What happens when we die?

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And then they use the insurance money to buy that boat you always wanted.

-_-

Well then explain why we don't all have memories from our conscious's past lives.

Memory is stored in the brain, and when you die, it's probably wiped out, but your consciousness itself continues.

...what? So your memories (which is the largest influence on you) goes away but your conscious doesn't? That makes no sense. Without those memories it is no longer your conscious. You're saying in a round about way that your conscious is destroyed when you die.

Consciousness is an electro-chemical process that takes place in the brain and nervous system. When they rot out, no more consciousness.

ruveyn

I believe in a pseudo form of reincarnation mainly because we are all, in essence, energy and energy does not stop, or dissipates or goes away. Energy mainly changes form. So when we die the energy we are changes into a different kind of energy which is a different form of existence.

Wait, what makes "consciousness" so special in comparison to memory? The brain's molecules still "get changed" and as such, shouldn't memory have to be imprinted in consciousness? Cause if it wasn't in magical consciousness, we would lose memory the second our molecules were swapped :/

If we do not remember previous lives, then what's the point? Wouldn't for all practical purposes we still "die"? We would not remember any of our accomplishments, or actual life or beloved ones. What's the point then?

Yeah, our matter and such does get recycled.

I think when we die we return to father, to that great "self" full of loving and knowledge, and become one again. I also believe in reincarnation. I believe after we become one we fall down again, gain new experiences, and go back again. Its like an eternal game.

I don't think memory and consciousness are the same. If a person loses their ability to store memories that doesn't mean they are not conscious. It is said that babies up to the age of 2 or 3 are unable to store memories, but I would still say they are conscious.

Humans have sophisticated memories and I think this helps us learn and survive but I am not sure it defines our consciousness.

In the past few hours, you have probably experienced a few moments of somewhat dimmed consciousness. It's perfectly normal because the energy levels in our brains do fluctuate. Now, it's not really all that hard to think about the concept of not being alive anymore at all. The fact of the matter is that it's simply a total blackout of your awareness. It's nothing exciting or remarkable. It's simply an erasure.

The fact of the matter, though, is that we worry about it because we don't like the idea of being rendered ineffective. We try our best to avoid it because, once you are permanently incapacitated, it's done. It's not very dignifying, really. That's why, in our elder years, we go to so much trouble and expense to try to insure that our "final arrangements" are being seen to, making sure that our survivors are taken care of and getting our estates in order. There is little we can do about our mortality, but we can do something to hedge against being rendered thoroughly helpless. We can leave our business to a responsible son or grandson. Sure, in our waning years, we might worry about its future, but we have done the best that we can.

Ultimately, people worry far too much about death. You can have a long life. Make it a productive one. That will make others around you happy with you. You can do a very good job. You can do a sufficient job. You can be enough without having to be around forever. We won't judge you harshly or say nasty things when you are no longer able to defend yourself. After you have spent yourself as well as you can, we promise to do our best to continue taking care of things, and you will be held in good esteem. Erase your worries.

Everything here is just opinion, but I know what I said will happen.

As Donnie says. Nobody knows a lot about consciousness and definite opinions about something the experts cannot agree on are necessarily dodgy. Just imagine one radio breaking down and saying the transmitter has stopped working. You make an assumption that consciousness is inside the head and fit your beliefs round that. I think many of us get trapped in our own frame of reference. I try to break free of that. There are many things which suggest a lot is going on outside the individual head. Oh, not back to Jung again. If I were good at Philosophy I'd be reading Alfred Whitehead. As it is it takes me a lot of time to get through one page of his work, then I give up. There are things I don't know about, now isn't that slightly scary?

You go into cardiac arrest and your brain ceases to function?

But seriously, I don't know. However, if I retain my consciousness after I die in some form of afterlife and I possess the means to communicate with the living, I'll be sure to let you know.

You are correct. However, you're also branching in to spiritual pseudo-science just like donnie_darko does so often. Given what we know now, I'll eat a cow patty if there is some kind of eternal ever existing conscious. It's the same hooey that christianity tries to sell with a different name.

Pseudo-science is the biggest branch of science there is.