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[Cal]

I suppose, there are going to be some harsh comments on this, but, I will proceed anyway.

Something that often ponders my mind, is that, what would happen if you were dead? would you still have your senses? would you live you "life" or so to speak, as some form of astral being? or some type of spirit? maybe you might be reincarnated? would you be human?
or, one what always bothers me, if you were dead, how weird would it feel, to stop being able to think? I mean, your probably thinking about what it would feel like, but I think its impossible to imagine what its like. Or, maybe, would you be trapped, within the confines of your own mind? you'd probably go insane, but, not like it matters, you'd be dead anyway.

[issacweirdo]

Before a flame war is going to begin, let me interrupt; there has not been sufficient evidence, at least released in the mass media, that suggests an afterlife exists. Or that consciousness, a byproduct of the brain, can still exist after death. NDE victims still have their brains going on, so the chemicals that are swarming in their heads can explain the hallucinations. A method to finally prove or disprove if the afterlife exists is to turn someones brain completely off and then to restart it back up. I'm not sure if it is possible; even if we could do such a thing, couldn't the brain of the individual still have some trippy chemicals floating around, which can potentially create hallucinations once revived? Maybe once the subject is brain-dead can the experimenter ask them to do something in the afterlife. Then we can revive them and ask them if they did the task at hand; furthermore we can ask what we told them to do. I'm kind of iffy on the last thing though...

[subzero]

it might just be an absence of everything. Your conciusness just ceases to exist and you wouldnt even notice because you and Your thoughts just are gone O.o lol

[Doctor Psi]

My view of death is a bit too complex to explain. (Isn't everybody's?) I see other people's consciousness as a network of computers. Each is accessible by another. In a way, we are all the same person. That doesn't really explain it well, as we are not the same person. It is like everyone is connected in a way too deep for me to explain. I have never been able to put words to it, but maybe I could die right now, and wake up a new lifeform. I would not even know I have lived before. Instant renewal, perfectly clean slate and everything new. OR. When we die the chemical processes in our brains cease and we fall out of the world. Maybe the alternative to that is like being to security guard in the camera room. Each consciousness connected and each a screen, instantly accessible to you. Now that I think about it, my actual consciousness could be the one watching this body's life pass by. Maybe that is all a consciousness is.

[issacweirdo]

I don't think it's that confusing Dr. P. Every time a new body is created then a new WiFi connection is set up to every living being. Every individual creates a back-up copy, such that once the body of the individual dies the back-up information is sent to the new body created. However, this would then suggest there is a system of automatic reincarnation. How would new souls be created? How can there even be astral entities in the first place, assuming they are real and you believe in them, if they are instantly reincarnated? What about the belief of past lives?
Now in response to your second statement: So are you stating our consciousness is in multiple places other than our body? That we can be experiencing others lives as well at the moment? Wouldn't there also then be an absurd amount of security guards, since there's a lot of dead people?

[meushiman]

Personally I'm Catholic, so I believe in an afterlife, but I'm not gonna lie.  I have always had my doubts.  Sometimes I think religion is just what a person really hopes is true, not what is actually true.  However, I feel like my faith goes in a cycle.  I start getting more doubt and then when I am at my most doubtful I feel a presence of God or something greater than us in a personal way.  Something only I could really appreciate.

Anyways, that is neither here nor there, is it?  Sorry.  I have had an idea that what happens to people after death is what they believe will happen.  Our brains interpret death in the way we want it (kinda like when you sense energy it is interpreted in different ways in different people).  For me that would explain why people who have died and are revived see Jesus if they're Christian, Buddha if their Buddhist, etc..  It could very will be chemicals though.  Bottom line, though, I think there has to be something greater than us.  Otherwise, our Earth is one ginormous coincidence.

[stolide]

Before a flame war is going to begin, let me interrupt; there has not been sufficient evidence, at least released in the mass media, that suggests an afterlife exists. Or that consciousness, a byproduct of the brain, can still exist after death. NDE victims still have their brains going on, so the chemicals that are swarming in their heads can explain the hallucinations. A method to finally prove or disprove if the afterlife exists is to turn someones brain completely off and then to restart it back up. I'm not sure if it is possible; even if we could do such a thing, couldn't the brain of the individual still have some trippy chemicals floating around, which can potentially create hallucinations once revived? Maybe once the subject is brain-dead can the experimenter ask them to do something in the afterlife. Then we can revive them and ask them if they did the task at hand; furthermore we can ask what we told them to do. I'm kind of iffy on the last thing though...

I have spoken with someone who was pronounced dead by a doctor, and shortly after was revived. I do not think any brain scans were done, but I imagine it was close.

[Doctor Psi]

I don't think it's that confusing Dr. P. Every time a new body is created then a new WiFi connection is set up to every living being. Every individual creates a back-up copy, such that once the body of the individual dies the back-up information is sent to the new body created. However, this would then suggest there is a system of automatic reincarnation. How would new souls be created? How can there even be astral entities in the first place, assuming they are real and you believe in them, if they are instantly reincarnated? What about the belief of past lives?
Now in response to your second statement: So are you stating our consciousness is in multiple places other than our body? That we can be experiencing others lives as well at the moment? Wouldn't there also then be an absurd amount of security guards, since there's a lot of dead people?

I don't know, it's tricky. Consciousness can be just a product of active chemicals in the brain. My consciousness doesn't exist in the past or future, so maybe that is right. I am not sure on astral beings or whatever, and I encounter the same question: Where do new souls come from? But hey there are crazier theorys. Some people think we are just a computer simulation. Either way, the end is the end. There is no changing that fact when it happens, and it won't matter what anyone believes once they are decomposing. One of those, "cross that bridge when we come to it" thingies.

(Lol, it is like studying what happened before the universe even though it doesn't matter, because it means absolutely nothing to almost anyone.)

[issacweirdo]

I have spoken with someone who was pronounced dead by a doctor, and shortly after was revived. I do not think any brain scans were done, but I imagine it was close.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19751440/site/newsweek/?from=rss&print=1&displaymode=1098
Very interesting link about two people who were clinically dead, but have not yet reached brain-dead stage. The brain cells can live for a short while longer, but supposedly they commit suicide through their mitochondria or something like that. Here's another link that outlines it a little bit more: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100220191242AANyfJ1
Yes, it must have been damn close, ha ha ha.

Meushiman: I would argue that Earth itself was not a gigantic coincidence, though life inhabiting the planet will be a different story.

Dr. P: OMG! Sorry for the caps, but one day after watching this one documentary I thought that if computers are able to have a gigantic amount of processor power, then can't we simulate a reality similar to our own? The people inside the simulation, assuming the materialist view is correct, should possess consciousness. Couldn't our future descendants have access to such a computer and create a reality, such that they are technically visiting the past? I need to study a little bit more to see if this is possible though.

[Doctor Psi]

Our universe is practically the same format as a video with pixels making up pictures by the way. But still, if that was true I think it would be sick. It is like tricking a keyboard into thinking it is alive, and then turning off the monitor when you are bored.

[issacweirdo]

Well, it's more like a process. But the video analogy still works; pixels can represent sub-atomic particles, only to make up atoms, which then makes up the whole object which would be like humans or elephants. I honestly wouldn't care that much if somebody was experimenting with our universe with their own sick gain. As long as I get to have this illusion of being alive and having free will that I will agree to their terms. I'm not really looking for meaning or a purpose in my life, so maybe that's why I'm not that affected by all of it? I'm confused by your last sentence though.

[Doctor Psi]

I meant creating a practically living thing with a "living" consciousness and then having it end by clicking the X in the top right of their screen. Kind of reminds me of God. Except we aren't humans in that case, we are more like ants, or dogs, or dog turds.

[issacweirdo]

I meant creating a practically living thing with a "living" consciousness and then having it end by clicking the X in the top right of their screen. Kind of reminds me of God. Except we aren't humans in that case, we are more like ants, or dogs, or dog turds.

You have only confused me even more by stating we are more like ants and what not. I don't see how one would need to trick a keyboard that it's alive; isn't that the the tool to control the universe in this case? I get the monitor thing though.

[Doctor Psi]

You...you are silly. The keyboard is in fact a part of the universe as a machine, the computer. By closing down the program the keyboard loses it's purpose. When I refer to us as ants I mean little things that mean kids play with for sick enjoyment, in other words letting people live crappy, utterly hopeless lives. Think of the little African kiddos who need pen pals!

[issacweirdo]

You...you are silly. The keyboard is in fact a part of the universe as a machine, the computer. By closing down the program the keyboard loses it's purpose. When I refer to us as ants I mean little things that mean kids play with for sick enjoyment, in other words letting people live crappy, utterly hopeless lives. Think of the little African kiddos who need pen pals!

Ah, I understand what you mean now. The whole computer set is supposed to be a part of the universe. Now that you explained why it's like humans are ants it's a good analogy.

[Doctor Psi]

Now we're getting it! I love a good analogy! They make me feel all warm inside. Well, I am warm inside. But it makes me feel fuzzy on the inside.

[The Adfeng]

I propose that whatever you think will happen to you will happen to you after you die.  But, then again, that's not backed up by any scientific claims and that's just what my head says.  I believe that there is a Heaven and Hell because I'm a Christian, but that's besides the point.  That's what I think will happen.

Nothing is for certain, though.

[issacweirdo]

I propose that whatever you think will happen to you will happen to you after you die.  But, then again, that's not backed up by any scientific claims and that's just what my head says.  I believe that there is a Heaven and Hell because I'm a Christian, but that's besides the point.  That's what I think will happen.

Hey, I don't think we will ever get evidence of the after-life personally, so I think having personal beliefs is justified. I already believe there is something similar to heaven and hell, however it's more like a natural process alive humans go through instead of being dead. Torment, guilt, hate, et cetera are things that suck, but ultimately they help us reflect why something we did could be considered as bad, at least in reference to ourselves. Once one can be at peace with themselves then jealously will be replaced with inspiration, guilt will be replaced with the feeling of doing something right, and hate will be replaced with wisdom on oneself, or at least somewhere along those lines. The state of being in the dumps is what I think "hell" refers to; "heaven" is the opposite, which is to say accept ones problems and to work with them. Other than that it's the closest belief I have of an afterlife. Even if the afterlife doesn't exist, I'm going to try to change that with modern technology. But that's a different story for another time.

[The Adfeng]

I'm mildly interested and I think I have a clue of what you may be doing, but care to PM me your thoughts about that?

[meushiman]

I propose that whatever you think will happen to you will happen to you after you die.  But, then again, that's not backed up by any scientific claims and that's just what my head says.  I believe that there is a Heaven and Hell because I'm a Christian, but that's besides the point.  That's what I think will happen.

Nothing is for certain, though.

That is pretty much what I said and when I said the earth was a big coincidence, I was referring to life on earth.  Also, I think it would be nice if you posted this idea in a new thread isaacweirdo.  I'm pretty interested