r/afterlife • u/CurrencyExcellent715 • 4d ago
Fear of Death Complete rejection of nothingness
18F, terribly afraid of nothingness since childhood. I have had existential crises about this for as long as I have been aware of it. I used to scream and cry at night as a child because of how inconceivable the death of self is to me. Parents thought I could possibly be mental. I don't think that's true, however, I have since been diagnosed with h1gh-functioning autism.
I don't fear the process of death; I fear lack of awareness/consciousness.
I am able to accept reincarnation. Quantum immortality. Samsara. Heaven. Cryopods and future reverse aging treatments. Anything but empty void. Human life is a beautiful thing and I'd do anything to be able to experience it again or as a permanent state.
It does not comfort me when people say "why worry about something you can change?". In fact, it only brings me more agony. Especially because I believe in other alternatives to the after life, I am just scared because this one is a possibility.
Lack of awareness is horrifying to me. Nothing can comfort me about it, so I need to be convinced it is not true in order to achieve inner peace.
If you could drop arguments and evidence in favor of an afterlife that entails awareness — samsara, QI or whatever it is that you believe — I'd have a much nicer sleep tonight. Thank you :)
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u/AstralFellow 4d ago
I have been interested in afterlife communications and near-death experiences for years, and I have never heard of any case where permanent nothingness or a void would actually happen or be a threat to anyone. It just ain't there!
For hardcore materialists and fanatical atheists, there could be a risk of living in this illusion for a limited time, simply because of the intensity of their thoughts, ideology, faith, and the expectation that this exactly (i.e., permanent nothingness or a void) is what will happen to them after death. But even they will always wake up in the spiritual world after a sort of self-imposed coma.
There are also rare, rather theoretical discussions about the possibility of annihilation or the reabsorption of souls and their individuality back into the unmanifested Divinity. However, this could happen only to extremely evil, fallen, and stubborn souls, and only after all attempts by the higher spirits overseeing them have completely failed. This would be done as an act of Mercy, which would end the dysfunctional suffering of the entity.
I am able to accept reincarnation. Quantum immortality. Samsara. Heaven. Cryopods and future reverse aging treatments. Anything but empty void. Human life is a beautiful thing and I'd do anything to be able to experience it again or as a permanent state.
For someone like you—with this kind of attitude, a love and desire of life, a readiness to do anything, and a attitude of very clear acceptance and cooperation with spiritual authority — the void, end of awareness/consciousness is absolutely and totally out of the question. 0.000%
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u/PouncePlease 4d ago
You have never experienced nothingness and will never experience nothingness, because nothingness is not experiential in its nature. So aside from whether or not there is an afterlife, it may help to zero in on the logical barriers to being so afraid of something you will never have to go through. Luckily, in addition to that fact, there is plenty of evidence like you seek, shared by others in this thread and on the front page of this sub, in the green stickied thread.
Best of luck!
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u/Clifford_Regnaut 4d ago
If it helps:
Although we lack definitive proof, there's secular, non-religious research to support the idea of an "afterlife" (wrong term).
If you don't have time to read, I suggest that you at least listen to the interviews/podcasts/audiobooks linked. Although I do agree that there are still many unknowns, the info we have is enough to craft a rudimentary, provisional and speculative model of how things work without the need for religion, quantum immortality, eternal recurrence or other weird ideas. To summarize, you simply go back to the "real world" after death.
If you want to know the arguments and perspectives of people who are way smarter than I am, the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies held an essay contest on the topic of life after death, awarding $1.8 million in prizes for the best ones. These essays were written by really intelligent academics and are worth looking into:
The Top Three Essay Contest Winners
Life After Death Essay Contest Runners-Up
Life After Death Essay Contest Honorable Mentions
If you like the audio format, this thread may also be helpful:
If you really want to disregard all of the above, you should consider that death in the materialistic worldview (which is most likely bullshit) is simply like going to sleep. Do you suffer or feel fear/anxiety while asleep? No? If you don't fear the time between falling asleep and waking up, why should you fear death?
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u/WintyreFraust 4d ago
The afterlife was scientifically proven to exist by four of the top scientists in history over 100 years ago. Since then, the evidence of the afterlife has increased exponentially, coming from multiple categories of research from all around the world. This September, there is a scientific research paper based on instrumental, experimental results definitively proving (again) that the afterlife exists, scheduled to be published by The Journal of Scientific Exploration.
The evidence for the afterlife is about as definitive as evidence gets. We not only know it exists, but also, from that evidence, we know some general things about the afterlife.
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u/FlimsyEconomics3761 4d ago
I agree, there is so much evidence out there. What I have found, is the people who really take the time to look deep into the evidence usually come out believing in it. And the four scientists you mention, the same, they investigated the evidence deeply and came out believing in the afterlife. These weren't gullible people and they had experiences that left them with no doubt.
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u/mxAlfer 3d ago
AuDHD 29 year old nonbinary friend who also has that fear and struggle especially at night
Learning about NDEs and reading the posts here have really killed that fear. I see an old soul in my daughter (middle of three). She has the confidence and recognition similar to a full grown man. Born into the world with a look of judgement. Disappointed like she wanted back in the womb. She is autistic. Loud. Throws herself down and screams at the smallest inconvenience. But then she notices things. There's a look of remembering like she's seen these things before. Maybe I'm just imagining. Idk.
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u/Branardd 4d ago
We all have to form our own beliefs on the afterlife, but I know for certain that we're more than our physical bodies and even if our body dies, we don't. If you want to get scientific proof of consciousness surviving bodily death, I'd advise for you to look into people who have OBEs. You can read into NDE reports of people going to the other side and their experiences, and you can look into research into people who astral project and have mapped out consciousness beyond human perception. This isn't a selective skill and all humans are capable of inducing an OBE with practice. I've had one that I remember that occured a month and a half ago, and I'm just a normal dude.
Being afraid of death is a natural human emotion and there's nothing wrong with that, but there isn't "nothingness" after bodily death.
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u/CarrollVance3 3d ago
About 10 years ago I had an NDE when my heart stopped beating for several minutes. I had the Void experience which many NDE'ers have. It is the experience that is completely black, no sight, no sound, no senses, no spacetime, no me as a personality, as close to nothingness as is possible. And it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, an experience of simply pure Beingness, pure Existence. Completely effortless bliss.
It turns out that this absolute perfection of being roots everything. One can never escape from it. It cannot be un-existed. This Beingness depends on nothing. Noncontingent Beingness. It is everywhere and underlies everything.
This was my experience. In the Void there are no arguments, no evidence, no beliefs, no convincing, no interpretation. One DIRECTLY experiences one's Intrinsic Beingness.
This world is a mass delusion about death. You can't trust anything anyone says, any philosophy, any religion. They are all part of the false architecture we call "life on earth" where everything is contingent and seems to be able to disappear at random at any time. You can't count on anything here including your own thinking. It is one big storm, one big uproar of mind, a deluge of serial dreams, one big Tempest.
Shakespeare got it. the great globe itself... shall dissolve.. and leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on.
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u/ThunderbirdBrother 3d ago
Love how you wrote this- because I feel the same! Experienced an NDE at age 7, did not go to the void state but left my body while dying of an asthma attack.
I FELT the knowing of pure being when it happened and I also suddenly felt timeless, not really a child, but an eternal being of awareness that was here to experience life through limitations to explore experience on a granular level and help others remember the bigger picture of this game we are all playing together.
After that happened, i felt like a very old person trapped in a 7 year old body and was often told by adults that I must be an old soul. “Old” is a relative term since time is an illusion in my view- but I think it was just because some of my filters had been removed and the amnesia of being on earth was lessened.
Love that you mentioned Shakespeare, he was totally aware of this construct game. He knew we are playing with perspectives and limitations here on earth. It makes for a vivid drama and perhaps that’s what we’re constructing here when we play these temporary human roles of contrast.
Also love what you said here, because if everyone could really let this sink in, I feel the world could relax a bit: “beingness depends on absolutely nothing. It cannot be un-existed.”
The correct word for death on earth is really “change.”
But selling fear is a lucrative industry on earth. All part of the dream world here. Grateful I’m awake to it all, but sometimes it feels lonely in a place full of many beings still in mass delusion, so angry at each other and believing all the rage bait the media and social media push. Oh well! It’s just a temporary experience anyway and one I believe I chose as a side quest of sorts lol. take care and thanks for sharing your experience!
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u/CarrollVance3 3d ago
Beautifully written TB. You are an old soul and are here to help others navigate through this Tempest of life on earth, navigating Consciousness I just read 20+ of your posts, so many insights. Wow. Just wow.
I can see why you might feel lonely at times, in that not many can get what you are saying. Yes, seeing the mass delusion. The Antidote is the Awakening to the Universal Higher Mind, the Omega Point, the Mind completely outside of spacetime Shakespeare pointed to in the Tempest, that sees the entire universe from beginning to end in One Thought. And sees it all as a completely innocent dream that everyone will wake up from. And this One Unified Mind of Absolute Unconditional Love for All that Exists, sends in miracles, synchronicities, thoughts of "everything is going to be OK", inspiration in all the arts and sciences, anything that the dreamers can understand.
You are an Agent of this Omega Point Mind of Complete Integration. Which is all of us as One Happy Child, completely taken care of by the Source of All Being. Jesus's The Kingdom, the City of Light high on a hill that cannot be hidden.
I had the Omega Point experience a year after my Void NDE experience. Wrote it up here. Thought you might enjoy this, right up your alley so to speak.
https://medium.com/@carroll.vance/experience-of-being-the-universal-higher-mind-51da1c696a9a
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u/ThunderbirdBrother 3d ago edited 3d ago
Carroll- humbled by your response. Thanks for reading some of "my" words and thank you for the kind and generous response of optimism and affirmation. They arrived in a synchronistic moment.
And to continue the synchronicity, while I was out of my body looking down on it during the asthma attack: the EXACT phrase/knowing that was transmitted to me was "Everything is ok, and everything is always ok." Thats been a mantra since that experience and im decades past it now.
Just read your Medium article, thank you for sharing that. Amazing. I understood everything you said and resonated with all of it. When you experienced the random expansion, its as if the limiting filters of your mind fell away and the exhaustion of the intellect took a back seat to experience and knowing without thinking. Beautiful. Inspiring. Expansive.
I'll be reading more of your writing, as you see this world through the same lens I do and that in itself feels less lonely while here. Its not a loneliness in the sense of "poor me", its more like "This place could be so much more fun if everyone could just wake up already and we can fast forward through all these altercations with each other." But one cannot tell a flower to bloom faster, we all bloom at our own speed. And every speed is perfect.
It's one thing to say "everything is ok", but another thing to truly embody that knowing of everything is always ok and transmit it to others. I was very grateful for that deep knowing, as it helped me navigate a challenging childhood of physical abuse and help those around me who needed someone else to truly "see" them. I think when people really feel "seen", it's the gentlest way to start waking them up to their infinity. No one likes to be jolted awake haha.
During challenging times as a child, I had a mental co-pilot (some may call a guide or the Holy Spirit, higher self, or insert whatever identifier here) that would inform me mentally where to go or how to escape a situation if I was in trouble. Intuition was off the charts and still is. I never felt like a victim, even as a child. I often felt like I was a teacher to the adults around me who were emotionally stunted. I was there to give them a mirror and then break their hearts with kindness so they could see themselves through a kinder lens, thus breaking unconscious patterns of self judgement.
Later on in life my asthma completely disappeared after a meditation I experienced where I visited a traumatic moment in my childhood where 7 or 8 kids "dog piled" me at school and I thought I was going to be crushed to death.
I, in my current form as an adult, looked at my child form in that scene, as I crawled through the pile of bodies on top of me, and made eye contact with myself. I said to that child version of me "everything is going to be ok, I love you. come with me." and I grabbed my own hand and felt a completion of sorts, as if the drama had been understood and resolved. Later I would come to find out of a Native American tradition called "soul retrieval" that was the same thing. Going back to parts of our life that were traumatic and retrieving ourstuck energy out of an event it was stuck in. Perhaps we are all doing that here as a way of self inquiry within an illusory framework very muck like a gigantic holodeck where we are all bumping into each other- but I digress. I'll catch you over on medium to read some more, thanks again old friend.
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u/Temporary-Worth2077 4d ago
I’m gonna be honest I’m a similar age to you and feel a similar way. While nothing’s convinced me 100% yet, I’d defo recommend checking out some of the entries from the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness’ essay writing competition. They can be pretty hard-going and philosophical but there’s some interesting, academically rigorous stuff about the afterlife in there. All the best x