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kake
The answer to1984 is 1776.



Registered: 05/06/99
Posts: 2,782
Loc: The 66th harmonic
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Quote:
itstarssaddam said: I personally feel that nonexistence is completely incomprehensible to any living creature, regardless of any chemical ingestion.
What about someone who has suffered thru a coma? Would they not, to a degree, be able to understand that they could not conceive their own existence for a period of time? So, I see what you mean by incomprehensible, but I think what you might mean to say is very plainly obvious...that your normal state of consciousness only exists so long as you have a functioning brain to allow it to.
Someone who's suffered thru a coma could probably remember events before and after but not during the coma (altho some say they have dreams and such, but I think these happen only when consciousness begins to fade/resurface)...so when you die I assume our current concepts of things like time & space cease to even matter. Time becomes meaningless and you again become free energy in the universe.
I like to think that I'll instantly arrive as another form of consciousness somewhere else, probably billions if not trillions or more years later, somewhere else, after another Big Bang, but this assumes true the theory of cyclical Big Bangs.
Dying scary? Perhaps...but what I think is scarier is the prospect of eternal life, which btw, we've been working on for quite a while now and scientists doing the work say we're making progress and will almost definitely be able to achieve it, if we don't destroy the planet and all its inhabitants by that time. Imagine living for 900 years and then being on the verge of dying because of some anomaly we failed to predict. MUCH scarier IMO
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MarkostheGnostic
Elder


Registered: 12/09/99
Posts: 14,279
Loc: South Florida
Last seen: 3 years, 1 day
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Re: Afraid to die... [Re: Newbie]
#5269701 - 02/06/06 02:38 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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I am not a materialist, and I do not believe that Consciousness is 'produced' by the neurological apparatus. My decision in favor of a non-materialistic philosophy derives in large measure from different experiences of an 'astral' or 'psychic projection' type, and from a classic transcendental experience in which ego loss included complete absence of personal identity but awareness of Limitless Light/Boundless Compassion. The latter experience was a textbook 'Unio Mystica' type, which included the two phases of "the dewdrop slips into the Shining Sea" (the finite mind expands into Infinity or what Lama Govinda called "The Path Towards Universality [OM]") and the return to the plane of Human Realization (The Path Towards Realization [HUM]"). I wear the Tibetan Buddhist Great Mantra OM MANI PADME HUM [The Absolute is a Jewel in the Lotus of the Heart] on a bracelet as a remembrance of that Experience some 30+ years ago.
Consciousness, from a Buddhist psychological and philosophical perspective (Abhidhamma) is NOT physical and certainly not atomic in nature. Consciousness is the subtle 'infrastructure' of all Reality. The physical, psychic and spiritual dimensions which intersect to comprise a Human being remain in their own dimensions, but Consciousness is supposed to be withdrawn from the physical and psychical into a higher center than the embodied or intellectual centers which define our individual or separate identities.
The spiritual center into which Consciousness is to be identified, is a 'centerless center' - a paradoxical condition of Awareness - a "Fullness" or 'Pleroma' in the Gnostic Christian description, a Plenum Void in the Buddhist traditions. It is a matter of Realizing that one is in Reality, the very Clear Light of the Void. 'That' is our essential nature. Thus, we do not have to fear falling into a 'clear and cloudless sky' - we ARE the 'sky!' My Experience had a quality of 'pale-sky-blue self-effulgence' to it and has been a comfort (the Holy Spirit or Paraclete was called 'the Comforter') to me in my life, and decades of reading has reified my belief that this was a glimpse of the dawning of a wonderful Reality, not a fearful one.
Peace be with you on a quest for Reality - one that transcends your mere intellectualizations of Reality.
-------------------- γνῶθι σαὐτόν - Gnothi Seauton - Know Thyself
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it stars saddam
Satan

Registered: 05/19/05
Posts: 15,571
Loc: Spahn Ranch
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Re: Afraid to die... [Re: kake]
#5269776 - 02/06/06 02:57 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
kake said:
Quote:
itstarssaddam said: I personally feel that nonexistence is completely incomprehensible to any living creature, regardless of any chemical ingestion.
What about someone who has suffered thru a coma? Would they not, to a degree, be able to understand that they could not conceive their own existence for a period of time?
Though once they had regained consciousness they could possibly remember the last series of conscious events before they became comatose and determine for themselves (by looking at a calendar, having someone else tell them, etc.) that there is a blank area between those events and their current state of consciousness, they would be unable to apply any conceptualization to the experience itself, if they were indeed comatose in the strict sense of the word.
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TheGus
The Walrus

Registered: 09/07/05
Posts: 387
Last seen: 15 years, 11 months
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reconsider this
Quote:
" even consciousness itself is just atoms "
consciousness exists in the form of a non-physical vehicle, the one thing that holds you back from understand this is merely your thought
ahh and we reach a point, are thoughts just energy? or are they consciousness??
so is imagination as real as logic?
ponder that for a while
-------------------- "It is easier to teach a computer to play chess than to build a mudpie."Sherry Turkle Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts"-Einstein
I pity the fool who break traffic laws with $870,000 of drugs in the car. -mo0nlite_sonata Psythos
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it stars saddam
Satan

Registered: 05/19/05
Posts: 15,571
Loc: Spahn Ranch
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Re: Afraid to die... [Re: TheGus]
#5269863 - 02/06/06 03:18 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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I never said that.
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Shroomism
Space Travellin


Registered: 02/13/00
Posts: 66,015
Loc: 9th Dimension
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Re: Afraid to die... [Re: Newbie]
#5269879 - 02/06/06 03:20 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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I'm kind of the opposite... I was afraid to be born
I will embrace death
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dorkus
don't look back
Registered: 04/12/04
Posts: 1,511
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Quote:
MarkostheGnostic said: I am not a materialist, and I do not believe that Consciousness is 'produced' by the neurological apparatus. My decision in favor of a non-materialistic philosophy derives in large measure from different experiences of an 'astral' or 'psychic projection' type, and from a classic transcendental experience in which ego loss included complete absence of personal identity but awareness of Limitless Light/Boundless Compassion. The latter experience was a textbook 'Unio Mystica' type, which included the two phases of "the dewdrop slips into the Shining Sea" (the finite mind expands into Infinity or what Lama Govinda called "The Path Towards Universality [OM]") and the return to the plane of Human Realization (The Path Towards Realization [HUM]"). I wear the Tibetan Buddhist Great Mantra OM MANI PADME HUM [The Absolute is a Jewel in the Lotus of the Heart] on a bracelet as a remembrance of that Experience some 30+ years ago.
Consciousness, from a Buddhist psychological and philosophical perspective (Abhidhamma) is NOT physical and certainly not atomic in nature. Consciousness is the subtle 'infrastructure' of all Reality. The physical, psychic and spiritual dimensions which intersect to comprise a Human being remain in their own dimensions, but Consciousness is supposed to be withdrawn from the physical and psychical into a higher center than the embodied or intellectual centers which define our individual or separate identities.
The spiritual center into which Consciousness is to be identified, is a 'centerless center' - a paradoxical condition of Awareness - a "Fullness" or 'Pleroma' in the Gnostic Christian description, a Plenum Void in the Buddhist traditions. It is a matter of Realizing that one is in Reality, the very Clear Light of the Void. 'That' is our essential nature. Thus, we do not have to fear falling into a 'clear and cloudless sky' - we ARE the 'sky!' My Experience had a quality of 'pale-sky-blue self-effulgence' to it and has been a comfort (the Holy Spirit or Paraclete was called 'the Comforter') to me in my life, and decades of reading has reified my belief that this was a glimpse of the dawning of a wonderful Reality, not a fearful one.
Peace be with you on a quest for Reality - one that transcends your mere intellectualizations of Reality.
Thank you.
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dorkus
don't look back
Registered: 04/12/04
Posts: 1,511
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Re: Afraid to die... [Re: Shroomism]
#5272249 - 02/07/06 02:48 AM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
Shroomism said: I'm kind of the opposite... I was afraid to be born
I will embrace death
"Everybody dies as he lives. I am not afraid of death, because I am not afraid of life. I live a happy and shall die a happy death. Misery is to be born, not to die."
"For me the moment of death will be a moment of jubilation, not of fear. I cried when I was born and I shall die laughing."
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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lysergicide
Aurora Borealis


Registered: 12/16/05
Posts: 1,863
Loc: 41.8861° N, 12.4851° E
Last seen: 8 days, 21 hours
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Re: Afraid to die... [Re: dorkus]
#5273888 - 02/07/06 03:19 PM (17 years, 11 months ago) |
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physical death is only a transcendal change... nothing to really worry about. it should not be feared, but rather, welcomed.
i had an experience about a year ago where i smashed a car head-on into a pole. my chances of surviving were very slim: no seatbealt, fast as shit, and if it wasn't for the pole i would've driven right off the road into a frozen lake. my head managed to crack the windshield and the entire back end of the car was pushed up against me and my head into the dashboard (or what was left of it; the dashboard that is). it really opened my eyes up to death. up to around that point, i was pretty much ready to die. pain and fear is only temporary, and in the moment of death, i feel, they are no present. you open up and let go.
do not fear death. when it is your time, it is your time. just know when it is and when it isn't. everything else is taken care of. 
as far as the death of the ego, i feel it is important to disgard all which is unimportant to our advancement onto a higher plane of consciousness: attatchment, hate, violence, prejudiceness, greed, lust, envy, pride. liberation is the ultimate peace.
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Deviate
newbie
Registered: 04/20/03
Posts: 4,497
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Quote:
itstarssaddam said: I never said that.
i think thegus meant to reply to the original poster and not you. the feature on this board that allows you to reply directly to a specific post can become very confusing if people do not use it correctly.
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