I did get messed up by some anxiety and have these thoughts rolling through my head so I’ll leave it at cosmic horror warning.
spoiler
I’m not religious but I have thoughts about experiencing consciousness and what it is. I say that consciousness is independent of memory because we forget, clearly dependent on our physical body, etc. generally I do say that we don’t know consciousness so maybe it can be reconstructed (in the can’t rule out the possibility way)
So I can see scenarios were my conscious could pop into existence without my memories after I die (as I’m writing this I realized that’s nothing to fear).
I am trying to adopt healthier mindset of looking at everything in life as a quest, new things are a call to action, and that it’s okay if everything I do amounts to little in x number of years (worked out okay for ozymandias, right?).
Im probably just rambling because my life has got boring and monotonous along with actual fear of American politics.
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If it was real and you could retain memories of past lives, I’m confident we’d have some evidence/proof.
If it exists without memory retention and its just some sort of “soul” concept then it really doesn’t matter since you won’t remember anything for it to be worth worrying about.
The fact that brain injuries can erase memories shows that memory isn’t going to continue when the brain no longer functions.
Ever hear of Dr. Ian Stevenson?
Edit: Not sure why I’m being downvoted, dude looked into reincarnation and had hundreds of documented cases, Carl Sagan wanted people to look more into it
He emphasized that the information he collected was suggestive of reincarnation but “was not flawless and it certainly does not compel such a belief.”
If even the guy who had done the most research on it doesn’t believe in it, why should anyone else?
Don’t cherrypick qoutes.
Regardless he had to say that to give himself an out, there was concern that he’d be judged negatively for even suggesting reincarnation. Something proven by your own hostility.
When you see anyone disagreeing with you as hostility, you’ve clearly lost the thread.
Stop trying to twist his words in weird ways that benefit your stance, he very literally said we shouldn’t believe.
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I believe in reincarnation just as much as I believe any other theory of an afterlife - that is to say, I don’t.
We don’t know. Nobody knows what happens when we die. That’s ok, and I don’t feel the need to make up a story to explain away the uncertainty.
I think it’s likely that something happens when we die, but it could just as easily be nothingness, the end of existence. I only think it’s likely because I definitely believe that there is SO much that we don’t understand about the universe that it’s more probable than not that SOMETHING happens that we can’t currently fathom, perceive, or understand.
But, right now there’s no real evidence. So I don’t care, and I don’t worry about it.
To our best understanding, everything that lives will die. I don’t know what happens, it might be some form of heaven, it might be reincarnation, it might be transcendence, etc. However, I take comfort in the fact that it’s a shared experience, whatever it is. It’s natural. It’s part of the process.
The universe doesn’t owe us an explanation. Maybe we’ll figure it out, but we haven’t yet, and I’m fine with that.
If there is reincarnation and you don’t remember a single thing from before, why bother it doesn’t matter.
If there would be reincarnation where you remembered your previous life, surely someone would have spilled the beans on this by now. I surely would contact any sort of family friends that i had previously.
Since both could be possible but 2. hasnt happened and 1 doesnt matter i would give this a no.
That’s my view too. even if reincarnation existed, it wouldn’t matter. If each life has no memory of the others, then each life is effectively a different person altogether, so from the POV of any one of those people, there is effectively no such thing as reincarnation.
Now suppose there’s some kind of ‘soul’ who the lives ‘belong to’ and will one day remember the lives, again – so what? They’re just memories. Those lives were each a separate person who no longer exists, and never knew the others or the soul.
I get that. Have you read The Egg by Andy Weir? If not, there’s a Kurzgesagt video that’s just that story with animation. I’d suggest it. It touches on this concept and kinda paints a more optimistic picture.
I don’t think I’d read it, but just looked it up and did. Or maybe I read it before and forgot–I’ve certainly heard that concept enough times, and many variations on it. The ultimate ego trip!
It doesn’t make sense biologically
I do believe in reincarnation, in that we are all physical manifestations of what you could call “God”. That means that everyone you meet, every dog you pet, every ant you accidentally squish, is synonymous with the divine. We are all constantly reincarnating throughout the universe, and this should be looked at no more acutely than the cells in your body constantly dying and being reborn.
I guess you could call it pantheism, though I tend to follow philosophies like Zen Buddhism and the Tao and it still seems to work.
Looking at existence in this way can form a new understanding, nay, a new reverence towards your life and the universe. Then you will understand who you really are and why you’re here. The real power of God is in manifesting everywhere, all the time, all at once. After all…
And that is, of course, why the images of the Hindu gods are shown with many arms or many faces: because it is saying that all arms are the arms of the divinity, all faces are its masks.
-Alan Watts, Out Of Your Mind
To be honest, the only answer i have to say is: “we’ll see”. Wheter it’s nothing or not, the second option would imply that there is effectively something beyond what we know about the universe.
What even is the soul? YOU from now think very different than YOU from ten years ago. Can we say that those two people are the same? Not really. Yet you share common memories with this early you, who doesn’t exist anynore. Is it technically correct in this point of view to say that you are the reincarnation of you from ten years ago?
If someone in the far future were to think like you, to remember exact memories from yours, would act the same way you would act in the same situation, it would not we wrong to say they are your reincarnation, no?
Again i’m just supposing.
Not in the traditional sense, but I have a pet theory about the continuation of consciousness.
You can only experience being, not not-being, so even if your consciousness went dark for a million years before being “reincarnated,” there would be no gap from the perspective of your subjective experience. You can only go from having one experience to having another. Nothingness can’t be experienced.
Makes me think about going into a coma from a car accident. Your consciousness could be out for however long, then you make a weird fantasy and regain consciousness and start a journey to fill recovery. It would be good to have a healthy attitude/mindset imprinted onto yourself in that scenario.
I hope not.
I felt that way too, but then I watched re zero and that changed my mentally. I watch the anime last year
Is it good? Haven’t watched it yet
The amount of effort people put into saying “Maaaybe. We really don’t know,” is just crazy to me. No, because it’s nonsense.
Yeeeeah, all due respect to believers, but we’re squishy wet computers riding squishy wet stilts and when we get turned off we just sort of fizzle out.
There’s some poetry to only having one go at it, but I’m not gonna stand here and say a sense of humanism makes your hardcoded fear of death subside. I get why humans come up with coping mechanisms where they get to live forever in some form that isn’t having their atoms repurposed as fertilizer and space dust.
It’s hard to say exactly. I wouldn’t put it past the dev(s) to have potentially put something like “The Egg” in, so potentially yes, though we’d have no way of testing for it.
Story by Andy Weir here: https://youtu.be/h6fcK_fRYaI
Yeah I watched that video when it was new and had it rattling around in my head. It probably why I starting thinking memories and intelligence aren’t part of consciousness. I do think emotions are connected to consciousness because they seem to override decision making.
No.
Do you remember before being born? It’s the same after.
Can you prove that memory is a reliable way to determine reality without referencing memory?
What about people who claim past life memories?
As is common amongst Buddhists
Related video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_4BFX_qhhyk
I am aware. I personally think it’s a load of religious bull, but don’t directly want to offend anyone wanting to believe it.
I also know repatriation (I hope that’s the correctly translated term) which is proven to be planted suggested memories through that very process scientifically as far as I am aware at the current state of science.
I do love reading (eg the game is life) playing with these theories, though!
Proof of the evidence that reparitation is suggested?
Fair request.
I did some research into the topic a year ago due to my situation and came to the stated conclusion.
So I tried to find some scientific research again right now (in a limited time frame of like 10 to 20 minutes, on my mobile).
I first tried in English bot got a lot of hits regarding companies and since my native language is not English I don’t know what that word means in relation to companies and also didn’t want to waste time on that.
So I tried it in German and was flooded by hits which offer that ad a service and as such of course tell you how successful it is. Obviously.
I was not able to find the research I remember within that time, I am sorry.
However in any case you’d be free to believe whatever anyway.
The point of the information I read was however that people coming out of the procedure (sometimes, possibly also accidentally) get memories planted in a well known psychological way and it is a highly untrustworthy procedure.
So that’s why I didn’t do it. I have enough to cope with and don’t need additional fictional issues added to that 😁
And they found that all this does is create false memories?
Edit: Oh you meant the hypnosis does. Yeah not sure why he recommended that part before meditation
Indeed. So the brain would create memories from context.
And we’re 100% on this?
So reincarnation is not a thing but what’s to stop “you” from coming back as a new individual? After all, it happened at least once.
That’s where we get into technicalities and states of dying.
Ao while I was medically dead it wasn’t so dead that it was unrecoverable. Akin to a reset. Which, depending on the state you were in and the measures taken, could also have side effects and damages.
Anyhow biologically ‘you’ are still there. And leaving the body is it after a bit of decay. Like a complex system falling apart unrecoverably.
I think conclusively stating that is a bit much, we don’t know shit about how consciousness works, do how can we know what happens if it ends?
I died and came back and there was nothing, that concludes it for me. Ymmv, of course.
Are you sure? Like what do you mean nothing? Like it all went to black? How do you know you just don’t remember it?
(in order of questions)
Yes I am. Well, like dreamless time-skip sleeping or before being born, nothing. No not even going to black just not and nothing being there, movie cut.
And lastly, I can’t, true. It could also be being influenced by the cocktail of medication you get in that situation which by the way has created a lot of stories to tell afterwards (trips) but not from the time of dying.
NDEs are probably not drug induced… probably
I like to compare it to electronics (since our brain also runs on/with electricity): unplug old electronics and have a look what’s being displayed while the memory and visuals lose their power. 😁
But after that, it’s gone.
Why would you think that being born is the same as dying?
(hint: it isn’t the same at all)
Not existing before and after is technically the same, please provide any scientific article of it being otherwise, I’m open to that.
One could argue even the development arc of humans is backwards towards the end. The process of dying is not the same as being born, if you mean that.
What kind of scientist are you?
Irrelevant to the case, but as it scientist concepts, research, analysis, deduction and proof is a standard part of my work.
Its typical however to instead answer with proof for a hypothesis to try to slander the opponent, especially nowadays. So there you go.
Luckily I do this conversation for fun and trying to learn more, since this is the way as humans we can grow.
So you tell me. What’s your experience from your last death.
it seems reinicarnation, is an obsession amongst western countries co-opted from india/buddhism, and incorporated into many medias.
Anyone who says they know what happens when you die is trying to grift you. No one knows and we all find out one day, no point in dwelling on it.
If it was a choice why would I ever wanna come back to this hell hole ?
I think this universe sucks, not to ignore human history. Lots of it is empty space apparently cosmic events can wipe you out with next to no warning, your made up of atoms and cells that can die and degrade, and we are stuck to this solar system because space isn’t empty it’s full of shit thats going to kill you
Which is why my headcanon for this universe is that we’re basically running rogue playthrough in this life. After you die, you’ll regain all your “soul” memories and will be given a choice to “replay” with another life and losing your memories “again” until you’ve reached a certain level of enlightenment and then you’ll “graduate” from our current level of existence.
Call me crazy but it helps me sleep at night, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
