What do you think happens when you die?

[mintcorneto]

I genuinely interested in people's beliefs. I've been thinking about it a lot recently and despite always being an atheist, I still believe the soul lives on and is around the people you loved and that loved you. Maybe I'm more open to religion that I previously thought. What do you think happens?

It will be as it was before I was born.

I don’t know. I like to think that our energy/spirit/soul lives or moves on.

I think it's like when you have a general anaesthetic. There are people around you carrying on as they should and the next thing....well, instead of waking up you just don't and you know nothing. It is blissful permanent unconsciousness.

I say that as someone raised Catholic. I am very happy and not yet 50 but I imagine death as being very peaceful and very restful and I hope when my time comes that is an easy transition.

Well, Jesus promised that He would prepare a place for us in heaven. I look forward to that, and to being reunited with my much loved and missed DH, who died 28 years ago.
If you are an atheist, OP, why do you believe you have a soul? Surely those two statements are rather conflicting?

To add: i do not plan or want to think that i will wander the earth helping or haunting people or come back as a dog or a queen or a psychopath! It will be the Full Stop to me.

We rot. Or burn. That's pretty much it. Then either the nitrates etc or the carbon re enters the ground. The memory of us lives on in our children and grandchildren. I believe we make room for the next generation after them. If we didn't then we would be competing for space, resources and time which would deplete that future generations chances of survival.

Like falling asleep. Or the end of The Sopranos.

Exactly the same as what happens when a chicken or a mouse or a sheep dies. The heart stops. Circulation, Metabolism, respiration & digestion ceases. Electrical activity in the brain ends. Body temperature drops to ambient. Unless kept very cold, the gut contents ferment and the body starts to decompose ; slowly at first, then more quickly until only the skeleton remains.

I don't believe you carry on existing in any conscious way.

@Babdoc Yes, this is why I said 'despite always being an atheist' as it's not something I believed before and I know it's very contradictory. I think until recently I hadn't thought too much about it. I suppose I haven't got a strong position on it and wish I did in a way which is why I'm interested to hear other people's viewpoints

@Babdoc I really like the idea we are reunited with loved ones. I hope that is true and you get to meet your DH again

I believe in reincarnation. I also find other people's beliefs interesting.

I am Buddhist and believe in reincarnation, that we have had endless previous lives, and will have countless future lives unless we train our mind to the extent we become enlightened and have control over our rebirth.

In Buddhist outlook, your mind carries on and is linked to people you have been close to, but it won’t manifest in the same way as this life so you will have no memory of your past relationships, which is sad. But for me does explain why we have instant strong positive or negative feelings for people we meet - we had strong feelings for them before, in another incarnation.

This...

You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly. Amen.
-Aaron Freeman.

Worm food

Defo reincarnation. No doubt in my mind about that. I have spirits around me all the time. One day I will be one, will meet my relatives again, and I will be able to choose who I help in turn. And when I’ve had enough of that I will be reborn into another life in which I will learn more lessons. Rinse and repeat until I have learned all I can. What happens then is somewhat more of a mystery! Nirvana?

Worm food

I think a lot of bereaved people (including me) will see the title and click on this thread looking for crumbs of comfort, and this sort of comment could be worded much more kindly

I like the physicist quote above very much. That’s what I believe.

Unless I’ve had a few drinks, and then I’ll be convinced I believe in reincarnation.

Just that you die. The end. The memory of you will exists to those that loved and cared for you.

I hope to god I get some peace and quiet!

It will be like before I was born. Nothing.

I will only live on in the memories of my loved ones.

@mrsterrypratchett.......thankyou.

The physicist says it all - very comforting for someone who works in care

I believe I will go to heaven and live in joy and peace.