Your Views on the Afterlife

[1] Let me hear them

• [2] Consciousness just snaps off, and that’s the end.

[4] >>2 Pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

• [5] Consciousness dissipates and returns to the universe as part of the Akashic Records.
• [7] >>4 Less ‘straightforward,’ more ‘what I hope for.’
• [9] It’s just an eternal state of non-consciousness. Just thinking about it is terrifying.
• [10] Realistically, >>2 is probably it. Ideally, I’d like to own some real estate in the next life, something like that.

[11] >>5 Akasha is interesting, isn’t it?

[12] >>9 That sounds horrifying.

• [13] It’s just like a machine breaking down. That’s the end of it, there’s probably no ‘afterlife’ or anything.
• [14] God gives you a copy of this world, and you can do whatever you want.
• [15] >>11 Akasha, you mean?

[16] >>14 Doesn’t that sound like a lot of fun?

[17] >>15 You mean modern Theosophy, right?

• [18] I mean, I think it would be nice if there was an afterlife, but that’s just wishful thinking. I actually believe consciousness just snaps off, and that’s it.
• [19] When you die, you go to the afterlife, and when you die there, you come back to this world.
• [20] It’s just a phase shift, they’re still around here somewhere. My future dream is to become a spirit photograph when I die.
• [22] Ultimately, I feel like even after death, we’ll probably end up living a similar new life. Déjà vu is probably something like that.
• [23] >>17 I don’t know. It’s just something I vaguely thought a long time ago when I was lost in thought.

[24] So, the ‘consciousness just snaps off’ view is quite common, huh?

• [25] Probably nothingness.
• [26] Don’t you just awaken as something else and reincarnate when you die?
• [27] Well, since there was nothing before we were born, it’ll be the same when we die.
• [28] I don’t think there’s anything after death. Life itself might not have inherent meaning, but it feels like a waste not to keep death in mind and try to give life meaning, right?
• [29] I imagine when you die, you’re probably choosing something like, “Hmm, what kind of life should I be reborn into next?”
• [30] I think we live the same life over and over again. That’s why, I believe, we sometimes encounter scenes we feel like we’ve seen before.
• [31] The era, abilities, etc., also seem pretty much decided. Depending on what that person did before.
• [32] In the sense that you return to the earth and your components are distributed to new life, I think there’s a physical reincarnation.
• [33] Humans are ultimately just lumps of water and calcium moved by electrical signals.
• [35] Dying is like waking up from a dream. Your death is when your soul, existing in another world, awakens. And when that soul falls asleep again, it lives another life.
• [37] I’ve sometimes wondered if maybe I’m experiencing the lives of all humans in a loop. All of humanity is just myself looping. I am everyone, and everyone is me.
• [38] You shouldn’t seek meaning after death. I believe death is the absolute end. Even if it’s not, thinking that way is how I live my life now.
• [39] I’ve heard that memories can reside in water or minerals. If that’s the reason for past life memories and stuff, I think that would be interesting.

[40] If we just return to nothingness, getting worked up over the ups and downs of the present seems kinda comical, doesn’t it?

• [41] Speaking of which, wasn’t there that story going around about a child with past life memories who accused his previous life’s murderer and pointed out where the body was buried?

[42] >>41 Yeah, there was. Strange, isn’t it?

• [43] Returning to a collective soul seems to be a surprisingly minority view, huh? The idea is that each species has something like a great collective soul, where individual consciousness merges and disappears. When new life is born, a soul separates from that collective and enters a new vessel. Through this repetition, the soul accumulates vast amounts of information. That’s the gist of it.
• [44] In this universe, lost information cannot be restored. However, time springs forth infinitely. Another universe ← that’s where it happens. Information lost in this universe springs forth infinitely there. This information includes us, that’s the idea.
• [45] >>43 What work influenced that idea?
• [46] Perhaps over infinite time, atoms randomly reconfigure into the exact same state as when you were alive, allowing you to restart with your memories intact.
• [47] Reincarnation, then. Though, since memories aren’t carried over, it seems practically the same as nothingness.
• [49] I think what people commonly call ‘hell’ actually refers to this current world we live in. By working or doing volunteer service here, you accumulate points, and when you reach the max, you can go to the Pure Land or somewhere similar. Conversely, if your points go negative or you die without enough, you restart in this world again. Something like that.
• [50] >>45 I feel like I’ve seen similar descriptions in various works and writings.
• [51] >>45 Something like 2001: A Space Odyssey was about evolving into a collective consciousness in the end, wasn’t it?
• [52] According to my mother, “When people die, they become Hotoke-sama (Buddhas/departed spirits), and after 49 days (or maybe seven years) of training, they become Kami-sama (gods).” That’s what she says.

In some Japanese Buddhist traditions, the 49 days after death are considered a crucial period during which the deceased’s soul’s next destination is determined, and memorial services are held. Also, “Hotoke-sama” can be used as an honorific for the deceased, and “Kami-sama” often refers to the gods in Japan’s polytheistic context.

[53] Well, this world is hell, isn’t it?

• [54] >>51 Was that what it was about? I watched the movie, but it was just one incomprehensible thing after another. The music was grand, and it felt like they just wrapped it up to seem profound or something.
• [58] >>54 Well, it’s a Kubrick film, after all. You should read Mr. Clarke’s novel.
• [60] Nothingness, I guess.
• [62] I’m looking forward to finding out what happens, so I don’t really imagine it.
• [64] It would be nice if there was a heaven, but I bet it just goes poof and ends anyway.
• [65] It’s not something I personally believe, but there was this song I heard a long time ago that went, “If you have lingering regrets, you reincarnate. On your journey after death, you walk towards the final destination, turning your past life into a song along the way.”
• [72] Eternal return. It repeats forever.
• [73] OP, you’ll be OP forever. Daily life repeats. Your next life, and the one after that, too.
• [74] Like, maybe you get your goggles taken off and someone says, “Good work. That was the ‘ugly person’ course, so the fee is 200,000 yen.”
• [75] You just return to how it was before you were born.
• [77] You sometimes meet people who say, “I have memories of my past life!” right? I wish people like that were telling the truth.
• [78] I don’t get why old people obsess over the afterlife. Since you just become nothing immediately after dying, I don’t think worrying about others makes sense. Is it something you understand when you get older?
• [80] Everything just disappears. There is no afterlife.
• [81] Everyone feels lost or anxious about life, so they seek stability and end up compromising in life. The root of that is the fear of death.
• [82] What is life for? Why were we born?
• [83] The answer is on the web!
• [85] Various religions say various things, but none of it has been proven factually, so doesn’t it ultimately just return to nothingness?