What's it like to be dead?

[twozerozeroonefive]

I've heard that it's like a permanent deep sleep with no dreams. If that's true, then that's scary.

Maybe it's sort of like not being born yet (pre-life)?

Really hope there's something after this.

[Blackleaf]

As much as I'd like the idea of a blissful afterlife, I know that reality does not conform to our preferences for how it should be. All signs point to this likely being our only life. Considering most animals die by being eaten alive, many while they're still babies, and how cruel nature is in general, I really don't think there is any grand plan for all of this.

We have a short period of time to exist before returning to the same state we were in before we were conceived. So best make the most of it while you can.

[Shiranu]

I've heard that it's like a permanent deep sleep with no dreams. If that's true, then that's scary.

Maybe it's sort of like not being born yet (pre-life)?

What is the difference?

[Draconic Aiur]

[aitm]

Easy to find out.

[Baruch]

We experience the little death every time we sleep.  But it isn't peaceful.  I have no reason to expect a dreamless sleep.  More likely a sleepless dream.

[Sal1981]

Closest I've experienced death is when I was under full anesthesia as a kid when I broke my right leg. Time doesn't pass, it jumps to when you regain consciousness again. Now imagine time jumping all the way to the end of existence; death is like that.

[GSOgymrat]

I consider this a worst case scenario.

[Mike Cl]

I've heard that it's like a permanent deep sleep with no dreams. If that's true, then that's scary.

Maybe it's sort of like not being born yet (pre-life)?

Really hope there's something after this.

Since I have not died yet (I don't think I have), how can I know??

[Cassia]

Since I have not died yet (I don't think I have), how can I know??

What makes you think that'll help?

[Mike Cl]

What makes you think that'll help?

:)) Well, nothing suggests that anything happens after death.  Nobody has come back from death and told us yet.  So, without dying myself, I have nothing to go on.  But I'm not rushing to find out--I'll get there soon enough. 

[Munch]

I was having a philosophical talk with my boyfriend last night, because I thought of this the other night when getting ready for bed, turning off the lights, and thinking how different things look when the lights are off, and everything is plunged into darkness.
Be it either what you see in the daytime, or looking at the stars in the sky, or the street light outside giving light that way though electricity.

Now strip all that way, and what do you have left? Nothing, just an endless void. Take out all the energy in the universe, from stars and protons to electrons and even the anti matter that causes these other forces to react, and whats left is just nothing but blackness.

Everything we know in the universe is energy, something giving off energy. Even edgy goth kids need energy to play their depressing music or have the energy to talk to hot topic.

Without energy, there is nothing, just a black endless void. We just forget about that fact and carry on happy to be in a time in the universe when there is energy to give us light and life.

[Baruch]

:)) Well, nothing suggests that anything happens after death.  Nobody has come back from death and told us yet.  So, without dying myself, I have nothing to go on.  But I'm not rushing to find out--I'll get there soon enough.

If you have never had escargot, how can you know what it is like?  You can't ask a dead person what escargot is like, but you can ask a living person who has had escargot.  Escargot with champaignon (mushrooms) is pretty good, just saying.  Better than just in garlic butter.

[Baruch]

I was having a philosophical talk with my boyfriend last night, because I thought of this the other night when getting ready for bed, turning off the lights, and thinking how different things look when the lights are off, and everything is plunged into darkness.
Be it either what you see in the daytime, or looking at the stars in the sky, or the street light outside giving light that way though electricity.

Now strip all that way, and what do you have left? Nothing, just an endless void. Take out all the energy in the universe, from stars and protons to electrons and even the anti matter that causes these other forces to react, and whats left is just nothing but blackness.

Everything we know in the universe is energy, something giving off energy. Even edgy goth kids need energy to play their depressing music or have the energy to talk to hot topic.

Without energy, there is nothing, just a black endless void. We just forget about that fact and carry on happy to be in a time in the universe when there is energy to give us light and life.

Avoid circular logic and confirmation bias.  Start with psychology.  When you were little, you didn't have words like matter and energy.  You were simply alive.  As a baby you had no words at all, but you had needs to be met and mother to meet them.  Suppose you are as you are now, but have no "science", you are primitive/ancient.  You can't make these kinds of arguments at all to yourself or others.  For people, "qualia" are unknown, we only know our ship-in-the-bottle models of reality, sometimes pragmatic (don't hit toe).  Philosophy can't even determine if qualia exist or if humans can even determine what they are if they do.  Philosophy never gets to a final conclusion on anything, it is about tentative answers, not about final answers (in the sense of science facts).

These models become increasingly complex as we age.  Some models are relatively objective (shared by your community) aka cultural.  Must take out beating heart of victim or Sun won't come up tomorrow!  Other models are shared but are developed by experts (acupuncturists).  You go to experts for certain information (Covid masks) or certain procedures (cancer treatment) ... that are more developed in modern society.  These are developed by scientific method, so are more objective, aren't just confirmation bias (like political ideology).  Then based on our modern culture, you interpret back to what it is like when the lights are off.

Well, I dream a lot.  Last night I was a young woman in the USAF who was getting some cudos for a job well done.  I can't explain that, but one can always dismiss it.  Like Tanzania/Burundi just did with WHO.  Explanations made by posters here, are of course modern and European.  Naturally think we are right (and think we are superior to Aztecs).  Part of Rudyard Kipling's White Man's Burden.  We are our great grandparents descendants.  Science is White, just as acupuncture is Chinese.  Check your privilege.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I left Vietnam in a medically induced coma. They woke me up in the PI to see if it was worth sending me back to the States. Took a C130 to California where I woke up two weeks after we landed. All this according to my records. I was effectively dead for most of this period. Didn't bother me much.