this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2025
76 points (92.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

28671 readers
1319 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Half of the time I look forward to my death, it doesn't scare me since I don't see the real point of my life, what scares me is if my agony would be slow and painful.

But then what? I just stop existing and it's like I fell asleep? Do I see light? Darkness? Nothing? What is nothing?

(page 2) 42 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] aaron@lemm.ee 3 points 4 weeks ago

I think this is probably a dream. Who knows what's on the other side. Animals are really good at experiencing severe pain and forgetting about it. I wouldn't worry about that. Life is a joke, so laugh at it.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Your brain stops firing and you're gone. You don't exist anymore. Your body starts to rot.

[–] Maiq@lemy.lol 3 points 4 weeks ago

This one's not going to sovngarde.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 weeks ago

If my partner is still alive, then she would be very sad. Likewise my older siblings. God, I hope my parents aren't alive to see it - that would suck for them. My best bud would also be pretty torn up (we've lived within a few blocks of each other for most of the last three decades, and get together at least once a week). There's also an old ex who if they're still around, I can count on a great eulogy from them. Makes me wish I could stick around just to see that.

Unless it's a particularly horrible death, I don't think anyone would be dangerously sad. I'm insured to the hilt, so there should be enough to go around to cover expenses, including my partner's current level of comfort.

From my perspective, it's likely to be a big nothing (I would be very surprised otherwise). But I've never really put much stock in individual consciousness: sure I may be stuck to this one perspective because of how brains work, so it's the only consciousness I can truly know, but it's not the only one. The others (like other other people) will keep going after this one ends. The biggest changes are going to be in the social and legal dimensions of my former life.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 weeks ago

There will persumably be a funeral, my remaining family and friends will grieve and divide my up my things, several of which I doubt they will ever really use.

I'll be dead and won't care.

[–] OmegaLemmy@discuss.online 2 points 3 weeks ago

Each breath is slower than before, your mind enters a mist, friends surround you but not you, they are distant

You focus, focus once more, your pupils dilate as you stare into your first born daughter, then onto your grandson, they seem almost frozen, their mouths move to talk yet it's incomprehensible

Their lips slap together at an excruciatingly slow pace, then as a final pang of pain enters around your chest, you feel your time stop

The mist encroaches further.

[–] DarkFuture@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Your corpse decomposes.

Nothing is nothing.

I get reborn in the world that i helped create ...

[–] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago
[–] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Our soul is weighed against a feather by the holy mother. Not like Mary or whatever, the real all powerful 5th dimension all is one in time and space holy mother.

If our soul tips the scale against one's favor then you are reincarnated... you're reincarnated into tge sane family however the dynamics keeps changing each time you're born. You're sister might be your brother next time and you're a wife in one life then maybe a fatherless uncle in the next. Anyway once we achieve enlightenment, we are given a choice, stop the cycle or keep going

[–] gazter@aussie.zone 1 points 3 weeks ago

But it's a really heavy feather.

[–] Sergio@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 weeks ago

But then what? I just stop existing and it’s like I fell asleep?

If you're asking about your cognitive state, it's like a process or event that ends. Like if you roll a ball down a hill and the ball stops bc it's at the bottom of the hill. The ball's still there but the process of the ball rolling is over.

what scares me is if my agony would be slow and painful.

To some people it's helpful if they read up on things like palliative care and hospice care. To other people it makes things worse to think about it, but personally I found it comforting to know that there are options and procedures to handle that.

[–] ___@lemm.ee 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Hopefully the Egg is revealed.

Bruh, I don't want to live a life as hitler, or every nazi ever lived, or the jewish people that got genocided.

(Or have I already done that? 😖)

[–] Spiderwort@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago

It's like dreaming (like you do when you go to sleep) except moreso

[–] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 1 points 4 weeks ago

We get judged and are either accepted into one of the three levels of Heaven or face punishment if we were exceptionally twisted.

[–] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

The Ka leaves the body and goes to The Beach.

[–] Guttural@jlai.lu 1 points 3 weeks ago

Ford Ka? Or another type of Ka?

[–] callyral@pawb.social 1 points 3 weeks ago

im gonna die one day and if there's an afterlife, i'll deal with it then. if there isn't an afterlife, then i won't deal with it because i'll be dead.

[–] ShiverMeTimbers@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

You wake up outside the matrix.

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

I think its like being anesthesized or a high dose of nitrous, consciousness slowly fades away, its a bit trippy, can be scary, and then youre gone. Depends on the circumstances though, some deaths are probably a lot quicker than others and you wouldnt feel a thing.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 1 points 2 weeks ago

So many people claiming such certainty of what happens. I personally have no idea. But it might be better than this life, so I'm not dreading it.

[–] sicarius@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

Try taking a dmt trip. That often is described as feeling like dying, it's a strange other dimension but somehow feels familiar. Also the brain dumps a load of dmt at the moment of death. But that's just the dying stage, the actual dead stage, nothing because the brain has stopped working.

[–] wabafee@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Likely just stop existing probably a good thing honestly. Though I do have this thinking sometimes that Earth is actually is hell since we have the freedom to do anything. God won't bother us here no matter how you prey. While heaven on the other hand means no freedom and complete order, god interacts there. We either came from there already or just randomly sorted and if we die here that is it.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Okay please don't make fun of me but:

I think there will be some sort of re-incarnation. Like not religiously, but like as property of science that we still have yet to discover.

Like I do not believe in dieties, and I don't have any religions, but I think there are some "energy" that makes up "you" and when you die, that "energy" kinda just float around like the many cosmic particles that goes around the universe randomly. Since there's gravity on Earth, this "energy" likely aren't gonna go outside of the Earth. So that "energy" will randomly find it's way into a living being when its bring conceived, very likely somewhere nearby the location of your death.

Like think about it.

Are you really only gonna exist once.

Dead for billions of years --> Alive Now --> Dead for the rest of eternity?

OR

Dead --> Alive --> Dead again --> Alive again --> ... (repeating forever)

I mean, you won't remember anything, its like you are a camera that is recording (aka: experiencing existence), but you lose the SD card (memories) at every re-incarnation.

Okay I know I sound like I'm inventing another religion 😅, but like scientists didn't even know about atoms and the electron confugurations until like the last few hundred years, who knows... maybe eventually we'll find the secret "energy" of life 🤷‍♂️

So TLDR: I believe you get get "re-incarnated" as a random living being near where you died.

(I mean... it's a great way to deal with death anxiety. So maybe I just re-invented religion again 🙃)

Edit: So I guess, if you are gonna believe my theory, your goal in life should be to pass on as much knowledge you can gather. Write an autobiography, document your entire life. Archive every news story, and media, movie, TV shows, games, anything you enjoyed or anything you think other people should know. Imagine you are attempting to pass this knowledge on to a future re-incarnation of yourself.

[–] piracysails@lemm.ee 1 points 4 weeks ago

Well, I'd better be s dog then!

[–] eupraxia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I have two sets of beliefs here. There's what I rationally believe based on what I know, and there's the story I'll be telling myself for comfort if I know the end is soon (and I think benefits me in day to day life too)

The experience of death and if anything comes after is inherently kind of unknowable and if there was a truth to know I don't think human minds could comprehend it. Even if the answer is nothing, I can't comprehend experiencing nothing. When consciousness lapses we only have what we experience before and after to contrast it to. So I have to live life with the understanding that I will die and I can't know what that will be like until it happens.

That being said, we really don't know anything about how consciousness is connected to our physical forms, and we don't know that experience ends after death, either. Especially when you consider time may not be linear in the way we perceive it. The closest thing I have to a belief would be some form of reincarnation, where consciousness would resume in another life in another time. Maybe every life is the same consciousness reborn an uncountable number of times. I can't say I believe this per se, more that it's just as possible as any other theory, and it'd be a comfortable delusion to pass on with. it helps me feel closer to others too.

I guess my main point is go play Outer Wilds (and its DLC) if you haven't gotten to it yet. It helped me grapple with a lot of this and even if I'm still scared of the end, I no longer find it overwhelmingly distressing.

[–] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 weeks ago

If you believe your self, your awareness, your consciousness are manifestations of neurons firing in a brain, then as soon as those stop, you cease to be.

I believe that those neurons are a sort of radio signal, and that the self as I know it is a kind of wave transmitted from some time/place. When the body dies and the brain dies with it, I believe that connection is gone, and that signal is lost, but that the time/place from which the signal originated still exists. This doesn't indicate that I, the self, still am somehow alive or exist in some other way, the specific manifestation of myself as who I an is gone in this case, but I do take some solace in the fact that the signal that propagated the awareness of my own being still goes on.

I don't need to read stupid questions like yours anymore, it's bliss.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk -3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

We'll be resurrected and face judgement before God, all who have sinned will be found guilty and cast away to hell, except those who have repented and came to Jesus for forgiveness of sins - in which Jesus will have already paid the punishment for.

[–] Tujio@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Imma let you finish, but Neo had the best 'died and resurrected for our sins' arc of all time.

load more comments