Thread: I almost died, now I wanna die without coming back

How does an idea escape from your head when you're dead?[/b]

Let's assume for a second that scientists have a clue what they're talking about. They aren't positive on how memories work, but this is basically how it works- synapses form patterns in your brain, which is how memories are created. When those patterns are gone, your memories are gone. BAM!

Originally posted by Death-Wuad

Let's assume for a second that scientists have a clue what they're talking about. They aren't positive on how memories work, but this is basically how it works- synapses form patterns in your brain, which is how memories are created. When those patterns are gone, your memories are gone. BAM!

Yes, thanks...i quite understand how death obliterates all brain functions. But you misunderstand...read what Taosaur said...He believes that ideas in your head will be shared with people AFTER those brain patterns have ended...which doesn't make sense to me....but if it makes sense to you...try to explain it to me.

Those patterns are destroyed, I see no reason why they would suddenly reorganize themselves.

edit: unless somehow those patterns leave a residual effect on the atoms of those patterns that causes them to organize themselves in a very similar fashion, but memory assimilation determines those patterns in my opinion. And just because the person was a human when he died, that doesn't mean he will be a human in his 'next life', he could be a squirrel, a slug, or Bob Dole.

Originally posted by Death-Wuad
Those patterns are destroyed, I see no reason why they would suddenly reorganize themselves.

Are you even arguing against me? because that's my point....except not "why would they reorganize themselves" but HOW. It's impossible...so back to my first question Taosaur, how do your ideas transcend your mind and go else-where once you're dead.....they can't.

(no I'm not argueing with you)

well....don't i feel a touch silly ....forgive me...i get a bit over excited when i debate....

You're wrong!

Originally posted by jlambie
what Taosaur said...He believes that ideas in your head will be shared with people AFTER those brain patterns have ended...which doesn't make sense to me....but if it makes sense to you...try to explain it to me.

lol someone was reading that? Well, I'll try to explain in semi-concrete terms. First, most of the transfer of ways of living, ideas, and beliefs happens while you're living, not after. We transfer great chunks of ourselves into the people close to us, leaving different aspects of ourselves with different people. It's not just what we tell them--they're watching us, too. They're building a hologram of our personality in their minds. Any one person's hologram of us will have lots of gaps, but when you add them all together, the result is a fairly sharp image of who you were.

Add to that the innumerable small traces you've left in the world. Every action has cosequences, often too subtle for us to understand, and dominoes we tipped in our lifetime continue falling long after we die. Most of us also consciously impress our ideas upon the the world, through things we make and the work we do.

Also, many (perhaps most) of our thoughts and beliefs are not specific to us, and we are not the only ones perpetuating them. Much of what I'm telling you now, for instance, can be found in books or heard from teachers discussing death and reincarnation. The way I've combined and applied these ideas is specific to me, but the ideas don't need me to maintain them--others are also taking care of them.

The bulk of any person's attributes are exactly like every other human being's. Of what's left, much of it is just like everyone else from your part of the world. We concentrate on the differences, but what seperates us from others is much less than 3% of what we are. Most of that is how you arrange your ideas, not the ideas themselves--structure, not content.

Right now, while you're living, there are any number of people out there who replicate most of the content of your personality. They're not exact copies, just as you in this moment are not an exact copy of you ten seconds ago (you've read this sentence, metabolized some food, shifted in your seat). Still, considering all that you've passed on to others already, and all the content that came to you ready made when you entered the world, if you died, how much would be lost? I'm not devalueing you here--if you died now, all of your potential would be lost, or put on hold indefinitely. It might be many generations before your attributes reorganized into any structure more complex than a flock of birds.

Central to what I'm saying is the idea that we are not things, but actions. There is only one Thing--the totality of all that exists. We are activity within that system, and just as we didn't spring into existence with our birth, but instead arose from myriad circumstances stretching back through beginingless time, our activity will not suddenly cease when we no longer have form.

This view sometimes strikes people as bleak at first, if they are used to thinking of some discreet, concrete self living inside of them somewhere, but it's what my experience shows to be true, and when you see everything working together, it's not bleak at all. In any case, judgement is not relevant to things as they are--what is isn't good or bad, it just is.

I know that's a lot of info, but it's not like it was a simple question
If anything didn't make sense, just ask and I'll try to make it clearer.

Energy can not be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. I truly feel sorry for those of you who have not had the opportunity to experience the vast richness of your being. I wish that I could trade places with you for one day so that you could access my memories. There ain't nothing like first hand experience to develop concrete beliefs.

If I didnt believe in the afterlife, I'd believe that when you die, all your memories would go too, and therefore it wouldn't be as if your life existed and then ceased, it would be as though your life never existed at all. And if that was true, why am I conscious now?

But I believe in an afterlife so such things don't bother me.

Originally posted by Aneas
Energy can not be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. I truly feel sorry for those of you who have not had the opportunity to experience the vast richness of your being. I wish that I could trade places with you for one day so that you could access my memories. There ain't nothing like first hand experience to develop concrete beliefs.

Please don't try to justify your belief in an afterlife by misunderstanding the Law of Conservation of Energy.

Originally posted by bradybaker+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bradybaker)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Aneas

Energy can not be created or destroyed, only changed from one form to another. I truly feel sorry for those of you who have not had the opportunity to experience the vast richness of your being. I wish that I could trade places with you for one day so that you could access my memories. There ain't nothing like first hand experience to develop concrete beliefs.

Please don't try to justify your belief in an afterlife by misunderstanding the Law of Conservation of Energy.[/b]

Isn't it a theory that over prolonged time, loss of energy happens in the Universe?
I think energy can be "destroyed" over prolonged time in connection with heat loss, but not over a short period.

Bradybaker,

I am quite familiar with the Law of Conservation of Energy and it's relation to thermodynamics. Try thinking outside of the box.

If your idea of "thinking outside the box" constitutes taking well defined, well studied, usable physical laws and applying them to some inane idea of an afterlife, then go nuts. You are hearby exiled from the box.

Scientists investigating 'near-death' experiences say they have found evidence to suggest that consciousness can continue to exist after the brain has ceased to function. BBC NEWS (10-28-00)

However, the claim has been challenged by neurological experts.

The researchers interviewed 63 patients who had survived heart attacks within a week of the experience.

Of these 56 had no recollection of the period of unconsciousness they experienced whilst, effectively, clinically dead.

However, seven had memories, four of which counted as near-death experiences.

They told of feelings of peace and joy, time speeded up, heightened senses, lost awareness of body, seeing a bright light, entering another world, encountering a mystical being and coming to "a point of no return".

Oxygen levels

None of the patients were found to be receiving low oxygen levels - which some scientists believe may be responsible for so-called "near-death" experiences.

Lead researcher Dr Sam Parnia, of Southampton General Hospital, said nobody fully understands how brain cells generate thoughts.

He said it might be that the mind or consciousness is independent of the brain.

He said: "When we examine brain cells we see that brain cells are like any other cells, they can produce proteins and chemicals, but they are not really capable of producing the subjective phenomenon of thought that we have.

"The brain is definitely needed to manifest the mind, a bit like how a television set can take what essentially are waves in the air and translate them into picture and sound."

Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/ne...6000/986177.stm