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?

• sentient not sentiment!

I think you go into a dream world beyond our imagination which some called heaven and others call nothing but that transcends mortal understanding and is eternity and no time at all all at once. And to your loved ones is a mere moment when they watch you slip from this world and into the next. You are at one with your body and the universe in the moment, and then you beyond it. Not in the clouds, but on another level entirely. Elsewhere.

@WineOrGinOrBoth I truly believe that the spirits of my 4 miscarried Babies are always with me and my Fella and that when the time comes we'll all be reunited in heaven.

Thanks all for sharing your beliefs. Some really interesting points of view

I have proper death anxiety, no idea why it gut punches me when I think of it.

But coming up on the anniversary of my dads death I do like to think his energy is still around, I see flashes of his smiles and laughs a lot which is nice, I hope I leave that within my family too.

I believe in Heaven but I also believe in reincarnation.

When I was younger I believed that you went to Heaven or Hell,but the last few years since I've got older and lost more people my views have changed slightly,I still belive in Heaven but I think your given a choice of weather you go to Heaven or your reincarnated and when it comes to Hell I used to think you went there automatically if you had been evil,had done terrible things but now I find myself wondering if actually God wouldn't send anyone to Hell,he would forgive all evils but that if you can't forgive yourself you don't reach Heaven you go to Hell and you stop exsisting in this and the next life.

It will be like going into a deep sleep. And I won't wake up. My remains will be burned and the ashes will fertilise the ground somewhere. That's it.

I believe that we go to some other place where we can be with those we love who hace already passed and can look down at those we love who are still living and kind of watch them as if on tv, maybe pull a few strings to give them good things or experiences. But the bit that confuses me is let's say person A love person B but person C also loves person B. If person A's heaven is to be with B but B chooses C what happens to A. Just random musings

My mum often dreamt of people on the night they died too, often at the exact time they passed away. She always took it as a cue to pray for them

I dreamt the phone was ringing & it was an overseas call to say a relative had died. I walked downstairs to pick up phone and a split second before I picked it up, I knew my grandmother had died. & also realised it wasn't a dream. Sure enough it was the overseas operator with a call for my mum. I don't sleepwalk so can't explain how I walked to the phone in a dream. Im also not a 'woo' person at all. & I never met my grandmother as she lived overseas.

The day before my grandmother passed she kept going on about a light in the corner of the room by the window(we couldn't see it) and that she was waiting.

I know that some scientists have a religious belief but to me that must involve some huge mental contortions and cognitive dissonance to reconcile such disparate outlooks. Science is based on logic, reason and evidence. Religion is based on faith ie believing something because somebody has told you that it is true. The 2 are incompatible.

When I die, my brain will stop working so whatever makes me me will cease to be.
The rest of my body will stop functioning, my body will rot or be burned and all the elements in my body will become elements (or join to become compounds) in something else.

I like the idea that ultimately we are all made of stardust and that eventually we could become stardust again.

I feel there is something more.
I've heard too many stories from friends about seeing love ones after their passing.

For a month after dad died I kept feeling his presence

I thought it was my imagination but suddenly it stopped. : he was gone. And could not get it back no matter how hard I tried.

When dad passed I had being going through a very difficult time and dad had been worried about me.
It felt like he hung around a bit to make sure I was ok.
And when he was sure I was ok (he always was a worrier) he felt it was ok to go.

The last presence I felt though was not my dad - it was just a moment of being surrounded by pure 'love'

For years I couldn't understand what that was - until a few weeks ago.

I think it was mum come to fetch dad home and didn't want to go without saying hello.

MrsTerryPratchett, There is no disconnect between science and religion.
I quote Heisenberg ((the famous physicist, one of the founders of quantum theory):
"The first sip from the glass of natural sciences will make you an atheist.
But at the bottom of the glass - God is still waiting for you."
And the flaw in your " physicist in the pulpit at a funeral" speech is that it provides no comfort whatsoever to tell a bereaved widow that she will never see her much loved husband again.
It is cruel and despicable to set oneself up as an authority on death, in direct opposition to no less a person than Jesus Christ, to promulgate your own belief in atheism (and it is only a belief, you cannot prove God's non existence) in order to hurt people who are already suffering.
My own minister delivered a wonderful funeral for my DH, during which I was utterly supported by the living presence of God. And I'm a scientifically trained doctor.

you cannot prove God's non existence

I refer you to this thought provoking song by Tim Minchin.

Atheism is technically a non-belief, by the way.

I like the thought/saying that we all die twice - the first when our bodies cease to be 'alive', and the second death occurs the last time your name is spoken

That makes me feel quite sad, the last time your name is spoken.

That makes me feel quite sad, the last time your name is spoken.

My dad talks to my daughter about his mother, who died before I was born. She has her chin, as do I. DD, aged 9, talks about her great-grandmother with love and excitement even though they could never have spent any time together.

So that’s potentially another 70+ years of mentions, and even more if she passes the chin down to any children!

Given she died about 45 years ago that’s not bad going!

Wow mrsterrypratchet as someone who has suffered multiple bereavements, parents, spouse, children, friends, that was one of the most touching perspectives I have ever read.

Thank you !!

I would love nothing more than to believe there is a heaven and all lost loved one's are waiting for you when you pass with open arms but in reality I think once you pass that's it. I wish I did believe because dying wouldn't be so scary

I think like a few posters have said, it's like you are completely unconscious and will never wake up again. I don't believe there's an afterlife.

I don't think anything happens. I don't think there is any further consciousness. Our bodies are either cremated or slowly decompose.

Of course, we live on for a while in people's memories, until the people who remember us also pass away.

I don't find the prospect of nothingness frightening. It's just....nothing.

I don't know. I'm not afraid of it, as I have so many dead relatives and I feel there is a chance I might join them. Or at least they've all been through it, so, so can I.

If I don't go anywhere, I think it's probably just like being unconscious.

When I have watched my close family die, a few minutes after they've stopped breathing, their body and face just sort of drop and relax, it looks as though their consciousness / spirit / soul or whatever has left them. So maybe that does go somewhere.

Can't wait to find out!

Thank you for sharing, thats really beautiful.

Also, for me, having children was very important as I believe the only way I could ensure I did live on in perpetuity was by passing my dna on. I love to see my mums eyes in my daughter or my son walking like my dad, or my other son who looks exactly like my grandad. Those things will last longer than memories or being famous.

I feel like science explains a lot of things. But there's so much we don't know. Dark matter, black holes. Maybe the soul does go to another dimension. I can't get past thinking, what is beyond our universe? What happened before the Big Bang? There could be something else.