Not from chemical or systemic perspectives.
What happens to us when we die?
- Sy Borg
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
- QuarterMaster69
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
150,000 people died yesterday. 55 MILLION people died last year.philoreaderguy wrote: ↑April 14th, 2007, 3:14 pm What happens to us when we die? What do you think happens? What do you want to happen?
When we die we become a number--an unknown number in the sequence of deaths since Adam and Eve.
What I want to happen is for a catastrophic event that kills every single species of living things on Earth right down to every bacterium including myself to occur so that when I die so does the world. (Hey, you asked.)
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
- Atreyu
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
If we answer the question from the pov of #1, we can say that you will be 'eaten' at death. Your physical body will rot and decompose, becoming one with the Earth. Other more 'fine' matter (soul) will also be eaten, but not by the Earth. You will not exist. Period. The subjective experience of this is unknown.
If we answer the question from the pov of #2, we can say that you go back to the beginning, as if the time of your life was a circle. As if a point on the circle were labeled "birth/death". You've run out of time and cannot continue living in the time of the living (#1). But your time still exists -- in the past. The subjective experience of this is also unknown, until one becomes around the age of 3, when he himself can then remember it. So the period from death --> rebirth --> to age 3 is unknown.
To understand this idea properly you would have to understand that your great grandpa does not exist, period, in this time. But he continues to exist in his own time (the past). The dead become separated from the living via time. The dead 'stay behind' so to speak, having run out of time, while the living continue 'moving forward' in time, so to speak.
The reason many people think that the dead are 'gone', in the absolute sense of the word, is because they are not taking the space-time paradigm into account concerning life and death, i.e. they are not considering these two separate times I just delineated above. They are only considering their time, "time as they know it", the "time of the living". They do not consider that perhaps the dead are still living, just "living in the past" (literally), but the space-time paradigm tells us that this is the most likely scenario.
- Sy Borg
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
An interesting idea but I am not sold on Minkowski space, the 4D spacetime manifold. Relativity puts time aside, as though it would work either way but that is theoretical. The physical reality is the arrow of time, possibly associated with dark energy, if existent. It seems more likely that the past only remains insofar as it resonates in the present.Atreyu wrote: ↑March 13th, 2018, 6:53 pmThe reason many people think that the dead are 'gone', in the absolute sense of the word, is because they are not taking the space-time paradigm into account concerning life and death, i.e. they are not considering these two separate times I just delineated above. They are only considering their time, "time as they know it", the "time of the living". They do not consider that perhaps the dead are still living, just "living in the past" (literally), but the space-time paradigm tells us that this is the most likely scenario.
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
Must keep in mind that 'death' is a word. Death, life, electromagnetic modes, systemic perspectives, Minkowski space, my cat's furry paws: all words, and words are inherently interpretative. They do not mirror "the world," they interpret it. So whatever what we call death may be, conceptual constructions are always already "wrong" and it is therefore best to be silent on that of which we cannot speak, and let the world speak. Best sit under the Bodhi tree ...and listen. The most interesting thing in the universe is within.
I do miss the old times.
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
Yes, but the key word is "physical". The "physical reality" is the reality of the living, of those who perceive themselves to be "physical", of those who have physical bodies.Greta wrote: ↑March 13th, 2018, 10:37 pm An interesting idea but I am not sold on Minkowski space, the 4D spacetime manifold. Relativity puts time aside, as though it would work either way but that is theoretical. The physical reality is the arrow of time, possibly associated with dark energy, if existent. It seems more likely that the past only remains insofar as it resonates in the present.
But it is true for those who do not?
- Sy Borg
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
Those who do not have physical bodies?Atreyu wrote: ↑March 19th, 2018, 4:18 pmYes, but the key word is "physical". The "physical reality" is the reality of the living, of those who perceive themselves to be "physical", of those who have physical bodies.Greta wrote: ↑March 13th, 2018, 10:37 pm An interesting idea but I am not sold on Minkowski space, the 4D spacetime manifold. Relativity puts time aside, as though it would work either way but that is theoretical. The physical reality is the arrow of time, possibly associated with dark energy, if existent. It seems more likely that the past only remains insofar as it resonates in the present.
But it is true for those who do not?
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
Talking with the dead is very similar to having a 'vision' of the past. If your awareness could travel into the past, then certainly you could communicate with the "dead"....
- Sy Borg
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
Due to the hard division between life and death, verifiable evidence that can be observed and understood by multiple informed observers is seemingly not possible. Further, there is no known means for the unattached information of your self to continue beyond the grave. So I doubt but don't entirely discount.
Further, I find myself not inclined to seriously investigate the paranormal - to "try" to perceive spirits - on a personal level because regular life has enough challenges without either messing around with something I don't understand or wasting time chasing illusory phantoms. If it turns out to be important one can always play catchup on one's deathbed :)
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
If it were possible to contact someone after they died, whom is it that we are contacting? The person we thought they were, the person they thought they were, or the person they really were?
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
- Present awareness
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
If you have ever asked yourself the question “who am I” you will realize that what we consider to be “I” is based on past memories of whom we were, childhood, teen years, school, jobs, what others say about us etc. etc. It’s almost like a hologram built out of pieces from the past. However, whomever we were, is not whom we are! Whom we are is the one whom dies when the time comes. Whom we were is already dead. Only our memory keeps whom we were alive and our memory dies when our physical brain dies.
Is it really so bad to accept that we are nothing more then a fabrication, built out of memories? Whom we think we are is not whom we really are?
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Re: What happens to us when we die?
I think it's more like unthinkable than bad, as pretty much the entire Western school of thought is based on taking the individual "I" too seriously. Even though everything known to us shows that it's illusory, and it's perfectly obvious what happens to us when we die.Present awareness wrote: ↑January 31st, 2019, 7:03 pm Is it really so bad to accept that we are nothing more then a fabrication, built out of memories? Whom we think we are is not whom we really are?
Having said that, "I" personally still don't want to die. Me, or the future me, will end, my memories will be lost. In one sense we are eternal, in another sense very mortal, and I still don't like that.
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