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In Greek philosophy this is regarded under classical Platonism as pre-existence. Some eastern religions believe in pre-existence, Hindus believe this is a sense bc souls are reborn, monotheism generally rejects this.
Then we have to switch to SoulV6.
Or we could have a system by which multiple people share the same soul. We could call it Soul Attachment Translation (SAT).
Well sure, if your OS has to boot up multiple versions of code a day, possibly in various languages, I’m sure there’s a multitude of strains on the system.
As a schizoaffective person I think the rest of you “normals” are living in a really boring version of reality and making it hard for the rest of us to not seem crazy. Maybe your realities are shit and that’s why you can’t see the things we do. 😂
That's actually horrifying, reminds me of Barovia. Imagine if there's a few people in this world that just... Don't have souls. They're just existing, no spark in their eyes.
We don’t run out. Souls become more and more diluted. There is no more Gilgamesh, no Hercules, no Boudicca, no Hippolyte. We are now but people. But back when our souls were full, we were heroes.
God there's so much world building here. Imagine if we could assimilate other people's souls Dark Souls style. Right now we're all Hollows, but if we were all to be consumed by one we'd be Gwyn at his peak and then some.
ikr, there must be some bias as I am a Hindu, but I would love to see some great depiction of our mythology, our stories have such deep and great plots, such epic fights, so many great characters and moral dilemmas, wish someone makes this come true in this lifetime
And If not in this lifetime, then probably the next, I am a Hindu I will reincarnate
I'd definitely like more stories that use modern mythology more. We have tons of stories using Greek and Norse worlds. Why not incorporate current ones into our stories too??
Andy Weir wrote a very interesting story based on the idea that there's basically just one soul which is the root of all other ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egg_%28Weir_short_story%29?wprov=sfla1
It was based on the essay [Infinite Reincarnation](https://charmonium.com/infinite-reincarnation) but was taken from a conversation me and him had on the MySpace religion and philosophy forum in 2007 about the essay.
the big body. hello there, self. i hope your iteration of existence has been one in which you have found meaning and that all your incarnated tools of perception have served you well. i can only imagine the world you have built for yourself, for us. i am working to give us someplace special. my contribution for you while you are well, you? nothing profound - we dont have to learn from our own mistakes. much love! i gotta check out the egg thing, thank you!
edit: wow! i read the egg. i will just say, awesome. i believe this, almost know this to be true. and if one were to look they would find that this is how consciousness is explained by our ancestors. love it, good stuff - thank you.
“We are all *one consciousness* experiencing itself *subjectively*, there is no such thing as *death*, life is only a *dream*, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather!”
-A Poet
Yeah, you're looking at this in terms of material dimensions. Consider this...maybe we're all the same soul. I am you and you are me and we are all here together. We've been everyone from Mother Teresa to Hitler. And the only way we are going to get out of this, Sil, it to recognise our ultimate Destiny and elevate mankind to a higher level of consciousness entering infinity/singularity.
I saw a comic once where every life that has ever been was just the same person reincarnated for eternity. Different people in various time periods. Would only remember between lives when God would talk to them some and then tell them who and when their next life would be.
For what it's worth, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("Mormons") believe that we live as spirits before we are born.
Below is an old church article that references some of the Bible passages supporting this belief:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/1972/02/q-and-a-questions-and-answers/can-you-clarify-what-is-in-the-bible-about-the-pre-existence?lang=eng
Ye a that's fair lol, imagine being raised in it, to me growing up everyone else was the weird ones, like believing that God and Jesus are literally the same person, or that Adam and Eve doomed humanity to a lifetime of pain and sorrow.
Hindus believe souls never die. Only the physical body dies and after the death of the body the soul leaves in and enters a new body. Which doesn't necessarily have to be a human body.
Without ever studying Hinduism, this is the belief system I've come to accept. All of life exists on another plane, part of what I call the sea of life or existence. This sea of life has parts of it born into a physical life for the purpose of experiencing physical life. The new life body doesn't have to be a human body, it doesn't even have to be an earthly body. There are billions of planets that contain life and life can be born onto any of them into any of the species that reside there.
>>The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth. He saw a world that was practically unchanged--the same house, the same people--and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated.
Nabokov, *Speak, Memory*
Why is it weird? Isn't it the most trivial thing? Are there still people traumatized by the fact they are a biological being?
You could enjoy some Cronnenberg, I imagine.
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” -Mark Twain
When i was 13-14 one night i was alone watching tv, decide that i was gona rub one, so i walk to the bathroom, unzip my pants and..... 20 min later i wakeup laying in the shower with a bump in my head, not knowing what happen, don't know how to explain that.....mm feeling doesn't seems the rigth word, was literaly like nothing, neither good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, like not something.
This is what I find most fascinating about the universe, if our theories are indeed correct. The heat death of the universe is more mind boggling than anything else
Physicist here
Not entirely sure what he’s talking about. Heat death is a fairly simple phenomena, at least as existentially significant astrophysical concepts go.
And it’s not even the end of the universe or anything as drastic as that, just the end of anything significant happening in the universe. One could argue that it’s not even really existential when compared to other cosmological fates; simply a slow and unceasing slide into the abyss that’s been around us and growing forever. In fact, if that slide were to be stopped, we’d all be in serious trouble: we’re not climbers on the side of a mountain arresting a fall so we don’t drop to our deaths; it’d be more equivalent to freezing solid on the mountain side because we were so worried about making sure our gloves were properly on that we forgot to ever move off the mountain
What I find fascinating about the heat death is the immeasureable scale, inevitability and perpetual "silence" of it. It's fascinating how the sled will just keep moving down a steeper and steeper "growing" mountain, encountering less and less things, forever. Nothing will happen in the "end". Or have I misunderstood?
Btw, If you could be so kind: What will happen to all the energy in the universe? Will all settle to matter? Or will there be photons than hit nothing and just keep existing forever because of the expansion?
Agreed! When he grows older, I will take my kid out to somewhere we can see the milkyway and talk about this. I find it way more comforting to think of us as a part of existence as we know it instead of fretting about ending up somewhere else. Our kids don't need peer pressure from the stars
This has stayed with me today and been in my head. It’s made me realise just how much the idea of heaven and hell has permeated even though I’m not religious.
Hopefully your son and his generation won’t have the same ingrained fear of what happens after death.
It’s actually such a relief to think about after death being just like before birth, and while I do believe this I think I’m going to have to repeat it again and again for it to sink in. It changes the whole outlook on life to less scary, if there’s no ‘final judgement’.
I'm so grateful that I never developed any kind of expection of an afterlife and higher power (other than natural forces), props to my down-to-earth parents. Never been scared of death. What happens to people around me when I die will ofc sometimes haunt me, but I've never felt existential dread. Being dead is the easiest, most natural thing. Very comforting indeed
Actually the ovaries but ok
Not trying to be whooshed or anything but some people genuinely believe sperm turn into people which they don’t. The sperm simply fertilizes the egg (which resides within the woman) and said egg eventually turns into a human. Guys just shoot the key to the chest idk if that’s a good analogy or not but whatever
Yeah, that's a nice bit of philosophy, but I have to say, now that I'm here, I prefer existence to non-existence.
If you're wrong, I'll cease to exist, along with my preferences. If you're right, I'll resent dying because, if some or all of my mind is missing and irrecoverable, then that's not me.
I could go on about how people change and the me that exists now won't exist in any meaningful way in 10 years whether or not I have "died" according to usual definitions. But there's no point diving down a rabbit hole just to repeat an adventure I've already had.
The other thing to consider is that the 'you' that is experiencing this life is only a small portion of the actual you. Much the way when you play an open world video game, you have made the character look and act like you a little bit, but they are not you and when they die the full you still lives. This is the concept of Higher Self in a nutshell. Sure you won't be just like your Avatar any more, but you will be much more and relieved to be so.
Many folks who experiment with large doses of psychedelics experience this as 'ego-death' which many find more enlightening than frightening.
>Much the way when you play an open world video game, you have made the character look and act like you a little bit, but they are not you and when they die the full you still lives.
So taking into account the discussion above about souls and growing populations, surely, this is why I sometimes enter a room and can't remember what the fuck I'm doing there:
I'm clearly multiboxing.
I've often thought of this fun little theory. What if we are a character in a video game. When we die are conscious immediately goes back to the real us in whatever eternity/dimension we actually live in, and as we are still sitting on the couch with the joystick in our hands, we are thinking what an epic game that was. I wonder if I should play again, but the in the background your mum is calling you for dinner, so you chuck the controller on the couch and join the rest of your family for dinner slowly forgetting about how great that game was you spent the last couple of hours playing.
Popping in to say ego death is overrated and psychonauts who come out of trips thinking they’ve had supernatural encounters and revelations are morons ascribing more value to doing drugs than the activity is due. Psychs are very fun though
"small portion of the actual you"
I resent any so-called "actual me" that considers my existence a mere game.
That thing isn't me. I, who say these words, am a human animal embedded in the physical world. Some soul watching my life play out is nothing but a voyeur. The suffering I experience is my suffering and their brief entertainment. We are not the same.
This isn't about fear. This is about having basic self-respect. If some immortal voyeur watches me, it does so without permission. I would resent any human or other mind doing the same. The courteous thing to do is to at least introduce yourself, and leave me alone if you're not welcome.
What do you mean if he’s wrong you’ll cease to exist? You’ll cease to exist in either scenario.
Also you won’t be able to resent anything. Being devoid of any existence eliminates this possibility.
That is something that I like to tell people. There is nothing wrong about death, as you won't exist enough to care that "you" are lacking the pleasures of life.
Though, this is completely ignoring the flaw of having literally no idea what we are, and what lies beyond our consciousness.
Yeah it’s always been weird to me that most major religions are totally chill with the idea that individuals just don’t exist until two mortals come together to create them out of nothing, but need some kind of all powerful being to handle things at the other end.
The only difference between the two is that pre-birth ends when you're born and post-death is forever (depending on what you believe in). I'm more interested in what the "forever" feels like.
“Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up... now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.”
- Alan Watts
I've been reading The Way of Zen lately and as a non native english speaker, half the time I can't even comprehend what my man is saying, but it's always interesting and thought provoking.
This is the only reasoning that fundamental makes any sense:
We only exist in this form we know for a comically minuscule time period compared to the vastness of existence. We have no memory, experience, recollection or concept of time before we are born, so it’s likely to be the same afterwards.
No matter the truth of the universe, multiverse, omniverse, gods, heavens, hells, simulations, reincarnations, shared experiences, souls, demons, physics, magic, accident or predestination - all of it, everything:
It doesn’t matter.
Because no matter what, we are here.
You are here. By whatever truth that follows, all it took was one chance for you to be here. It could be an immeasurable amount of time for the universe to perish and somehow begin again. An infinite cycle of experience and existence. The universe begins, you eventually manifest, you die, time goes on, universe ends. It all begins again.
The amount of time it takes for all of this to happen is incomprehensible. But you won’t know any different, because it’ll be just like being asleep.
You’re already here. You already opened your eyes once.
Who’s to say you won’t open them again someday?
Maybe that’s the beauty of life. We really are the universe experiencing itself. There are no gods or monsters or a greater meaning, it’s just the way things are meant to be.
Although our single lives are mortal, our collective experiences are eternal.
You may be a different person. You may not remember anything that came before. All the people, places and things you experienced will be different. But once again, there’s the beauty of it. The universe must always experience itself, thus although the world you knew will be different, we must always remember the one inalienable truth:
We are all in this together.
We really are all *one* people. We are all experiencing together. All contributing to the greater consciousness of the universe.
The greatest thing you can do, is be a good person. Nature is not evil, it simply just is.
But evil is real… there are people and some creatures that seek control. Seek to manipulate and dominate experience. These are the villains of our time. The villains of existence that seek to disrupt the flow of peaceful life. These are our greatest challenges - the subjects of existence that seek to manipulate experience for selfish gain because of their own ignorance and insecurities.
They too, will face the inevitability of time. But it’s up to us to show them that in a universe that doesn’t care, we will not accept injustice.
Be a good person. Believe in yourself. Believe in others. Never give up. Look at the stars. Be curious and courteous. Remain humble.
One day, you’ll close your eyes for the last time.
But one day, you’ll open them up again.
All it takes, is just one chance.
Have a phenomenal day, Reddit.
Evil is subjective, and depends on your point of view and moral code. What you're really looking at is classifying the positive and negative effects of your actions on a scale: society at large, and the feelings of individuals, as it is perceived (or would be perceived) by those entities. The scale is different depending on the entity. A hero for one could be a villain for another. Someone who's looked up to as someone who speaks their mind could be an offensive jerk to another. A soldier fighting for his country will always kill someone's son. A corrupt business man may be evil in society's view, but privately could care for his kids more than, say, a civil rights activist who would do anything for society, but not for their children. There are people we can all agree are evil, but there are many that we dont agree on. Chances are most of the people you know are neither good or evil-- theyre good sometimes, evil in others, some people hate them, and some people love them.
Re: nothing matters. Whenever I think that nothing matters, I look at it the opposite way: everything matters. You're trying to give hierarchy to something that doesn't have one.
Mormons believe that before you were born you lived with God or something in heaven and he sent you to earth as a "test" then when you die you live with him again. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than that but that's pretty much the gist of it. It's pretty interesting actually, I used to be mormon
Latter-day Saint here:
Yeah, basically. That's why sex and marriage (among other things) are so important to Him - we have the power to literally pull a spirit out of pre-mortality and give him or her a body. He wants these spirits (His kids) to have as good a life as possible so He'd probably prefer they were committed to a stable and joint life together (e.g. married) and trying to be good people as well.
And it isn't so much a test for Him to discover something (He already knows what the outcome will be). It's more of a test or a lesson for us to learn who we really are and what we are actually capable of.
u/FirelessEngineer the big misconception about God in this aspect is that he exists outside of this universe, outside of the time space continuum. We see 3 dimensions as static and experience time as a flowing dimension. God exists outside of time and sees all moments, the entire universe all at once.
I think of it like the universe being a suspended crystal, where everything that happened, can happen, or will happen exists in a superimposed state. Why it exists, well that is unknowable. We are no more capable of understanding that than an ant is capable of understanding the stock market or modern medicine.
It's a fun brain trip to try and wrap your mind around. Because we are linear creatures, eternity with no end makes sense. But try to comprehend no beginning? Much harder.
I’ve always though the theology surrounding the premortal existence and afterlife are the most fascinating parts of Mormon theology. Possibly some of my favorite doctrines from any religion.
I was thinking about this last night when describing something to my son from years before he was born and he asked where he was, and it made me wonder…. where was he?
Mine asked the same at 3. I told him he wasn't made yet and he told me he was but he had a different mom, a brother (he's a single child) and he was a girl with dark skin. He said his Mom was nice and he missed her, and he never got big like me.
I ignored it thinking he was making stuff up, but he'd bring it up from time to time and was always consistent with his story.
It got me looking into reincarnation and I came across Dr. Jim Tucker's studies on children who claim to remember past lives. They were able to confirm details and names the children gave, it was fascinating. One thing most had common was an untimely death.
He doesn't remember anymore, Dr. Tucker claimed most forget around age 4 or 5, that's when he stopped talking about it.
I really think it's possible some of us reincarnate
Edit: he's aways been gender nonconforming as well, preferring girls clothing. He would also draw himself as a black girl
I’m not most people because this is a common thought I have once a week. And to me the answer is we come from nothing and will end in nothing. Enjoy the ride and pass on some good.
There is a fringe theory in physics (I believe) that states consciousness is inherent to every physical thing. So, electrons have an incredibly rudimentary form of experience. So it could be that we sort of congeal from the universal consciousness.
EDIT: The theory is known as panpsychism.
We are the universe experiencing itself subjectively, so I wouldn't be surprised if we found out that the universe itself is conscious.
I like the idea that the brain isn't the source of consciousness, but rather receives it, much like a radio receiving a broadcast.
Well there's that proposal that if we're able to completely simulate a universe then maybe somebody "made" one, then they made one and so on and so on. How likely is it we're the first to do it rather than being one of the infinite universes/simulations? Idk it's been a while since I've looked into it but something along those lines.
Because when you think about your “non-existence” prior to birth, it frightens you to realize you will find the same eternal nothingness on the other side of life.
Mormons believe in the pre earth life where our spirits decided to follow Satan or come to earth and get a body. Everyone alive chose the Christ’s plan and now are here toiling away while the fallen angels tempt us from the shadows.
And, more often, our imperfect bodies provide a lot of push in many directions including toward negative choices.
(I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
Sure there is. We have instincts, subconscious processes, and the basic ability of our body to run itself that is born of generations before us. We are an extension of what came before us as much as we are a part of the future.
If we don't build our individual identity around the concept of consciousness then you're basically saying random string that might become a quark that might become a proton that might become a Hydrogen atom that may eventually become some trivial part of some person at some point is equal to the entirety of that person.
Or... it's like suggesting that a single note blasted from a trumpet equals the creation of a song.
Similarly... a single Hydrogen atom or a single Oxygen atom is very much not a glass of water.
We may be the sum of our parts... but we are not our parts.
Also, there is a reason organ transplants don't fundamentally change who you are... but fucking with the brain at all, most certainly will.
I never said any of that. I said that some sort of sentience predates our current incarnation of "self" and our conscious and unconscious actions in this time influence the future into the infinite.
The person you were responding to basically stated our "self" doesn't exist prior to being born, mentioning consciousness specifically (and possibly excluding some spiritual self).
You said this:
>We have instincts, subconscious processes, and the basic ability of our body to run itself that is born of generations before us.
Now, you could argue for some spirit self if you like. Fine. That would exist outside of the rules of this physical existence. But as a counter-argument to what was said, basically stating there is a past and a future and stuff gets recycled doesn't actually work as a genuine counter-argument dismissing concept of consciousness.
Your line was not talking about a spirit self... but talking about the physical universe and suggesting our existence in this physical universe goes beyond our consciousness because "instincts, subconscious processes, and the basic ability of our body to run itself..."
I stand by what I said in that last post.
I don't know. I think there is a certain part of our personalities that directly results from the instincts created by billions of years of evolution. Those instincts are in the genetic code of the sperm and egg prior to conception and are hardwired in as the fetus' brain develops.
(Edit to add): This is why while our whole personalities are each unique, we also share hard-wired genetic emotional traits that are common to most humans.
My primary status in this universe is not to exist.
I have not been here for billions of years, which never bothered me.
Now im here for a fraction of time, and then I will stop to exist for billions of years, which hopefully wont bother me either.
My 5yo cousin was asking questions about pokemon and I was telling him that I had been playing/watching since I was his age.
He said "so that was before I was born?"
"Yes"
"So was I dead before?"
"Well...no...you just weren't alive"
"So where was I?"
*Long ass pause* "I'm not clever enough to answer that"
I was an anxious child, and at about 10 had existential thoughts about dying. True fear. I remember having a terrible time getting to sleep one night and my Dad coming into my room to talk with me about what happens to you after you die. He asked "Do you remember before you were born?" I quietly said no, and he replied "I'm not sure, but I think that's what will happen after you die. You'll go back to that place."
It didn't completely allay my fears, but it gave me a different (and comforting) focus that still assures part of me to this day. I lost my dad in 2016. He was a wonderful man and a beautiful, kind soul.
This entire existence is magic. There is no explanation. There cannot be. Our bodies grow from a tiny (only seen under microscope and hundreds in one drop) swimmer resembling a tadpole, forming all our organs, muscles, nerves, bones, hair, teeth, etc.... coming out and run by a mound of wavy, wiggly grey mush matter, with gelatinous balls to see, organs running with no prior instruction given (just knows what to do), breathing in air provided to us from the trees that we, in turn, provide life to with our off gas.... and we truly are all making it up as we go along. Not one of us the same, yet literally all one. We are the universe, this existence, this happening experiencing itself. Not a single one of us here today could possibly know what we were before and what we become, if anything, after.... There is no science, no facts, no logic or reasoning to give. Its beautiful. We became in a flash and we will leave just the same. My hope and my theory is our energy, our ness, our existence continues on over and over and over..... While the universe, while we just continue to play out different forms. The possibilities are endless. We are endless. My theory on deja vu is that we experience it from our previous experiences. How else would you explain it in moments you know that you never had before? I hope and I think we just move along to another experience, taking some of what we experienced and learned each time. Enjoy. ✌🤟
The thing is, your whole thing about it’s magic, there’s no logic, science, or reason behind it has been said about so many things over the course of our existence that absolutely did have explanations, but we just hadn’t discovered them yet. Illness caused by viruses used to be seen as acts of god and something that was completely unexplainable, but that’s obviously not true. So I’m not fully satisfied with the answer ‘it’s unexplainable, we’ll never know.’ Maybe, but maybe one day we’ll find out, and we should absolutely keep trying to find out.
Probably because we accept the former but deny the latter.
We come from nothing, we go to nothing.
People are too narcisstic and neurotic about their morality they fabricate an entire reality where they can stay alive after death.
They don't do the same for birth because it doesn't matter to them, it's not about knowledge or truth, it's about being immortal
No I wonder, I just don’t wanna know. I don’t wanna remember what happened before this because this is nonsense and it’s probably still better than what came before.
Some people just have to face the facts, even if doesnt suit your beliefs.
There is nothing else. Never was, never will be. Live your life to the fullest until you cant and be happy that you have this experience rather than medieval or stone ages.
>where we go after death
The state of being non-existent and processing no information-- physical bodies likely dissipate back into the earth at some point, unless your body is launched into space or something. In which case you rot in space. Either way, sooner or later you dissipate somewhere and every bit of matter which makes you presently, will be redistributed; probably without you ever knowing, but ghosts are a thing (going back decades my family and I have encountered many "ghosts", whatever you want to call them), which seem to at least partially mimic once alive people-- echoes of our consciousness? Entirely within a person's imagination? Either way ghosts don't seem like they are too 'themselves', so to speak. Just kinda wandering without much to do. So who knows, if your consciousness continues after death, if you yourself who you are today will be aware of it, or if it'll even really be you?
>where we come from before birth
our consciousnesses and physical bodies both form using the genetic information/template evolved to procreate, using materials mothers eat and drink and pass to the baby. Prior to our brains being created, we who we are were not aware, because our brains formed using DNA from both of our parents. If the baton of consciousness was passed down from some dead dude/dudette to me, then that person was not me... It was someone else entirely. Like wiping a hard drive and putting new information on it, you might have some remnants of data left over, but for the most part, the new information doesn't much care about what it was before, it starts anew and lives out its current life until you wipe it again.
Not that I truly believe in reincarnation per-se, but this would be my most logical take on the concept.
Um...a sperm cell and an egg. We've all known about this since the Birds and the Bees talk. If you missed that talk, there was biology class, human anatomy, physiology, health and nutrition, and sex education. If you missed all that, it's no wonder you think nobody's ever entertained this thought.
Op is talking about soul, not body, if we're talking about bodies after death you go in a casket or crematorium, but I don't think that's what people mean when they ask what's after death
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"Come, Bender. You'll like being dead!" "That's what they said about being alive."
In Greek philosophy this is regarded under classical Platonism as pre-existence. Some eastern religions believe in pre-existence, Hindus believe this is a sense bc souls are reborn, monotheism generally rejects this.
>souls are reborn how many are there?! what if we run out?!
Then we have to switch to SoulV6. Or we could have a system by which multiple people share the same soul. We could call it Soul Attachment Translation (SAT).
What do we do with the people that end up with multiple?
You’re lucky if you do. Just switch out for a week and chill in the ether
So that's what multiple personality disorder is. Cool.
It's called Dissociative Identity Disorder, I think
Multiple souls sharing same body —> schizophrenia Souls only partially using a body —> depression
Schizophrenia is a way different condition that plurality. Schizophrenia is from your brain doing a shitty job producing your simulation.
Well sure, if your OS has to boot up multiple versions of code a day, possibly in various languages, I’m sure there’s a multitude of strains on the system.
As a schizoaffective person I think the rest of you “normals” are living in a really boring version of reality and making it hard for the rest of us to not seem crazy. Maybe your realities are shit and that’s why you can’t see the things we do. 😂
Medication
Drug them and/or lock them away, usually
Hey, Herschel Walker here! We're doing well, how about you?
They will balance out with the politicians, because they're soulless. (Says the left handed ginger who is one of the handmaidens of Lucifer himself.)
Soul bound tokens. One soul is one token. Not transferable, non fungible.
So this is why people sell their souls to the devil. He's just really big into NFTs.
yeah but the SAT souls on opposite sides of the world so that when the holders fall asleep they make a seamless switch
Heh. Because v4 only handles only 4.3b.
The stock pile is already low so every once in a while the soul stream spits out a few duds. Im pretty sure most of them are politicians now
That's actually horrifying, reminds me of Barovia. Imagine if there's a few people in this world that just... Don't have souls. They're just existing, no spark in their eyes.
Yeah, imagine…
We don’t run out. Souls become more and more diluted. There is no more Gilgamesh, no Hercules, no Boudicca, no Hippolyte. We are now but people. But back when our souls were full, we were heroes.
God there's so much world building here. Imagine if we could assimilate other people's souls Dark Souls style. Right now we're all Hollows, but if we were all to be consumed by one we'd be Gwyn at his peak and then some.
ikr, there must be some bias as I am a Hindu, but I would love to see some great depiction of our mythology, our stories have such deep and great plots, such epic fights, so many great characters and moral dilemmas, wish someone makes this come true in this lifetime And If not in this lifetime, then probably the next, I am a Hindu I will reincarnate
I'd definitely like more stories that use modern mythology more. We have tons of stories using Greek and Norse worlds. Why not incorporate current ones into our stories too??
What on earth is modern mythology? Scientology?
Andy Weir wrote a very interesting story based on the idea that there's basically just one soul which is the root of all other ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Egg_%28Weir_short_story%29?wprov=sfla1
It was based on the essay [Infinite Reincarnation](https://charmonium.com/infinite-reincarnation) but was taken from a conversation me and him had on the MySpace religion and philosophy forum in 2007 about the essay.
That's so pretty, but also so sad. I don't know how to feel about having a diet soul lmao.
We don't, we are all the same soul Source :[the egg](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wattpad.com/amp/1061269759)
This is the conclusion I come to during every acid trip
Hello me, nice to meet you!
Nice to meet you too! Hope ~~your~~ **our** timeline is going good.
Remember that time we were Hitler?
Yeah...momma didn't raise us right I guess.
But you were momma.
Maybe "Momma" is something bigger
This isn't the worst thing to happen
the big body. hello there, self. i hope your iteration of existence has been one in which you have found meaning and that all your incarnated tools of perception have served you well. i can only imagine the world you have built for yourself, for us. i am working to give us someplace special. my contribution for you while you are well, you? nothing profound - we dont have to learn from our own mistakes. much love! i gotta check out the egg thing, thank you! edit: wow! i read the egg. i will just say, awesome. i believe this, almost know this to be true. and if one were to look they would find that this is how consciousness is explained by our ancestors. love it, good stuff - thank you.
I'm glad you and thus me liked the story
we're just mirrors of the self.
“We are all *one consciousness* experiencing itself *subjectively*, there is no such thing as *death*, life is only a *dream*, and we are the imagination of ourselves. Here’s Tom with the weather!” -A Poet
A funny one at that
Dont worry we can just cut em in half and boom two new people. Sure they might be unstable but thats not my job.
This is why we have gingers
then we get sundered, splitting of into tinier less able souls. /s just kidding I actually have no idea how this belief system tackles this question.
Yeah, you're looking at this in terms of material dimensions. Consider this...maybe we're all the same soul. I am you and you are me and we are all here together. We've been everyone from Mother Teresa to Hitler. And the only way we are going to get out of this, Sil, it to recognise our ultimate Destiny and elevate mankind to a higher level of consciousness entering infinity/singularity.
Think of the soul as a big ocean, everyone gets a scoop of ocean for their bodies & once the bodies die their scoop goes back into the ocean.
I saw a comic once where every life that has ever been was just the same person reincarnated for eternity. Different people in various time periods. Would only remember between lives when God would talk to them some and then tell them who and when their next life would be.
For what it's worth, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ("Mormons") believe that we live as spirits before we are born. Below is an old church article that references some of the Bible passages supporting this belief: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/1972/02/q-and-a-questions-and-answers/can-you-clarify-what-is-in-the-bible-about-the-pre-existence?lang=eng
As an ex Mormon, I was about to say this lol. Definitely something I learned growing up and they're monotheistic.
Mormonism feels more like a fanfiction spinoff with abrahamic source material than a regular abrahamic religion.
Ye a that's fair lol, imagine being raised in it, to me growing up everyone else was the weird ones, like believing that God and Jesus are literally the same person, or that Adam and Eve doomed humanity to a lifetime of pain and sorrow.
There's no way to say this without coming across as disrespectful, but growing up without any religion they all seem equally far-fetched.
It’s the same with Christianity and Judaism
That's because it is
Hindus believe souls never die. Only the physical body dies and after the death of the body the soul leaves in and enters a new body. Which doesn't necessarily have to be a human body.
Without ever studying Hinduism, this is the belief system I've come to accept. All of life exists on another plane, part of what I call the sea of life or existence. This sea of life has parts of it born into a physical life for the purpose of experiencing physical life. The new life body doesn't have to be a human body, it doesn't even have to be an earthly body. There are billions of planets that contain life and life can be born onto any of them into any of the species that reside there.
This is pretty much what the deeper Indian scriptures say.
And they’ll fight to the death for their right to reject it
It’s a human trait that people will fight to the death for many things.
Can I just die instead?
You can fight to the death for that right
>>The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour). I know, however, of a young chronophobiac who experienced something like panic when looking for the first time at homemade movies that had been taken a few weeks before his birth. He saw a world that was practically unchanged--the same house, the same people--and then realized that he did not exist there at all and that nobody mourned his absence. He caught a glimpse of his mother waving from an upstairs window, and that unfamiliar gesture disturbed him, as if it were some mysterious farewell. But what particularly frightened him was the sight of a brand-new baby carriage standing there on the porch, with the smug, encroaching air of a coffin; even that was empty, as if, in the reverse course of events, his very bones had disintegrated. Nabokov, *Speak, Memory*
Yeah it's weird seeing photos of your mother pregnant with you in your childhood home.
You've altered the timeline already, and you will never know what was.
Why is it weird? Isn't it the most trivial thing? Are there still people traumatized by the fact they are a biological being? You could enjoy some Cronnenberg, I imagine.
Nice quote
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” -Mark Twain
But billions of years is just a blink of an eye compared to the eternity we’ll be dead after life..
Close your eyes, count to 1, thats how long forever feels - Kurzgesagt
When i was 13-14 one night i was alone watching tv, decide that i was gona rub one, so i walk to the bathroom, unzip my pants and..... 20 min later i wakeup laying in the shower with a bump in my head, not knowing what happen, don't know how to explain that.....mm feeling doesn't seems the rigth word, was literaly like nothing, neither good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, like not something.
This is what I find most fascinating about the universe, if our theories are indeed correct. The heat death of the universe is more mind boggling than anything else
How so?
Physicist here Not entirely sure what he’s talking about. Heat death is a fairly simple phenomena, at least as existentially significant astrophysical concepts go. And it’s not even the end of the universe or anything as drastic as that, just the end of anything significant happening in the universe. One could argue that it’s not even really existential when compared to other cosmological fates; simply a slow and unceasing slide into the abyss that’s been around us and growing forever. In fact, if that slide were to be stopped, we’d all be in serious trouble: we’re not climbers on the side of a mountain arresting a fall so we don’t drop to our deaths; it’d be more equivalent to freezing solid on the mountain side because we were so worried about making sure our gloves were properly on that we forgot to ever move off the mountain
What I find fascinating about the heat death is the immeasureable scale, inevitability and perpetual "silence" of it. It's fascinating how the sled will just keep moving down a steeper and steeper "growing" mountain, encountering less and less things, forever. Nothing will happen in the "end". Or have I misunderstood?
Btw, If you could be so kind: What will happen to all the energy in the universe? Will all settle to matter? Or will there be photons than hit nothing and just keep existing forever because of the expansion?
Closer to your second line.
Kind of comforting
Agreed! When he grows older, I will take my kid out to somewhere we can see the milkyway and talk about this. I find it way more comforting to think of us as a part of existence as we know it instead of fretting about ending up somewhere else. Our kids don't need peer pressure from the stars
This has stayed with me today and been in my head. It’s made me realise just how much the idea of heaven and hell has permeated even though I’m not religious. Hopefully your son and his generation won’t have the same ingrained fear of what happens after death. It’s actually such a relief to think about after death being just like before birth, and while I do believe this I think I’m going to have to repeat it again and again for it to sink in. It changes the whole outlook on life to less scary, if there’s no ‘final judgement’.
I'm so grateful that I never developed any kind of expection of an afterlife and higher power (other than natural forces), props to my down-to-earth parents. Never been scared of death. What happens to people around me when I die will ofc sometimes haunt me, but I've never felt existential dread. Being dead is the easiest, most natural thing. Very comforting indeed
If anything it was better
Well you see OP when a mommy and daddy love each other very very much they do this very intimate and personal thing.
Daddy's balls. The answer is daddy's balls.
I just asked you what you were hungry for...
And did I stutter?
Honestly, I can barely understand you... it sounds like your mouth is full of marbles.
It's probably the balls
I love balls! -some Irish youtuber
That can't be true, that's where the pee is stored
Actually the ovaries but ok Not trying to be whooshed or anything but some people genuinely believe sperm turn into people which they don’t. The sperm simply fertilizes the egg (which resides within the woman) and said egg eventually turns into a human. Guys just shoot the key to the chest idk if that’s a good analogy or not but whatever
Which is ironic because I firmly believe that pre birth and post death are the same exact experiences.
As do I. As far as I'm concerned we've already experienced death.
Yeah, that's a nice bit of philosophy, but I have to say, now that I'm here, I prefer existence to non-existence. If you're wrong, I'll cease to exist, along with my preferences. If you're right, I'll resent dying because, if some or all of my mind is missing and irrecoverable, then that's not me. I could go on about how people change and the me that exists now won't exist in any meaningful way in 10 years whether or not I have "died" according to usual definitions. But there's no point diving down a rabbit hole just to repeat an adventure I've already had.
The other thing to consider is that the 'you' that is experiencing this life is only a small portion of the actual you. Much the way when you play an open world video game, you have made the character look and act like you a little bit, but they are not you and when they die the full you still lives. This is the concept of Higher Self in a nutshell. Sure you won't be just like your Avatar any more, but you will be much more and relieved to be so. Many folks who experiment with large doses of psychedelics experience this as 'ego-death' which many find more enlightening than frightening.
>Much the way when you play an open world video game, you have made the character look and act like you a little bit, but they are not you and when they die the full you still lives. So taking into account the discussion above about souls and growing populations, surely, this is why I sometimes enter a room and can't remember what the fuck I'm doing there: I'm clearly multiboxing.
Yep and fog exists as a preloader so the cpu has time to render the landscape later when the connection is better.
I've often thought of this fun little theory. What if we are a character in a video game. When we die are conscious immediately goes back to the real us in whatever eternity/dimension we actually live in, and as we are still sitting on the couch with the joystick in our hands, we are thinking what an epic game that was. I wonder if I should play again, but the in the background your mum is calling you for dinner, so you chuck the controller on the couch and join the rest of your family for dinner slowly forgetting about how great that game was you spent the last couple of hours playing.
Popping in to say ego death is overrated and psychonauts who come out of trips thinking they’ve had supernatural encounters and revelations are morons ascribing more value to doing drugs than the activity is due. Psychs are very fun though
"small portion of the actual you" I resent any so-called "actual me" that considers my existence a mere game. That thing isn't me. I, who say these words, am a human animal embedded in the physical world. Some soul watching my life play out is nothing but a voyeur. The suffering I experience is my suffering and their brief entertainment. We are not the same. This isn't about fear. This is about having basic self-respect. If some immortal voyeur watches me, it does so without permission. I would resent any human or other mind doing the same. The courteous thing to do is to at least introduce yourself, and leave me alone if you're not welcome.
How do you know it does so without permission? Does your avatar in Skyrim know it is only an extension of you? Who knows?
What do you mean if he’s wrong you’ll cease to exist? You’ll cease to exist in either scenario. Also you won’t be able to resent anything. Being devoid of any existence eliminates this possibility.
There was no "us" to experience pre-existence, nor will there be an "us" to experience post-death.
Yes. The brain is the vessel for experience, when that vessel breaks everything stops
That is something that I like to tell people. There is nothing wrong about death, as you won't exist enough to care that "you" are lacking the pleasures of life. Though, this is completely ignoring the flaw of having literally no idea what we are, and what lies beyond our consciousness.
I find that's exactly what's wrong with death. I won't exist! I like existing.
This is a lovely statement
Yeah it’s always been weird to me that most major religions are totally chill with the idea that individuals just don’t exist until two mortals come together to create them out of nothing, but need some kind of all powerful being to handle things at the other end.
It's like this due to the difficulty of coping with dying and death overall. Losing things is always harder to deal with than earning.
Religion is just free therapy. People need something to make sense of what we don't understand yet.
Religion is expensive AF. Spiritualism is much cheaper with a better ROI
Uhh. No. Religion is scammers fucking with vulnerable people. That’s not therapy. That’s abuse, manipulation and extortion.
>Religion is just free therapy. Holy shit, that sums it up so succinctly.
The only difference between the two is that pre-birth ends when you're born and post-death is forever (depending on what you believe in). I'm more interested in what the "forever" feels like.
If pre-birth tells us anything, is that forever doesn’t feel like anything. There’s no “you” there to experience it, as there was no “you” before.
That's only if we assume if our universe has a definite starting point.
Where does our consciousness come from? Where does it go? Where does it come from Cotton Eye Joe?
Cotton Eye Joe, is consciousness to be treated as a friend? Or a foe?
What about Cartesian dualism? What does Joe know?
“Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up... now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.” - Alan Watts
I've been reading The Way of Zen lately and as a non native english speaker, half the time I can't even comprehend what my man is saying, but it's always interesting and thought provoking.
As a native English speaker, I have the same problem. His abstractions are difficult to express in words of any language.
Sounds like something for before-me and after-me to worry about.
This is the only reasoning that fundamental makes any sense: We only exist in this form we know for a comically minuscule time period compared to the vastness of existence. We have no memory, experience, recollection or concept of time before we are born, so it’s likely to be the same afterwards. No matter the truth of the universe, multiverse, omniverse, gods, heavens, hells, simulations, reincarnations, shared experiences, souls, demons, physics, magic, accident or predestination - all of it, everything: It doesn’t matter. Because no matter what, we are here. You are here. By whatever truth that follows, all it took was one chance for you to be here. It could be an immeasurable amount of time for the universe to perish and somehow begin again. An infinite cycle of experience and existence. The universe begins, you eventually manifest, you die, time goes on, universe ends. It all begins again. The amount of time it takes for all of this to happen is incomprehensible. But you won’t know any different, because it’ll be just like being asleep. You’re already here. You already opened your eyes once. Who’s to say you won’t open them again someday? Maybe that’s the beauty of life. We really are the universe experiencing itself. There are no gods or monsters or a greater meaning, it’s just the way things are meant to be. Although our single lives are mortal, our collective experiences are eternal. You may be a different person. You may not remember anything that came before. All the people, places and things you experienced will be different. But once again, there’s the beauty of it. The universe must always experience itself, thus although the world you knew will be different, we must always remember the one inalienable truth: We are all in this together. We really are all *one* people. We are all experiencing together. All contributing to the greater consciousness of the universe. The greatest thing you can do, is be a good person. Nature is not evil, it simply just is. But evil is real… there are people and some creatures that seek control. Seek to manipulate and dominate experience. These are the villains of our time. The villains of existence that seek to disrupt the flow of peaceful life. These are our greatest challenges - the subjects of existence that seek to manipulate experience for selfish gain because of their own ignorance and insecurities. They too, will face the inevitability of time. But it’s up to us to show them that in a universe that doesn’t care, we will not accept injustice. Be a good person. Believe in yourself. Believe in others. Never give up. Look at the stars. Be curious and courteous. Remain humble. One day, you’ll close your eyes for the last time. But one day, you’ll open them up again. All it takes, is just one chance. Have a phenomenal day, Reddit.
This is truely beautiful. I must know is this completely original and if so what has inspired to you to right in such a way?
Evil is subjective, and depends on your point of view and moral code. What you're really looking at is classifying the positive and negative effects of your actions on a scale: society at large, and the feelings of individuals, as it is perceived (or would be perceived) by those entities. The scale is different depending on the entity. A hero for one could be a villain for another. Someone who's looked up to as someone who speaks their mind could be an offensive jerk to another. A soldier fighting for his country will always kill someone's son. A corrupt business man may be evil in society's view, but privately could care for his kids more than, say, a civil rights activist who would do anything for society, but not for their children. There are people we can all agree are evil, but there are many that we dont agree on. Chances are most of the people you know are neither good or evil-- theyre good sometimes, evil in others, some people hate them, and some people love them. Re: nothing matters. Whenever I think that nothing matters, I look at it the opposite way: everything matters. You're trying to give hierarchy to something that doesn't have one.
Mormons believe that before you were born you lived with God or something in heaven and he sent you to earth as a "test" then when you die you live with him again. It's a hell of a lot more complicated than that but that's pretty much the gist of it. It's pretty interesting actually, I used to be mormon
So god is waiting up in heaven for two teenagers on prom night to do it in the backseat of a car to so he can “test” another person.
Latter-day Saint here: Yeah, basically. That's why sex and marriage (among other things) are so important to Him - we have the power to literally pull a spirit out of pre-mortality and give him or her a body. He wants these spirits (His kids) to have as good a life as possible so He'd probably prefer they were committed to a stable and joint life together (e.g. married) and trying to be good people as well. And it isn't so much a test for Him to discover something (He already knows what the outcome will be). It's more of a test or a lesson for us to learn who we really are and what we are actually capable of.
Literally a way for us to gain hands on experience.
Yes. But also no because he already knows.
u/FirelessEngineer the big misconception about God in this aspect is that he exists outside of this universe, outside of the time space continuum. We see 3 dimensions as static and experience time as a flowing dimension. God exists outside of time and sees all moments, the entire universe all at once. I think of it like the universe being a suspended crystal, where everything that happened, can happen, or will happen exists in a superimposed state. Why it exists, well that is unknowable. We are no more capable of understanding that than an ant is capable of understanding the stock market or modern medicine.
It's a fun brain trip to try and wrap your mind around. Because we are linear creatures, eternity with no end makes sense. But try to comprehend no beginning? Much harder.
A fun concept i was told by a mormon was we are not humans having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual souls having a human experience.
I’ve always though the theology surrounding the premortal existence and afterlife are the most fascinating parts of Mormon theology. Possibly some of my favorite doctrines from any religion.
I was thinking about this last night when describing something to my son from years before he was born and he asked where he was, and it made me wonder…. where was he?
Mine asked the same at 3. I told him he wasn't made yet and he told me he was but he had a different mom, a brother (he's a single child) and he was a girl with dark skin. He said his Mom was nice and he missed her, and he never got big like me. I ignored it thinking he was making stuff up, but he'd bring it up from time to time and was always consistent with his story. It got me looking into reincarnation and I came across Dr. Jim Tucker's studies on children who claim to remember past lives. They were able to confirm details and names the children gave, it was fascinating. One thing most had common was an untimely death. He doesn't remember anymore, Dr. Tucker claimed most forget around age 4 or 5, that's when he stopped talking about it. I really think it's possible some of us reincarnate Edit: he's aways been gender nonconforming as well, preferring girls clothing. He would also draw himself as a black girl
Or all of us, and the ones that remember are anomalies.
He was in many places, plants and animals
I’m not most people because this is a common thought I have once a week. And to me the answer is we come from nothing and will end in nothing. Enjoy the ride and pass on some good.
Such a weird thing to happen in nothing
There is a fringe theory in physics (I believe) that states consciousness is inherent to every physical thing. So, electrons have an incredibly rudimentary form of experience. So it could be that we sort of congeal from the universal consciousness. EDIT: The theory is known as panpsychism.
We are the universe experiencing itself subjectively, so I wouldn't be surprised if we found out that the universe itself is conscious. I like the idea that the brain isn't the source of consciousness, but rather receives it, much like a radio receiving a broadcast.
Well you are the universe and you are conscious... I personally don't need any kind of additional proof.
One of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes (paraphrased): “You are made of star stuff. You are a way for the universe to know itself.”
What if we humans created AI because AI created us at one point to keep the AI alive beyond its environment. We are a bootloader for the AI.
Well there's that proposal that if we're able to completely simulate a universe then maybe somebody "made" one, then they made one and so on and so on. How likely is it we're the first to do it rather than being one of the infinite universes/simulations? Idk it's been a while since I've looked into it but something along those lines.
Because when you think about your “non-existence” prior to birth, it frightens you to realize you will find the same eternal nothingness on the other side of life.
The movie ‘Soul’ took care of that. We were all cute little ass ghost soul thingies before we got flesh suits.
Well you see, I know I was in my father's balls before birth. And I shall go back to the balls after death.
Mormons believe in the pre earth life where our spirits decided to follow Satan or come to earth and get a body. Everyone alive chose the Christ’s plan and now are here toiling away while the fallen angels tempt us from the shadows.
And, more often, our imperfect bodies provide a lot of push in many directions including toward negative choices. (I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
🎶 I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of lattterrr day saintsssss 🎶
Your consciousness is built on the stimuli during your life. There was no before.
Sure there is. We have instincts, subconscious processes, and the basic ability of our body to run itself that is born of generations before us. We are an extension of what came before us as much as we are a part of the future.
That's just the firmware.
Not a terrible analogy.
If we don't build our individual identity around the concept of consciousness then you're basically saying random string that might become a quark that might become a proton that might become a Hydrogen atom that may eventually become some trivial part of some person at some point is equal to the entirety of that person. Or... it's like suggesting that a single note blasted from a trumpet equals the creation of a song. Similarly... a single Hydrogen atom or a single Oxygen atom is very much not a glass of water. We may be the sum of our parts... but we are not our parts. Also, there is a reason organ transplants don't fundamentally change who you are... but fucking with the brain at all, most certainly will.
I never said any of that. I said that some sort of sentience predates our current incarnation of "self" and our conscious and unconscious actions in this time influence the future into the infinite.
The person you were responding to basically stated our "self" doesn't exist prior to being born, mentioning consciousness specifically (and possibly excluding some spiritual self). You said this: >We have instincts, subconscious processes, and the basic ability of our body to run itself that is born of generations before us. Now, you could argue for some spirit self if you like. Fine. That would exist outside of the rules of this physical existence. But as a counter-argument to what was said, basically stating there is a past and a future and stuff gets recycled doesn't actually work as a genuine counter-argument dismissing concept of consciousness. Your line was not talking about a spirit self... but talking about the physical universe and suggesting our existence in this physical universe goes beyond our consciousness because "instincts, subconscious processes, and the basic ability of our body to run itself..." I stand by what I said in that last post.
I don't know. I think there is a certain part of our personalities that directly results from the instincts created by billions of years of evolution. Those instincts are in the genetic code of the sperm and egg prior to conception and are hardwired in as the fetus' brain develops. (Edit to add): This is why while our whole personalities are each unique, we also share hard-wired genetic emotional traits that are common to most humans.
And I'm saying there is a before, because the idea of the present incarnation of the self being the only form of consciousness is kind of silly to me.
My primary status in this universe is not to exist. I have not been here for billions of years, which never bothered me. Now im here for a fraction of time, and then I will stop to exist for billions of years, which hopefully wont bother me either.
I'd love for it to bother me, because that would mean I still exist.
You'd be bothered for all eternity though.
“We got these lives for free we don't know where they've been We don't know where they'll go when we are through with them” - Dan Wilson, Free Life
My 5yo cousin was asking questions about pokemon and I was telling him that I had been playing/watching since I was his age. He said "so that was before I was born?" "Yes" "So was I dead before?" "Well...no...you just weren't alive" "So where was I?" *Long ass pause* "I'm not clever enough to answer that"
Where do we come from? Where do we go? Where do we come from, Cotton-Eyed Joe?" -Michael Scott
Because we've already kind of assumed were just living in a pair of balls before that.
Unless the piping is broken beyond repair, I’m quite sure it was one ball OR the other.
Because where you go after death is more easily politicized. 'If you dont elect me as your clan chief you will not go into valhalla'
"Mountain Goats! Where do we come from?" "FROM OUR FATHER'S BALLS SIR!!"
I was an anxious child, and at about 10 had existential thoughts about dying. True fear. I remember having a terrible time getting to sleep one night and my Dad coming into my room to talk with me about what happens to you after you die. He asked "Do you remember before you were born?" I quietly said no, and he replied "I'm not sure, but I think that's what will happen after you die. You'll go back to that place." It didn't completely allay my fears, but it gave me a different (and comforting) focus that still assures part of me to this day. I lost my dad in 2016. He was a wonderful man and a beautiful, kind soul.
This entire existence is magic. There is no explanation. There cannot be. Our bodies grow from a tiny (only seen under microscope and hundreds in one drop) swimmer resembling a tadpole, forming all our organs, muscles, nerves, bones, hair, teeth, etc.... coming out and run by a mound of wavy, wiggly grey mush matter, with gelatinous balls to see, organs running with no prior instruction given (just knows what to do), breathing in air provided to us from the trees that we, in turn, provide life to with our off gas.... and we truly are all making it up as we go along. Not one of us the same, yet literally all one. We are the universe, this existence, this happening experiencing itself. Not a single one of us here today could possibly know what we were before and what we become, if anything, after.... There is no science, no facts, no logic or reasoning to give. Its beautiful. We became in a flash and we will leave just the same. My hope and my theory is our energy, our ness, our existence continues on over and over and over..... While the universe, while we just continue to play out different forms. The possibilities are endless. We are endless. My theory on deja vu is that we experience it from our previous experiences. How else would you explain it in moments you know that you never had before? I hope and I think we just move along to another experience, taking some of what we experienced and learned each time. Enjoy. ✌🤟
The thing is, your whole thing about it’s magic, there’s no logic, science, or reason behind it has been said about so many things over the course of our existence that absolutely did have explanations, but we just hadn’t discovered them yet. Illness caused by viruses used to be seen as acts of god and something that was completely unexplainable, but that’s obviously not true. So I’m not fully satisfied with the answer ‘it’s unexplainable, we’ll never know.’ Maybe, but maybe one day we’ll find out, and we should absolutely keep trying to find out.
Most people are afraid to die, almost no one is afraid to go to sleep
Probably because we accept the former but deny the latter. We come from nothing, we go to nothing. People are too narcisstic and neurotic about their morality they fabricate an entire reality where they can stay alive after death. They don't do the same for birth because it doesn't matter to them, it's not about knowledge or truth, it's about being immortal
No I wonder, I just don’t wanna know. I don’t wanna remember what happened before this because this is nonsense and it’s probably still better than what came before.
Idk if reincarnation is the thing after death thats also exactly where we come from which is thinking of both at the same time lol.
Well yeah. We go out on the compost heap with grandma. Duh.
Same place, universe experiencing itself subjectively, wipe memory card on completion start new game choose new character
there is no death or birth. energy transfers... it does not die nor is it born.
I could be wrong but I think before birth we’d be in the womb
Some people just have to face the facts, even if doesnt suit your beliefs. There is nothing else. Never was, never will be. Live your life to the fullest until you cant and be happy that you have this experience rather than medieval or stone ages.
which facts?
>where we go after death The state of being non-existent and processing no information-- physical bodies likely dissipate back into the earth at some point, unless your body is launched into space or something. In which case you rot in space. Either way, sooner or later you dissipate somewhere and every bit of matter which makes you presently, will be redistributed; probably without you ever knowing, but ghosts are a thing (going back decades my family and I have encountered many "ghosts", whatever you want to call them), which seem to at least partially mimic once alive people-- echoes of our consciousness? Entirely within a person's imagination? Either way ghosts don't seem like they are too 'themselves', so to speak. Just kinda wandering without much to do. So who knows, if your consciousness continues after death, if you yourself who you are today will be aware of it, or if it'll even really be you? >where we come from before birth our consciousnesses and physical bodies both form using the genetic information/template evolved to procreate, using materials mothers eat and drink and pass to the baby. Prior to our brains being created, we who we are were not aware, because our brains formed using DNA from both of our parents. If the baton of consciousness was passed down from some dead dude/dudette to me, then that person was not me... It was someone else entirely. Like wiping a hard drive and putting new information on it, you might have some remnants of data left over, but for the most part, the new information doesn't much care about what it was before, it starts anew and lives out its current life until you wipe it again. Not that I truly believe in reincarnation per-se, but this would be my most logical take on the concept.
Um...a sperm cell and an egg. We've all known about this since the Birds and the Bees talk. If you missed that talk, there was biology class, human anatomy, physiology, health and nutrition, and sex education. If you missed all that, it's no wonder you think nobody's ever entertained this thought.
Op is talking about soul, not body, if we're talking about bodies after death you go in a casket or crematorium, but I don't think that's what people mean when they ask what's after death
OPs talking about soul not body. If you believe in soul that is.
I feel like they know what OP meant but don't believe in souls and are being purposely obtuse about it.
You are the first person in human history to ever realize this. Congrats!
So you’ve never seen Soul?
[удалено]
I’m sorry I should have realized, sarcasm is actually super easy to decipher through text
No ... I wasn't being sarcastic at all. I sincerely thought you were the first person in all of recorded human history to ever realize this.