What is it like being dead for eternity?

I've never understood the people who say there is nothing after death. You, just like believers in an afterlife, have zero proof that nothing happens. All we know is what happens to our physical bodies.

I always say this. There's more proof to say something happens after death then there is to say nothing happens. Whether you agree/disagree or just don't believe those who have had near death experiences or have indeed been dead and been brought back is up to you. But there seems to be a recurring theme, from what i have heard, that they experience something. Whatever it may be, something seems to happen after we die.

I lost my father when i was 12 (2004) and after he died, which was at home, the neighbors where out (who we are still close to) obviously due to the ambulance etc.. They said there was banging on our garage door. Loud banging. This was after we had gone to the hospital etc, so nobody was in the house or the garage. The door started banging and banging apparently. Now, take that for what you will, but to me, that doesn't seem a coincidence. My father was taken before what we believed was his time, and perhaps he was angry to see what was happening?

I'm a believer, i am. I don't know what exactly it is.... but there's something.

Two possibilities:

One, your consciousness is just interfaced with your physical body and when the physical body dies you go on to another plane of reality. Some religions believe the minute you close your eyes at death you open them again in another body with little or no memory of your previous existence. Or you just go into some higher or lower plane of existence or some sort of hyper reality. Its even possible we are in some sort of simulation and none of THIS is real and the real reality is what you experience after you leave this one. The only way we will ever know the answer is when we die.

Two, we are just electrical impulses back packed onto replicating DNA and our consciousness exists only to facilitate the survival and replication of said DNA, and when the body dies we just switch off, no consciousness, nothing, we just don't exist anymore.This is hard to accept because we have no experience with non existence and cant comprehend it. But its possible we just cease to exist and the body breaks down into its constituent atoms.If that's the case its nothing to fear because there wont be any you to experience the non existence.


I don't really worry about either possibility. If we go on there is probably nothing to fear. I don't personally subscribe that a God would create us with numerous flaws for a brief existence on this planet and then punish us for eternity for our faults. If you want to go the God route, I think we are hear to learn something, maybe we come here with the intent to learn something. If we simply wink out thats not something to fear at all.

There's no sense of time in death coz... you know... you're dead!

reply to post by HairlessApe
The funny thing is that you call NDE's illusions of the brain, isn't the normal operation of the brain then also an illusion? Many who have had NDE's say that they feel more real than "reality" so if your brain can't distinguish between what's real and what's not, who are we to claim what is what? I would say NDE's are just as real as everyday life and vice versa, it's all part of the experience.

However far out we go, dreaming, certain types of meditation or anything else mind-altering we seem to always return to "this" but it doesn't mean this is more real than anything else. Your body may have limitations that ties it to "this reality" but the mind does not come with these restrictions and can thus travel boundlessly, only your imagination sets the limit.

But fear not, things are as they are and should be treated in such a fashion, it's a beautiful place we live in and whether or not it's an illusion or not makes no difference, just enjoy it and make what you want of it. There is no need to long for the "afterlife" as you are already here; in "heaven" or "hell", it's what we make of it that gives it meaning.

Originally posted by Kangaruex4Ewe
I guess it would depend a lot on your religious/spiritual beliefs.

No!

Regardless of what you "think/believe" is going to happen, everyone under the umbrella of ANY faith will have the same happen to them - if anything.

After all, those religions are only chasing the same thing - tomato, tomato? Doesn't matter what you call it.
Would anyone honestly believe that heaven and hell aren't culturally diverse? There are no Muslims in Heaven because they called it the wrong thing? There are no Christians round Mohammeds house for dinner because they didn't pray to the "right" god - it's the same thing.

Heaven and Hell are the same place it'll be how you perceive it when you're there that makes the difference.
If you have a nightmare you are in hell.
If you have a nice dream you are in heaven.
If you aware of either whilst you are there you can switch to experience both.


Of course I think that's all mumbo jumbo. There is nothing to experience. It doesn't "feel" like anything. You are not. You are empty. Why would there be - just because Humans want there to be? You've done your living and now your body has rotted away into nothingness to feed some other life form (basic reincarnation). You wasted your time here going to work and not enjoying yourself and now it's too late. You were hanging on to the hope that there was someplace else where you could carry on but you were wrong. It doesn't matter, though, because you are no longer and can't live again to regret it.

Let's hope I'm wrong eh!

Though it would be über peaceful - bliss.



~CrzayFool

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
We are born
We live
and we die

In life we experience feelings and thoughts and are aware of our physical body, animated by our life force and with dreams and hopes. We identity our own uniqueness of existance, and can even trace our family history and make plans for the future.

Then we at some point die

Then what...what is it like being dead for eternity?

edit on 12-4-2013 by AthlonSavage because: (no reason given)

Smart question to ask for a lot of replies but I'm sure you are well aware that you will only receive subjective information being speculative or peer personal belief. All i can say is you wont surely know until you die or you won't know because you are dead

Mr.Conspiracy:

(They)...just like believers in an afterlife, have zero proof that nothing happens. All we know is what happens to our physical bodies.

Having 'zero proof' is in fact proof enough that indeed, nothing further occurs. Death, really is the final curtain on the drama of one's life. There's no encore, no continued applause calling for your return to the stage (ala NDE). It's over, and no matter how hard you pander to the delusion of wishful thinking for an afterlife...there isn't one.

I'm not trying to beguile anyone of anything, I'm just stating reasonable logic. For forty plus years of my life I fully accepted post-mortem consciousness, I wanted (on moral and karmic grounds) the implication of NDE to be absolutely true! Post-mortem survival is a subject that both facinated me, and gave me hope that the unnecessary sufferings of this life were not in vain or without some reason, but after all the years of research I gave it, the only conclusion I could arrive at in all self-honesty was what a delusion it all was!

On a medical and physics basis, there is no mechanism for post-mortem consciousness, no energetic means of keeping memory and the character and personality traits cohesively energised and amalgamated so that 'self' is maintained as a singular spirit or soul (for want of better descriptions) in some other form of environment. In physical life, we need to ingest material as food for energy and material replacement to sustain life. In a post-mortem existence, you will need, in the minimum, a mechanism to intake energy to sustain memory cohesively. You cannot state for there to be an 'afterlife' without giving a plausible explanation of how such a 'post-life' is sustained, and you also need to explain how memory is transferred from the physical body to the afterlife body or vehicle?

One may, perhaps, suggest that we slough off the physical body like the moult of a snake's skin, and remain enwrapped in a finer more ethereal body like the so-called astral and etheric layers? Fair enough, but how are such layers energetically maintained? How is the conscious state maintained energetically? To accept with a plausible conviction a belief in the afterlife, one has to answer the energy mechanism problem for post-mortem survival. I have been down that road and remain wanting of an answer. Maybe minds far more perceptive than mine can provide it?

reply to post by openminded2011


Well explained. Number two seems most likely to me.

Reason:

Since mankind started there have been approximately 100 billion people born. Roughly 992.5 billion of them are now dead! (minus the 7.5billion that currently inhabit Earth) So why no proof? No one came back? No one contacted us from the other side?
Some people claim to have experienced such things but would probably still be a bit hesitant to end their life willingly, knowing that they'll 100% come out ok on the "other side".

That to me is overwhelming evidence that there is no afterlife. You're telling me that out of 100,000,000,000,000 people, over the course of about 100,000 years not a single 1 had solid or even half proof of either end of the argument... That's just not realistic that's just ignorant!

We've searched long enough - it's time to accept.



~CrzayFool

Matter exists almost everywhere, barring scientists recent theories of 'nothing' (yet to be determined and proven) and basing life on as far as we know, people. Of course there are numerous life forms, but we will concern ourselves with humans here.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, and Genesis goes on to tell about the creation of man. Not once but twice. It is the second on, with Adam and Eve I'm speaking in reference to. God breather life into the dust Adam was created from. Dust..... and breath = spirit = life for this example. To die and not be able to go to heaven, it is supposed that some unwilling to accept God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are what 'I think' essentially un-created, ...... that is, their matter remains, their energy, but there is an absence of spirit. Thus it was as though that individual had no existence after death. I think at judgment for which unbelievers will find themselves, if they are found deserving of hell, they might be cast into hell and in moments be fried into that nothing, ash with no spirit, a nonexistent state.

It's believed matter can only change form from one thing to another, but never loose some sort of form. I think the same rules apply in the afterlife with matter as though the whole afterlife is a collective, infinite and aware. I don't think it's Gods wish to put people in fire and agony for eternity, God is love above all, also just in all ways. Your question could take reams of paper, and volumes to answer as the intertwining existence of the workings of God would be explained regarding this. It can't be explained in a sentance.

reply to post by elysiumfire


Perhaps we have a different idea on what logic is.. for me to sit here and think about NOTHING after this life is inconceivable. Therefore surely logic dictates that something inconceivable is not a certain?

You sit there and imagine nothing after this life. You think blackness? You can't, that means you're aware of the blackness. Anything you TRY to conceive regarding nothing after death is impossible.

We, as we are, will never know what happens. If you want to be so sure that nothing happens and we are just "dead" then that's ok, you can choose to do so. But the only thing you're basing that on is the fact you can't understand it. You can't pick what happens up with your senses therefore it must not exist? To me, that's flawed.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


I believe we come back, but if we don't Google tool helps manage your digital afterlife.

reply to post by crzayfool


Time to accept that people can't come back from the dead? On a whole, this is acceptable.

Accept that we SHOULD by now know what happens after life? That's the arrogance of the human race. We think we know it all. We think we know all the answers. And if it's not available to our limited senses, we can't understand and therefore brush it off as fake.

We aren't going to be allowed back to "spread the word" that something happens after death, regardless of what it is. And if we are, it's through reincarnation, if you choose to believe that.

Don't tell me there's never been any solid proof of life after death if you can't come up with proof of nothing after death. Perhaps you, much like others who don't believe, should open themselves up to the idea that humans are limited, we do not know everything and there may be more to this vast universe than we might think.

It's all a lucky accident?..........

reply to post by AthlonSavage


no one really knows for certain...anyone who says otherwise is a #ing liar

reply to post by MrConspiracy


what you say is true even though it was your neighbors who had described the event .

I have had a similar experience. The only difference is mine was firsthand. I had no knowledge of the death and I called 911 on it. It was a completely non subjective event.

However the OPs question is for eternity.

What we are both describing might just be residual, actually. It may not be a lasting phenomenon; just for a short while and then no more.

But, like I said, no one knows for certain.

Nobody knows for sure. Ah yes, the last disingenuous refuge of hope. The last desperate clinging and grasping at the straw to keep the fading light alive. Nobody knows for sure. In statistical terms we are sure. Amount of proof beyond all reasonable doubt for afterlife 0%; amount of proof for no afterlife based on the previous computation 100%.

As one earlier poster aptly demonstrated, out of all the billions of people whom have ever lived and died, not one has returned to provide undeniable proof of a continued existence following physical death. By that fact alone we could assume that there is no afterlife, but I think taking a position of assumption is wrong and unfair. It is too dismissive, and probably not a little arrogant to do so. For a better, more informed opinion it is advantageous to delve into the anecdotal references that seek to support the conclusion that there is an afterlife.

If we take the anecdotes and the massive library of research available at face value, our conclusion can be nothing but full support for afterlife, but that would be taking the same assumptive position against it, which I decried against earlier. No. The original position I took, the one I already accepted, was to allow for the afterlife, but the question I posed to myself was...how does it work? What are (or would be) the energy mechanisms involved to make it all function. We certainly know the energy mechanisms required to make the physical form function and sustain itself during physical life, similar mechanistic principles (allbeit on a more subtle and ephemeral level) would apply for afterlife.

One cannot suspend nature's laws of energy to suit one's argument for or against afterlife. If moving from physical life environment to the more (probable) subtle and refined afterlife environment was just a matter of frequency adaption, we would still be able to detect the subtle transference. Believe it not, there is a factual and experimental hint of energy release at physical death that all organisms give off at the moment of death. It is a very real phenomenon, and it is called the 'light shout' or necrotic radiation...firstly:

books.google.co.uk... 913VE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yOVqUfW_Naec0AX7moHwDw&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Slawinski%20necrotic%20radiation&f=false

The above link ponders on the question of data (or information) that the light shout might contain, afterall, the shift in frequency from physical life to afterlife would most certainly require a transferance of data, particularly memory data...secondly:

link.springer.com...

When you first click on the link, a separate window will appear over the main website providing a sample of the book that can be bought...and thirdly:

www.newdualism.org...

Necrotic radiation is the only significant phenomenon that might loosely be applied to any particular aspect of early-stage afterlife. It doesn't prove afterlife, no more so than NDE proves afterlife, but it does give an energy release mechanism at the time of physical death. The question to ask is to what end has nature provided this energy release? Why this particular way, rather than a non-detectable dissolution? If afterlife is real, you have to discuss energy mechanisms, because that is the route by which it will be realised and accepted.

A better question is are we still different after we die? How can one consciousness differ from another? There can only be one. Our physical bodies give us the sense of separateness.

If you think about it there is no reason at all for you to still exist after death. At least your ego self. It's a beautiful and a perfect system.

reply to post by elysiumfire


You've done nothing more than state how once again, you have no evidence. We can't understand it. Also, I don't understand how non-believers can be so nonchalant with the old "get over it, there's nothing after death"

You have shown no evidence. And believers have shown no evidence. What does that mean? You can not prove there is nothing after our physical bodies die. And believers can not PROVE that there is. It's a matter of faith and different people's outlook on life.

You can say people are just clinging on, hoping, in fear of death. But from a personal stand point, i can tell you that you couldn't be more wrong. It's not about a fear of death and hoping this life isn't 'it'. It's a matter of faith and feeling that there is something after this life. I feel and believe there is. Do i KNOW there is? No, of course not, i can't know much like you can't know.

Give me all the statistics of how many people have died all you want. It won't change anything. People die all the time, and as sad as that is, that's all there is to it. I fail to see how it proves life after death doesn't exist? What because once again your trusty senses can't show you and make you understand?

This OP was about what is it like "being dead for eternity" not about billions of people dying, why hasn't one shown up to say what's after it? Do you not understand? We can't come back if your physical bodies are dead. Nobody is disputing that. And for you to ask why nobody has come back is silly. What did you expect? Zombies?

Look, If you're the kind of person to not believe then fine, don't. But don't try and tell other people that there's nothing. Because you have nothing to back up such a bold claim

Originally posted by AthlonSavage
We are born
We live
and we die

In life we experience feelings and thoughts and are aware of our physical body, animated by our life force and with dreams and hopes. We identity our own uniqueness of existance, and can even trace our family history and make plans for the future.

Then we at some point die

Then what...what is it like being dead for eternity?

edit on 12-4-2013 by AthlonSavage because: (no reason given)

I plan on living for eternity.....so far, so good...

sw

Isn't that the million dollar question? I guess it depends if you believe in, and if an afterlife exists. It's everything or nothing.it does concern me when I watch Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters etc....it would appear many are trapped in less than a heavenly afterlife, to the point of being sad and depressing.thus is based on the environment WE see and the EVP's that are caught.

Mr.Conspiracy:

Look, If you're the kind of person to not believe then fine, don't. But don't try and tell other people that there's nothing. Because you have nothing to back up such a bold claim.

Let's dispel with the above firstly. I'm on a discussion forum, discussing a particular subject. I have a particular stance, one I've come into after many years research. It's an opinion, and as a participating member I have as much right to state that opinion as any other participating member; because it is an opinion, it doesn't require support, yet I give it, even unto your rejection of it. If you don't like the content of my opinion, don't read it, don't address it. Do not attempt to pontificate to me what I should and should not do, the forum has T&C's to guide us, and I abide by them. I am not in the least bit concerned whether you agree or disagree with my posts, some of which I admit are challenging by their content, and that is the very point of them.

You have shown no evidence.

Yes, indeed I have. No evidence for afterlife literally means no evidence, and that really is evidence in and of itself. Nevertheless, I still did the research hoping to quash the 'no evidence' aspect, not to prove to others, but to prove things to myself so that I didn't have to resort to faith (highly over-rated and dangerous). Faith is the gateway to absurdity.

Perhaps, you would garner a more congenial response from me if you were to limit your response to the content of my posts, and not address me at all? Compared to the content, I'm insignificant.

Originally posted by MrConspiracy
I've never understood the people who say there is nothing after death. You, just like believers in an afterlife, have zero proof that nothing happens. All we know is what happens to our physical bodies.

I always say this. There's more proof to say something happens after death then there is to say nothing happens. Whether you agree/disagree or just don't believe those who have had near death experiences or have indeed been dead and been brought back is up to you. But there seems to be a recurring theme, from what i have heard, that they experience something. Whatever it may be, something seems to happen after we die.

Near death experiences means you are not dead yet and your brain is still functioning on some level, but when the brain really stops how can there be "something" else?

I lost my father when i was 12 (2004) and after he died, which was at home, the neighbors where out (who we are still close to) obviously due to the ambulance etc.. They said there was banging on our garage door. Loud banging. This was after we had gone to the hospital etc, so nobody was in the house or the garage. The door started banging and banging apparently. Now, take that for what you will, but to me, that doesn't seem a coincidence. My father was taken before what we believed was his time, and perhaps he was angry to see what was happening?

I lost both my parents and had not a single clue they had gone until I got the phone call. It is kind of funny that when people are knocked unconscious it is not like they transfer to a third party state of existence so then why would something even worst like your brain stops completely would we then become some kind of external form of existence?