To ask what you really think happens when you die?

[Tunnocks34]

I’d describe myself as agnostic. I’d like to think God exists, and heaven exists but logically I think it’s probably unlikely.

My grandads mum died this week, she was asleep really for her final days, and in the run up to her death she’s been quiet, and not really present, however, the second before she died, she opened her eyes, smiled (her face in all honestly wall almost glowing with joy) and shouted ‘Mama, Mama’ and then she died.

I’d love to think her mum came to get her and take her to heaven or an afterlife but the logics part tells me it was probably something neurological. Might ignore my logical side though because I like the other possibility better!

We go back to our real home.

My 6 year old is slightly obsessed with death these days so I have researched some beliefs that I can use when he asks what happens when we die. It’s so hard to explain to him because I suppose the truth is no one absolutely knows.

My nan died when I was 15 and she was delirious for days before but for the last 20minutes she was so clearly herself, remembered everyone, recalled memories perfectly; she said goodbye to me and that she had ‘seen the day we will meet up again and that I would bring her cookies’ which sounded bonkers because I was a useless baker despite the years of effort she put into it.
I can bake really well now, I taught myself over the years so if I ever do need too, I can take her some of her favourite cookies.

I very much hope it is like before being born, or being very heavily asleep - no feelings, thoughts or awareness.
Scientists know that the dying brain 'sees' a white light (or so my Dr sister told me) - any vocalisations around this are likely expecting to see Mum, or whoever appearing next?
Dementia is also described as brain death, and those with dementia can see people / things who are not there, which fits, really.

I don't understand the logistics of people all meeting again - what about those who marry again? Which wife do you live with?! How will that work? What about the bad people you do not want to see again? PILs I am thinking of you
No, thanks very much. I will just be 'off', un-animated, and these cells that make me up will be cremated. A computer that no longer works.

I don't know what happens but I just hope so much that somehow I get to see my kids again because that literally is the only thing that makes me sad about dying - that I might close my eyes and never ever see them again 💔

I’m very interested to read people’s views, I have a strong Christian faith myself and am often very surprised that my DH’s very large family all seem to believe in a Christian afterlife, well their concept of it ie sitting on a pink cloud, despite not having a faith in any other aspect of their lives. Cherry-picking, eh? 🤣
DH and I have been at two deaths. His granny suddenly sat up and was looking alternately at two specific points in the room (DH said she could see her late husband and late long-term partner)l My mum, from being virtually comatose, opened her eyes like saucers in pure astonishment and looked right through me at “something/someone“ behind me. I also know my dad was shouting out to his late brother just before he died...but it’s logical that a person would cry out to a loved one in this situation, isn’t it?

@QuizzlyBear

As I say, for me it would just be the sheer insignificance of being. There would be literally no point to anything. Life is hard. Most of the time I've had to force myself to continue on. If I'm just forcing myself for nothing then it's a big fat "why?" in my mind.

I don't even know what I think will happen because I'm not at all religious and I don't believe there's a heaven and hell. But I think for me personally, I need to believe there's something. There's too many people in this world that have only known suffering, like abused children who end up murdered. If this is all there is then that makes their situation all the more heartbreaking. They had one shot and they got that? I'd feel so hopeless if I knew that with certainty.

I’ve watched quite a lot of “near death experiences”, there are so many (but not all believable) but this one stands out to me. It reaffirms my faith.

Nothing your dead. We live we die. No before no after. Dead gone dust

Nothing. I have posted before about it. I died, and there was nothing. No tunnel, no light, no loved ones, just nothing.

My mum is the sanest person you could meet but she 'died' whilst having an op a few years ago and saw her mum, who told her 'not yet'. Sounds so ridiculously corny but she is extremely grounded so I am now unsure... At the end of the day it doesn't matter you'll be dead but if it brings someone comfort then that's a good thing.

We are such magnificent creatures-every tiny nerve ending playing its part that I can't believe we just go pouf! and that's it.

When we hold our new born baby, you just know that child is unique and if we don't have souls-an inner being-then what is it? We can meet doppelgangers, people who look exactly like us, but no two people are exactly the same and that, to me at least, is the unique soul.

When we shuffle off, I think that soul lives on-not on a massive ethereal housing estate where you are confused about whether to live with your ex husband-the father of your children-or the love of your life but in a non physical way.

There is an awful lot out there in space beyond space and some of it might be relevant to us.

Had to share this beautiful lady’s experience.

I don't think there's anything after death, and that doesn't bother me at all. I'm an atheist, and from my point of view the idea of an afterlife is just one of the things that humans invented to explain or comfort themselves about natural phenomena they found scary or inexplicable.

As we have become more and more knowledgeable, we no longer need to make up things like gods pushing the sun up in the sky or angry spirits making earthquakes. But death will never be demystified, because nobody who actually died (permanently) can come back and tell us what it's like. I don't believe in souls, so I don't think there is anything to persist after the body is dead.

I think that we go somewhere and wait to be reborn.

Nothing. I have posted before about it. I died, and there was nothing. No tunnel, no light, no loved ones, just nothing.

I think there’ll be lots that don’t experience it. Some people get a glimpse, some don’t....But that doesn’t mean that it ain’t so. Far too many HAVE experienced something. I’m sure when it’s really our time it won’t be “nothing”.

I think if you believe in an afterlife, you also have to believe in an immortal soul.
So the question then becomes, at what point in evolution did humans develop a soul?
Are we the only species to have souls?
Are there multiple afterlife’s where you only meet up with people you know?
If it’s just one big afterlife world, how would we all feel having to be in the same place as the rest of humanity from all of history?

To me it just creates more questions.

Given that we still don’t fully understand the Universe, and the freakishness of us possibly being the only life in it, I think we can’t say with any certainty that there isn’t some sort of ‘afterlife’. I suspect what actually goes on is beyond human understanding. But I do also like the fact that, regardless, our bodies return to dust and our loved ones remember us.

The body is clearly there, there is still a physical presence, but there's something that's missing that you can't place a finger on

What's missing is 21 grams, being the weight of the soul, Peacenquiet.

When our physical bodies cease to function we wake up and find that we are far more alive in death than we ever were in life.

From numerous threads of this nature it may seem that there'll be a lot of shocked souls in the afterllife, but in actuality when we wake up to our real lives in our true homes we recover the memories of all the times we've done it before.

I might find the idea of simply ceasing to exist more comforting if it didn't emphasise the futility of the lifetime of suffering that preceded it. Not remotely fucking worth it.

I believe the spirit lives on. I think we go back to where we came from which is to God/the creator/the source.

Energy doesnt just stop, it merely changes form and thats what happens when we die I think. Its just another part of our journey.

The brain just switches off.
Yes it does. However your brain is part of your physically living body.
Your soul and conscious are infinite, I believe, and of course no argument you could say people could hallucinate and see dead relatives when the brain is shutting down.
I remember when my mum passed and after she’d been confirmed passed etc. Me and dd went back into see her, and The feeling of love and tranquility in that room was just indescribable. As well as an emotional feeling it was also physical. Nothing has ever came close to that feeling. It seems crazy to say it about a time when my mum died, but I just wish I could have bottled up that moment. My DD Also spoke of the same feeling but like me couldn’t put it into any words.
At my dads funeral my BILs dad saw an orb as the cremation curtains closed over.
It makes you think. There has to be something. Surely as well even if there was no evidence no matter how small. You have to believe there is something after this. What a terrifying thought if this is it and there is no God.

I believe it’s what it was like before you were born.

Even feeling “nothing”could be argued to be something. At least you sensed the nothingness. So to some extent your conscience must have still been active

Are there multiple afterlife’s where you only meet up with people you know?
If it’s just one big afterlife world, how would we all feel having to be in the same place as the rest of humanity from all of history?

This is what I think, obviously I could be wrong. If we are to believe in after an afterlife, thereby believing in a higher power/ divine Creator, the afterlife is going to be beyond something our mortal brains can take in. I don’t think it’s going to be a place where all humanity is going to be huddled together for eternity. After all the Universe is a big place. I think it’s going to be different for each individual, but somewhere way beyond anything we can imagine. We are here to learn, in our earthly bodies. When we “die” we’ll be just going back to from where we came.

All the accounts I’ve read of NDEs all speak of complete and utter happiness, and immense love....like nothing we experience on earth, also a compete understanding and knowledge of everything. But like I said, this is just my interpretation, I’m certainly not trying to convert anyone.

I have heard that we have TWO deaths - our 'real' one and the time that the last person who remembers us dies.
I like that idea. Our continuation is in the memories of others.