• Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views




    Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast
    Results 1 to 25 of 50
    1. #1
      Amateur WILDer
      Join Date
      Apr 2006
      Posts
      978
      Likes
      12

      What's more scary? The thought of death or existing forever?

      Putting all religious and philosophical beliefs aside - which scenario seems of the more frightening of the two to you?

      Death? Or existing in this reality forever? At first, the existing forever part didn't seem to bad... until I began of think of some insane number, like billions of years. That... scares the hell out of me, more then thinking about an existence that is like a deep sleep - completely neutral.

      The optimal existence in my opinion would be similar to our sleep cycles. Everyday we go to sleep and take a break from reality. If we didn't sleep, guarantee we'd all go insane. The best existence would be one where after every life, you'd take a very long break (death), and come back without your previous identity. I mean, the way I see it, even paradise forever would get boring.

    2. #2
      Consciousness Itself Universal Mind's Avatar
      Join Date
      Apr 2004
      Gender
      Location
      Everywhere
      Posts
      12,871
      Likes
      1046
      I would love to live forever, as long as it would be as good as the life I've had so far or better. The idea of eternal nonexistence seems really depressing to me, but I know that when I cease to exist I won't care one way or the other because I won't exist. But in being alive and being genetically programmed to want to continue to be alive, I would love to figure out a way to be immortal. I could never get tired of this.
      How do you know you are not dreaming right now?

    3. #3
      Member
      Join Date
      Feb 2004
      Posts
      5,165
      Likes
      711
      Yea as long as your not like stuck there, forever staring at a ceiling because you can't move. That would be horrible. A million years staring at the same thing. Now if it like now where your in good shape and you can run around and play, then heck I would take living forever. I can guarantee I can find something fun to do, no matter how long I live for.

    4. #4
      Psychonaut Achievements:
      Referrer Bronze 1 year registered Veteran First Class 5000 Hall Points

      Join Date
      Jan 2007
      LD Count
      unknown
      Gender
      Posts
      316
      Likes
      7
      There's no way I'd want to live forever. I'd rather be non-existant.

    5. #5
      I *AM* Glyphs! Achievements:
      1 year registered 5000 Hall Points Referrer Bronze Veteran First Class
      Keeper's Avatar
      Join Date
      Sep 2006
      Gender
      Location
      UCT or home - depends what time you catch me :P
      Posts
      2,130
      Likes
      3
      personally, I find both to be exciting, and not scary at all.
      "There are people who say there is no God, but what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views." ~Albert Einstein

      Ask meWay BackYour SoulMy Dream Story (Chapter two UP!) •


    6. #6
      Member MindDaguerreotype's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jan 2007
      Location
      France
      Posts
      114
      Likes
      0
      Quote Originally Posted by Universal Mind View Post
      I could never get tired of this.
      Don't understimate the length of eternity.

      After enough trillions of trillions years, you will have played all games of chess (10^40 possible positions), and Go (10^170 possible positions), read all the possible books (Lets round it to 30^1500000 for 500-pages "books" with all possible letters arrangement, even if they don't make sense), seen all movies, heard all music. Have engaged in all possible discussions and arguments. Climbed all shapes of mountains, done all possible dance moves, visited all possible alien planets.

      You could still dive a bit more deeper in a Mandelbrot set or compute the next digit of Pi, but... that's not very exciting. (And all the Mandelbrot images discernable by your eyes were already in the "possible movies" that you already saw. Twice.).
      The only possible way to stay sane would be to lose enough of your memory every millions years. Which would be cheating.


      The only "good" way I see to live in eternity is if time itself disappears: "eternity" or "one instant" becoming the same thing.
      Dec. 2006 - July 2007:
      92 DILDs + 30 WILDs ; 75% too short, 24% decent, ~3 of 2 to 5 minutes
      (I stopped counting after that)

    7. #7
      Amateur WILDer
      Join Date
      Apr 2006
      Posts
      978
      Likes
      12
      Don't understimate the length of eternity.
      Exactly. I wouldn't mind a few life-times of what I have right now.. but I don't know if I could do it forever. I mean like yeah I find myself entertained pretty easily these days, but I've been only been alive for what? 20 years? And my brain has only been "adult developed" for... 1-2 years? 20 years is nothing compared an enternity. 20 years is like a pico-second (10^-12) compared to a millenium. I could see myself being entertained for the next 10,000 years due to human advancement. But once we have visited every corner of the universe, seen everything there is to see, done everything there is to do... and let's not forget - it wouldn't be a great life all the way through. There would be periods of great stress. Periods where a person doesn't just experience one mid-life crisis, but many.

      The only "good" way I see to live in eternity is if time itself disappears: "eternity" or "one instant" becoming the same thing.
      This is one possibly scientific ending of the universe Weather we end in the Big Crunch, of Big Rip, time will end, and singularity will be reached. What exactly goes on then, I could not even begin to think about.
      Last edited by blade5x; 07-20-2007 at 03:09 PM.

    8. #8
      I *AM* Glyphs! Achievements:
      1 year registered 5000 Hall Points Referrer Bronze Veteran First Class
      Keeper's Avatar
      Join Date
      Sep 2006
      Gender
      Location
      UCT or home - depends what time you catch me :P
      Posts
      2,130
      Likes
      3
      if you can think of a way to remember all those years, I will be impressed. I can quite happily read the same book many times provided I wait a few years before starting again, so as to forget several points of the story.
      "There are people who say there is no God, but what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views." ~Albert Einstein

      Ask meWay BackYour SoulMy Dream Story (Chapter two UP!) •


    9. #9
      Dreaming up music skysaw's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jun 2007
      Gender
      Location
      Alexandria, VA
      Posts
      2,330
      Likes
      5
      If the Twilight Zone has taught us nothing else, it's that living forever can be a horrible prospect!
      _________________________________________
      We now return you to our regularly scheduled signature, already in progress.
      _________________________________________

      My Music
      The Ear Is Always Correct - thoughts on music composition
      What Sky Saw - a lucid dreaming journal

    10. #10
      Game Coder pokilty's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jul 2007
      Gender
      Location
      New York
      Posts
      112
      Likes
      0
      I posted this in another thread, but it applies even moreso to here. This great quote from the movie Troy that really inspires me:

      I'll tell you a secret. Something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.

      Death is what makes life so valuable.
      Last edited by pokilty; 07-20-2007 at 07:17 PM.

    11. #11
      Member
      Join Date
      Feb 2004
      Posts
      5,165
      Likes
      711
      Exactly keeper. So you read every book there ever was, does that mean you stop reading? No because the great ones are worth reading again. And after not having read a story for a 1000 years its almost new all over again. Besides you can always start writing you own books, making up your own music, your own dance. After you done everything, you can always create more, and as long as there are more people in the world they will also be creating new things.

      Besides its not like your in a rush or anything. You can casually take your time. Lets take your example, if your read only one book a year you will have new books for 30^1500000 years. And at that pace its not to horrible to go back and read the good ones again. Then you can always go off an explore space, you have time to figure out space travel if no one else can. Go and try to figure out which is more infinite space or time?

      And if your the lazy person who always put things off untill later? Forget about it, you will waste millions of years just putting things off. "Ohh I got all the time in the world, I will do that in the next century."

      In a place where you can live an infinite amount of time, there is an infinite amount of stuff to do. You just need to figure out what you want to do in that time, but since your has all the time in the world to figure it out, its not a problem.

    12. #12
      TPV ThePhobiaViewed's Avatar
      Join Date
      Apr 2007
      Gender
      Location
      Somewhere Out There
      Posts
      816
      Likes
      0
      I think death is alot scarier than existing forever. If we do exist forever then it will be at higher levels than we exist in now so we can't even comprehend the kind of stuff there is to do. There's always the possibility of reincarnation or being a guardian angel or watcher. Even if it is terrible it would still be better than disappearing and never making an impact again. But just in case there is no afterlife, I'm gonna start reading Harry Potter right now so I can finish it (it may take eternity, its huge)

    13. #13
      Truth Seeker Achievements:
      Referrer Bronze 1 year registered Veteran First Class Created Dream Journal 10000 Hall Points Made Friends on DV
      <span class='glow_9400D3'>LucidDreamGod</span>'s Avatar
      Join Date
      Jun 2004
      Gender
      Location
      US
      Posts
      2,258
      Likes
      50
      DJ Entries
      4
      I would love to exist forever I'd turn down almost any amount of money to live forever cause I'm the type of person who notices every secound ticking away my whole life I've hated wasting time, and I always feel in a hurry.

      although in the small possiblity that I would get somehow mentaly ill from being here too long and go crazy it'd be kind of nice to beable to just shut myself off, ofcourse I think we all would go with existing forever if we could choose when to go, though serously I need all the life I can get I think I would take jake la lannes life style if he could live to 200



      I wanna be the very best
      Like no one ever was
      To lucid dream is my real test
      To control them is my cause


    14. #14
      Member Achievements:
      1 year registered Veteran First Class 5000 Hall Points
      Pastro's Avatar
      Join Date
      Mar 2006
      Gender
      Location
      Canada
      Posts
      551
      Likes
      1
      Live forver, eventually I could figure out a way/build a machine to erase my memories and then could re learn and experiance things over and over again.

    15. #15
      - Neruo's Avatar
      Join Date
      Dec 2005
      Gender
      Location
      The Netherlands
      Posts
      4,438
      Likes
      7
      If you have the power to forget things, enjoy a movie every year. Then there would be nothing scary about immortality. If you can't forget, that would get boring in like, 100.000 years.
      “What a peculiar privilege has this little agitation of the brain which we call 'thought'” -Hume

    16. #16
      Member Twiggy's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jan 2007
      Posts
      18
      Likes
      1
      I'd want to live forever.

      As long as this forum continued! I'd always have something great to do

    17. #17
      Amateur WILDer
      Join Date
      Apr 2006
      Posts
      978
      Likes
      12
      You people and your memory erasers bending the option :p

      Don't forget, given infinite time you will hit great highs in your life, but you will also hit many points where you will have suicidal thoughts! Maybe not in 100 years, or 1000 years, but getting through those times would be tough - that would be my main concern of living forever.
      Last edited by blade5x; 07-25-2007 at 02:18 AM.

    18. #18
      Member
      Join Date
      Jun 2007
      Posts
      21
      Likes
      0
      I would definitely NOT want to live forever. Death (and the idea of finite timespans) is an integral aspect of our human experience. If you truly had infinite time at your disposal, I don't know what "time" would even mean, and I think our experience would be radically changed. Have you ever tried to relive a great memory and it just wasn't as good the second time? I feel like immortality would inevitably lead to trying to relive things that were only so wonderful because they were one-time events. Life is improvisation, facing the unexpected, reveling in a moment because you know it's one of a limited number of moments you have. I think these quotes relate:

      "There's no story. It's just people, gestures, moments, bits of rapture, fleeting emotions. In short, the greatest story ever told." (Waking Life)

      "The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it." (W.M. Lewis)

      "Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." (James Dean)

      And here's an excerpt from a conversation I had once: Is value derived from terms of time? If you knew you had all the time in the world, if you were immortal, would it change the order in which you did things? Would there still be such thing as "priorities" (like when you say, "I can't wait for X"). Do we let some things take precedence because of the threat of death? Would you still make time to be with someone right now if you knew you would live forever and could theoretically see them infinite times in the future? I think it's critical that, limited by time, we do have to sacrifice some things to make time for others.

      Finally, I think we only fear death out of a fear of the unknown. We fear the unknown more than the scariest products of our imagination. And life is all we seem to consciously know.
      Last edited by starrynight; 07-25-2007 at 06:00 PM.
      "Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we're the imagination of ourselves. Here's Tom with the weather."
      -Bill Hicks

    19. #19
      我是男你好我是喬治
      Join Date
      May 2007
      Gender
      Location
      England
      Posts
      113
      Likes
      0
      The thought of dying and becoming non-existant scares the shite out of me. I really hope that when I get older I lose this fear.
      http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/6123/terrorhawkertwoyu8.png

    20. #20
      Psychonaut shaftmonkey's Avatar
      Join Date
      Jul 2007
      Gender
      Posts
      84
      Likes
      0
      i think existing forever. sometimes i think if there is everlasting life after death, then what the fuck would i do forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

    21. #21
      Previously Pensive Achievements:
      1 year registered Veteran First Class 5000 Hall Points
      Patrick's Avatar
      Join Date
      Sep 2005
      Location
      UK
      Posts
      1,777
      Likes
      840
      Quote Originally Posted by pokilty View Post

      I'll tell you a secret. Something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
      That's a very good point.

    22. #22
      Member
      Join Date
      Aug 2007
      Gender
      Location
      Chesterfield, UK
      Posts
      58
      Likes
      0
      Its not death that scares me, it's how I might get to that point. That's the bit that scares me. Occasionally I get the creeps thinking about it as I've got a bit closer than I wanted to, to actually finding out.

      Everlasting life might be great but when everything else stops living or blinks out at the end of existence you are left with a big problem.

      A long, good, fulfilled life is possibly the best we could wish for.

      Regards

      Ric

    23. #23
      outsideit'sraining Sleepy_Brown's Avatar
      Join Date
      Aug 2007
      Gender
      Posts
      12
      Likes
      0
      I'd choose death. This reality sucks man! I believe what comes next, our human brains can't even comprehend at this point. I personally don't believe we just stop existing. So, yeah, i'd choose death..gotta continue the journey man.

    24. #24
      Member dragonoverlord's Avatar
      Join Date
      Mar 2005
      Gender
      Location
      not in spain
      Posts
      1,553
      Likes
      1
      Putting all religious and philosophical beliefs aside - which scenario seems of the more frightening of the two to you?

      Death? Or existing in this reality forever? At first, the existing forever part didn't seem to bad... until I began of think of some insane number, like billions of years. That... scares the hell out of me, more then thinking about an existence that is like a deep sleep - completely neutral.

      The optimal existence in my opinion would be similar to our sleep cycles. Everyday we go to sleep and take a break from reality. If we didn't sleep, guarantee we'd all go insane. The best existence would be one where after every life, you'd take a very long break (death), and come back without your previous identity. I mean, the way I see it, even paradise forever would get boring.
      Your post got me thinking of this show i saw where this guy kept on trying to commit suicide but he would just NEVER die.

      I forget how it ended though.

      anyway I find your idea of reincarnation very attractive and that's the only way i would like to live forever.

      I would probably go mad if i was just "me" forever.
      Some are born to sweet deleight
      Some are born to endless night

    25. #25
      Banned
      Join Date
      Aug 2007
      Posts
      3
      Likes
      0
      Living forever is really scary to me, while death doesnt scare me one bit. I really couldnt imagine living forever, It would be way too much, Every day i'd go crazier and crazier, knowing the days will never end.

    Page 1 of 2 1 2 LastLast

    Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •