What it feels like to be dead

Started by Night Watcher September 12th, 2014 1:51 PM
  • 1958 views
  • 24 replies

Night Watcher

Hotdog MAn

Female
Feita Village
Seen May 6th, 2021
Posted July 10th, 2017
630 posts
8.9 Years
I've always thought of this before I went to bed.

Whenever I picture it, I just feel this emptiness in me, like I want to cry, but I can't.
Do we actually see heaven? Or do we just see pitch black until the world ends?

I just want to know what people think about this.
Gold supporter | Cousin | VM | PM | FC | NNID
Male
Seen March 29th, 2015
Posted March 27th, 2015
589 posts
11.6 Years
In my eyes, death is something that's not to be feared, but rather embraced. To me, it is a form of mercy, that lifts all of my burden off my shoulders, so that I don't have to worry about anything anymore.

Also, to those that have any form of mental issues, it is the only way that that person can be at peace.

Megan

She/Her, It/Its
Seen 9 Hours Ago
Posted 16 Hours Ago
17,811 posts
10.3 Years
With all senses vanishing into nothingness, there's no seeing, feeling or hearing that you could do. I know, humankind has a hugh problem trying to understand how it feels to not exist, which is mainly because nothingness is one of the extrems (the other one being infinity) that exceed all imagination a human is possible to imagine.

The good thing about it is: where there is no feeling, there's no pain, meaning you don't have to suffer anymore

Well, of course there's the possibility, that after you die, your very essence (our soul, what people like to call it) flows somewhere else, where new life will be born. Something a came up with a while ago is that there might even be something I like to call antisouls. Kind of like how matter and antimatter create energy when they collide, those two could react the way that individuality is created. Although, there are still a lot of holes in my theories...
Moderator of Previous Generations, Forum Games and VPP
You got a thing!

Corvus of the Black Night

Wild Duck Pokémon

Age 30
Non-binary
With the Birds
Seen January 9th, 2015
Posted January 9th, 2015
3,416 posts
14.3 Years
It probably feels like nothing. You may not even perceive it. Some people theorize that when you die, you actually "relive" your life over again. Well, in your perception anyhow.

Oryx

CoquettishCat

Age 30
Female
Seen January 30th, 2015
Posted December 27th, 2014
13,184 posts
12.2 Years
I would believe it feels like dreamless sleep - you drift off and then you're awake again, with no sense that time has passed other than how tired you feel and the light in the room. You don't lie there waiting in nothingness to wake up, the time just skips.

So I think it would be like a timeskip...but forever. No one's afraid of sleeping so I don't think anyone should fear death. Of course, assuming they aren't religious, because then they should probably fear it because basically every religion makes being good enough for heaven near impossible.


Theme * Pair * VM * PM

Not all men...

Are all men stupid?

That's right.

CJoE

スマイルは無料で �� �� ��

Male
adventuring ♥
Seen January 30th, 2017
Posted December 27th, 2016
1,180 posts
8.9 Years
To me its feel like you faint/feel asleep without noticing it~ we should not afraid to die but what we have to fear is our sins...should repent before our death come cause we don't know when or where we gonna die, right?


» I am who I am because I have friends.

Alfieri

aka Ronnie

Age 27
Male
New York City
Seen June 23rd, 2019
Posted June 23rd, 2019
2,850 posts
9.2 Years
I'm afraid of the pain I'll go through before dying. Disease, bullet, car crash, all ways to die are painful and that's scary.

I always wonder if death is literally game over. Like you are completely gone from existence, you have no sense of where you are or what you feel, you literally don't exist anymore. That freaks me out.

I wonder if there is such thing as reincarnation. Do I become another baby just out of the womb? Do I become a tree that gets chopped down to make room for a shopping center? Or do I really disappear off the face of this earth?

Alex

what will it be next?

Seen December 30th, 2022
Posted December 26th, 2022
6,407 posts
16.4 Years
Death, of course, is not something you can feel. I wonder if people experience what it is they wish to experience before death. People say your life flashes before your eyes in your final moments - is that what those same people expected or hoped?

As a pessimist, I sometimes do not fear death. But when I think about my loved ones dying, I am truly sad. The strongest emotional bonds I have are with my mother, father and cat. I do not wish upon or want death for them at all. If they could outlive me, I would be happy.

Sadly I know this will not happen.



As for my own death, if it is violent I want it extremely violent. I do not want to gruesomely watch myself die. If it is slow, and I am a rotting vegetable, I want doctor-assisted suicide. Even better if my own family would pull the plug. It is no way to live, lying on a hospital bed being fed, bathed and relieved of my bladder.

Death must be a culmination of feelings. Anger, sadness, triumph, relief... All of it. Death counters any living human emotion.

Emboar

Male
Iowa
Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted December 28th, 2020
6,658 posts
8.7 Years
As a child, I was afraid of death, because the only thing I thought about was not being able to do anything ever again. I would think of the fact that my cats would be the first two to go that I cared about, and I should enjoy the time I have with them. Now they are gone. I cried before both of them were put down. I don't know how I would feel if I lost a human family member, as I was only 5 when my last human family member passed away. But since then, I've seen death as eternal sleeping, as you don't feel anything while you're sleeping, and you don't feel anything when dead. But then, the question, "Well what about dreams?" enters my mind. I haven't figured out an answer to that question, as if you did have dreams when you're dead, there is no way to communicate with anyone that you did, and therefore the dead person is the only person that would know if they had dreams.

Radioactive

I'm a really good boy

Seen September 22nd, 2014
Posted September 18th, 2014
44 posts
9.1 Years
My beliefs lead me to think that death is an emotional, mental, and physiological lift off of the shoulders of the massive burden of suffering we take for granted. Different stories and accounts and also personal things lead me to believe that not only is there something beyond suffering, but something far more amazing than this.

While I have heard third-hand accounts of different experiences and consider those as well, the thing solidifying it for me was my paternal grandmother. Throughout her life she suffered astounding mental and physical abuse from two different husbands and had manic depression, but she also had many cardiovascular issues that led to more complications as well. At one point about a year before she died (in 2000) she had a near-death experience but was brought back to life. In that year her behavior shifted dramatically; she wasn't afraid anymore, and wasn't scared, as if she had decided something. My father tells of his first-hand memories of her giving away nearly everything she owned, and my mother tells that when I was there (aged 2 or 3) that she explicitly took us shopping to buy me two suits without providing reason other than "every good boy needs two suits". About a year later she died of an aneurysm, though most everyone knows she killed herself given her blood conditions and the fact that her then-husband apparently hid any telling items beforehand. What else to explain that, huh?

I've often pondered what I would do in grave situations like the Holocaust or something similarly awful… and have no doubt I'd seek death. If I'm already stuck beyond escape, why not just give them what we both want: my death? I'll just come back again, but I hear many folks stick around for a bit before being born again. You know, ghosts and stuff. They think indoor plumbing is pretty cool beans. :P
Age 28
Male
Oregon
Seen September 24th, 2018
Posted July 3rd, 2018
17,520 posts
13.1 Years
Strangely enough I had a dream I died, I felt like I was going into a deep sleep in a void, but then drifted to another world. I bet that is probably how it'll be when I actually do die...
I'm currently working on some novels. If you're interested you can read them here:
https://www.wattpad.com/user/ImperialSun

TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness

Age 33
Male
Temple of Light
Seen November 25th, 2017
Posted October 21st, 2016
8,122 posts
19.1 Years
Actual answer: I would think it'd feel like nothing. If you're dead, you can't feel.

Actual reason I replied to this thread: The title made me think of She Said She Said by the Beatles lol
Male
Somewhere in the universe
Seen June 2nd, 2015
Posted November 25th, 2014
666 posts
9.6 Years
I don't really know- I guess it depends if you go to Heaven or Hell. Whether there is an inbetween stage, I don't know. But, I guess the moment you die, you feel know pain, you can't think, and stuff.

The brain stays active 8 minutes after death. Is that out life flashing before our lives?
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who ever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. - John 3:16

I believe in Jesus Christ my Savior. If you do too, and aren't scared to admit it, then copy and paste this in your signature.

Member of the Christian Community!

CoffeeDrink

GET WHILE THE GETTIN'S GOOD

Male
Lootin' Your Poké's
Seen December 4th, 2016
Posted December 4th, 2016
1,250 posts
9.7 Years
If you somehow had cognitive function whilst in the grave, I think it'd be like this:

Bored.

Bored, bored.

Bored, bored, bored.

Bored, bored, bored, bored.

Boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredboredbored
boredboredboredboredboredboredbored. . . what's that smell?

For me? Nothing happens. Bing, bang, boom dead. That's it. We all get one shot at this. Make it happen.

Centipede Chan

Age 26
Female
United States
Seen October 14th, 2021
Posted April 4th, 2021
1,069 posts
9.1 Years
I guess in a way I know, as do other majorly depressed people. Depression feels like what I call death while alive. My best way to explain it is just the feeling of an empty shell that appears alive but really isn't.

Tek

Age 33
Male
Kansas City
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted May 1st, 2020
939 posts
9.6 Years
Well, there's one obvious answer: what it feels like to be dead is the same as what it felt like before you were born. But I want to elaborate a bit, as this is something I've thought about quite a lot.


First, the universe appears to follow a certain pattern. Essentially, everything that is born will die. I'm in the camp that finds this observation to be a beautiful thing; it makes everything that much more special.




What Oryx said ties into my assumptions about what death might be like:


I would believe it feels like dreamless sleep - you drift off and then you're awake again, with no sense that time has passed other than how tired you feel and the light in the room. You don't lie there waiting in nothingness to wake up, the time just skips.

So I think it would be like a timeskip...but forever.

As human beings, we have two 'selves', so to speak. We have a unique self, which was born, and will die, and will never be duplicated in the entire history of the universe. No one will ever walk where you did, when you did it, and experience life from your perspective.


But we also have a component that is not unique, in fact it is common to every person that's ever lived. That's I-Amness - which is the feeling of being, or consciousness as such. In your life, your feelings will change, your environment will change, everything will change except for the sensation of being an 'I'. I believe it was Schrodinger who said something to the effect that the overall number of 'I-Ams' is one.




This relates to Oryx's comment in that the yogis who have allegedly learned to carry wakefulness through the dreaming state and into the deep, dreamless state have reported a feeling of a vast Emptiness that is radiant and blissful. This is more or less what it feels like when you rest in I-Amness in meditative practice.


Now, I haven't yet researched the claims of said yogis or their methods of introspection, but I regularly practice I-Amness meditation, and my experiences are the same as those reported by other practitioners.




Recently, I have become driven to have a constant mindfulness, and to learn to carry wakefulness through the dreaming and deep dreamless states. When I cross death's threshold, I want to do so consciously, and cultivating awareness seems like the best bet.


Plus, I spend a third of my life asleep, why not learn to do something constructive with that time? Not to mention lucid dreaming is just about the most fun you can have while asleep!





Different stories and accounts and also personal things lead me to believe that not only is there something beyond suffering, but something far more amazing than this.

While I have heard third-hand accounts of different experiences and consider those as well, the thing solidifying it for me was my paternal grandmother... At one point about a year before she died (in 2000) she had a near-death experience but was brought back to life.

In that year her behavior shifted dramatically; she wasn't afraid anymore, and wasn't scared, as if she had decided something. My father tells of his first-hand memories of her giving away nearly everything she owned, and my mother tells that when I was there (aged 2 or 3) that she explicitly took us shopping to buy me two suits without providing reason other than "every good boy needs two suits".
I feel the same way you do about life. As Walt Whitman said, to die is "different from what anyone supposed and luckier."

I take your grandmother's story as a sort of confirmation that I'm on the right track. The pattern of human cognitive growth is essentially one of dis-identifying with your current perspective, and then re-integrating that narrow perspective into a new and more expansive awareness. And the final dis-identification, naturally, would come with the death experience.


My roommate told me about a co-worker who was clinically dead for several minutes. The co-worker described the experience as 'shedding his body, as you would an overcoat'.


I hope to grow and evolve sufficiently that I can stably inhabit such a transpersonal space. As the saying goes, "If you die before you die, then when you die, you won't die."

Monophobia

Already Dead

Age 23
Male
Ohio, U.S.A.
Seen August 15th, 2015
Posted July 29th, 2015
294 posts
9.2 Years
I always thought that right before you die, you have a feeling of peace wash over you, as if all the things that once burdened you never existed. It's serenity in its finest, or at least that's how I want it to be.

After death however, based on my lack of religion, I would say you don't feel anything, nor do you have any conscious thoughts or emotions. You won't even know you're dead, because once your brain stops sending and receiving signals, it's game over.
Gambler of Fate

Nick

Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted July 28th, 2021
17,572 posts
18.6 Years
It probably feels like nothing. You may not even perceive it. Some people theorize that when you die, you actually "relive" your life over again. Well, in your perception anyhow.
Growing up, I always had a thought at the back of my mind. What if I actually already died? What if the life I'm leading now is only perceived in my own imagination and, outside of it, my body is six feet under? What if that's what happens when someone dies? They go on living a life they perceive to be true unknowingly, while those they leave behind are mourning their loss?

I think it's a fascinating theory.

Phantom

Uh, I didn't do it

Age 32
Female
Minnesota
Seen September 18th, 2017
Posted September 18th, 2017
1,182 posts
11.8 Years
There is nothing. You don't feel anything because you don't exist anymore. Simply, nothing. There isn't even a way for you to perceive the nothing because you don't EXIST.

Tek

Age 33
Male
Kansas City
Seen 2 Days Ago
Posted May 1st, 2020
939 posts
9.6 Years
There is nothing. You don't feel anything because you don't exist anymore. Simply, nothing. There isn't even a way for you to perceive the nothing because you don't EXIST.
Heh, well, that's my other guess XD

The problem with my first line of rambling reasoning is that it appears that mind and brain arise together or not at all. In keeping with this, the only way I-Amness continues after bodily death is if I-Amness has some non-bodily physical component.

This component could be something like an energy field which we haven't developed sensors to detect. Such an energy field isn't that Farfetch'd since we already know of particles that barely interact with matter.



Either that or as you die, your perception of time slows down as if you were stuck spiraling into a black hole. I think that's probably not the case, but it's a mind-bender for sure.

twocows

The not-so-black cat of ill omen

Age 32
Male
Michigan
Seen February 19th, 2023
Posted April 30th, 2021
4,307 posts
14.2 Years
My guess is that there is no feeling, as a few others have said. You just end.

My life's goal is to live as long as possible without sacrificing my happiness now to do so. I'm extremely interested in all the technology associated with that objective, everything from cryonics to mind uploading to transhumanism and so on. If I make it into the future, I'm sure I'd be interested in possibilities even beyond those. I don't want to die, ever. I want to outlive the universe and further.

Unfortunately, the most likely case is that I'll die, probably within a normal lifetime. But I'll do what I can to avoid that.
VNs are superior to anime, don't @ me

The Void

hiiiii

Male
MOTHA RUSSIA
Seen May 29th, 2019
Posted August 9th, 2015
1,416 posts
13 Years
Bruce Greyson once made a study on near death experience patients that showed death 'feels' different from person to person. These 'feelings' ranged from peace to transcendence. It passed peer reviews and is included in the 1983 Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.

Of course, that only applies for the few minutes the brain is still partially active. Once all mental functions cease, this is where we vary in belief.

As a Catholic, my definition of death is as Benedict XVI puts it:

Since then, death is no longer the same: It has been deprived, so to speak, of its "venom." The love of God, acting in Jesus, has given new meaning to the whole of man's existence and in this way, has also transformed death. If in Christ human life is a departure "from this world to the Father" (John 13:1), the hour of death is the moment in which this departure takes places in a concrete and definite way.
Όφις ην μη φάγη όφιν, δράκων ου γενήσεται.