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What is death like?

Ocelot said:
... Dying (as in the transition) on the other hand is an experience I'm not looking forward to.
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I've been in situations where I thought I was going to die twice. Very strange, but not scary or even very troubling. More like a third person watching and a commentary... "Oh, so this is what it's going to be like."

I figure when it finally gets me, I won't have all that much time to dwell on it. When you survive, there's plenty of time.
 
Rasmus said:
I think that question ... begs the question.

it will not "be" "like" anything, since i will not be experiencing my own being dead.
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So its not like anything, or its like nothing?

Whats that like?
 
punshhh said:
So its not like anything, or its like nothing?

Whats that like?
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Try and remember what it was like before you were born. It's exactly like that except that you will be dead. This is assuming that you are giving the conventional meanings to the words anything and nothing.
 
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marplots said:
I've been in situations where I thought I was going to die twice. Very strange, but not scary or even very troubling. More like a third person watching and a commentary... "Oh, so this is what it's going to be like."

I figure when it finally gets me, I won't have all that much time to dwell on it. When you survive, there's plenty of time.
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Yes so have I, twice and it was very peaceful. From the moment when I realised/concluded that I was about to die, I gave up any survival instinct remarkably quickly and entered a dream like state in which I adopted a third person like role as you say.

This was followed by me viewing the entire course of my life at high speed, like a slide show including the emotions. Followed by an experience of letting go and an understanding that I was about to retreat out of the top of my head at the back.

On both occasions I returned to normal consciousness shortly afterwards.
 
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punshhh said:
Yes so have I, twice and it was very peaceful. From the moment when I realised/concluded that I was about to die, I give up any survival instinct remarkably quickly and entered a dream like state in which I adopted a third person like role as you say.

This was followed by me viewing the entire course of my life at high speed, like a slide show including the emotions. Followed by an experience of letting go and an understanding that I was about to retreat out of the top of my head at the back.

On both occasions I returned to normal consciousness shortly afterwards.
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So you don't know what it feels like to be dead. DMT causes similar experiences without the need to be nearly dead.
 
dafydd said:
Try and remember what it was like before you were born. It's exactly like that except that you will be dead. This is assuming that you are giving the conventional meanings to the words anything and nothing.
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But I can't remember what it was like before I was born.
 
punshhh said:
Yes so have I, twice and it was very peaceful. From the moment when I realised/concluded that I was about to die, I gave up any survival instinct remarkably quickly and entered a dream like state in which I adopted a third person like role as you say.

This was followed by me viewing the entire course of my life at high speed, like a slide show including the emotions. Followed by an experience of letting go and an understanding that I was about to retreat out of the top of my head at the back.

On both occasions I returned to normal consciousness shortly afterwards.
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I missed the high speed rerun part. Now I think I got ripped off.
 
marplots said:
I've been in situations where I thought I was going to die twice. Very strange, but not scary or even very troubling. More like a third person watching and a commentary... "Oh, so this is what it's going to be like."

I figure when it finally gets me, I won't have all that much time to dwell on it. When you survive, there's plenty of time.
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I can think of one situation when I thought my cards were up for a few seconds. Quite exhilarating in the aftermath and yes I get where you're coming from with the sense of detachment. However I worry that's it's more typical to have a more drawn out and painful type of death, that's what I dread.
 
The biological and chemical reaction in your brain responsible for your sensory input and sense of self cease to function.
 
punshhh said:
But I can't remember what it was like before I was born.
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Exactly. After all, there was no "you" before you were born. (Well, we could argue about a few weeks or months, but for billions and billions of years, you weren't there.)

punshhh said:
So its not like anything, or its like nothing?

Whats that like?
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That's like asking me what it's like to not be in Australia - only more so. (Note: I've never been there.)

The thing is that "he is dead" suggests that being dead is something a person does or experiences - just like being tired, hungry, or in Australia, or walking or swimming. And that idea couldn't be more wrong.

There is no "you" anymore after death, just like there wasn't a "you" before birth. You were not asleep, you were not somewhere else, you simply were not at all.
 
Yeah you really need to think of it as "Stopped living" instead of trying mentally frame it within the concept of it being an act in and off itself.
 
Rasmus said:
Exactly. After all, there was no "you" before you were born. (Well, we could argue about a few weeks or months, but for billions and billions of years, you weren't there.)



That's like asking me what it's like to not be in Australia - only more so. (Note: I've never been there.)

The thing is that "he is dead" suggests that being dead is something a person does or experiences - just like being tired, hungry, or in Australia, or walking or swimming. And that idea couldn't be more wrong.

There is no "you" anymore after death, just like there wasn't a "you" before birth. You were not asleep, you were not somewhere else, you simply were not at all.
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So existence a you know it ceases to exist for all time, never to be repeated.

Existence for you was just a brief window onto a wonderful realm, proceeded by an eternity and followed by an eternity of nothing. Oh wait, less than nothing, an entire absence of anything.
 
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