Survival of Consciousness After Death

[Bill - Shy Cat]

i hope this isn’t offensive to anyone, but I thought it was interesting. Also, wonder if same might happen to non-humans.

Survival of Consciousness After Death – IONS

What, if anything, survives physical death? That was the motivation behind this IONS essay aimed to advance the understanding of the complex and fascinating topic of survival of consciousness.

noetic.org

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

i hope this isn’t offensive to anyone, but I thought it was interesting. Also, wonder if same might happen to non-humans.

Survival of Consciousness After Death – IONS

What, if anything, survives physical death? That was the motivation behind this IONS essay aimed to advance the understanding of the complex and fascinating topic of survival of consciousness.

noetic.org

Category 3 of reincarnation is what I thought of at the beginning of the article. You don’t exist anymore, but you somehow have awareness because you exist in a different form?

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

What is your take on this? I think it’s an interesting article (don’t get the medium stuff, though), but it’s hard to imagine a nihilistic viewpoint when we’re thinking, feeling beings.

 

[wildcatadam6]

We are souls experiencing this life as human flesh and bones. The soul lives on…I feel certain of this. Try psilocybin sometime and you’ll see what I mean.

 

[rick64]

 

[DreadLox]

If you believe in Free Will, you probably/possibly believe in the soul etc. The Ghost in the Machine is how it's usually phrased. If we're just stuff then we're robots and all actions have been set from the beginning of the universe like the break in pool. The truth of it is beyond my pay grade, but to me it looks like we're just stuff. People sleep walk. When we're under drugs like hypnotics or Ambien we have conversations and get about, and other people can't tell. There's certainly no "person" directing traffic up there in your head. A doctor who should know better once gave me a hypnotic for a procedure and (apparently) gave me too much. After it was supposed to have worn off, we had a conversation in which he told me follow up stuff. I have no memory of it. He was talking to a machine.

Oddly some people who believe in the soul believe that all actions have been set by God. Though He give you bad things to do, you would still get punished. Etc. Nobody stranger than people.

 

[chroix]

If you believe in Free Will, you probably/possibly believe in the soul etc. The Ghost in the Machine is how it's usually phrased. If we're just stuff then we're robots and all actions have been set from the beginning of the universe like the break in pool. The truth of it is beyond my pay grade, but to me it looks like we're just stuff. People sleep walk. When we're under drugs like hypnotics or Ambien we have conversations and get about, and other people can't tell. There's certainly no "person" directing traffic up there in your head. A doctor who should know better once gave me a hypnotic for a procedure and (apparently) gave me too much. After it was supposed to have worn off, we had a conversation in which he told me follow up stuff. I have no memory of it. He was talking to a machine.

Oddly some people who believe in the soul believe that all actions have been set by God. Though He give you bad things to do, you would still get punished. Etc. Nobody stranger than people.

I believe in free will and also that we are just stuff. If we thought we were just machines we wouldn’t care what happened to us so I think it is just a trait that serves to keep the species going.

But whatever it is you’re right. Nobody stranger than people.

 

[Bill - Shy Cat]

What is your take on this? I think it’s an interesting article (don’t get the medium stuff, though), but it’s hard to imagine a nihilistic viewpoint when we’re thinking, feeling beings.

I believe in at least some degree of consciousness after our physical bodies expire. Also, I have to admit that I had to research what “nihilistic” meant. 😀. I appreciate your thoughtful response.

 

[KAB Cats]

I think we probably just die and that's that.

A caveat there is that there is research suggesting that death isn't as sudden as believed, especially for healthy bodied adults. It's not necessarily an all or nothing proposition.

I am not sure that simply dying is as dire as we imagine. Yea, you die. Your brain will cease to function. You will have no thoughts. Your heart will not beat. But all the atoms of your body will be consumed by something and re-enter the chain of life or molecular re-composition.

How ever that life arose on this planet, I do think there is something special about the building blocks of the universe & reality. We have very strict definitions of "life", but regardless of intent, who is to say that atoms, molecules, quarks, etc are not alive themselves?

I guess what I'm saying is that while I think it's probably true that life just ends, I think it's also true that regardless of body function, you're still part of something bigger, regardless of religion or spirituality.

In terms of free will, I tend to agree with Schopenhauer. "A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants."

 

[HymanKaplan]

I think that some of you have just recently discovered some things that many of us older folks ran across decades ago:

high grade cannabis

mushrooms

LSD

(and peyote if you grew up out west.)

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

q

I believe in at least some degree of consciousness after our physical bodies expire. Also, I have to admit that I had to research what “nihilistic” meant. 😀. I appreciate your thoughtful response.

i will be honest: I had to reread the article a few times —-and parts of it are way beyond my pay grade 😂

 

[CaptainBoogerBuns]

I think that some of you have just recently discovered some things that many of us older folks ran across decades ago:

high grade cannabis

mushrooms

LSD

(and peyote if you grew up out west.)

I learned everything about those watching Dragnet reruns (Howard Hessman as the militant hippie) 😎

 

[warrior_SW]

This thread is giving me major anxiety, and that’s how I learned I maybe have some pent up feelings of being scared of death.

 

[HymanKaplan]

The thought of reincarnation; having to do all of this again, dismays me... (given that you can't bring all the useful stuff you learned last time, back with you.)

If you could just reboot to say, 21 years old, and retain the wisdom, well, that would be dope as hell.

 

[august-west]

The thought of reincarnation; having to do all of this again, dismays me... (given that you can't bring all the useful stuff you learned last time, back with you.)

If you could just reboot to say, 21 years old, and retain the wisdom, well, that would be dope as hell.

I thought the idea was that you keep trying until you get it right, whatever “right” may be.

 

[Bill - Shy Cat]

The thought of reincarnation; having to do all of this again, dismays me... (given that you can't bring all the useful stuff you learned last time, back with you.)

If you could just reboot to say, 21 years old, and retain the wisdom, well, that would be dope as hell.

Another thought, do some reincarnate on another planet within other civilizations?

 

[wildcatadam6]

The thought of reincarnation; having to do all of this again, dismays me... (given that you can't bring all the useful stuff you learned last time, back with you.)

I tend to disagree with this. I think souls have some level of sentience. A knowing, per se; not necessarily a direct download from a previous life.

 

[wildcatadam6]

I thought the idea was that you keep trying until you get it right, whatever “right” may be.

Enlightenment

 

[megablue]

i hope this isn’t offensive to anyone, but I thought it was interesting. Also, wonder if same might happen to non-humans.

Survival of Consciousness After Death – IONS

What, if anything, survives physical death? That was the motivation behind this IONS essay aimed to advance the understanding of the complex and fascinating topic of survival of consciousness.

noetic.org

Interesting piece, for sure. Here is a short video from a Physicist's perspective. I've always enjoyed listening to Sean Carroll ...

 

[megablue]

I think we probably just die and that's that.

A caveat there is that there is research suggesting that death isn't as sudden as believed, especially for healthy bodied adults. It's not necessarily an all or nothing proposition.

I am not sure that simply dying is as dire as we imagine. Yea, you die. Your brain will cease to function. You will have no thoughts. Your heart will not beat. But all the atoms of your body will be consumed by something and re-enter the chain of life or molecular re-composition.

How ever that life arose on this planet, I do think there is something special about the building blocks of the universe & reality. We have very strict definitions of "life", but regardless of intent, who is to say that atoms, molecules, quarks, etc are not alive themselves?

I guess what I'm saying is that while I think it's probably true that life just ends, I think it's also true that regardless of body function, you're still part of something bigger, regardless of religion or spirituality.

In terms of free will, I tend to agree with Schopenhauer. "A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants."

There are many interesting youtube videos and debates about free will that you might enjoy. I see free will as an illusion. Alex O'Connor, Sam Harris and Robert Sapolsky are thought-provoking to listen to, if you are not already aware of them.

 

[Deeeefense]

Quite an interesting topic. I think the best evidence the consciousness survives death is the NDEs that have been documented and studied in a professional setting. The interesting thing is that the experiences have some common threads, and most are positive in nature. For those interested I recommend checking into the work of Dr. Bruce Grayson at University of Virginia who has documented and analyzed numerous cases. Here is a link to one of his youtube videos:



Dr. Grayson only studies cases where the experiencer was had no brain activity which eliminates explanations of hallucinations and other things that require brain activity.

Also there is a medical doctor Jeffrey Long that has documented 100s of cases and has a website where they are featured and discussed.

As for reincarnation I'm like Hyman, starting over again isn't exactly an appealing idea, would rather to move onto something bigger and better

 

[Bill - Shy Cat]

Quite an interesting topic. I think the best evidence the consciousness survives death is the NDEs that have been documented and studied in a professional setting. The interesting thing is that the experiences have some common threads, and most are positive in nature. For those interested I recommend checking into the work of Dr. Bruce Grayson at University of Virginia who has documented and analyzed numerous cases. Here is a link to one of his youtube videos:

View embedded media

Dr. Grayson only studies cases where the experiencer was had no brain activity which eliminates explanations of hallucinations and other things that require brain activity.

Also there is a medical doctor Jeffrey Long that has documented 100s of cases and has a website where they are featured and discussed.

As for reincarnation I'm like Hyman, starting over again isn't exactly an appealing idea, would rather to move onto something bigger and better

Loved thie vid. Sent it to a terminal friend of mine who has no hope or beliefs.

 

[JDHoss]

I believe that you just die, and that’s it. If I had a choice, I’d like for my Ka to drift off into space while listening to my favorite playlist on shuffle.