Today I was listening to some lectures about death and reflecting on Altered Carbon and kind of diving down a wormhole about death in general. It's interesting how much death influences and plays a part in our lives, but the overall connotation seems to be that death is a negative thing. Personally, I don't really feel that it's a positive or negative thing on its own, it just is, but I wanted to explore some ideas about death and share them here.
On the actual concept of death or the experience of dying, I wonder how much of the negativity surrounding it is based on fear of the unknown. It seems that throughout our lives many people avoid the unknown aspect and try to prepare for some morally regulated heaven or hell version of the afterlife. The contradiction to that is believing in nothingness, but I think that concept is in general irrelevant because nothingness isn't an experience. Essentially, if we believe that when we die that we simply cease to exist, then there is no point whatsoever in worrying about that as we won't be around to experience it anyway. Nothing we do in life or any legacy we leave behind will matter to nothingness.
Then there's the whole problem of attachment and letting go. It seems to be part of the human experience that we must all learn how to grieve and process the emotions of letting go of loved ones or else we are consumed by grief, regret, and misery. No one can really say what is right or wrong in that regard as we all must manage in our own way, but perhaps part of the trouble of letting go is our own fear of the unknown. Closure is a fleeting thing and we rarely get life and death to start or stop of our own accord.
So if we move past the emotional attachment part of the discussion and the beliefs in nothingness, perhaps the heaven or hell line of thought colors many perspectives on the concept of the afterlife negatively. Believing that we have to live our lives in some constrained way taught by man to reap some kind of unfathomable reward after death is obviously going to cause some tension. Many of us could never be our true selves for most of our lives for fear of punishment or missing out on the great prize, which leads to resentment or anxiety relating to death.
From my perspective, I prefer to accept it as a known unknown. If I know that I have no way of knowing 100% what happens after we die then it's kind of irrelevant to me. I feel no need to allow any other human to dictate my perspective of death and I don't believe nothingness is an experience that a consciousness can have, so whatever happens afterwards is either another experience that I can't compare my current existence with or it's nothing, which is beyond my comprehension, so I figure that one way or another, I'll just deal with it when it comes.
I do believe that death is fundamentally necessary though. Perhaps I'd rather the people I perceive as good not die or at least not suffer before death, but I have no control over that. If you have read or watched Altered Carbon, it pursues some of the issues that I foresee with immortality. The wealthy or corrupt would live forever and continue to oppress the poor or less fortunate. Perhaps we are all corruptible and death is the only thing that keeps us all in check in the grand scheme of things. Either way it's beyond my control and I don't live my life afraid to die, but it certainly makes for some interesting food for thought. Namaste.
Death is soemthing scary to think about . I jsut realize that whatever we have or make in this life is just temporary . None of that “stuff” can come with you in your grave . In our graves we are all the same , no matter what the status
What seems funny/odd is the reality that both those who believe in "nothing" and those who believe in "something" are often fear-driven... either they are afraid of "going to nothing," or they are afraid of "not really knowing" where and what the afterlife is.
So I think your point about fear of the unknown is pretty spot on; most humans deal poorly with the idea of not-knowing. Just look at everyday life; how reluctant people are to "not have the answer" and how intensely they are willing to run and spin their wheels in service of "finding out."
But yeah, death is often interesting food for thought!
=^..^=
Thanks for checking out my post. :)
Very interesting topics...
From the beginning of the history, death is indeed the subject of insightful discussions and inspiration of exciting thoughts ...
Agree with you that "we should not feel that it's a positive or negative thing on its own, it just is...
So many of us could be our true selves for most of our lives amd not too fear of punishment or missing out on the great prize..."
Anyway, have a great dan lovely day, dear friend @clayboyn...☕❤
"Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." -Bill Hicks
<3 thanks clay :)
Nice opinion for a death, thank you so much for sharing this with us =)
This was emotional to read for me because I'm just coming back home from staying at my grandmother's house because she's really sick and we think she won't last too long.
I hoope that when she pass away, she will go to a better and beautiful place where she can be happy and walk for herself again.
I hope so too. Peace and love for you and your family.
This is interesting topic. I perceive death as something inevitable and at the same time, unknown - just like you. I think that sometimes I often see people, who think that they are going to live forever yet only after they see their loved ones dying, they know it has limitation.
on another note, I will make sure to check Altered carbon. and just like you
Have a great day :)
Much love macchiata! :) <3
Yep We're all gonna die. Here is my favorite song about death to entertain as we slowly slide through this mortal coil thing
Nice, that's an awesome song.
Really interesting line of thought.
I too believe we should not be afraid of death. There's nothing really to fear when one gets to the end of the journey. But on a second thought what at if there was a way to know what happens when we die, will ignorance be an excuse.
All the same, nice line of thought.
I guess we'll have to find out one day. :)
Yes sir.
Thank you very much
i think it is somehow beautiful and magical that we all have to face something completely unknown. that there is still a door that our humanity's endless search for answers and reason cannot pass! the unknown is both scary, but also exciting for me.. i am content to know that we dont know it all, so surprises and magic still exists.
What a boring life it would be to 'know everything.' I used to be quite a 'know it all,' but life is much more interesting now. :)
I personally would not fear death if it wasn’t for me having family I feel would be sad without me. I don’t fear death at all, I fear the sadness my death would leave in those I love and love me. I fear not being around to love and guide my children, or my children’s children. Not being around to love and support my parents and siblings. Here is my thought about this fear of mine. should I prepare my family for my death to help them not mourn me as much? Should I make death more irrelevant to my children, for example, so that they don’t fear it as it is nothing we should concern ourselves with, since we can’t do anything about it really? I don’t want to make death so attractive that my children become daredevils, but I also don’t want them to fear it for themselves, or for me. I believe the answer is somewhere in between both extremes, as most things are. I say, let’s live our lives the best we can, and not worry about death, it’s either nothingness or heaven, win win the way I see it.
I think that's a healthy outlook on it personally. The only way to change the perception of things over time is to give examples to the rest of society. I suppose having honest conversations with children instead of telling them how and what they are 'supposed' to feel is the best approach in life. Who knows, I think we all just do the best we can and it will work out however it works out.
My thoughts exactly 👍🏻 I truly appreciate you sharing these ideas with us all. Thank you!
I know I wrote too much already but I wanted to also add that I agree with death being a way to keep humans and everything in this planet in check. Everything would be quickly exhausted and just owerwhelmed if it wasn’t for the regular cycle of life and death. Imagine what a miserable existence it would be for us to suddenly not die? We would be overcrowded, food would be scarce and we would just probably eventually get tired of being around. Specially if we had to age. Life and death are so very inexplicably complex that I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I’m not sure what death is but I am sure that given this worlds current situation, it is absolutely necessary and a good thing. Thanks for sharing such interesting post. 🙏🏼💗
I had to resteem 🙂