Your life before birth

[Armenum]

I bet this is a issue that many people have come across. Have you every thought closely about your life before birth? I guess it technically wasn't "life" but in essence what is the feeling of non-existence? I guess it can't be even called a feeling. So how does one not exist for an infinite amount of time forward. I guess you are in the position you were before birth. But again what is that position? I hope what I'm trying to say is not that confusing but this is just a fundamental curiosity of a human and probably the one question that has shaped world with religion, philosophy, wars, etc.

The thing that I'm trying to get at is if we know how it was before birth, why do we wonder about what will happen after death? Won't the experience be the same as before birth? But again how is that experience defined

[Whatacad]

It's not an experience, so there's nothing to define.

[Tiwaz]

I bet this is a issue that many people have come across. Have you every thought closely about your life before birth? I guess it technically wasn't "life" but in essence what is the feeling of non-existence? I guess it can't be even called a feeling. So how does one not exist for an infinite amount of time forward. I guess you are in the position you were before birth. But again what is that position? I hope what I'm trying to say is not that confusing but this is just a fundamental curiosity of a human and probably the one question that has shaped world with religion, philosophy, wars, etc.

The thing that I'm trying to get at is if we know how it was before birth, why do we wonder about what will happen after death? Won't the experience be the same as before birth? But again how is that experience defined

It is nothing.

There is no experience as there is no consciousness. There is no consciousness because there is nothing which would facilitate it.

[Helm]

"As the rays or godlings went forth, some lost their connectedness to the great Ra. They moved too far into darkness. Their light dimmed. The darkness overcame them. Their faces turned away from the original light. All they saw were the shadows of life. They needed help. Some power needed to help them recall the original light, the original way, the original purpose. This was the power of the moon god Thoth, or Hermes in Greek. This power reflects the light to all things that have turned away from the direct light."

There you go, you just need to have a look at the light of the moon to get a vague idea.

[Amorphos]

^^ that +

Life before birth is like life without memory ~ if you believe in rebirth, you just don’t remember former lives. Who knows, it may be the case that life creates souls and we don’t exist prior to life.
...in our origins it must be so.

[Adrian]

since you do not exist its not an experience to not exist is well something we cannot experience so LOL we cannot feel what it is to be dead death in the experience sense will never touch us most we can fear is the end of our consciousness and by that of us.

[Amorphos]

Oh I don’t exist! Strange when an ‘I’ says that. …but well if you believe you are electricity and chemicals and that’s all that exists in reality ~ even though the universe emanates from the non material, then fine. Its wrong though.

[Adrian]

Oh I don’t exist! Strange when an ‘I’ says that. …but well if you believe you are electricity and chemicals and that’s all that exists in reality ~ even though the universe emanates from the non material, then fine. Its wrong though.

Reality is relative as are we can you experience death ? no you cannot the end of you is the end of your conscious mind so you can't experience what its like to be nothing because you are no more.


What else is there I am the sum of my experiences and my perceptions of them I consider total memory loss equal to death what is "me" died what else is there?


I am a small part of the universe that will in time feed the worms as will you .

[Helm]

I am a small part of the universe that will in time feed the worms as will you .

Enriching the soil there, it's all part of the cycle of life so it's great stuff really.



That explains the process nicely I think.

[empr guy]

i feel that non-existance is almost unimaginable to something that currently exists. But it wont matter, because you wont exist, you wont be able to not like it, etc.

[Arch-hereticK]

Science rapes religion............again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc&feature=fvw

[Armenum]

I don't know how to get my head around it: Nothingness for an infinite amount of time...and of course this is ignoring the chance of any afterlife or re-carnation..

[Arch-hereticK]

I don't know how to get my head around it: Nothingness for an infinite amount of time...and of course this is ignoring the chance of any afterlife or re-carnation..

Nothingness can't exist in time. Time is the measurement of change in space: "nothing" cannot change.

[★Bandiera Rossa☭]

Is this including the time in the womb, or just the time pre-conception? There is no experience before conception, And there isn't even real consciousness until a certain point after conception (but life makes consciousness, not vice-versa, you can be alive before you are conscious of being alive) So quite simply put:
"Nothing/non existance - Conception - life - passage of time - consciousness - passage of time - birth"

[Armenum]

Nothingness can't exist in time. Time is the measurement of change in space: "nothing" cannot change.

I see, good point. So what is really that experience? Or it can't even be called an experience but I think you know what I'm talking about. What is this nothingness? How can an alive person think about that state? A human will never be able recognize that he is in that state, of course he can recognize that he is close to going to that state. The notion of afterlife however fixes so many problems..

[Amorphos]

Timelessness is not the same as no time, same as you cant have nothingness but you can have emptiness that appears like nothingness. It is like infinity doesn’t exist in 3 dimensional space, which would ordinarily mean it cannot exist at all, but it just has to be thought of as its own dimension.

[Helm]

The notion of afterlife however fixes so many problems..

The main reason why I'm assuming there will be, without one it would seem a little nonsensical, I don't see how it would work.

[Arch-hereticK]

I see, good point. So what is really that experience? Or it can't even be called an experience but I think you know what I'm talking about. What is this nothingness? How can an alive person think about that state? A human will never be able recognize that he is in that state, of course he can recognize that he is close to going to that state.

You are correct, nothingness cannot be experienced. An "alive" person can conceptualise nothingness in many ways, most commonly in the abstract form of the number zero.

The notion of afterlife however fixes so many problems..

Santa Clause fixes many problems as well.

[Helm]

Nothing doesn't exist so you can't really have a debate on the nature of nothingness because you're literally not talking about anything.

[Helm]

I don't believe in nirvana myself, if there's a higher state to aim for I'd like to think it consists of obtaining the ultimate knowledge of everything, because that's what I'm interested in finding out. But I think it's a subject that is for us impossible to fully comprehend.