" is never going to end? That the computer will stay turned off for EVER?.
That the computer (our life/consciousness ) will never turned on again after we die?

It doesn't scare me. It shouldn't scare you either imho. Anything can be for 'eternity' if you think about. The last car you scrapped was scrapped 'for eternity'. Your lunch today was eaten for eternity. The lunch will never ever come back, ever. When you die you no longer exist so there is nothing to worry about. You need an active brain to have consciousness.

And don't forget it will happen to you eventually anyway.