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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What Happens When You Die? Your Thoughts On The Afterlife

It's such a hard concept to wrap ones mind around though, isn't it. Nothing, non existence. Far easier to construct an elaborate narrative that is comforting and soothing. I tend to agree with you ecib, but I hope you're wrong because I'd really like to keep on keepin' on with the same people I've been keepin on with.





ecib  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    It's such a hard concept to wrap ones mind around though, isn't it. Nothing, non existence.

I find that non-existence isn't hard to wrap my mind around in the slightest. What is mind-shatteringly stupefying to me is why anything exists at all. I've literally had to pull over to the side of the road while driving while pondering that before.

    but I hope you're wrong because I'd really like to keep on keepin' on with the same people I've been keepin on with.

I wish I was too but I'm not. Can be terribly painful for creatures with self-preservation instincts and surrounded by people/things they care about. Can also be much less painful with the right perspective and a commitment to not take it for granted while you're here.

user-inactivated  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    I find that non-existence isn't hard to wrap my mind around in the slightest. What is mind-shatteringly stupefying to me is why anything exists at all. I've literally had to pull over to the side of the road while driving while pondering that before.

Very glad to hear this. I've never fully understood why I -- specifically me -- exist, or why any of us exist in any sense. Why the fuck is life something that happens? Not just life, either, but space and stars and everything on down. No clue. Cosmic accident.

mk  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Is it? This happens to you every night. If someone overdosed you with ether while you slept, you would never have a clue. Just tired, doze off, then gone.

user-inactivated  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The difference is that when you sleep, you're not scared of not coming back. You expect to come back. When you die, you don't expect to come back. It's a mindset of nonexistence, if that makes any sense.

mk  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I understand. I would say that this highlights that the concept isn't difficult to understand, but is difficult to emotionally accept.

thenewgreen  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Nothingness doesn't happen to me every night. The concept of nothing is something I can think about but not something I can conceive or view in my minds eye. I can see darkness, but that darkness has quality. "Nothing" is impossible for me.

mk  ·  4047 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I would say that it happens to you, but as a lack of experience by nature, you can't experience it. Insofar as you don't define yourself to be discrete, I would say that it (non-experience) happens to you. Trying to imagine non-experience has to fail.

Stagnant_Pig  ·  4046 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I've always imagined it as when you sleep, the period you aren't dreaming is like being dead. If I were to die in my sleep tonight I wouldn't even have a chance to care if I even noticed.

AlderaanDuran  ·  4046 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's not hard at all. Just think, you experienced non existence for eternity up until relatively recently up until you were born. That's how I look at it. I've not existed for the vast majority of the life of the universe.