Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
- Elgruaro
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Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
"You’re totally engrossed in watching an extremely exhilarating movie. Then, without knowing, you unexpectedly, without any perceived drowsiness, fall asleep. For you the movie has been unknowingly paused, while in reality (that for others) it continues on. Until you wake up, you still believe you’re watching that movie."
He suggests that because we will never perceive any indication that our consciousness has ceased when we die, we will continue this final state of consciousness forever and that in this state, time will become infinite.
Some of my thoughts on the topic:
- There will no longer be a self to consciously experience this last moment, so how can it be that this moment will continue forever?
- How specific is this static moment? Is it an everlasting experience of the second before we die? A millisecond? This quickly becomes an irrational thing to discuss.
- What if we die in some horrible way and are suffering until our last moments? (e.g., burned alive, suffocation, etc.) If we take this theory seriously, then that provides some pretty daunting implications. An eternity of extreme pain locked into a single moment? Yikes.
Overall, I don't know what to think about the plausibility of this theory. It makes sense to me that without a transferred state to let me know that I am no longer conscious, then from my point of view, I won't know that my final moment of consciousness has ended. But as mentioned, how can consciousness exist without an entity to experience it?
What do you guys think?
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
- bucky
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
"You’re totally engrossed in watching an extremely exhilarating movie. Then, without knowing, you unexpectedly, without any perceived drowsiness, fall asleep. For you the movie has been unknowingly paused, while in reality (that for others) it continues on. Until you wake up, you still believe you’re watching that movie."
This is a false analogy because when I am asleep, I still exist. I don't temporarily go into a state of non-existence and then begin to exist again when I wake up. There's nothing about being asleep that is like being non-existent.
It sounds like he seems to think of non-existence as some kind of qualia, something which you can experience which is not what non-existence is. A programmer might say that he's confusing a NULL value with a 0 value.
- Felix
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
- Sy Borg
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
So, in the end we may well have a sense of one scene feeling like an exceptionally long time. The subjective side is only known by NDEs but that still isn't quite death, so the area is necessarily speculative.
- JamesOfSeattle
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
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- Burning ghost
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- Sy Borg
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
This is one of the dumbest theories I ever encountered. One wonders how many bona fide idiots with "DR" titles are actually out there! The fallacy is so inherent that one wonders what his definition of brain dead would be.Elgruaro wrote: ↑January 13th, 2019, 10:44 pm I've been reading about a theory from Dr. Bryan Ehlmann which supports a "natural afterlife." Basically, he suggests that if non-existence follows after death, then we will be forever locked in a state of experience comprising of our very last moment. He uses the following thought experiment:
"You’re totally engrossed in watching an extremely exhilarating movie. Then, without knowing, you unexpectedly, without any perceived drowsiness, fall asleep. For you the movie has been unknowingly paused, while in reality (that for others) it continues on. Until you wake up, you still believe you’re watching that movie."
- simmerdown
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
Also I don't see why non existence after death means life is meaningless or without value?
- phenomenal_graffiti
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
In other news...
- simmerdown
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
You could argue that non existence after death implies life has no value because there is no correlate in which we could say we would be better or worse off. We can't say it is neutral value, because that would imply a value where there is none.
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Re: Theory of Natural Eternal Consciousness
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