Move this if need be, but I thought it would be interesting

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My one great fear in life, is of death. That is the only thing I fear, the ONLY thing I fear and one of the few things that keeps me up at night. I don't know what comes after life, and that is what scares me (BTW I am alleviating my fear with music right now, it always works somehow) but I would like to hear some of your theories on what comes after we shuffle off this mortal coil. Maybe to help alleviate my fear or give me something to believe in. Also, bonus question: Do you ever think we can break out of the cycle of death? Like in the movie "The Fountain" when he discovers a way to avoid death for four hundred years?

A fear of death is a pretty common fear.

They're multiple and diverse theories on death and what comes after it. Are you looking for specific religious views, scientific, etc.? Since I don't know what you are looking for I can just briefly list some theories:

1. Heaven/Hell concepts
2. Reincarnation
3. Since matter is made up of energy and energy cannot be created or destroyed, it seems logical that the energy that makes us up and/or that we "give off" would move on into some other form
4. Brain activity shuts off, nothingness where you no longer exist, have no awareness, etc. (supposedly from what I can tell, what comes before we are born/conceived)
5. Star Wars and the Force

You see, I am agnostic so I fear that 4 is what will happen and that scares me, also, what I was looking for, was your personal thoughts on what YOU think is going to happen or how you came to terms with death if you have.

I don't believe there is anything after death - you just cease to exist. I could totally be wrong, though.

I am not particularly afraid of death. It's inevitable, so I may as well not waste time worrying about it. I didn't start with this attitude, though. I picked it up after I had a series of intense panic attacks and seriously thought I was going to die. I can't say that I am not worried about dying as that can be a pretty unpleasant (understatement) experience, but I am not worried about death itself.

I deal with death by not thinking about it. It's too scary to fathom so why spend a lot of time thinking about something there are so many interpretations of?
I am not thrilled with my personal opininion about what happens when death prevails -this morbid belief that consciousness simply stops- so I don't dwell on it.

What's up "fear of nothingness" buddy?

I'm a lapsing Catholic, which means I basically hope there's some element of personal consciousness beyond death, but I too have the nagging fear that consciousness pretty much stays with the body. Think about it, we pretty much know that memories are stored in the brain, and when the brain dies, those memories aren't going to be transferred somewhere else. Even if consciousness continues without the memories (the concept of reincarnation is pretty similar to amnesia--or a dream where you're not yourself--in that regard) you continue to experience things, but the memories of a previous "life" have no impact on what you experience in the present.

I kind of want to know how everything turns out, so the idea of my ability to experience things fading into nothingness is pretty disturbing. But I pretty much believe that consciousness is non-transferrable, so the best bet is to remain alive for as long as you can.

I think the only way to come to terms with death is to accept it will eventually happen, or vow to go down swinging. Either way is fine. I plan to go down swinging for now.

The thing is, I know that it is inevitable, but does it have to be? It's these thoughts that can inspire hope in me. Do you ever think that there will ever be a way to "beat" death? Such as transferring our consciousness into a computer or something of that sort?

I look forward to death and I hope reincarnation is not true..

I really need my brain...

I used to fear it, but then I looked at it in a completely different way. In summary, a person is not the cells, but the genes and memes. Those genes and memes do not end when the cells die.

More detail:
Concept 1: time does not flow. This is a whole other topic (a very big topic!) but if we just accept it for now, every instant exists eternally.
Concept 2: as individuals we are radically different at different points. Just compare a child and an old person. Different experience, different body, etc.
Concept 3: the real person, the thing that is passed on between different iterations, is the information: genes and memes.
Concept 4: free will is an illusion (another big topic!). What we mistake for will is the fact that those who try harder have more success. But that is a static fact, not a free will choice. The result is that people cannot help accepting ideas: ideas spread whether we like it or not. Though often not in the way we understand or want.
Concept 5: identity is a relative thing (yet another big topic.) We are defined by what we connect to. What we call consciousness is merely a node, a point of perspective in a complex web.
Concept 6: information does not die when the body dies. If you have children, they have the same genes. If you have ideas, they are held by whoever heard them. So death does not exist. Tale Elvis Presley for example. He is more popular now than when his body was alive. He is more live now than then.

I think about the best you could hope for is transferring memories, I think the ability to experience things is kind of wiped out with the body. Then all you're left with is a computer that has your memories and believes it's you. I think I'll place my faith in telomerase research. I suspect the only way to cheat death is to take care of what you've got until medical science comes up with some promising loopholes. They say "the only two certainties in life are death and taxes", and I'm sure we all know people who cheat on their taxes, so I just cling to the hope that there are at least a few people out there who have figured out how to cheat death.

For me, the best way to overcome a fear of death, is taking an interest in research and practices that extend life.



The thing about reincarnation is you get to leave all the pain, memories, and hassles of the old life in the past and start fresh. It's like amnesia, but without the backstory.

Now this, is fascinating as hell, thank you good sir/ma'am, if possible I would like to discuss this in greater detail if you don't mind. Or if you have the time.

That's not the usual response - people normally just think I'm mad.

These are links to a web page I made on odd topics like that:

how the universe is made of information, and how time is an illusion, and the patterns we see are merely Occam's razor at work (smooth curves in space-time are more likely than erratic patterns):
http://answersanswers.com/tough_questio ... ing_exists

how a parent has more connection with his children than with his older self (for the childless, the same applies to memes, but children are easier to visualize):
http://answersanswers.com/tough_questio ... fter_death

free will and consciousness:
http://answersanswers.com/tough_questio ... sciousness

I used to try and discuss it with people, but it just led to endless debate, so I gave up. But there are books on the topics:

On a timeless universe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Time_(book)

On how the universe is made of information: any book on theoretical physics really.

On examples of identity existing outside the person: any academic book on celebrity or identity. Or any good science fiction on cloning; if we make two exact copies, which is the real one? Answer: both. In the same way that you "now" and you "one second ago" are different yet the same. Or just look at how a parent loses their identity (or their likeability) once the children move on. Or ask the fat, unpopular Elvis Presley which is the REAL Elvis Presley: he will point to the younger and more successful one, the one who was still producing new hit records (such as "A Little Less Conversation") long after the body died.

On consciousness: The Selfish gene, or any book on consciousness as an emergent property, like how a nation or a business arises from individuals: providing them with a bigger identity. One of the most fascinating ideas to me is that many parts of the brain are the point of consciousness, and of course they all work together. It's like a billion consciousnesses exist in the same head, all more or less the same. Each is unaware that the atom next to them thinks that IT is the one true person. So if one dies the others carry on. If "I" am dead I don't know it (because this atom I am separated from senses and memory) and the fact that "I" am typing this means I am one of the living ones.

Which relates to the concepts of happiness and purpose (purpose = inertia). By any definition, lone atoms are probably happy. A hydrogen atom whizzing through interstellar space is at perfect peace, with purpose, being part of a bigger whole, yet with no conflicts, and no worries.

A related topic that I didn't cover is how atoms lead to molecules, molecules lead to cells, cells lead to tissues, tissues lead to organs, organs lead to animals, animals lead to communities, and so on. We are currently becoming subsumed in an Internet: in a thousand years humans will become to the wider net just as cells are to humans. This is a good thing: it benefits the humans just as being in a human benefits cells. And the net provides a communal brain that helps in the preservation of memes, making immortality easier than ever. I for one welcome our mechanical overlords.

You're actually immortal.

The reason for this is that existence is all that you will ever know. You will only ever experience life. Death brings about the end of that experiencing process.

You can be afraid of death, but ultimately it will be like being afraid of a spider that is going to bite you and not only will it not hurt, but you won't even remember being bitten. The curious side effect of the venom is that you forget you were afraid of the spider in the first place.

Not that this needs analogies as not existing is just about the most basic concept that there is. There are a lot more things that don't exist than do, and when you die you'll simply join the overwhelming majority.

These are definitely very interesting. I have to admit that I've even been in favour of the concept of "there is nothing after death" but in a way others are just as believable. To tell the truth, death is the only thing the living will never really know about. You can find out about everything in life. I believe there are ways to live for longer but I wouldn't want to live for much longer because your body tends to start falling apart at which point most die of old age. I wouldn't want to live for hundreds of years immobile, with my skin rotting and my hair falling out, and my mind deteriorating.

Death is inevitable eventually, though, or at least as far as we know.

I guess I'll go through all the different ideas, sorry if they've been mentioned before.

Reincarnation. This is an interesting one. Lots of religions believe in reincarnation and I've actually started to read a book on it. It seems unlikely that everybody is reincarnated yet there is so much proof that some have been. I've read stories in this book of youn children who talked about people and knew exact adresses they'd never heard of and claimed to be these people at the other end of the world, which upon research actually existed once (before they died) and about children who were born to a mother and told her memories that only her and her grandfather had known and had never been told to the child before. Honestly there's so much research on reincarnation I have to believe that it does happen in some cases if not all.

I also like the Buddhist point of view, that reincarnation happens and throughout each life form you're searching for Nirvana, complete enlightenment.

There is, of course, the rather scientific point of view that after death there is nothing. Nothing at all. It's just like before birth. Even though I've been in favour of this idea I have to admit that it almost sounds unlikely to me now. In a way I think that everything we imagine is real to some extent. And honestly, the only thing we truly cannot imagine is nothing. I suppose, though, it would be like sleeping forever.

Which leads to the next one, living in a dream. When we dream, the dream is real to us, isn't it? Just as real as waking life is to us when we're awake. When we die in a dream, we snap back into the waking world. This is something I thought of and had never heard of before- but what if, when we die, we snap back into the dreaming world? And then, perhaps, when we die again in this dream, we snap back into the waking world, but in a different form, or maybe we even snap back into a different waking world.

I'm getting kind of carried away with myself here, but it really does interest me.

I like this one too. Imagine we're all made up of lots and lots of tiny little particles of energy. We are so complicated that there will never be a form again quite like us. Our matter and the energy that makes "us" are seperated when we die and all these little particles of energy go into some great chasm or "mixing bowl" of some kind, not literally! And they get mixed around with other particles. You might find us in the leaves, in the flowers, parts of us in humans, parts of us in animals, in the sky. I do rather love this idea. It also supports all the research on reincarnation because maybe these people who appear to have been "reincarnated" just managed to have a lot of their original particles sticking together to go into a new form? Perhaps when this energy holds a love, a will enough for somebody, to care about somebody, they will manage to stay together to some extent and find a new form. Or maybe it's just an accident. [I partly stole this idea from the His Dark Materials Trilogy- Philip Pullman, but changed it a bit, it's worth a read)

One that I do not believe in is the idea of heaven and hell. I suppose the idea might be comforting to some people but when I think about it in a logical way I just can't see, at all, how it would work. Also, I don't think anybody is a bad person, not really. It seems like so many people are lumped into "hell" and "heaven" is one magical place where everybody gets alone- and that's impossible! To tell the truth, I would hate to be living in the "classical" idea of heaven. It would drive me crazy!

Once I was in a weirdly hyper mood and stayed up all night writing about these things. I came up with my own theory which makes no sense when I read back at it but sure is long, I have no idea where these things come from! It's basically similar to some others. It's about how we're all one big purpose and it all began with this purpose, and it created matter, which just gets more and more complicated as the ages go on. It's hard to explain here, really.

Ghosts. Some people believe in ghosts but again I find this unlikely- yet there's so much evidence! The idea that time doesn't exist is very interesting, because it is true that humans did make time. If each indivudual moment in existence existed as it's own frame it would support the idea of ghosts. Maybe people who have hallucinations/delusions aren't always necessarily mentally ill? Have you ever heard what sounded like somebody talking but dismissed it? We believe so often what we want to believe, and dismiss anything that doesn't seem possible. If we see or hear something that seems out of place, so often, unless it's very strong, we will block it out. Yet all these people have paranormal esperiences which could be from different moments of existence or even different worlds. Next time you hear people talking in the middle of the night, try tuning in instead of covering your head with a pillow. Look extra hard at that detail which is out of place.

There's also the idea of different worlds, of course, and the imagination can really go anywhere.

There's also the thought that everything we live is just our imagination.

One thing that gets me is the difference between "reality" and "fantasy". Of course I can distinguish between the two but really, isn't fantasy just as real as reality? Or maybe this is just coming from somebody who gets so immersed in things they can realy forget everything around them and fall into a different world. But dreams, aren't they definitely as real as reality? Maybe reality's a stupid term.

Sorry if lots of this doesn't make much sense, but I find this topic really interesting.

I agree, this is interesting as hell. Especially Concept One. My science teacher actually mentioned that one in class, and I think she said there was a programme about it on recently- I'll have to look for it!

So, so interesting.