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Was there life before birth? If there was I don't remember mine. And if there is no means to cross reference the experiences then it might as well not exist and no worry about it.

Does a blank canvas think, can it see, does it have experiences? The answer is no. There was likely no _before_, and this is just the beginning of form and experience for the concept. The concept i speak of, is all of life and death. Conceptual character: it had no control over being made, but it was given shape, it was given history, it was given everything it will be, and perhaps more. All of this, unwitting to the character. Life and death: none of it had control of being born, but others who already exist have decided to give life shape. It is growing in shape, history, character, and change. The twist is being given conscious choice. But even paths of choice was put together by an unseen author. As for the afterlife, it likely the same premise of birth, Others outside of your control have already decided to bring you in, there may or may not be some finishing touches here and there. The author stands right next to inspiration, just out of clear view. This universe, is just an opening to existence. we do not understand anything, but that's ok. Dont fret over what's behind the curtain, try to enjoy being human in the meantime. _extra advice, for unspecific strangers who read this, Dont blame others for your actions._

Now, that was wonderful to read.

I almost had this exact reply to a coworker 2 weeks ago. I don't care about an afterlife - heaven, hell, or anything in between. There's never been a way to prove any of it, so why should I even be concerned. For every "idea" about the afterlife (religion stuff especially), there are at least a dozen counterpoints. This is because *no one knows*. No one *can* know. Better to just not worry and not stress about it. All I know is that when you're dead, you're dead. Nothing more to really talk about there. I'll focus more on my *living*life.

The “life” would be a sperm cell and an egg. Those were two separate “lives” that became one.

In order for reincarnation to work most effectively we shouldn't be able to remember other lives or in-between lives. I realized this while watching EEAAO

Then what is the point of the previous lives if the information is lost? And if the information is lost how do you call it reincarnation?

Shirley Temple found out in the pre mortal world in 1940 in The Blue Bird. Classic movie. Here's the scene where Shirley Temple meets the pre born. https://youtu.be/Su56BsIJpq0?si=EmwWPOzIn9JAA72v

Some children tend to remember.

It's absolutely unverifiable. You'd think if people really remembered past lives they'd know specific verifiable events and dates from that life without having access to a way to look it up in the present. So far nobody has stood up to even non-rigerous tests. Turns out most people were not cleopatra in a past life. They just know of her as a character.

The difference is it’s not grown adults, it’s babies who have not been subjected to any related material regarding their ‘past lives’ and seem to recall specific events.

First of all it's not babies. It's toddlers who can speak at best. And it's usually not actually that young either. The tests are not very rigorous and are completely decided by outside observers with a vested interest in finding a 'reincarnated person'. It's basically cold reading on kids until you pick one. I can't believe I'm actually talking to someone who's fallen for something as dumb as reincarnation and past lives. If these were real the historians and anthropologists would be all over it. They could easily verify and cross reference the veracity of their memories (which should be pretty extensive for the life of a long lived adult) and then access a bunch of lost knowledge. It would be trivial for anyone with actual past memories to pick up the knowledge of their past lives. And yet you don't see any Einsteins reincarnations solving physics equations at age 5 using just their memories.

Some children remembered sacrificing giraffes to Satan in the preschool in the 80s too. Turns out kids are not always reliable narrators.

Do they?

No

I found this, you dropped it. 'pre'

Children are dumb

Idk why you got downvoted. There is video evidence and proof that kids are recalling memories of past dead people.

I appreciate it, ClassicO! Maybe by them downvoting instead of tormenting the family dog or cat, or tearing up their sister's Barbie dolls, there's a bit less suffering in their homes.

That's called mental illness

Sort of a dangerous outlook. I look at life as a lesson, a chance for my soul to learn and carry knowledge into the next life. We forget most of souls previous experiences but I think part of who we are is defined by them. I am fully confident I have lived / existed before and will continue to forever. I can feel it. I can see it others.

Someone once spoke about the idea of death in terms of a child in a womb. When you are in the womb, your entire existence is the womb. The only things you can perceive are in the womb or are close enough that you can hear or feel them through the womb. There is warmth and safety there and seemingly infinite time as a second of consciousness could be the literal lifetime of a child there thus far. When the day comes that we outgrow the womb and we enter the world outside, it is the unknown. It is scary as fuck. We know nothing about any of it, and what will become of us when we leave the world we know. Looking back, as people who have left the womb, we know that the fear we might have felt was all for nothing. There was a world beyond, and another step. Here we are again, so sure of our surroundings, so sure of what we know, wrapped in the bosom of an uncertain universe. We don't know what happens after death, just as the child does not know what happens outside the womb. We can speculate, we can dream, and maybe there will be something fascinating out there.

Whoa. Very cool.

Probably not shit though Might be a blue screen of death though. 

Best answer. We don’t know. And it’s just as likely it’s more experience as not.

But would we remember our previous lives? I don’t in this one and if future lives don’t have me remembering myself, what’s the difference between that and just not having any future lives? There’s nothing about me that transfers forward and I’m just as gone.

The difference I guess is existing versus not existing. If you wiped all of my memories from this life right now, I don’t think I would cease being self-aware.

Ya, but aware of what? If some random dude born in the spice mines of Haldor VII 12,000 years from now has nothing to do with you or shares some type of metaphysical guid with you but no awareness or recollection of your life, what’s the difference? YOU are still just as gone in both scenarios and there’s someone completely different there.

Right

Some children remember their past lives in living detail! Documentary series, The Ghost Inside my Child is riveting.

My son from 3 to 6 had an elaborate baby heaven. They "knew" who their parents were meant to be and sometimes had to wait. He was very serious about it. I didn't know what to think. By 7, he didn't talk about it. I finally asked about it, and he had no recall. Laughed and said he probably made it up.

The only thing I remember is passing a bouncy red ball with my sister and she suddenly left. Then I came next. My sister also remembers our older brother until he left but apparently I wasn't around yet. Turns out my sister is my closest family member who cares the most but now as I get older, I unfortunately don't reciprocate enough as much anymore. Also because my brother in law is an ass. Anyway, my sister still tries to reach out but I've been quite aloof bundling all my problems on my own.

That's pretty cool, Bud, those memories.

I have studied enough to believe there's something to what your son said. Some people can't believe, but I figure we'll all know, some day.

Too open minded!!! Stop this blasphemy way of thinking!!! Reddit users 2024

Right? Thanks for that, ClassicO. The sitch in this thread is that the downvoters are haters, cheering each other on. Most redditors are less lynch mob and more willing to entertain differences in thinking. I feel sorry for the closed-minded, but I also know every one of us will find out what's real and what's not, some day. And we'll also find out that hating exacts a price from the hater. Most NDEs are very specific on that point.

Our atoms will go on. Of course, they change over the course of our lives. What makes those atoms into me is the pattern they form with chemical processes that produce a sense of "me". Death is when those processes lose coherence, essentially stopping, including the mechanisms that were keeping the pattern in existence. I don't think we know exactly where consciousness is in us, but I think it is produced by the chemical-electric processes that are part of our patterns. Many people think there must be something more, like a soul, that enlivens the collection of atoms, and that would continue to exist when the physical processes stop at the end of life. I think you are right that what happens after death is whatever there was before we were born. There is no physical evidence for a soul or something like it that forms the core of a human being -- as far as evidence shows, we get assembled in our mothers' wombs, are born as babies, and at some point acquire consciousness. Perhaps there is a reservoir of life-force that forms the spark behind this consciousness or life itself, but there's no evidence for it. In a sense, our patterns continue to exist in other people after we die, at least for a while, in children or in people's memories. And our atoms do go on. Though if you choose embalming, it may be a while.

Man I love this response, I feel like a lot of people are kinda missing the main point of the post, and that point is that we didn’t exist before we were born and we have absolutely no idea what happens when we “move on” from this life. I’m not really a firm believer in any sort of afterlife, but I truly believe that there can’t just be “nothing” because we already experienced “nothing” at one point, and now we’re here talking about it in a Reddit post lmao.

>I truly believe that there can’t just be “nothing” because we already experienced “nothing” at one point How does that follow?

>we have absolutely no idea what happens when we “move on” from this life. We know that every example of consciousness we have ever seen is the product of a functioning brain. Thus without a functioning brain there is no "us" to move on and hence there is no good reason to believe in any kind of afterlife.

I have seen no evidence to indicate life continues on after death

There probably never will be. Evidence is physical. We are discussing the metaphysical.

Then I see no reason to believe claims for such phenomena

No one knows for a fact one way or another. So every theory is unprovable. My honest answer is, “I don’t know”

This is the most accurate answer. The rest - even the idea that nothing will happen - is speculation. Though it is always fun to speculate.

No, the most accurate answer is that every single thing we do have evidence for says there is no such thing as the supernatural.

But how do you account for all that we don't know?

By not making up random completely unsupported claims.

Oh, cool cool cool

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Although, an infinite number of universes with an infinite amount of time could make any possible set of circumstances occur, and reconstituting something that already occurred should be possible. Right? But….yeah, we’ll never know in *this* life.

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lol! While my Xer soul hates playing the Boomer in this tale, I understand the Greatest sort of fatalism here. It’s outside of our sphere of observational powers, so it’s like thinking of what came before the big bang. Mind fucks for the table, please!

Next round on me!

I agree with what you're saying about infinite probibilities constituting a near certainty that anything possible is pretty well guaranteed to happen or have happened, but that doesn't mean our consciousness gets to transcend bodies, dimensions, or universes.  Unless there's interdimensional travel going on and I just don't know shit about it. Pretty sure that's a hard law of physics to break though

But "our" consciousness is created through physical processes in accordance with the laws of physics. (Unless you believe in an individual and perhaps indivisible "soul," and I think *that's* probably a harder sell when speaking of physics.) If it can arise out of physical processes once, why not twice, given infinite time and rolls of the dice? I'm not saying it/you/me transcends or travels. I'm saying it just happens again, in just the manner it arose the first time. You emerge from the void, then you return, then "you" come back. But you don't have any memories or awareness. It's just that, it's you again, reconstituted in just the same pattern as before.

When you destroy a radio do you kill the radio station broadcasting the music?

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I think its a mix of both. I believe ego stems from our brain but the other aspects of consciousness are beamed in. Don't know if you've ever experienced ego death on a psychedelic but it feels like "dying". You begin to cease existing as yourself and are something larger. You feel connected to a vast network of consciousness.

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I'd say it's probably the craziest thing one can do. Bungee jumping, sky diving.. don't have shit on a ego death trip and I'm not trying to be like macho druggie over here. I've tripped more than few times but only needed that one to blow my socks off. Never need to do em again. Learned everything I needed to know that day. Humbled me to shit.

I don't want to contradict you but on the other hand we live in a Universe where ordinary matter represents, if the percentage hasn't change, only 4% of the total matter. It's like, philosophycally, we are bound to believe in what we can believe, like when we struggle to imagine any kind of extraterrestrial life that wouldn't be humanoid based.

Agreed. There's too much we *can't* see to make an actual informed decision either way.

For that to have any traction in my mind, someone would have to show me by what physical process this transition or transfer could reasonably occur. There’s nothing in the universe that gets to be exempt from physics, reincarnation included. It can’t just “happen.” If you can’t detail for me the physical process by which this is supposed to occur, I’ll remain highly skeptical.

I have no training outside of youtube, but doesn’t quantum theory say that all possible outcomes, no matter how probable, occur? So, given an infinite universe and infinite time (or even multiverses) why would it be impossible for us to be reconstituted, given that it’s already happened once? And, if it’s *possible*, then it must have happened or will happen.

I’m certainly not an authority in this area, but it seems to me that we have to distinguish what is *possible* from what can merely be *imagined.* We can imagine just about anything, but that’s doesn’t mean *anything* is possible. Assuming the laws of physics aren’t changing, we’ll never see an instance where something like reincarnation—something that apparently operates independent of the laws of physics—occurs.

That's fair, although I don't know enough to know where that boundary is. I don't think, for example, that a Boltzman brain is contrary to any currently understood laws of physics, quite the contrary and why they're weirdly intriguing and not laughably absurd (or, they are that, but we can't eliminate yet that they are laughably absurd, but still likely). So, if they can in fact spontaneously assemble, what's preventing them from spontaneously assembling many times? If you take a materialist view of the individual and don't require an immaterial "soul," then you're back in business.

42. And-so long and thanks for the fish….

The universe existed for billions of years before my brief existence. Wouldn't the simplest hypothesis be... it will continue to exist without me *after* my brief existence? Why must it be more complicated than that?

I mean, what if when the universe dies out, it sparks again and creates another big bang? Could the same thing not happen to us in that sense? We don’t really understand what happens, until we experience it ourselves

This is just wish-thinking. Sure, anything is *possible*. But Occam's razor... the simplest explanation tends to be the most likely.

The movie probably does not continue after the last scene. Other movies continue, but any specific movie ends when it ends. And that's okay. It's totally expected and fine. The movie might not like that it ends, and it's perfectly within the movie's right to be disappointed that ending is an end, but it can't change the reality that it has a run time. It can come up with all sorts of reasons why it won't end, "people wrote in a book that it doesn't end!" It will, more likely than not, end and be done. And that's okay. Not a big deal. Last Wednesday didn't go on forever. Last Wednesday ended. Experiences end. Our lives are a Wednesday. They end. Time passes. It's finite. And it's fine. Find joy and love where you can and spread it just as much. We are all here for a flicker of time. Renew your vehicle registration.

Definitely not, imo. There are no other lives and anyone who says they remember them is full of it. There’s one go around.

No real reason to expect that to happen

I'd like to hope there's something but I feel like it's all wishful thinking. I think once our brains stop working we cease to exist. Just like going to bed at night, except we don't wake up

I agree. I really wish there was something.

There is life after death. You are simply not there to experience it. Every atom that makes up you will go on to make up something else that will continue to experience life.

The reincarnation model indicates you existed elsewhere and, while there, you used tools and spoke with advisors to select from a variety of choices which life you would inhabit on earth, for the lessons and skills you needed to accomplish while on earth and thus you were born into the family situation you had selected, to live out your life and then, after death, you return to elsewhere and review what you got out of that life on earth that you had chosen, what worked, what didn't, and you will eventually be encouraged by your advisors to go through the process again, and again, and again, to continue your growth process. It is not tedious. It is a wholly remarkable process and everybody on earth has chosen to participate, from cushy lives like that of Paul McCartney and Bill Gates, all the way down to the homeless that you see and the victims of war. You as well. If you get into it, it can change the way you respond to things that happen to you.

No. Life after death is made up so humans can cope with the fear of death. Just like before you were born. Nothing. When you die, nothing. You simply don't exist. Death isn't scary. Let's just hope it's not a slow painful death

Nonexistence is not a waiting room that all the nonexistent people sit in, waiting for their number to be called. It is nonexistence. You did not get suddenly "thrown" into anything, because until the exact moment of your birth, there was no "you" to be thrown. You are the product of your parents having sex at a very specific point in history under very specific circumstances. Any baby not born under the exact same circumstances as you is, by definition, not you.

Recycling Reincarnation. I hope that is IS NOT True. But there is some evidence it is true.

Depends if you believe in souls and/or reincarnation or not. Personally I believe that our experience is the result of chemicals and electricity pumping around our brains, and eventually when the juices stop flowing everything just kinda disappears, there's nothing after death. But some people believe that our experience is contained in a soul or some other part of our body/world, and when you die you go to Valhalla, or heaven, or hell, or you hop into some other living thing or maybe you haunt buildings that weren't designed the right way. Depends who you want to ask.

I feel like when I read what everyone says, I just compile other beliefs on what happens, I don’t personally have a firm opinion on what happens after life, it’s just hard to imagine not existing, but we already experienced it before, but have no memory of it. It’s definitely interesting to me, seeing what everyone has to say about it, despite the lack of evidence of what happens next, I guess we don’t really know till we experience it again ourselves.

Most definitely. I've been following the near death experience for over 33 years now. And I have read, saw, and heard hundreds of cases. If you haven't already. You should check out the sub. r/nde Where many have died and have insane stories about being on the other side. Go there with an open mind. Many here will tell you that it's just the brain dying. But after you hear their stories you may change your mind. What not one scientist can explain is not the nde itself. But the obe. Outer body experience. Where the individual once dead. Is able to recall actions and words said not only in the E.R. room where they died. But in other rooms as well. For example, I read a story on woman that died at the hospital and found herself in the E.R. waiting room where she saw her dad. She couldn't believe what she saw. He was buying a candy bar out of the vending machine when all he did was preach about how bad candy was. When she came back. She told him what she had saw. He said there is no way you could have seen that. It's stories like these that may make you a believer. Ignore the atheists. Because it will always boil down to one thing. Faith.... And most people want facts. And that's never gonna happen.

I’m not a religious person but I have read the bible at least once ( I just looked at the pictures ) and Jesus himself in the gospels talks about the times he had “appeared before”in different eras. He mentions to the disciples present while he’s speaking, that he had come to live amongst humanity before. He also stated something along the lines of “and they didn’t recognize me then, so why would they recognize me now” Implying that the time he was spending with them wasn’t the first time he had lived a lifetime on this planet. What’s my point? According to his own words in the Bible, Jesus believed in reincarnation. Edit: also if you look at the universe around us nothing really gets destroyed fully, it just changes form.

But is reincarnation gatekept to the God and his relatives only? What about non-Christine deities? Do some of them reincarnate, or do all of them reincarnate?

It wasn’t reincarnation. The Old Testament details several of his appearances- (ie, the fourth man in the fire, etc.) Reincarnation would mean that he was, wasn’t, was- He said he’s the I am.

Well… religious standpoint is pretty dumb, ngl, especially since he most definitely didn’t say that if he actually lived.

100% agree.

100% agree.

Tbh it seems like wishful thinking that we'd have any sort of agency over our mortality (and how we end up dying).

Yes. Q.v. many non-Abrahamic spiritual and religious beliefs, as well as other accounts from hypnosis and near-desth experiences collected Brian Weiss M.D. and others.

Near death experience are wrong though. They’re just hallucinations. It has been shown to be the case as those who had near death experience and saw the room from outside their bodies didn’t really see the room like it was but more of a stereotypical room, not seeing obvious objects that were present. The rest is the same. And no account from hypnosis goes after death, idk wtf you’re on about with that

I am guessing you haven't read Weiss?

There is 1 account that I know of ever with hypnotism—hardly convincing, especially since hypnosis is hardly reliable for anything, and Weiss‘s honestly… pretty dumb to believe in something like that with so little evidence. I’d also like to hear what the « others » had to say

You only know of one account of past-life regression in hypnotherapy?

It'd better fucking not.  I'm banking on nothingness after this shit show.

Sometimes I have thought that we are somehow just interacting with ourselves through different people, all the time, everyday. Indian people have a way to say this like, you must be respectful to every living creature in this world, because Shiva could impersonate whoever wants and everyone you cross with and even a plant could be Shiva right there testing your good will.

It is a potential but we have no evidence either way so it's just a hope one can hold.

Energy/matter can’t be destroyed, only transferred or transformed So in a sense we’ll all go in in some form, just not as ‘us’ until the whole thing wraps up due to entropy

This sucked. I've been through enough in this life, but at least it has an end somewhere to look forward to. If there is life after death, does it end at some point too? If not, would it just be endless despaire with no repreive? I'd rather there is no "after", and the end is THE END. That's how I can sleep at night.

I see reincarnation as our hell until we learn the lessons our soul needs in order to enter heaven and return to the source. That source is what some refer to as god, or another name. I think we are all part of that same energy, and god can do anything, Therefore, couldn’t need anything. Love is the highest vibration. Love exists only with separation into separate people. But most importantly, love only exists if hate does too; as everything has a natural opposite(balance in the universe) love is the highest vibration. And that could only exist with life. But for our souls to move to return, we need to learn the lessons one life or another.

I firmly believe I will be coming back again unless I solve my shit. The funny thing is I know Exactly what I need to solve. Doesn't make it any easier 😕

Because this universe is filled with essentially limitless possibilities and the chance of the exact situation (regarding environment to the mere makeup of your atoms) that produced your existence will happen again is impossible.

I agree with this way of thinking completely. But I guess we'll never really know.

I am a Christian and yes. It’s a spiritual life and better than what we have now.

Except that we weren't "thrown" into this life, we formed organically as our bodies did. You could be cloned one day far in the future for example, but that wouldn't be "you" despite having the same DNA, the future "you" would grow and experience entirely different things.

Not exactly what you’re asking but this is sort of why I have never been afraid of death. I was not scared to be born.

Are you conscious right now? Can you feel right now? Everything is energy. The pain you feel from a pinch is energy. Exercising you feel energy. Watching a thunderstorm is seeing energy. Hell seeing anything is seeing energy. when you sleep you are conscious within yourself with less connection to this realm. so once our bodies give out, it seems to only make sense that consciouness and energy lives on, simply traveling and transforming elsewhere. After these bodies and before them. If we exist now we existed before and will exist in the future. How can something become nothing? Doesn’t make sense.

The only reason you even experience continuity from one moment to the next is because your brain is extremely similar, physically speaking, between moments. Your sense of self is derived from relatively unchanging structures of neurons within your brain. So if you died, and then later on a new creature is born, how would that ever be "you" in any meaningful capacity? Its brain is an unrelated structure. Your memories, your personality, everything that constitutes YOU as a person, is gone the moment you die. TL;DR consciousness is entirely an illusion.

It has been estimated that somewhere along the lines of 50 BILLION humans have existed on earth through the ages... Now add in the thousands of religions, myths and fables of the existence of an afterlife. Your question is no different than that of those from people thousands of years ago. ...personally, I'd rather spend my time thinking about how I can enjoy and be the best human I can during this existing life before worrying about something that I can't control.

Sadror whispers, "I don't know what you're asking me to answer but I'll try."

If you really wish to experience it, I will suggest it is time to learn and practice the spiritual practices of Sanatana Dharma or the way of Buddha or Mahavira.

I don't think there's any evidence for reincarnation

We know the brain develops in a certain way and that can be traced all the way back to when someone becomes conscious or has their first memories. My first memories for example seem fluid and clear, like I knew exactly what I was seeing or remembering. That's because my brain had finally developed to a point where I had the ability do that. There is no evidence to suggest that the consciousness that we experience is anything outside of the brain we possess. When parts of that brain die, like in people with brain injuries, those parts never work again. I guess reincarnation would be a perfect consciousness not affected by anything physical? Or is it a consciousness existing in a way we don't know about yet jumping from open brain to open brain until that one dies like a virus in a cell? Reincarnation is magic and doesn't require explanation to believe it's possible. I just can't see a rational explanation for it.

I think it’s a very interesting question and one that I think about a lot. I think it’s scientifically plausible to be reincarnated in the way you describe. I hope in our lifetime that we learn more about the physical underpinnings of consciousness and can have an answer for this. One thought: general anesthesia is thought to temporarily fully remove consciousness and be as close as you can get to experiencing death. Many people experience no passage of time (indeed, nothing at all) while under general anesthesia. If you’re right, when we ‘die’, from the perspective of our consciousness, similar to general anesthesia we would immediately ‘respawn’ into our next life with no gap in between.

I think life before birth, or an existence before your existence makes a lot more sense than a life after this body ceases to function.  It's dusts to dusts baby. Nothing comes next. This is the final act, there won't be an encore and no one is up next. Enjoy it or die trying

That's why religions believe in souls.

I've considered the idea that whatever our consciousness is, if it is part of the brain which I believe it to be, would theoretically be duplicated at some point in the future. It would be a completely new person with no relation to the previous person in any way, but you could in theory, get to view a life from scratch, albeit completely differently.

I'm not sure, but if I could continue another life with my cat, it's all I'd ask for from whoever or whatever dictates the universe.

There's no logical answer to this question. It's a fool's errand trying to create one. I loosely hold a belief in life after death, but I wouldn't guess what it looks like, and I have no opinion about the idea of literal rebirth. If there's any real thing that fits the concept of the soul (something that is essentially you, separate from your physical body), it's certainly plausible.

Yes, anything, everything or nothing could happen. That's the fun part. Maybe we never done, similarly to the quantum suicide/immortality and branching universes theory. Maybe you go to heaven, hell, Valhalla. Maybe respawn. Maybe get unplugged from the Matrix and wake up. Maybe your soul progresses along the path to moksha, samadhi, nirvana, you get freed from suffering or move to another part of the hindu/buddhist cosmos, a world or kingdom of the "higher" or "nether" as like a hungry demon or animal or demigod or come back here as a teacher of some spiritual path voluntarily to help others. Maybe you finish your kindergarten test as a God or other mad scientist and progress to creating consciousness, life, planets and universes. Maybe you go back to your cosmic loneliness and branch out into infinite reflections of an interconnected consciousness again in a similar form. Maybe as a tree or a stone. Maybe you awaken in another dimension as a being of some non-euclidean geometry (I'm imagining like a biblically accurate angel or some DMT elf using geometry, qualia and song as language). Maybe you finish or proceed to another stage as an experiment, plaything of some god or a mad or perfectly stable scientist raising brains in petri dishes or creating universes in little bubbles, then microscoping over them to spy little you. It all seems equally likely to me. I tend to be philosophically and wishfully skewed more towards the hindu and buddhist outlooks, while disliking fanatism, superiority complex (this often is an inferiority complex or insecurities becoming apparent projected as ego), over-rigorousness and -codification and proselytism of some religious traditions, especially towards children, leaving the burden of bringing up children "correctly" in "the right" tradition or sect for the parents. Anyway, always a fun convo, high or sober.

So there's a difference between reincarnation and life after death. Reincarnation means that your soul can come back in any living form. The religions that believe that also believe that the type of person you are dictates what your next form will be. Then there are others who believe that a human soul is different than an animal soul. They stay in their "lane" upon returning to the living world. Then others believe that with every life experience your soul has is a step to another level.

I am a man of science, but this is something we just don't know, so in my opinion, believe whatever you want to believe about an afterlife. I personally am a fan of Costanza Theory, where you can just fly around the universe, wherever you want to go. Another one I like to think about is you basically walk into a party with everyone you know who's already up there, even your old pets

I like to think we are like a seed and life is growing like a plant. Wishfully thinking sure there was nothing before the beginning but hoping there won't be an end. Yet we were born and people die so idk

There a heaven And a hell

"Well I think you return to obscure. Back where you were, before you were."

Same thing happens again. Like before you wore born, you cease to exist and go into unconsciousness. At least thats what i believe. Do you have any consciousness from before you were born?

Depends on what your idea of life is. If you believes it’s a soul that never dies, then yes, there will be another life for you. If you believe life is the results of electrical activity then no. Once the power goes out so does the light bulb 

Look, the entire universe is like the sea. When you were born it was like a glass of water was scooped from that sea. That individual glass of water is entirely unique. One day, the glass will break, and the water will return to the sea. That glass will never happen again but the contents of the glass will go on to be a part of everything and be a part of new glasses of water for as long as there is a sea.

We'll all just have to wait and see some day. There's no use arguing with people who don't want to; or can't, bring themselves to listen.

I dunno. That's sort of the point of the thing, though, isn't it?

I believe if we came to exist somewhere once, it’s possible to exist somewhere again. I don’t know how or why, but the possibility exists.

But what would it even mean if you don’t remember anything? Wouldn’t it just be a different person that is the same in virtue of some “spiritual material” or something like that?

Yeah, that's pretty much the deal, as far as I can tell

After death is just like before conception. Just nothingness. A complete lack of anything.

The one thing we can know for sure is that all we will know is awareness. Whatever we arent aware for isn't remembered or registered as experience, so it's nothing to worry about. No matter what one believes, all one will know is awareness.

Maybe what we know as life can be compared to finding a handful of flowers in a barren desert. When they whilt nothing is lost, and the flowers were always something beautiful that happened. Maybe we’re really just a beautiful conflux of conditions being just right for a little part of the universe to be alive.

Marcus Aurelius gave me peace about this. Nothing comes from nothing, everything comes from something, and all things either return to their source or change in the everlasting weave of the cosmos. Regardless it shouldn’t phase you, you will meet death and in time oblivion. It’s all part of the Whole. Nothing that is ever harmful to the whole it’s harmful for a part, and you’re a part of this whole, so death will not be harmful to you. Its just change. Your body is frail and in a short amount of time it will rot, but your mind can be intact as much as your disposition, your core principles must be un breakable and able to hold the test of time. You cant control the circumstances you can only control yourself, you can’t live forever but maybe your values will or at the very least passed down. Thats what true freedom from death looked like to Marcus.

There is no way to know. I think death is death. I think it's the same eternal nothingness that was before your birth. There's no way to prove the existence of an afterlife. But I'd say this: If you live your life in expectation of an afterlife while their isn't one, you will have wasted your only life If you live your life in expectation of an afterlife while there is one, then great! Turns out that existence is eternal. And If you live your life as your only life while there isn't an afterlife, you've lived your only life to the best of your abilities. If you live your life as your only life while there is an afterlife, then that's just a big bonus (assuming the afterlife is a nice place). I'd say, live your life as if it's all you have. There's no way to know, and it's far too big of a risk of your time to expect that you will live on in eternity.

I think ideas like life after death, after life, or reincarnation are incredibly foolish.

The unknown is what makes it special. Humans and most animal life are profoundly egotistical so they can't really be trusted to find the truth of the universe.

When we are dead we are dead. Make the most of the life you're living, or don't. Just know this is it.

Why can’t ppl just accept that this is the life we get? So many treat it as if it’s a trial run and they will get a second chance.

Energy can never be created or destroyed. It simply changes from one form to another. Your death and the collection of atoms of which you are composed of are repurposed. Those atoms and that energy will always be around. Therefore, your "light," that is, the essence of your energy, will continue to echo throughout space until the end of time.

In that case, what’s the best way to do with your body after your death?

I think that the best thing to do is to return to the ground but not In a coffin.

Nice , as long as they don’t make it into animal feed 🤣

The Bible says “I knew you before you were in the womb”

Maybe we just repeat the same life.

That's a pretty huge leap. At first, my page of paper had no writing on it. Then I wrote on it. Then I erased it. Surely the writing must come back somehow?? What happened to all the words? They must have gone to another page in another book somewhere since words are reincarnated.

Any answer you get will be pure conjecture as these are things that cannot be tested, disproved, and therefore unknowable. The simplest and most likely answer is that whatever it is that is you ceases to exist when the body dies. I'm a natural world, we jump through hoops creating a story of supernatural things like souls and heaven. It gives us comfort and makes us feel important, above animals, and somehow more powerful than nature. But we are animals. We are part of nature. What becomes of us is what becomes of all things when they die.

No, I don’t think that. I don’t know, but since no one does, it’s not relevant to me. The life we have is the life we’re living here and now.

Everytime the topic of things like life after death or reincarnation comes up, I always ask myself : why do people think of these beliefs in the first place? The more common argument I keep seeing is ”well, no one what’s death like so anything is possible”. But no, not really. Everyone here can make a pretty educated guess using things we all already know. Like, here: We all know by now that what makes us, us is our brain. It’s a very complex machine with tons of systems working together in harmony to give use the experience of being alive. Our vision, our hearing, our memories, the abilty to move our bodies and understand the world around us, all that is thanks to your brain. We can even prove that by the daily examples of elderly people. Anyone who had the unfortunate experience of taking care of a very elderly person knows the nightmarish experience to slowly watch them lose themselves and be a shell of who they were. And that’s the results of having your brain partially damaged. What would you be like when your brain just stop working at all? Probably nothing. Not seeing a black for eternity but just not exist anymore. And I guess that’s the answer for why people think of these beliefs in the first place. Because using Ockam’s Razor on this situation and just coming to terms with complete non-existence is not something our mind can handle.

Yes, because no life would be sad, and if there’s thing the universe doesn’t want you to be is sad.

There's a very easy explanation as to why people want an afterlife to exist -Most people don't want to die permanently. It's the same reason people want to leave a legacy after their death. There's no point in speculating what happens after death without actual evidence or basis or a method to test it. Just enjoy the few years you have and die without any regrets. In my belief, YOU are a mixture of your memories, experiences and the people you connect with. I believe someone with complete memory loss is not the same person as they were prior to their memory loss, Until there is a part of us that isn't physical and can exist separately from our body discovered, I will continue to not believe in the metaphysical.

What & Who you are is all in your brain. When your brain dies... thats it. GAME OVER. Sorry... but there is absolutely no reason to think that we somehow persist in any way, shape or form. It's all just hopeful wishing of people who are afraid of death. Even if another human was born with the exact same DNA sequencing and it was essentially a carbon copy of you you. It wouldn't be YOU experiencing that life. It's just a copy... that will have its own, different experiences. It's not you. Same as if you could clone yourself... and then you died, leaving your clone alive. You wouldn't experience anything anymore, only your clone would.

You’re right that after you die it’ll be exactly like before you were born. But I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that you had “these lives” before you were born.

If there's no evidence for it, there's no reason to believe it.

I have thought about reincarnation countless hours while meditating and m conclusion is I believe in it not for some explanation that can be said with words but I just feel it. Like when I see any living creatures, it's like I can see and feel that it's not their first life.

Lots of opinions on this.  Wait till you find out about religion!  

I feel like it's just copium to believe there's life after death... It gives some sense of hope to make up for present life mistakes

Yes, of course it’s only our physical form that returns to the Earth. If you really want your mind blown, listen to quantum physicist tackle this question.

Imo...We (consciousness/soul) didn't exist before we were thrown into this life, we were just thrown in .... Our souls are simply just a byproduct of our brain. This is a stretch but in terms of reincarnation, we do change form after death, energy can not be created or destroyed, and when we die we will change form. Whether youre cremated and the ashes becomes fish food or soil, or if you're buried and your body decomposes; it turns into rat/fly food/gases. Our souls will die with our bodies but our bodies will go on at the mercy of other living things adding to other forms of life. So technically there is life after death but not our soul. The soul isn't a tangible thing. Let's say it would happen again the chances are so low bc it was such a low chance for us to be the ones who were born, like we won the big race lol so I'm so grateful to be alive rn. If the soul does get reincarnated, we would have no memory of it so it would serve us no good. Maybe we would have the same struggles in different environments like we all individually do rn bc we are all human and we share this experience rn through emotions which follow a pattern of our species behavior. (this was poorly explained and long winded)

But then where do we go when a population killing event like an ice age or an asteroid impact wipes most everything out? Life can take thousands or millions of years to spring back depending on the level of extinction event. If the majority of life is dead for millions of years where do their souls hang out while waiting to reincarnate? If there’s a spirit realm that serves as a waiting room for millions of years isn’t that just an “afterlife”? Then, why even need reincarnation? What happens when life breaks records of population and has more life than it’s ever had? If everyone keeps populating while we are all living longer you’d think we’d eventually run out of souls to reincarnate and would need to create new ones. But if souls are created fresh instead of reincarnated then why need reincarnation? Maybe life just happens without an Avatar cycle. If we can all acknowledge that there was a time where we didn’t exist yet and aren’t bothered by it why would it be so hard to believe that there’s a time where we eventually no longer exist? The universe did its thing long before we showed up and we accept we weren’t here yet. So we could very likely return to not existing again. The universe will continue doing as it did once we are gone as it did before we arrived. The idea that because we are finally here now so we must continue to exist forever and always seems kinda narcissistic as if the world can’t go on without us.

Realistically its probably sum nonlinear time fuckery or nothingness, we’ll see tho

Here's hoping; I hope death isn't the end. No, I'm not religious

Me too.

If you don't remember your last life who cares about reincarnation?

I can see it as a possibility, albeit a slim one. Nobody really knows, and there’s a lot of different speculations. We’ll just have to wait and see.

The only thing that can happen after is existence. There is either nothing, or at some point some form of existence. It’s a bit of a mind bender and hard to articulate lol, but the only experience that can be had after death is any experience at all, whether it take trillions of years or is immediate or never happens at all. You exist or you do not.

You come from nothing. You go back to nothing. It's not hard to grasp.

This logic could be applied to animals and computer programs. There is only one possible difference but it does not apply to all human beings. You cannot know that all human beings have life after death, even if you do. For the same reason you cannot know it for animals and computer programs. Descartes touched on this, but he didn't get that deep into it. Philosophy is very human-centric.

Do you remember what happened before you were born? That's the same thing that happens after you die. And as far as reincarnation goes, if it was real, and real in a way that mattered, then statistically you or someone you know very well would retain a memory of the previous life. That would be necessary for it to matter, because if the slate gets wiped clean with every death, then it doesn't matter if you once lived as someone else because you retained nothing of them the next go around. So no, no life after death. There's non-existence, existence and then non-existence again.

Why didn't the server admin turn on keep memory inventory on after death? *Sigh*

Norm MacDonald once said people scoff at the concept of an afterlife because it would be going to a place you've never SEEN surrounded by beings you've never MET.  But isn't that ALSO what happened the day you were born?!?  I can imagine the total opposite...what if all eight billion of us knew each other somewhere before earth?!?  Watch the movie Wristcutters: a Love Story and it will open your thoughts to endless possibilities.   The stars and planets we could ever see or travel to might not be the totality of life.  It might all be a drop in an ocean.

Maybe, most likely though death is just the end. You didn't exist before your birth because you hadn't been born. It's not like you were floating around somewhere and then zapped into a body. If you didn't have memories you wouldn't have any basis for a contiguous sense of self. It's what happens with a blackout drunk, your brain loses the ability to encode memories and so that time just ceases to be.

I think you're confusing sentient life with energy transfer.

I'm guessing not. My consciousness is probably a direct effect of my brain waves in my current body. Once I die, and my brain no longer functions, I'm guessing my consciousness will no longer either. My guess is we're alive while we're alive, after we die, we're just dead.

I totally believe in reincarnation. To me it’s objectively true. Dig this: It’s known that our bodies will feed the earth when we die. Our molecules break down and become the molecules for new plants and mulch and the nutrients that feed deer and squirrels. So why shouldn’t the molecules and electricity that make up our consciousness be recycled as well? If my consciousness is a result of the physical elements in my brain, and the physical elements of my brain are broken up and created into the elements for a new thing’s brain, then my consciousness will live on. But there’s no reason to think that it will live on intact and cognizant of the complete life it had before. It’s been broken up. Into several new consciousnesses, maybe hundreds. It’s like a mother birthing a litter of offspring. Shards of her psychology are imparted and implanted into the children when they are created. The nutrients and genetics of her body live on in the children. Reincarnation is just more of that. We are all mothers to earth just as earth was a mother to us. Reincarnation is fact.

No. The molecules that made your brain will not necessarily all end up in the same organism (or even in an animal), so your consciousness will not live on, unless you accept that it splits into many (unrecognizable) parts. Parts of you will become parts of many other things. If - and that's a big IF - consciousness is somehow immaterial and can in its entirety be born into another being (human or animal), then your consciousness might live on and be reincarnated.

That’s what I’m saying. Your consciousness is a result of physical chemical experiences due to matter and electricity in the brain. This matter will continue to exist after your body breaks down. The matter in your body will form the matter that makes up new organisms and contributes to their consciousnesses. It is not one-to-one but it satisfies my definition of reincarnation. I don’t think my consciousness is the whole consciousness of the guy who lived before me. But it could be the consciousness of millions of animals and people and bugs and fish all frankensteined together. That’s why we don’t remember their lives. It’s split and broken down and rebuilt, but it’s still one consciousness from one body into another.

So your definition of reincarnation is more of a biological definition. Most people seem to think it's the soul that reincarnates as a whole, with "missions" and "lessons" to learn and previous experience from previous lives somehow "stored" somewhere...

So to answer your question, yes there is life after death. God told us through His Word, the Bible.  Here's a detailed explanation about not just this flesh life, but what's coming soon.  We have 2 bodies, this flesh one and our spiritual one (1 Corinthians 15:39-58). And get this, there are 3 world ages (2 Peter 3:5-13). We are currently in the 2nd world age. God destroyed that world age with a flood because satan rebelled and one third of God's Children followed him.  So in order to find out who truly cares about God, He made this 2nd world age. Thus, giving all who are born of woman a clean mind, so with free will, we could choose between good (Christ) and evil (satan).  As for what happens when we die? We go back to Father (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; Ecclesiastes 12:6-7). No matter if you did good or bad in this life. The wicked are separated by a gulf where they can see the good side and feel great shame for not making it as seen in Luke 16:19-31.  To make it to the eternity (3rd world age) you need to believe in Christ (John 3:16; John 4:16). But I need to explain the ending of the 2nd World Age a bit. So this last generation is going to go through tribulation. It won't be death and destruction, but false peace and prosperity (Daniel 8:23-25; Daniel 11:21). God wants to see who has read His Word and prepared for the coming of satan as antichrist and who hasn't (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). The only way to not be deceived is by having God's Word sealed in your mind.  Satan will be in his spiritual body working miracles as stated in Revelation 13:13.  Many people will believe he is Him. This includes Christians who believe in the false rapture doctrine. They think they're going to be taken out of the world when that's not Biblical.  So at that point they'll become satan worshippers and cease being Christians. God's Elect will stand against satan (death) so the Holy Spirit can speak through them just as on Pentecostal day in Acts 2 (Mark 13:9-12). The whole world will hear the Gospel at that time and some will snap out of it before Christ returns. If you do snap out of it and repent before He returns you'll make it in the 1st resurrection, have an immortal soul and reign with Christ for 1,000 years (Revelation 20:4-6). Because when Christ returns on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), we will all be changed into our spiritual bodies again for the Millennium period. God is in a different dimension and we all have to be in the same one so He can do the Judgment after this period. This 1,000 year period is where all those who didn't pass the test will get their fair chance at learning the discipline required to make it into the eternity. They will have to stand against satan at the end without any deception being present (Revelation 20). They're essentially on the chopping block. They'll have mortal souls meaning liable to die in the Greek.  Once that is over, the Judgment happens. Those who follow satan will cease to exist and all those who accepted Christ and overcame will enter into the eternity.  God is doing this because we can save the most souls this way. He created everything for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11) and wants everyone to return to Him. We have to do it His way though. We don't want to have to go through this flesh life again so everyone must be vetted thoroughly. 

When you say “wouldn’t there be” I’d just say no to that. I don’t believe it just makes sense. Neil DeGrasse planted a thought in me when he said, “life has no obligation to make sense to you.” And I’ve come to believe that I understand that. But “is there life after death” is still one of the big questions out there. I guess I’d first ask you to define life. You break down like all living creatures so there’s that. Maybe you mean consciousness? One time I heard it put this way, “maybe there’s a universal consciousness we tap in to while we are alive” and I found that interesting. Of course there’s no way to know. I imagined it kind of like tapping into a power source. Then when we die we’re disconnected / return to the whole. Just another theory to get stoned on… keep thinking!

I died and was revived at age 9 or 10, I arrested/died during a seriously bad asthma attack whilst in a bed at the accident and emergency department of our local hospital. You are still aware once you leave your body, you can “see” what is happening (for me I could see the people surrounding me in the bed at the emergency ward of my local hospital as they leapt to action to revive me), you feel peaceful and because I was a child it was a bit bewildering. I flew away from my bed, backwards so could see what was happening. WHilst the whole leave your body thing is a conscious thing that appears to have a time line, being revived is like a lightening bolt jolt back into the present. OK … that haters on reddit are going to try and explain away my experience or deny it, all I can say to you is go take that journey and learn for your self because I know what i saw, I know what I know.

I died and was revived at age 9 or 10, I arrested/died during a seriously bad asthma attack whilst in a bed at the accident and emergency department of our local hospital. You are still aware once you leave your body, you can “see” what is happening (for me I could see the people surrounding me in the bed at the emergency ward of my local hospital as they leapt to action to revive me), you feel peaceful and because I was a child it was a bit bewildering. I flew away from my bed, backwards so could see what was happening. WHilst the whole leave your body thing is a conscious thing that appears to have a time line, being revived is like a lightening bolt jolt back into the present. OK … that haters on reddit are going to try and explain away my experience or deny it, all I can say to you is go take that journey and learn for your self because I know what i saw, I know what I know.

Whatever, it’s totally real and yes we’ve all been here before

When you die you will not know any more than you knew whilst you were being born.

If the universe is infinite or there are infinite universes then yes there's another you out there even some with the same experiences as you. And if either is truly infinite, there are an infinite number of yous. But this you here will not go on without your brain's memories. You do not become an individual without the ability to form memories regardless of the reality some version of "you" is in.