Does the thought of non-existence disturb or frighten you?

[soulslicer]

One of the few selfish reasons why I'd like to keep my religion, to perhaps, cloud me from the reality that I don't want to believe, to believe that there is an after-life, or re-incarnation.

 

[Kula Meenur]

Truthfully no.

 

[Saturos]

You ever notice how if you do something a lot you get bored of it? Well, not all things, but most things?

Well, maybe the trick is to do everything you love until you don't want to do it anymore. Live a rich and eventful life, then you can die feeling accomplished - and that will be a lot better feeling than dying and being sad, "I never got to do this or that. No fair."

You are only young once, and some things you won't be able to do when you are old. I guess a good idea would be to do the strenuous things that you love when you are young, things like skiing or something, and when you get older, you can travel and things like that - especially since you will be able to retire and no longer have to stay in one location to get to work or whatever.

I think it would be great to see how far technology goes and see how great video games look 100 years after I'm dead and things like that, but I'm over it. I appreciate that I might live to see how they look 65 years from now.

Well spoken.

One of the many reasons why I've decided to join the U.S. NAVY too. I want to do something 'eventful' albeit stressful at times, but tbh a totally peaceful life is a boring life. I need more stress in my life. A plain 9 to 5 job just won't satisfy me at this stage in my life.

Stress=challenge, and all humans need to feel challenged in order to have a feeling of a meaningful existence.
Human spirit is like an empty vacuum in that we strive for meaning to our existence. It's what makes us 'want'. It also what makes humans dangerous.

 

[Raziaar]

The thing that conjures up this paranoia for me is when I think about if I might die young, as nobody should have to. It's not based off me living a grand old life until I'm almost dust, as I'm almost entirely sure my outlook would be different.

 

[Kula Meenur]

You can't change what you don't know. I could have died when i was really little, but having that knowledge doesn't make me live life any different.


That being said, one could die a million times in a million ways in every given day. In my general philosophical opinion; having this knowledge can either make you accept that you can only control so much in your life, or twist you internally by making you think you're in control of everything about you (so you protect yourself from danger in a paranoid fashion). The difference between any belief about death and yourself is an individual's choice to make, and his approach changes his perspective on life and thus a given personality and behaviour.


I've accepted my death will come and that there are some things one cannot completely control. It's the way in which one tackles life which defines a living in my opinion.

 

[Jintor]

I've accepted my death will come and that there are some things one cannot completely control. It's the way in which one tackles life which defines a living in my opinion.

I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

 

[Kula Meenur]

Hehe you cheeky bugga Jin

 

[Raziaar]

So far this pole has exactly what I was expecting... quite a few people voting no and roughly half of that number generally siding with yes, with a sparse group for the last option.

 

[Farrowlesparrow]

It's one of those things that comes and goes for me. I have these thoughts... sometimes at night I'll have worrying thoughts about my own mortality that doesn't involve my non existence but rather the circumstances of my death.

Sometimes when I'm riding in a vehicle with my family, I'll have these amazingly horrible daydreams that will involve the violent deaths of my family members in the vehicle in some freak accident... like a board flying through the windshield at a high rate of speed and decapitating my father as he drives... reducing him immediately from the father I love to a horribly mutilated corpse.

Sometimes I can't stop these thoughts from coming on. They're really terrible to have, especially those daydreams.

Anyways... I'm going to bed.

I get this a lot as well actually. With recent deaths on other people's families, it's been on my mind a lot more. But hey, it'll never happen to me right? :awesome: I suspect it affects a lot of people, but then I wonder, are there people out there who really just don't think about these things. I've met a lot of people who seem not to, but then occasionally you catch them in a quiet moment when they're contemplating the future. Some people really don't think much, though. They just live like any other animal. A talking animal.


I don't ever want to die. I want to watch Earth be destroyed by our expanding sun. I want to see a blackhole with the naked eye. I want to fly from one end of the universe to the other - with only a super cat and my gay friend for company - and that'll probably take so long that the universe will end.

I'm hopeful that technology will find a way to extend my life, but I'm hardly planning everything around that. Nor do I live each day as if it were my last. If I did that, I'd be too worried that today is the day that I'm finally right...

 

[Escaep]

I believe in an afterlife. It seems i am of the minority group here. I just find it hard to believe that in everything there is and how complex it is, there is not something else out there that did it all. I believe the perfect afterlife would be a movie of how everything came to be, how everything works, and just awesome stuff like that. Being able to go from place to place just studying it.

I can understand what non-believers say when you "cease to exist" it is not like you are going to sit there in nothingness and say, "well, this is boring."

 

[Dinkleberry]

The very thought kind of messes up my day. Just being completely gone from this universe, with no feeling or thought, in a black void. It just depresses me. I find it really strange that it can't frighten some of you guys.

In the past it has weighed on my mind significantly. Not so much now, I think of it as a sort of 'growing up process'. An intuitive rationality eventually kicks in, making peace with personal circumstances.

I say that because when I was a little kid I remember been kept up late at night being scared of nuclear war, after I discovered what nukes were. And it seems like a similar fear - fear of death in many manifestations!

 

[No Limit]

I still don't understand why some of you actually worry about this. I would assume most of you are fairly young. You are worrying about something that you have no control over and something that will happen over 20,000 days from now (assuming you will be alive for another 60 years). Why worry about this? Shouldn't you spend that time worrying about something else? Like where your life is going to be in 5 or 10 years? Maybe that would be something a little more constructive to worry about?

 

[Shift]

Honestly, the idea of a none-existance disturbs me, and have had brief periods where I have thought about it and been freaked out by it, but I dont even think about it anymore, I just live my life day by day, and always have the plan in the back of my mind that I will live my life to its fullest and be the best person I can possibily be, so when it does come the time when I have to go, then I can say that I have acomplished everything I wanted to do.

But for the record, I think a non-existance is obviously a possibility, but I also think an afterlife of some form is a possibility, maybe not a heaven, but something. There is always an undieing feeling I cant explain I have everyday as I go about my business, that there is just something more to this life than what I can merely see in front of me, like a hidden presence, guiding me on a path through life, as if I am meant to do the things that I do, that I have a purpose to forfil.

Buts that just me, its just a feeling that I cant get out of my head. And also, people who say they arent at least disturbed by the idea of a non-existance, are lying, everyone feels uneasy about it at some point in their lives.

 

[Raziaar]

I still don't understand why some of you actually worry about this. I would assume most of you are fairly young. You are worrying about something that you have no control over and something that will happen over 20,000 days from now (assuming you will be alive for another 60 years). Why worry about this? Shouldn't you spend that time worrying about something else? Like where your life is going to be in 5 or 10 years? Maybe that would be something a little more constructive to worry about?

You also make the grave mistake of thinking it consumes our lives. For some people it might, for most people it will not. It will be something that comes and goes relatively quickly, but that doesn't mean the scope of thought is any less significant.

Also, if I'm not mistaken I'm older than you. The only time I would think age really matters is when you've passed the threshold of a youthful life and have reached old age and lived out most of your days.

 

[No Limit]

I think we are probably around the same age, but that's not the point. My point simply is that most of us here are young. You have so much time left on this earth its insane, we aren't even half way there. In addition to that we were all lucky enough to be living in this time. So there is nothing to worry about here. I'm not really trying to psychoanalyze you or anybody else here based on a single post but the fact that you would post this tells me you are worried about it. Don't be, you are lucky to be living in this day and age and there is absolutely no point in worrying about something that is so far off and something you have absolutely no control over.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BYLMTvxOaeE

 

[CyberPitz]

Not at all. I guess I rationalize this thought by..."Why think and worry about it when there isn't a damned thing you can do about it.

 

[JNightshade]

I like the thought that this is it. Makes me want to be more adventurous.

 

[Slug Advisor]

The notion squicks me sometimes, but it's not too depressing. Besides, I don't quite dismiss the possibility of an afterlife.

 

[Nitre]

I don't know. I've thought about it a few times and the conclusion i came to was that it would be quite weird. However, i think that it's only weird because at the time at which you think about it, you do exist, and therefore not existing is a strange thing. Not existing actually makes up more time than existing, depending on how you look at things.

 

[Sheepo]

If I think about it yea, but mostly I'm just like, "D: MUFFINS! NOMNOMNOM"

 

[Darkside55]

The thought terrifies me. I try not to think about it.

The thought that I once did not exist is no comfort, as I currently exist, and enjoy said existence. When that is over...

 

[Jintor]

Are you back for reals Darksied?

...please say yes. I miss your occasionally incredibly verbose writings when you felt up to it.

 

[Kaptain H]

Not really. I wasn't really bothered by the billions of years of nonexistence before I was born, anyway.

 

[taviow]

The thought terrifies me. I try not to think about it.

The thought that I once did not exist is no comfort, as I currently exist, and enjoy said existence. When that is over...

you just won't exist. You won't care much about it anyway, I guess.

 

[VirusType2]

Sometimes I almost can't ****ing wait to die, and like the next day, I want to live forever. I think dying in like 60 years is a compromise.

One of the oldest things is, "don't worry about what you cannot control - worry about the things you can."

And what you can do, if you are attached to this existence, is take it seriously; live healthy.


I once cringed at the crap my mother used to buy as food - all that low fat crap and healthy foods. i wouldn't touch it. But it's really not that bad to eat a ****ing apple or something.

 

[McGooTheWise]

The scary part of this is mostly just being... Gone... I don't find death disturbing, but I do find nothingness disturbing, and if you are truly human, you do too. The thought of not existing in any form is the scary part. It isn't fathomable to the human mind, it can only be grasped with words, and even then we have nothing.

I don't think it's in our nature to understand, and, in fact, I am convinced that are species will die with this planet, or before it. Though I won't possibly live to see that day, the thought of no Earth, our home, is terrifying. Anyways, that's how I look at it. There are many things about the universe, and life that are disturbing. Even though we know space is forever, the thought of there only being one seems strange to me also, so that's another thing. Could there be something bigger than the universe? What if our entire universe is just the wart on some guys foot in a larger dimension? It's the unanswered questions that come up that are scary. Not being able to answer.

 

[highlander]

Nup, I don't really care bout it. !

 

[VirusType2]

but I do find nothingness disturbing, and if you are truly human, you do too. The thought of not existing in any form is the scary part. It isn't fathomable to the human mind, it can only be grasped with words, and even then we have nothing.

.

I disagree. Here are some things that I have added up and put together over the years:

Think back to when you were 0 years old. I got nothing. What'd you get?


That's the absence of life and that's what it's like to be dead.


Was it scary? Was it painful? Was it boring? Was it fun? No no no no.



Our bodies have built in mechanisms to make death from natural causes almost pain free.

Pain too great? Your body trickle releases endorphins (like when you have an orgasm.. but less and over more time), and may render you unconscious. When you are unconscious, you don't feel anything.

What are endorphins?

Think for a moment about the feelings you experienced after you ran, had a great workout, laughed excessively, or had great sex? Do you remember how you felt? Did you feel exhilarated? Those feeling that you probably experienced are caused by endorphins. The great thing is that the feelings you experience from endorphins can last for twelve hours. What are Endorphins? Endorphins are a class of neurotransmitters produced by the body and used internally as a pain killer. Endorphins are triggered by pain and exertion. Did you know that the human body produces at least 20 different types of endorphins?

They are closely related to the chemicals in morphine, heroine, and opium - and they are built into your body for dealing with pain.


- You're heart stops beating? You begin to shut down. It's not really painful.

- Your lungs give out - you get light headed and begin to go unconscious.



As for being unconscious, I can tell you first hand since I've been unconscious several times. It doesn't feel like anything. It's like dreaming. You don't feel pain, you don't remember anything.



Just now decided to see if I can find someone who has experienced heart failure -


Here's a guy who's heart has stopped beating many times - he describes death as a little scary, but painless.

I waited, breathing shallowly, for the familiar pulse to start again. Nothing happened. The hollow silence in my chest went on and on. The world began to change.

My peripheral vision dimmed down to a hazy black tunnel as the blood left my head. The space immediately before me became a hot blur. A vast rushing sound filled my ears, like a high wind, like a subway train approaching at a furious speed, pushing the air before it.

?Try to breath normally,? the doctor said, and it sounded as though he was shouting at the bottom of a pool. I found myself shaking, hyperventilating, seriously panicked. The black at the edges of my vision spread inward, and I lost all sensation of my body.

Then my heart beat once. Then nothing. Again. Then nothing. Two beats, three beats, four, irregularly spaced and without pattern. Then it was like an engine caught.

My sight returned, washing back in pixilated smudges. When my vision cleared completely, I saw that the doctor was holding the defibrillator paddles. His face had gone white. My wife, who was present through all of this, claims that I laughed and muttered ?Tunnel of light.?

From a treatment standpoint, the whole ordeal was a bust. My heart beat just as fast as before, once it restarted. Still, it?s given me plenty to think about over the years. Looking back, the weirdest part of the experience by far was the minute or so I sat there feeling fine and dandy. Death, in and of itself, didn?t really seem to hurt much. I can also see why many people give a religious significance to the physiological sensations of dying. Tunnel of light, indeed.

David Hurwitz

http://weeklyrot.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/what-does-it-feel-like-when-your-heart-stops/

Perhaps the most unusual activity believed to be able to stimulate the body's secretion of endorphins is laughter.

This is has been the way that I have dealt with life, and as you can see for David Hurwitz - it's how he dealt with death as well:

My wife, who was present through all of this, claims that I laughed and muttered "Tunnel of light."

he was laughing and telling a joke - that doesn't sound terribly frightening.

when my father suffered a heart attack, when I woke him up, he told me a joke. "I was seeing the light" he barely chuckled with a woozy smile

 

[ailevation]

I wouldn't like to die anytime soon but as a wise friend always says, "The world's still turning, with or without you" sack up and take it as it is.


It's always fun to think and talk about what happens after you die though.

 

[French Ninja]

I will say, this thread has eased my mind on this subject, particularly VirusType2

Thanks helplife2.net!

 

[Gorgon]

I believe in an afterlife and don't think about these things.

 

[Shift]

I disagree. Here are some things that I have added up and put together over the years:

Think back to when you were 0 years old. I got nothing. What'd you get?


That's the absence of life and that's what it's like to be dead.


Was it scary? Was it painful? Was it boring? Was it fun? No no no no.



Our bodies have built in mechanisms to make death from natural causes almost pain free.

Pain too great? Your body trickle releases endorphins (like when you have an orgasm.. but less and over more time), and may render you unconscious. When you are unconscious, you don't feel anything.

What are endorphins?

They are closely related to the chemicals in morphine, heroine, and opium - and they are built into your body for dealing with pain.


- You're heart stops beating? You begin to shut down. It's not really painful.

- Your lungs give out - you get light headed and begin to go unconscious.



As for being unconscious, I can tell you first hand since I've been unconscious several times. It doesn't feel like anything. It's like dreaming. You don't feel pain, you don't remember anything.



Just now decided to see if I can find someone who has experienced heart failure -


Here's a guy who's heart has stopped beating many times - he describes death as a little scary, but painless.


http://weeklyrot.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/what-does-it-feel-like-when-your-heart-stops/



This is has been the way that I have dealt with life, and as you can see for David Hurwitz - it's how he dealt with death as well:



he was laughing and telling a joke - that doesn't sound terribly frightening.

when my father suffered a heart attack, when I woke him up, he told me a joke. "I was seeing the light" he barely chuckled with a woozy smile

Yeh if you are being burned alive or something horrid like that, I really doubt death would be painless then.

 

[VirusType2]

Yeh if you are being burned alive or something horrid like that, I really doubt death would be painless then.

Of course. Torture is the opposite of painless.

I can tell you first hand as I had 3rd degree (the most severe) burns on the bottom of my foot, and it continued to feel like it was still burning for about a month. It's pain on a level that makes broken bones seem like an orgasm.

Yeah, fire is like the opposite of water.

water gives life, and fire takes it away.

 

[Raziaar]

Somebody write Stern's name up in the NO section. I don't know why he's too afraid of posting, dammit!


And also, I'm confused why so many people are answering no based on the idea that they are formulating their opinions after they cease to exist, which is impossible. It's about right here, right now, about how you WILL cease to exist.

Too many responses I've read of people saying, "Of course no, because I won't exist to worry about it." Well, that's obvious, but not what was being asked.

 

[VirusType2]

I'm more sad thinking about how cold (cruel) this world is, than I am to say goodbye to it.

Recently I started thinking that dying was like rejection. I don't think I can explain that one in under 1000 words, so that's that.

 

[Kyorisu]

Not bothered at all. Why? I don't waste time thinking about my death. You die, that's it what's to think about?