Is anyone baffled by the thought of their own death?

[LightbulbSun]

Every now and then I think about how someday I'll be dead and I'll never experience life as a human again. I just can't picture my eyes closing for the final time and never awaking again. It's actually rather depressing to think about. I kind of wish the universe gave us everlasting life. But does anyone else find the thought of their own death baffling?

 

[turbo]

Not baffling at all. I look around and see that all creatures have a term of life, and that some lives are cut short by disease, injury, etc. It may be hard for you to come to terms with the fact that your intellect (your interface with the universe) will no longer exist, but given the apparent infinite expanse of the universe, is the interface of one creature important?

 

[Evo]

I look at death as the inevitable end to the cycle of life. Don't dwell on it, you can't prevent it.

 

[waht]

Look at this way. We know Earth is about 4.5 billions years old, and the universe about 13 billion years old, and you are only aware of it for as long as you are old. Wouldn't hurt if you are not aware of it for another billion years or even infinity. When you die, the atoms in your body will disperse into the environment, and be used up by other things, such as trees, animals or other people yet to be born. Even some atoms in your body right now were used by dinosaurs, and other prehistoric creatures millions of years ago. We live on a tiny tiny Earth in the vastness of space, timing with unimaginable dangers, such as black holes, supernovas. It's sort of hard to reconcile oneself with such reality, because it conflicts with most values people were taught.

 

[LightbulbSun]

Not baffling at all. I look around and see that all creatures have a term of life, and that some lives are cut short by disease, injury, etc. It may be hard for you to come to terms with the fact that your intellect (your interface with the universe) will no longer exist, but given the apparent infinite expanse of the universe, is the interface of one creature important?

No, I don't think it is. It was just wishful thinking on my part because I don't take life forgranted, and the thought of death ending the joy that life brings to me is saddening at times.

 

[LightbulbSun]

I look at death as the inevitable end to the cycle of life. Don't dwell on it, you can't prevent it.

I don't usually. I occupy myself for most of the time. But on occasion when I ponder I just think about how sacred myself really is and how it's never going to be in this form again once I go.

 

[Evo]

I don't usually. I occupy myself for most of the time. But on occasion when I ponder I just think about how sacred myself really is and how it's never going to be in this form again once I go.

That's true. Try to pursue what makes you happy, if that is possible. For a lot of people, that's not possible. I hope it is for you.

If it's any help, I read that as people grow old they start to welcome death and are not so afraid of it.

There are studies that show that the elderly are the happiest. I don't believe that, but that's what the studies said.

 

[-Job-]

It's a good sign if you find it hard to think about your own death, it means your life is not that bad.

If it makes you feel better we're probably, if not dead, at least "turned off" most of the time. Sleep is just as baffling as death. And is life continuous anyway? It's possible that we're dead every few picoseconds.

 

[bassplayer142]

Death is something I will gladly accept only when I consider my needs and dreams complete. It will be the grand finale and honestly be exciting to see what happens after it.

 

[octelcogopod]

For me, the positives of life outweigh the negatives of having to think about losing everything.
But still it is somewhat of a tragedy to be alive, build up all this value in yourself and for others, and then die.
But like Evo said the elderly seem more prepared to die as they get older, and maybe death is a bit like sleep, the final release of life is a GOOD thing, depending on how you look at it.

 

[Pythagorean]

I guess I'm somewhat baffled by the idea, but not so much by the stop of the heart as by the end of consciousness. I like how we can interpret information and create ideas and pass them on through eternity, and in that way, Einstein and Newton are nearly immortal.

 

[LightbulbSun]

For me, the positives of life outweigh the negatives of having to think about losing everything.
But still it is somewhat of a tragedy to be alive, build up all this value in yourself and for others, and then die.
But like Evo said the elderly seem more prepared to die as they get older, and maybe death is a bit like sleep, the final release of life is a GOOD thing, depending on how you look at it.

It really is, and it's so short too to begin with. It takes you about 20-30 years to build up long term interests and dreams, and then in another 30 years you're ready to retire. It just seems like a terrible waste how all of that value you build up for yourself disappears with you along with everything you believed in or thought of. However, I do agree that the joy and positives of life do outweigh the negative finale.

 

[Bob]

What is life? If you had not lost your life, when your body go to dust all you have experienced have became eternal and you also have opportunity to experience more.

The question is "What is life?".

 

[Lord Ping]

It's all part of the mind-body problem. We find it pretty much unthinkable that our mind could be destroyed by something wholly material.

I have two points to add:

1) You know you were born, right? If death is mysterious, birth is at least as mysterious. What caused my mind? When did it appear? These questions bemuse us all. Yet we accept that we were born and in fact it seems perfectly natural and good to have been born. You can say the same about death.

2) Whatever causes the birth and death of minds, it's beyond the scope of science, because mind isn't a phenomenon - it's like the TV screen on which phenomena play out.

It's controversial but entirely reasonable to think that behind the world of phenomena (our sense experience) there is a world of material causes, real things, "noumena", "things-in-themselves" - and we only ever perceive the phenomena they cause, we don't perceive them directly. So while we can never know what causes the birth or death of a mind, it can still be a material thing out there in the world, just like the material things out there in the world that cause me to see, smell, taste, hear and feel stuff. The cause doesn't have to be God.

 

[Pythagorean]

1) You know you were born, right? If death is mysterious, birth is at least as mysterious. What caused my mind? When did it appear? These questions bemuse us all. Yet we accept that we were born and in fact it seems perfectly natural and good to have been born. You can say the same about death.

Personally, I'm just as "baffled" by my birth and the origin of life in general.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Every now and then I think about how someday I'll be dead and I'll never experience life as a human again. I just can't picture my eyes closing for the final time and never awaking again. It's actually rather depressing to think about. I kind of wish the universe gave us everlasting life. But does anyone else find the thought of their own death baffling?

Don't worry about it. Once it's all over you'll barely notice a difference.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Just out of curiosity, why would one assume that death is "it" - the end - when we can't possibly know?

 

[Pythagorean]

Just out of curiosity, why would one assume that death is "it", then end, when we can't possibly know?

It probably comes from the assumption that consciousness is a product of physical and chemical events in the brain and that when one dies, those processes end.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It probably comes from the assumption that consciousness is a product of physical and chemical events in the brain and that when one dies, those processes end.

So then the logic is to make a leap of faith about the greatest mystery of all, based on an assumption?

 

[-RA-]

since science has no explanantion at all for concsiousness i am inclined to think that maybe it can live on. Everything about our physcial bodies obviously dies, but the parts of us that make us who we are, our mind and our conscious experience, could, maybe, live on. I think this for a number of reasons. Mainly that Near death experiences all seem to be very similar, implying that there is some definate process that happens after death. http://www.near-death.com/ is a good site if you want to weigh up what evidence there is for afterlife.

Most people think that great academics do not believe in such things, but when you look at a lot of their personal beliefs, a lot of them do. Einstein said: "Great spirits have always encountered opposition from mediocre minds." Einstein wrote favorably about psychic process on telepathy research in a preface he wrote of Upton Sinclair's book Mental radio. If its good enough for einstein to consider, its good enough for me.

Further evidence for this is that the strongest psychedelic known to man, DMT (the drug which gives us our dreams), is endogenous and has been hypothesised to be created in vast amount during death and birth. The effects of the drug are nearly identical to all NDE's. Shamans have used this drug to visit the 'spiritworld' and higher dimensions of conscious experience for millenium. Dr Rick Strassman has done a lot of research into this before he was stopped by various drug laws, but he did get a chance to publich a book on it, "DMT the spirit molecule", which has been acclaimed by a lot of top academics, read the reviews on amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0892819278/?tag=pfamazon01-20). Maybe this is part of the biological mechanism that initiates afterlife. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyltryptamine

Can i prove life after death? no. But i do like to stay optomistic about it.

 

[-RA-]

I read that as people grow old they start to welcome death and are not so afraid of it.

That is very true, a lot of people when they get near the end of their life actually look forward to death. I have always found that odd, but it has been shown to be true. People who have rigourous beliefs that death is oblivion, and that is it, full stop, often develop mentally ill type tendencies in later life, but people who embrace death, and believe in life after death, often live much happier lives. So i am inclined to believe the latter, as i might as well have the happiest life i can, whether or not it is true.

 

[out of whack]

I think back of the days before I was born. Yeah, I remember thinking... nothing. I wasn't feeling either bad or good, no hunger or fear, no joy either. I just wasn't there as far as I can tell. Not existing before my birth is not a cause for worry any more than not existing after my death. Life is now. Before or after it isn't important.

 

[Lord Ping]

I think there are many many correlations between body and mind that give us reason to believe that the former can causally influence the latter. Ever been drunk? Taken painkillers? Some mental features are clearly very brain-dependent. I think it's true that "If I hadn't had all that wine, I wouldn't have been drunk" and I think it's equally true that "If I didn't have a brain, I wouldn't have a mind."

It's tempting to say that no chemical can causally get to your mind. It's tempting to say that the mind is something that would still exist even if you took away all the mental features that are manipulable by chemicals. But can you really put your finger on what would be left? Imagination? Reason? I guess these things might feasibly exist without a body. But if that's all you had, would you still be you? And would you still want to exist?

 

[Pythagorean]

So then the logic is to make a leap of faith about the greatest mystery of all, based on an assumption?

I'm not sure I'm following. "Greatest mystery of all" sounds a bit faith-based itself, as does the whole idea of an afterlife.

So do you disagree with the assumption or the alleged "leap of faith". If so, what is this "leap of faith?"

 

[Crosson]

In the dialog the Phaedo we are placed in the room with Socrates on the day he will drink the poison to satisfy his death sentence. His friends are gathered around him. His wife Xanthippe comes in and says:

"Oh Socrates, this is the last time you and your friends will ever see each other and have these philosophical talks, the last time..."

Then Socrates leans over to his friend Crito, who is rich and so has servants with him, and says:

"Crito, somebody had better take her home."

And that's the last we hear from Xanthippe! I don't know why, but for some reason the
first time I read this exchange I was philosophically cured with respect to death.

Note: the story is not intended to be misogynistic, or anti-emotionalist, but rather like Evo said near the top of the thread, not to dwell on the inevitable.

 

[Astronuc]

That's true. Try to pursue what makes you happy, if that is possible. For a lot of people, that's not possible. I hope it is for you.

That's the key. Make most of life.

If it's any help, I read that as people grow old they start to welcome death and are not so afraid of it.

Certainly the elderly face their mortality. Perhaps they stop worrying so much.

There are studies that show that the elderly are the happiest. I don't believe that, but that's what the studies said.

For some perhaps, but not all. There are many who look back on what have been, or what they didn't realize or obtain. There are those who face death alone and become absorbed in a saddness of not having at least one other to care for them.


For me - I should be dead many times over - but I'm still alive, whereas many others have not been so fortunate.

Some day, I will embrace death - but at the moment I'm too busy and having a really wonderful time.

 

[Moridin]

Just out of curiosity, why would one assume that death is "it" - the end - when we can't possibly know?

When you die, your body will start to decompose. Your function as an individual is intrinsically tied to your body and brain. When those degenerate, we can be pretty sure that your function as an individual does the same. Naturally, you could postulate the existence of a ghost in the machine, but that is entirely a leap of faith. Not postulating it, however, is not.

So then the logic is to make a leap of faith about the greatest mystery of all, based on an assumption?

No, the fact that your brain is responsible is not an assumption.

 

[vanesch]

The thing that saddens me most when thinking about my death, is that the universe will have lost its purpose then...

 

[arildno]

Have a laugh instead of experiencing bafflement:

 

[easyrider]

Yeah, I do believe your brain plays a big part in your experiences. Literally, knock yourself out and then come back and tell us what the experience was.

I always think science has the upperhand over holding on to the desperate assumption that there is someone tending the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[LightbulbSun]

Have a laugh instead of experiencing bafflement:

Thanks lol. I have that song stuck in my head now.

 

[Suudsu2200]

I am like the writer of this. I think about sleep and think, hey, that's not bad. Then I start thinking, no, not like sleep, not even blackness, nothing. Time goes by instantaniously to you, even though there is no you... Just scary. I find it hard to believe I will except death as I grow older. I think that is just a way we comfort each other, just like heaven, reincarnation, etc. Sometimes when I think about it I feel detached from this world, looking down upon it like a puzzle. I mean, why are we compelled to sex? The point of life seems to either grow in numbers or to survive as a race.

I'm kinda hoping sometime before you die you see what happens to you after death. I personally don't believe in heaven or hell but I sure wish I could so I could take comfort in it.

(sorry about going off-topic a bit)

 

[Meatbot]

I look at it like this: When you are dead, you can't think. Therefore I'll never think I'm dead (if I do, I'll be wrong). I'll always think I'm alive. Even I die from your perspective, I WON'T from mine. As far as I'm concerned, I'm immortal. Heck, if quantum immortality is true, I might not even actually die (still from my own perspective, of course though) and I'll still be around in a thousand years.

 

[Suudsu2200]

Wow, thanks. I can actually take comfort in that. BTW what is quantum immoratlity?

 

[easyrider]

I highly doubt quantum immortality is likely to happen. Quantum physics is just crazy, I think we'll just decay into oblivion. Nothing after we die couldn't be as bad as everyone makes it out to be. We didnt experience anything before we were born for an infinite amount of time, and we won't experience anything afterwards for an infinite amount of time.

 

[Meatbot]

Wow, thanks. I can actually take comfort in that. BTW what is quantum immoratlity?

It's a idea related to consciousness and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. If the universe is constantly splitting, then so are you and so is your consciousness. But "you" only experience one of those branches. What if there is a situation where the universe is about to split and in one branch you are dead while in the other you are not? The idea is that you might have to experience the one in which you are still alive since it's the only one in which you can experience anything. So every time you might die, there is a possible universe where you are somehow miraculously saved and you would need to experience that one. We would need to know more about how the universe decides which version you experience I guess.

There are only two ways that I can think of to test this, neither of which are palatable.
1) If you tried to kill yourself, you would always fail from your perspective. You could try to do it over and over and you'd always find that you somehow survived. This is the quantum suicide idea. Not advocating that you try this though.
2) Wait and see if you get to be 1,000 years old and have survived multiple accidents and events that might have killed you but didn't.

 

[solidon]

It's a idea related to consciousness and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. If the universe is constantly splitting, then so are you and so is your consciousness. But "you" only experience one of those branches. What if there is a situation where the universe is about to split and in one branch you are dead while in the other you are not? The idea is that you might have to experience the one in which you are still alive since it's the only one in which you can experience anything. So every time you might die, there is a possible universe where you are somehow miraculously saved and you would need to experience that one. We would need to know more about how the universe decides which version you experience I guess.

There are only two ways that I can think of to test this, neither of which are palatable.
1) If you tried to kill yourself, you would always fail from your perspective. You could try to do it over and over and you'd always find that you somehow survived. This is the quantum suicide idea. Not advocating that you try this though.
2) Wait and see if you get to be 1,000 years old and have survived multiple accidents and events that might have killed you but didn't.

The whole problem with quantum immortality is that in the vast majority of scenarios with serious accidents you survive you end up disfigured, crippled, in pain, etc. not pleasant. you can also lose your memories along the way. Only a minuscule amount of the alternates do you come out truly unscathed.

As for my problem with death, it is that it is not certain what the outcome will be, after all what keeps us being ourselves are the patterns/arrangements of our brains not the matter that composes them(given that it is being recycled/replaced constantly.). And patterns can always pop-up again.

The lack of control is what mostly bothers me, and the knowledge that my memories are likely going to be thrown in the garbage bin, seeing as while still alive they can be easily lost, no reason to expect that after death if somehow a similar enough pattern pops up
it will miraculously have all ones memories. I'd personally prefer immortality and godlike powers to enjoy existence at my whim without having to worry about threats, uncertainty , unecessary suffering and forceful memory loss.

 

[Meatbot]

The whole problem with quantum immortality is that in the vast majority of scenarios with serious accidents you survive you end up disfigured, crippled, in pain, etc. not pleasant. you can also lose your memories along the way. Only a minuscule amount of the alternates do you come out truly unscathed.

That is one scary aspect of it, yes. However, it might be that the mangled ones are not the most common survival scenarios in the future. Perhaps the most likely one then is that you are saved or brought back from death and stitched up by advanced medical technology. Perhaps the situation can be so severe that only advanced tech could keep you alive. What if an asteroid fell on your head? There'd be basically zero chance for a mangled suvival and a better chance for a technology-based survival of some sort. Maybe the Centaurians beam you to Neptune Base 5 just in time. That's ridiculous, but if it's the most likely survival scenario and you must experience a survival scenario then that's what you'd probably see. Of course, maybe you'd just be dead.

 

[Arkarian]

i don't think death is baffling, what's more baffling is what comes after it
you get sad by thinking about your death, then imagine that after you die, your mind remains, and you get to some sort of place where you are the only one there, so you are conscious but you are the only thing there is, you don't have a body, you can't see anything, all there is is just blackness...

 

[PlasmaSphere]

Wow, thanks. I can actually take comfort in that. BTW what is quantum immoratlity?

I'm not so sure about quantum immoratality, but it seems to be based on quantum consiousness concepts.

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/

I spent twenty years studying how computer-like structures called microtubules inside neurons and other cells could process information related to consciousness. But when I read The emperor’s new mind by Sir Roger Penrose in 1991 I realized that consciousness may be a specific process on the edge between the quantum and classical worlds. Roger and I teamed up to develop a theory of consciousness based on quantum computation in microtubules within neurons. Roger’s mechanism for an objective threshold for quantum state reduction connects us to the most basic, “funda-mental” level of the universe at the Planck scale, and is called objective reduction (OR). [..continued]

 

[eastside00_99]

i don't think death is baffling, what's more baffling is what comes after it
you get sad by thinking about your death, then imagine that after you die, your mind remains, and you get to some sort of place where you are the only one there, so you are conscious but you are the only thing there is, you don't have a body, you can't see anything, all there is is just blackness...

thats the primitive way to get rid of the fear of death...fear something greater...

 

[Meatbot]

imagine that after you die, your mind remains, and you get to some sort of place where you are the only one there, so you are conscious but you are the only thing there is, you don't have a body, you can't see anything, all there is is just blackness...

There is no reason to think the mind survives the death of the body. That seems not worth worrying about. Even if it were true, wouldn't you quickly begin to hallucinate as people do under sensory deprivation? What if that state was meditative, like when the buddhists clear their mind? Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as you think.

 

[PeteKL]

For me death would mean no more smelling, hearing, touching, seeing, thinking, feeling or tasting. I can't imagine such a way of being but that could be how it is. I think of death everyday because I have too much free time on my hands.

 

[_Mayday_]

There are only two things guaranteed in life, death and income tax.

If you want something depressing to think about, unless you turn into an Einstein before your death, in a 100 odd years you will be forgotten, not a single person on this Earth will think about you, and probably not know who you are either.

 

[moving finger]

There are only two things guaranteed in life, death and income tax

and even the latter is not guaranteed - I pay no income tax.

 

[elmobile]

life and death!

there is neither birth nor death - they are merely human concepts. Reality only exists right here right now - all else is speculation. Leave 'life' to life and 'death' to death. Whatever you think about life after death will be wrong because it's just thinking and reality is beyond thinking.

 

[Holocene]

Life is but the blink of an eye. For billions of years our consciousness lay dormant, and then one day we find ourselves thrust into the here and now, perhaps oblivious to just how fast it’s all leading back to the same state of nothingness from which we arrived.

It may ways, it’s quite sad. Our lives are truly just a brief glimpse of a universe so far beyond our level of understanding or appreciation. Even a lifetime of a million years, simply wouldn’t be enough to appreciate all that the universe has to offer. What we make of this life is far more than likely all we can ever hope to accomplish, and all too often I cannot help but feel like I’ve already fallen short; forever cut off from second chances by the inescapable flow of time.

In other ways, perhaps we are more fortunate than we could ever hope to imagine. As has been described by Richard Dawkins:

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they’re never going to be born. The number of people who could have been here in my place, but who will in fact never see the light of day, outnumber the sand grains of the Sahara. In the face of these stupefying odds, it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here”.

Looking at it like that, maybe ever person who has ever lived has hit some sort of cosmic jackpot. But what then of young children burned in Nazi furnaces, or those consumed from cancer during their first few years alive? Cases like these are in the millions, and none ever had the opportunities I’ve taken for granted, or have simply thrown away.

Upon contemplating these thoughts, I truly wish there was something beyond death. But, for all our observation of the physical world, that just doesn’t seem to be the case. What we see may truly be exactly what we get.

If we’re wrong about that, we’ll eventually come to know it. If we’re right about that, we’ll fade away and never know of it again.

In so many ways, life really is but a dream.

 

[PlasmaSphere]

In so many ways, life really is but a dream.

Life is but a dream within a dream in which we wake up upon death. -Edgar Allen Poe

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I usually fear how I am going to die. I would hate a violent death or dying slowly of a degenerating disease. What is the best way to die? What are the odds?

 

[basePARTICLE]

I usually fear how I am going to die. I would hate a violent death or dying slowly of a degenerating disease. What is the best way to die? What are the odds?

Something like mountain climbing, if you are not already an avid climber. The trick is to over-reach yourself, when you think that time has arrived!