What do do think happens to consciousness when you die

[LaurenG]

Taking everything you've been taught and add in what you feel. When life in this body is over, where do you think you'll go?

[notadmblnd]

1. to the same state I was before I was born

nt

[tk2kewl]

2. Michigan?

:shrug:

[swag]

3. pffft

[notadmblnd]

23. and you?

you going to float on a cloud with the angles?

[swag]

33. Misplaced reply.

Me, the same: pffft. Should be great.

Unless that fuckin' eternal return kicks in again, and drops me right back here typing this message.

[notadmblnd]

34. oh, ok.. I thought you was blowing off my comment

sorry for the misunderstanding.

[swag]

36. Wouldn't dream of it.

Not in this lifetime, anyway.

[JanusAscending]

27. BINGO!!

n/t

[phantom power]

4. my consciousness will cease, forever.

[Orrex]

5. Into the ground, presumably

Or maybe into an urn or scattered over a waterfall.

Th-th-th-that's all, folks.

[Stanchetalarooni]

6. My conscious self will imediately, upon my death,

be transformed into the biggest chunk of dark chocolate the world has ever known an this chunk of chocolate will become the new savior for all of mankinds insatiable sweettooth.

[Tace]

13. He, He -- Good One

[LiberalVoice]

7. Probably into an urn. nt

[ClintonTyree]

30. Your consciousness will be in an urn?

Or your earthly remains?

[LiberalVoice]

48. lol

My remains...guess I should have been more clear. :)

[prescole]

8. I hope to become a garlic clove

in the heart of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

[deutsey]

9. Most of the time I believe consciousness tranforms into "something else"

Not a heavan or hell, but just absorbed into some larger cosmic energy. My views here are shaped in large part by what I've studied of the Upanishads and Hinduism (I certainly don't claim to be an expert).

On rare occasions, though, I feel that it just dissolves into nothingness at death.

[LaurenG]

15. Well if a part of us is energy

Where does it go? Whatever that is. If you cannot kill energy but can change its form could that be the part that goes somewhere or just stays around watching?

[deutsey]

18. Something like that.

:evilgrin:

[Maat]

53. I agree ... my energy will join the larger cosmic energy.

I believe that, somehow, my uniqueness will be preserved.

[patrice]

10. It merges again with the Supersoul.

Like the tide and how you've lived your life determines whether your soul returns to the Sea or whether it instead makes it only into some lesser body of the Supersoul, whence it is manifested again in another form to repeat the cycle.

Hare Krsna! Hare Rama!

[tularetom]

11. I dunno

I'm still tryin to get fundies to tell me where Cain's wife came from. I'd hate to think all the stuff I've crammed into my head all my life will just go to waste but I guess it will. Whoever got it would probably get pissed off anyway.

[Tace]

12. I Expect To Awaken In A Future Age

Or not. I'm a big SciFi nut and science lover. I figure we'll nail this time travel issue and go back and uplift folks.

Or not. I'm happy to accept that this life is all I'll know.

[Dogmudgeon]

14. Damned (maybe) if I know

I hope there's some kind of pleasant afterlife, or possibly reincarnation, but it's pretty much a coin toss.

I liked Frank Tipler's The Physics of Immortality, but although it was thought-provoking, it was really inconclusive.

Speaking of which, you do know that from now until the Omega Point, any and all serious on-line discussions of religion will inevitably include one or more people posting "ironically" about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, don't you?

--p!

[LaurenG]

17. Flying Spaghetti Monster,huh, no I didn't know that

DU is such an educational place, you learn something new every day.:hi:

[Dogmudgeon]

22. Eek! The humiliation!

After posting, I saw that someone already had posted an ironic Flying Spaghetti Monster post!

Let's see how that Cosmic Progression works ...

Discordian Eris --> The Illuminatus Trilogy --> J. R. "BOB" Dobbs --> "Thank Goddess!" --> A million Goths claiming to be Crowley disciples --> The Flying Spaghetti Monster

--p!

[Maat]

54. My hubby-bubby-spouse is a Pastafarian.

I refer to this noble site:

www.venganza.org .

[ClintonTyree]

32. There is nothing ironic about the FSM.

You either believe or you don't, the same with any religion.

[beam me up scottie]

47. Do you have a problem with the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

[kurth]

57. Martin Gardner is a good reference

In his famous little book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener", Gardner summarizes pretty much all the arguments for and against God, immortality, prayer, evil, etc. In the end, it is a matter of personal belief. A few quotes:

"There is one fact about which both atheists and theists can agree. For many people, perhaps most people, there is a deep, ineradicable desire not to cease to exist..."

"If matter consists of particles known only by properties that are given by mathematical formulas, and if no one knows what is behind the formulas, who are we to say there cannot be other substances based on formulas not yet known..."

"If we could know whether there is or is not another life with the certainty that we know the sun will rise tomorrow, either belief would make life difficult if not impossible..."

"The most incredible fact about existence is that you and I exist. That the universe exists is awful enough, but even more astonishing, we are part of that universe, a part capable of wondering why the whole thing exists and why we ourselves exist... That you exist now is so incredible that your continued existence after death pales in comparison.."

"Suppose for argument's sake that someday physics will indeed reach the closed form of an axiomatic system. There will still be severe limitations on what science can tell us. For one thing, we could never be absolutely sure that the axioms are permanent..."

[Dogmudgeon]

59. Yeah, that was a good book

One of the problems of our age is the extreme trivialization of non-science philosophical reasoning. (Science is trivialized, too, but outside the circle of empiricism, philosophy is little more than Blue's Clues for Inebriated Adults.) For instance, with the Intelligent Design "controversy", some form of ID has been around for quite a long time. However, the version that's being debated these days is little more than a candy-coated pill designed to "install" conservative fundamentalist Christianity into our school systems. It's philosophical garbage as well as a mockery of science.

Of course, any real discussion of ID and/or the philosophy of science itself would require training a generation of children in the basics of reasoning -- and they might then see through the curtain of lies and corruption that protects their parents' and communities' psychotic religions. So a whole branch of metaphysics is cut from the tree of philosophy, wrapped up like a ham, smoked and pickled and offered as an "alternative scientific explanation".

Neither Science nor the Judeo/Islamo/Christian God deserve to be treated with this kind of shabby traveling medicine show hucksterism. But our age is not merely lost to sin and preterition, it's lost to just plain dumbfuck stupidity, too.

--p!

[Az]

16. My mind arises from the order of my brain

Once that order is demolished my mind ceases to exist.

[LaurenG]

20. What about your consciousness

and the energy that breathes you? Where does it go? Into the air? I am not talking at all about religion. Do you have any idea?

[Az]

31. Mind comes from the structure and energy coursing through the brain

The energy and matter are all still present. But with the break down of the structure provided by a living body the organization that creates identity goes away.

Think of the mind as a dance. It is the process that creates the mind. Freeze the brain/dance at any point and it is not a mind. It is only when in motion that it is a mind. Destroy the process and you destroy the mind. Without the dance we are nothing.

[LaurenG]

35. Interesting concept- nothing

Hard to fathom/imagine as well.

[Az]

37. Remember where you were in 1492?

Its just like that after you die.

[LaurenG]

38. lol, thanks n/t

[trotsky]

50. Strangely, I find the concept of nothingness far more peaceful

than I ever found the concept of eternal life.

[Az]

51. Thats always been one that bothered me

What do people think they are going to do for eternity. I cannot fathom eternity being pleasant after the first brazillion years. I mean how many times are you going to do everything.

Furthermore there is the issue of why do anything. Most of what we do in life is based on need or measured in contrast to what we have to toil at.

There are plenty of people that can't figure out what to do on a rainy day. Give them eternity and watch them go crazy.

[trotsky]

52. You could relive any life in the universe.

Relive each one a billion times.

Visit a trillion parallel universes, live every life in those a billion times.

And eternity will have only just begun.

You can't even kill yourself! :)

[shrike]

66. Time is relative

Although as humans, we simply can't conceive of eternity, just as we can't conceive of a billion years.
Read an article this month about the small (and I do mean small) cadre of scientists who theorize the big bang did not happen -- rather, they say, our universe "grew" from the original, sort of like a pulse that kept repeating and repeating. The original "universe," they say, was always there -- eternal, if you were.
Pretty mind-blowing for anybody to wrap their minds around.

[heidler1]

78. I'm inclined to think that there could of been many small bangs and

possibly many big bangs. Until they see some objects moving in different directions it does appear that the movement and expansion is at least in our see able universe was caused by the last big bang.

The part that blows my mind is why is there a universe anyway. This would get down to the problem voiced by intelligent design better than eye balls. Of course it would get a bit too close to when did this intelligent designer show up and who created him/her? Maybe eye balls have always been?

[Beetwasher]

75. Well, After The First Brazillian Years, I Intend To Move On To The Next

Country and experience the Venezuelan years, but it's really the Chilean years I'm most excited about.

[trotsky]

76. Eternity is all Greek to me.

;-)

[ozone_man]

63. You know, you come from nothing,

you're going back to nothing. What have you lost? Nothing!

Always look on the bright side of life.

[elfin]

19. It evanesces

Look it up - one of my favorite words.

Now where does it evanesce to???? I am content to let that remain a great mystery and let my works which have affected others and loved ones touched by said consciousness keep it "alive" by their futures.

[Metta]

21. It continues to exist during its transformation to reincarnate.

Straight Buddhist line. Then, we're reborn in circumstancesd in balance with the merits and demerits of how we lived. "We'll do alright there if we do alright here." Uncle Dave Macon.

[ToolTex]

24. No consciousness!

Damn these answers simply amaze me. What other magical things do you all believe are real? Is delusion not insanity, by definition?

[LaurenG]

25. Yes it dulls the pain (insanity)

and makes things interesting. Honestly though I really want to know what others think. No one knows for sure but we all have dying in common. I enjoy magical thinking as well. I did kill a Liche King once back in the 90's.



on edit spelling of Liche

[lovelaureng]

41. No shit, kids, there I was....

back in the early part of the 90's, in the lair of the Liche King. We were up to our asses in liches, there were thousands of those little bastards. For every one that was killed, he would raise up ten more from the dead. Our party was on its last leg for this adventure with very little hope for survival. A ray of light shone through the cavern, the fair maiden removed the enchanted arrow from the quiver and took dead aim at the King, high atop his throne of bones, and shot it. It struck him straight through his chest. Instantly, he was vanquished along with his unholy legions. What ensued was looting and plundering of all his treasure, a little drink, and a lot of fun! :applause:
I must stop, I'm starting to flashback.:-) Where am I?

[Az]

42. Tomb of the lizard king

How you got there after all those Liches (Lich is the proper spelling) is beyond me. Must have been a gate or something.

[lovelaureng]

43. I think that it was a trap on his part, luring us right

where he wanted us. It was a lot of fun in that campaign. I haven't played in years. I don't think I have that module anymore either. Thanks for the spelling correction. We couldn't remember the proper spelling of it.

[Carni]

26. My brain continues to wonder about the plame indictments...

I am assuming that is what would happen!

[LaurenG]

28. lol Oh I hope you won't be thinking about that. nt

[ClintonTyree]

29. Nothing........

were you aware of anything before you were born? You won't be aware of anything after you die. That's for people like me. :evilgrin:
Good Christians who have spent their entire lives denying themselves the pleasures of the flesh and serving god will be floating around on clouds with people playing harps everywhere. They will be talking to jesus, god, all of their other biblical favorites and have eternal life. Or maybe not. :shrug:

[parasim]

39. I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet.

But I certainly do believe that I will have a choice. I'll probably just wait to see what the options are. Maybe hang out as a ghost here for a while and torment all the people still walking around acting as if they know definitively what is going to happen to them once they die. Or maybe swing around and be reincarnated as a cool bird or something. Most likely it will involve exploring the other dimensions.

either that, or I'll just cease to exist. But that would be way too boring.

[Book Lover]

40. When my brain decays, the process of mind goes, too

To paraphrase Az, once the molecules stop their dance, it's over.

[undergroundpanther]

44. I don't know

But however I think there are forces that seek to trap souls here and force them to come back here,to live attached as feed straws for archons by befriending than occupying newborn souls like parasites..I think there are forces that live off the spiritual power of newborn infants and seek to control them because of the predatory consciousness that is enveloping this reality is scared to death of any spiritual energies it cannot dominate or control.The archon/Lord is fucking with us all the time, using earth people to create control systems,and interfering with our natural balance and connection with each other and it interferes with us reaching our spirit within so we will spend our life trying to remember/figure out what we are by looking OUTSIDE of ourselves as if some authority or guru knows who we are..

When we die we either escape this trap or get sucked into a trap(may look like "heaven" or hell. So souls that don't escape the archon/predatory control get"reprogrammed" and sent back to earth to"help" a new soul..(hurting it for it's own good). Because the dead soul forgets what happened in the other realm(the reprogramming)The dead souls are what traps the energy of new souls to feed the control "lord"..The "gods" try to trap escaping souls who just died and it's the dead souls who cannot escape who are "programmed" by the archons that come back and they attack young souls,so that the archon or lord feeds on the new souls energies..by proxy because the archon/lord is scared of the power of new human souls.
This is partly why human beings tend to repeat the same mistakes.

It's much more complicated but to me We are in a trap here and there are many souls that feed upon souls and we carry them as if it was what we are because the ego power of the dead soul eclipses remembrance of what we are.Material existence because it is controlled by archons through dead souls reinforces our own spiritual identity forgetting through inflicting trauma and addiction on people and kids.

[LaurenG]

45. My husband had a dream about ten years ago

that was basically what you are describing except that he said we were all enslaved by these horrid people. It was actually a nightmare and the only thing he could say was if felt so real. Weird

[lovelaureng]

46. Pretty "Icke-y", huh. Good post.

[More Than A Feeling]

49. Consciousness dies when I die.

and likewise, if I am right in my belief about the idea that at the end of history we will be resurrected, consciousness will return when my body does.

[Nihil]

55. Same as the physical shell - it gets recycled!

"Reincarnated" always sounds like "re-issued" as in "the same thing
this time too" but "recycled" would be where some bits reappear here,
some there, all are somewhere (and, like the monkeys and the typewriter,
once in a while the entire thing is re-issued intact).

:hi:

[shrike]

65. Actually, in certain ways reincarnation makes sense to me

Energy gets recycled, so why not souls? What a waste, to put them up some place with harps; give them another go-round, whenever you make a new human.

[arwalden]

56. The Same Place A Candle Flame Goes When You Blow It Out.

I have no reason to believe otherwise.

[ozone_man]

58. It ends.

It is highly unlikely that consciousness can exist outside the body. Afterlife is a concept developed by people who were afraid to face death, but death is no worse than not being born. Hopefully we get to enjoy life while we have it.

[htuttle]

60. I cease to be

I become an 'ex-htuttle'.

Unless somebody nails my feet to the perch...

[Nihil]

61. It's like f*ing Groundhog Day round here!

Every other thread across several forums seems to lead to the same
Monty Python sketch ... I love it but it's driving me mad!

Maybe *this* is what happens when consciousness dies ... it starts
to spiral in on your favourite comedy sketch until it burns out in
a blaze of oozlum-bird-like dizziness?

:crazy:

[freestyle]

62. It continues in accordance with your deepest beliefs.

These may not be the same as the ones you willingly express. I see everything as an interconnected and mutually responsive energy system. The universe responds.

[cosmik debris]

64. And what of dogs and cats

Do they get the same deal as humans? Does our ability to believe in the supernatural give us our ticket to pie in the sky?

[Goldensilence]

67. what leads you to belive

in concious terms we are so different then cats and dogs?

[cosmik debris]

68. nothing

I asked a couple of questions. I expressed no belief.

[catbert836]

69. Here are my beliefs as of this moment

Meaning they'll change if you ask me tomorrow. I'm still figuring it out.

I think that my soul will hang around on earth for a while, becoming less and less corporeal as the people who remeber me, or know of me, die off. As they go, I'll be less attached to this world. Once the last person who knows of me is dead, then I'll go on to the next life. I don't know what that is, but it doesn't really matter to me right now.
Peace.

[BiggJawn]

70. Ever see the TV picture shrink to a little dot when you turn it off?

Then the little dot disappears?

Same thing will happen to you. no "Afterlife", no Vahalla, no Nirvana, no "72 Virgins" (why anyone who's ever had sex would get all excited about having to break in not only VIRGINS, but 72 (count 'em!)72 of them???)no Heaven, no Rainbow Bridge, nobody's gonna ring the Golden Bell for you.

This is IT. Try to make the most of it while you're here.

[NAO]

71. Same thing that happens to digestion, circulation

and all the other natural bodily processes. It ceases.

The heart stops beating. The lungs stop breathing. The liver stops digesting. And the brain stops "selfing".

[m0nkeyneck]

72. until we know exactly what consciousness is...

i'd have to say it dies w/ us

[Solon]

73. Grounds out...

literally becoming a part of the Earth's EM field, possibly even going to the outer radiation belt, yeah! I'd be in space!!!! :)

[PerpetualWinter]

74. I believe non-existence...

however, I hope I am wrong on some levels. I am an agnostic and I admittedly hope there is an afterlife, but I have absolutely zero reason to convince myself of something we have no evidence of.

[darkmaestro019]

77. What a lovely question : )

First reply: to the same state before I was born. I think that's true. I think this (gesture at incarnated-as-humanoid-life) is one of many ways the real Me collects experiences and information to learn from. Something like a mainframe sending out little collector programs (I am no computer-guy, so that may be off kilter as a tech metaphor : )

In this sense, I suppose the small-m me would cease to exist when this body dies, much as the four-year-old you is no longer around (but not quite destroyed either--grown upon like a seashell)

I've found bits and pieces of what I guess is my, belief system, in many books, many varied religio-magickal systems, and many other places. I don't think anybody has it entirely right (me included) and that no one will know till we go. And I think there may be MANY different paths both Here and There.

I find that comforting, and not frightening, most of the time.