Fears about death and about the afterlife (if it exists)

[V for Victor]

Tonight I watched a movie called "The Five People You Meet In Heaven."

It was a beautiful, thought-provoking film, and very comforting.


As I was lying in bed staring up at the ceiling, I kept thinking about life, and death. I kept wondering if there was a god or if there wasn't. Then I thought about all the sermons I had heard as a little kid, hearing about the fast approaching second coming of Christ, and how we should be ready to go to Heaven.

Then I thought about how angry I am at this god I was taught about. I hate him. I feel like, if he really exists, he's my enemy. But if he exists, he's also in charge, and unbeatable. He'll send me to hell, unless I give in to him. And I don't want to give in to him.

These thoughts charged a true moment of terror in me. I knew I was having an attack, and I went right to work on fighting it. I hopped out of bed and started playing some very relaxing music and not focusing on god, afterlife, death and so on.

Now that I'm okay, what about the afterlife? Is there one? Is there anything really supernatural out there? I feel trapped in this life. Damned if I do, damned if I don't describes my situation.

I guess I really don't know what I believe. I feel very lost, and afraid. I want to know what's really out there, for certain.

[jitters]

O.K. you asked so I will try to explain where I as an athiest stand on this. Prior to getting sick I was a christian but having turned to my faith when I first fell ill and finding no answers. I eventually became agnostic and now I am an athiest. So what do I think happens when we die?

An Atheist would probably say, “Well, firstly, people cry. You get a nice suit and they throw you in a box and then put you in the dirt. Or they burn you.” A Christian “you are judged and go to heaven or hell accordingly” but the truth is the majority of us believe somewhere in between. Not fluffy clouds and a harp; not complete nothingness for all eternity. However no one will ever know for certain, it is question to be answered on an individual basis. Now if you follow a religion that religion in all likelihood will have its own explanation of the afterlife, and if you can believe that explanation then do so, but do so based on genuine belief, not blind faith. So, what if we come to the conclusion, after examination, that it is possible there could be no afterlife, isn’t that a little depressing? More than a little, but as with any uncomfortable idea that we have to admit could be true, we must make peace with the possibility for running from it does not make it false.

People say that life is the greatest gift God has given us. I believe that death is, for without the possibility of death, what would life be worth? - Oliver Roberts

What I’ll attempt to do here is rather than give an explanation of what I feel to be the truth encourage you to seek the truth for yourself, but I will give a scientifically rational explanation of death that will hopefully aid the acceptance of such a possibility and help you to see that even in a purely material sense we all live forever.

Neither Matter nor Energy is created or destroyed, simply transferred, this is a fact of thermodynamics. The human body is matter and energy. When it dies, its substance is completely converted to matter and energy that will be useful elsewhere. Perhaps that energy and matter will become a tree, a flower or one with the earth. I feel this is summed up perfectly in this quote from Edward Munch:

“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity.”

When our body is cremated, all that my physical body is will be scattered, nothing is ever truly destroyed, energy is scattered about the universe. If buried over time our body becomes one with the soil it is food for the plants insects and worms and decomposes becoming part of nature. The dead are all around us, still with us in the form of different types of energy, matter, radiation, and such. Our atoms become one with plants, birds and animals. Although this is entirely scientific, it is comforting to think that our dear departed friends and family are still with us, still near us and possibly even within us. In this sense, nobody dies. The matter that is me will exist when I am dead and forevermore, in this way we are all immortal, however I my conscious self will be gone.

“There is no darkness but ignorance.” – William Shakespeare.

What happens to my conscious self when I die? The truth is, no one knows, and just as the physical self is eternal, so I feel is this question. I have no doubt that men will debate this point many generations after my death, so to attempt to give a explanation would be foolish. Many religions claim to have the answers to this question but in truth all is speculation, however I can tell you what I do feel can be proved that it will not be darkness and silence for eternity that awaits us. I feel this can be proven without the need for the supernatural or heaven and hell.

What do we think of as the real us? Our Body? Our Mind? No. I think to us we are our Conscious self, that which speaks to us, which thinks, which learns, which feels. And if upon death darkness awaited us for all eternity, then fear would be an appropriate response, but this is not so.

What is consciousness but a continuous stream of memories, one that begins at birth and ends only when we die? When we sleep we close our eyes and upon awakening it seems that no time has past since we closed our eyes, the stream of consciousness remains unbroken. The same holds true if for example we are put under anaesthetic prior to an operation, no sooner are we drifting of listening to the anaesthetist speaking than we are waking up hours later with the operation complete. We are aware that time has past only because we are conscious that things have changed such as waking up elsewhere, light variation or a clock. This awareness comes primarily from our noticing that things have changed since we closed our eyes, you could follow the stream of consciousness as far back as the womb (if your memory was good enough) and there would be no gaps except perhaps for dreams, however these too are a form of consciousness. If we were cryogenically frozen (as some already are) our body stopped and we were awoken many years from now, although centuries may have passed for us, the trip would be instantaneous, and the stream of consciousness would remain unbroken. No sooner would we close our eyes, as we would awaken to the future. So when we die, why would we suddenly be aware of non-conscious time? It would not be an eternity of darkness, but rather if our consciousness does not live on after our death then we would not know of it. We would merely close our eyes and the stream of consciousness that once was us would end, living on in the memories and conscious streams of those who knew us. Mark Twain wrote, “I was dead for millions of years before I was born and it never inconvenienced me a bit.”

We need to face facts we do not know what happens after death, but belief based on fear and superstition is not the answer. Be strong. Be honest with yourself and live for the now.

"You only live once...but if you live it right, once is enough"

“Life is a grindstone, it will either polish you up, or wear you down, depending on what you're made of.”

The first principle of Buddhism is; Life is suffering. Personally, although I believe Buddhism to be one of the most rational and compassionate religions, I disagree with this sentiment. Life can be difficult and you may suffer through illness, poverty or loss, however for all the bad in this world it is a wonderful life. If we take the time to look around us there is beauty in it, in nature, even in every day things, a leaf, raindrops on the window, a sunset, the stars, these things have a beauty that is eternal. In love and our relationships, in our family and friends, in our ability to love and be loved, in a babies smile, in a kiss, in making others lives just that little bit easier, this compassion for others can make even the worst suffering less, there is power in it, and this power of compassion can heal all wounds, can aid the poor, can feed the hungry, can ease the suffering of the sick. This power alone is necessary for a life free of suffering; by caring for and aiding others we lessen our own suffering. For true happiness comes from living a life of universal compassion for all humanity.



I should be content
to look at a mountain
for what it is
and not as a comment
on my life

-David Ignatow

What is life’s purpose what is its aim we cannot say for sure, but this much we do know it’s for living. We aren’t here for long, forgoing all the possibilities of an early death such as accident or illness our lifetime will rarely extend beyond a century. That’s 100 years in which to learn all there is to learn, do all there is to do, say all you want to say, and love all you want to love. So enjoy the time you have, don’t waste it worrying about what comes next because by the time you get an answer it may be too late. Live this life so that when you die, you do so happy in the knowledge that you followed your heart and lived life to the full. You may have regrets, but the majority of regrets are of what could have been, not what was. And when lying in bed many years from now, with your family around you, at least you can say, “I have lived.”

I did not write this to get into a philosophical debate on the existance of god or the afterlife. I wrote it to put across a different view from that maintained by most religions, My View. Try not to be offended I am not looking to convert anyone.

Duncan

[Winterbreeze]

Hello everyone,
I'd like to share that this is my biggest fear too since I was little and lately I had a really big trauma about it which I'm still left unexplained and this is still bothering me, also the reason I started to post in Anxiety forums.
If anyone cares to read about it and reply, (you can send me a PM, it's really bothering me and I'd like to know if anyone experienced same thing), I can't post URL yets, so it's in the welcome section.

Now for the rest! I want to give you hope!
People don't have to die anymore, you just don't know it.
I'm now starting to study biology, genetic, and physics.
I'd like to itnerest you in the hope we have, Rejuvenation Therapies
One of the researchs is SENS
sens org
There are many other good news, if you ever heard of Kurzweil.
He's qutie a famous person, engineer you might want to read about him.
Here are a few article:
(Removed links because I can't post yet, try to google Kurzweil Live Forever and stuff like that.. even Bill Gates has his books)

If you want more information, feel free to contact me on MSN Messenger or email:
AdaNis@Shoval org il

Don't lose hope! many of us feel the same way about death.
I wish you all best of luck.

[synaptic]

im currently not worried about my own demise, at least not in the sense of what happens when i die. i expect i'll get a whole lot more concerned as my time draws near...that is, provided i see it coming.

my thoughts on the subject of the afterlife, spirituality, etc. are pretty much as follows...

our bodies = a shell for whatever it is that actually makes us who/what we are.
i always kind of figured this, but it was "confirmed" for me last year i went to my first wake. my grandfather had a very strong personality and a clear presence, even as he was withering away. when i saw his body, he was almost hard to recognize. they did a good makeup job on him, so its not like he looked like a drag queen or anything. however, they did put a smile on his face in a way that his face never moved. but that wasnt it. my grandmother felt it too. she was trying to figure out what exactly it was that seemed wrong. his hair, his suit, what? when discussing this with my brother afterwards, he said the simple truth...that our grandfather wasnt there any more. what were were looking at there was just his shell. what felt so wrong and what made his body seem like someone else was that our grandfather wasnt in it any more. he siad that the body was no more our grandfather than his shoes. and he was absolutely right. that was exactly it. when we went back for the final viewing the next morning, it was all clear to me. he wasnt in that room, he had been gone for days. before they closed the casket, i put my hand on his arm to have one last contact...yup, just an empty shell.

so what happens to the part of us that inhabits that shell? of course i dont really know, but i have my suspicions.

my guess, or at least how i like to think about it, is that we rejoin what i think of as a collective. we re-enter a state where we are all one, and yet perhaps still retain some individuality too. my reasoning for this is as follows...

why do we love? its not necessary for reproduction. lust handles that job just fine. one explanation may be that its there to keep two people together long enough to help raise our offspring, because we produce helpless young. but that only flies for as long as our offspring needs help for early survival. similarly, there is no reason for us to love our mate for as long as we do, if love is only needed for as long as the offspring needs parental assistance.

so my guess is that love is a leftover from when we were part of that collective of souls, when we were nearly one. and love is the manifestation of our desire to return to that state and feel that unity again.

as a result, my guess is that when we die we return to that collective. i used to think that we completely dissolve into it like a drop of water into the ocean, and that all that makes us who we are gets dispersed. perhaps when we return, we also bring back the emotional and personal growth of our lives, to enrich the whole. when a new being is born (be it animal, bug, person, etc.), the vessel (the body) is filled by some of the collective, creating a new individual built from countless former lives.

these days though, i am starting to consider the possibility of past lives. for that to work, your spirit cant completely dissolve into the collective. you would have to retain at least some of yourself from one life to the next. i havent decided upon a way for all that to work that sounds sensible to me just yet. but i do get the feeling sometimes that some people come into this life with bits of innate understanding of things that is beyond others. that could be chalked up to having had more experience in previous lives, or just having learned more while living them.

so what will happen when i die? my soul (for lack of a better word) will leave this shell. where will it go? im not sure how the merge happens, or where it is. is it another dimension? does it connect with lives from other worlds too? i've no clue. but i do feel pretty sure that once i get there, i will mostly cease to be who i am now. or at least when/if i come back in another form, i'll be that version of me and not this one. so this is my one shot at being the me i am now.

oh, and god? if there is one, i dont expect to ever meet it and i do not think its watching over me in the least. i also do not expect any heaven or hell. that sounds like something humans made up to make themselves feel better, by applying a larger does of wishful thinking rather than of logic. humans dont make the world and all it consits of. we manipulate what is here, but thats it. so it seems to me that spiritual existance is equally beyond our making and manipulation and is instead just part of the 'everything else' that makes up everything else. so it seems unlikely to me that the spirit existance, one that includes lives of all that lives and not just humans, afterlife would follow our human rules of right and wrong, punishement and reward.

the closest thing to that which makes any bit of possible connection with me is the concept that the better you do in each life, and the more you learn in it (about living, not about petty trivia), the better each successive life might be. and the worse you are and the less you learn, the more you are doomed to relive the same cycles until you evolve spiritually beyond that point and can move on to have a better existence next time.

but for the most part, i see all this as entertaining speculation. i wont really know what happens until it happens, and by that point there will be no stopping it anyway. the way i see it, worry about the things you feel you can change, not the things you cant. death and the afterlife, if there is one, will eventually happen whether we like it or not. so there's no need to worry. just try to do what you can to enjoy the time you've got here.

of course, being the somewhat emotionally troubled person that i am, thats not terrible comforting all the time. i feel like im wasting what little life i have here. i feel im existing rather than living, and wasting this gift of life that i have, but i dont know how to get off my ass and actually go out into the world and really experience it. im letting my time here be wasted by the fear and depression of meaningless bull$#!7, instead letting it all go and absorbing and experiencing all i can.

so my worries are less on what happens after death and more on that im wasting the time i have here.