Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to ask what happens when you die?

433 replies

TeaAndAMarmiteSandwhich · 11/12/2017 22:58

... or more accurately, what you think happens?

I really really don't want to die (a good thing I guess! As I wasn't too bothered either way as a moody teen, but now I love life most of the time and want to hang around).

It's comforting to think there's a heaven, but I don't believe there is (and I'd probably get bored if I had to stay there for EVER). But when u die - is that it? Game over ? I'm not too keen on that idea either.

What do you think happens? and what would you like to think happens? Hmm

OP posts:
liz70 · 12/12/2017 23:11

" I think that people who claim to have other-wordly experiences are either being untruthful or are misguided."

Exactly as I said earlier. "You're lying/I don't believe you/it never happened/it can't happen/ nyer nyer nyer."

What happened to me happened to me. I am neither a liar nor a fantasist, but it's pointless trying to argue that with people who are determined not to believe me because they're so scared of what it would mean if they accepted that I am telling the truth. Ho hum.

HorseItIntoMe · 12/12/2017 23:15

I’m interested in what happened to you Liz. I’d love to know Flowers

Vitalogy · 12/12/2017 23:19

A big part of it too is the ego. Letting go of that as much as you can is a difficult concept for the brain.

Agerbilatemycardigan · 12/12/2017 23:24

I'm a Buddhist MrsTerryPratchett and we also believe that when we die, our energy goes back into the universe. It's eternal.

CheerfulYank · 12/12/2017 23:24

It may be just like before you were born.

Of course, before I was born I was someone else Wink

buttercupmeadow · 12/12/2017 23:47

It's all just so outlandish and completely unprovable. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Asserting things doesn't make them true, no matter how nice they may sound
Personally i'm not bothered about whether people believe or not. "Extraordinary claims" can be made by people if they want without them having the need or desire to prove it. People who believe in God aren't under any obligation to prove anything. In other words, it's fine for you not to believe, nobody is forcing you to. I don't think anyone on here is trying to force anyone to believe, they're just saying what they believe.

BonnieF · 12/12/2017 23:49

agerbilatemycardigan

Correct. When we die the heat energy in our bodies disperses into our surroundings and warms them until the body's temperature equilibrates with its environment. The energy stored as fat or other body tissues can be used as fuel if our bodies are eaten by another animal or microbe, just as our body is fuelled when we eat a pork chop. If our bodies are cremated, the energy stored in our tissues is released into the environment as heat energy, just as if we were a lump of coal.

The law of conservation of energy is one of my favourite laws of physics Smile.

hmmmmm · 12/12/2017 23:54

I have experienced a lot of things that convince me there is something unseen that I think of as spirit. They have an intelligence and can interact. I have sensed and felt spirit ( or energy)
I have been pulled back from danger by an unseen being. Ds2 was in the buggy and could have died as a car sped past. But I was dragged back. Looked to see who had done so. No one.
I am a spiritualist but was a practicing Christian at the time. I had been brought up visiting spiritualist churches from being very young. I was always drawn to return.
I have seen and felt things that you couldn't believe unless you had too.
I don't think you should either. Believe what you personally experience. I do think you need to be open to it as it's a vibrational energy connection. We can switch it off. Our energy is there of course but our willingness to connect can be blocked. The mind is very powerfulnin this. The brain and mind are separate. The brain dies, the mind doesn't.

We are all connected. Not all vibrational energy is positive. We can help our circumstances ourselves. I feel what we are goes on but we can grow in spirit. We can help others in this life and the next.
Peace love and harmony sounds new age but if we could all practice this we'd live in such a beautiful world. And this would keep on going.

It's actually very connected to science. Absolutely fascinating once you really delve in. Nothing shocks me now.

runwalkrun · 12/12/2017 23:59

I'm always amazed how more people arent terrified of dying!
I don't think a lot of people fully grasp the finality of it all.

Maybe it's just as well
That knowledge that you will never see another sunrise or sunset, never see your loved ones ever again.

Death is romanticized in the media and literature and as a result of that, our minds can't grasp the fact that for ever really means Forever.

I envy those who are blissfully ignorant of the awful finality and nothingness of death.

buttercupmeadow · 13/12/2017 00:03

I think the sunsets and sunrises will be awesome in the next life run
We ain't seen nothing yet Grin

runwalkrun · 13/12/2017 00:06

If only that were true.

Vitalogy · 13/12/2017 00:08

You need to be open in the first place to know the truth.

Wincy79 · 13/12/2017 00:16

For years every now and then when i placed my head on my pillow i would feel poking, i thought i was going senile at a young age. I had a child and it just got worse and my partner thought i was daft but would be kind about it. one night the poking started and so i told partner who cuddled up and put his arm under my pillow with my head laying on the pillow, a good 5 minutes later he asks "where are your hands" i wiggle them down in the covers and he shot out of bed saying "something touched me" I'm still horrified and vindicated at the same time. I have never met anyone who experience this or read of anything like this and it still happens but its rare now like twice a year compared to every night.

ShovingLeopard · 13/12/2017 00:49

What I have experienced proves that there is continued consciousness following physical death.
What I cannot do is prove that those experiences happened to me. No can do, not possible. People can either believe me or not and there's not a shred I can do about that.

My life experiences sound similar to LIZS. I KNOW that we 'live on' after death with every fibre of my being. It has been proved to me thousands of times over my life, since I first became aware of spirit at a very young age. I work voluntarily as a spiritual healer at a spiritualist church, and I could write a book about what I have experienced, but how could it be proven? Sceptics can always dismiss reports from the individuals I have worked with, despite what those individuals may think. I am happy to know that I am helping those who wish to receive the help. I am happy to know my loved ones are still around (and very happy to still hear from them, even though they have passed on). I am happy to know I will be going to a much better place after my life here is done (if temporarily). Growing up being able to see, hear and feel things the majority of others can't can be very hard at times. But it has so many other compensations.

In terms of wanting to spread the word, I have no need to validate my own beliefs/knowledge by convincing others. They will be passing on to the afterlife regardless of what they believe! My only regret is that sometimes I see people who would be massively comforted if they knew.

malmi · 13/12/2017 00:51

Yes, it is fine for anyone to believe whatever they want, it doesn't affect me. I'm just describing how I approach these things I suppose. I do find it fascinating though. In real life I don't tend to question people's beliefs, unless I think they are trying to convert me.

Nightshirt · 13/12/2017 04:08

I used to want to believe death was oblivion. Now I am not sure. I have a faith but faith is not certainty. I find it hard to believe the striving, the achievement, the loss, the pain, the joys just all amount to nothing if all stops when life ends.

Geography999 · 13/12/2017 05:11

A few years ago, I had a cardiac arrest and very nearly died. I was only 38. I started having a heart attack and because we were literally moments away from our local hospital my husband drive me in the car, rather than call an ambulance. He had to leave me and two of our young children in the car whilst he ran inside to get help.

As I was struggling for breath and truly dying, I felt huge peace and extreme tiredness. My kids were screaming in the back seat, but as I laid my head down on the drivers seat next to me, I just remember feeling so calm and like I was settling down for a lovely sleep.

I know now that was the moment that I became unconscious and went into cardiac arrest. If help hadn’t arrived immeadiately, I would have died right there in front of my kids.

So, the point of that story is that it has made me a bit more resilient about dying. In normal circumstances I would have been screaming and reaching for my kids if I thought that was happening - but in reality a wave of calm took over. In the most horrid of situations, I felt calm, warm and very, very sleepy.

Hopefully, when the exit finally does come, my brain will do me the same honours and release whatever calming substance that was!

Blink1982 · 13/12/2017 06:12

I was thinking this the otherday after i fainted. Ive decided when we die, itll be like fainting. Nothingness no dreams ñot aware of anything just gone.

Eolian · 13/12/2017 07:24

I'm always amazed how more people arent terrified of dying!
I don't think a lot of people fully grasp the finality of it all.

I think death is totally final but am not scared of it at all. Scared of the process of dying, yes of course. Scared of being dead, no. How can not existing be scary - you won't be aware of it, just like you weren't before you were born.

LemonShark · 13/12/2017 09:18

For me I am a little afraid, more upset, to think there'll come a day where I can no longer experience any of the things I enjoy so much. But then I remember I won't even be aware of it. The finality is a weird concept to try understand but I'm okay with the fact time stretched out before I was born infinitely, so it'll do so after I'm gone.

I also find it helpful to think of how every single person and animal born in the thousands, millions of years before I came along is dead. Gone forever. Every single person who lived in the 1800s, such a short time ago, died. And every one of us will die too.

It's not scary because there's comfort in numbers and we're all gonna die.

Medeci · 13/12/2017 09:31

I envy those who are blissfully ignorant of the awful finality and nothingness of death.

Those who believe in the finality of death aren't necessarily blissfully ignorant. The thought of oblivion may not be frightening to everyone.
I find it preferable to the alternatives suggested here.
Others can believe whatever they like and I won't accuse them of blissful ignorance.

Cockmagic · 13/12/2017 09:42

I believe you just die.

No re incarnation no after life or heaven.

We are after all just viruses with shoes and some humanity thrown in.

I think I'd be glad of the peace 😂

Medeci · 13/12/2017 10:12

I think I'd be glad of the peace

That's exactly how I feel - I love sleeping, and have fond memories of a general anaesthetic when I felt myself sinking into oblivion.
Almost looking forward to the longest lie in ever, but not just yet please.

Joke about death coming up so sensitive souls should look away now....

Grin I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my father. Not screaming and terrified like his passengers Grin

buttercupmeadow · 13/12/2017 10:21

Hopefully, when the exit finally does come, my brain will do me the same honours and release whatever calming substance that was!
Those of us that believe in God realise that the "calming substance" is what most people who have had a NDE describe and it is the beginning of a journey towards the "white light", they then go on to describe a wonderful place where loved ones are waiting, the after life.

If the "calming substance" isn't this, but just a natural part of the dying process, i wonder why, why would it need to do this. Why would our bodies be that fine tuned to detail that even in death such thought to detail is there. It just wouldn't need to surely......... such attention to detail..... It's as if our bodies have been designed.......Smile

Eolian · 13/12/2017 10:37

I expect the calm feeling is because your blood pressure drops and your systems are shutting down. I doubt many people dying violently or from something like a heart attack feel calm.