this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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I did get messed up by some anxiety and have these thoughts rolling through my head so I'll leave it at cosmic horror warning.

spoilerI'm not religious but I have thoughts about experiencing consciousness and what it is. I say that consciousness is independent of memory because we forget, clearly dependent on our physical body, etc. generally I do say that we don't know consciousness so maybe it can be reconstructed (in the can't rule out the possibility way)

So I can see scenarios were my conscious could pop into existence without my memories after I die (as I'm writing this I realized that's nothing to fear).

I am trying to adopt healthier mindset of looking at everything in life as a quest, new things are a call to action, and that it's okay if everything I do amounts to little in x number of years (worked out okay for ozymandias, right?).

Im probably just rambling because my life has got boring and monotonous along with actual fear of American politics.

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[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 1 points 11 hours ago

No, that's silly and easily disproven. I merely believe I'm a facet of a benevolent fierce deity that supervenes on behalf of humanity

[–] Deathgl0be@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

If it was a choice why would I ever wanna come back to this hell hole ?

[–] Cattail@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I think this universe sucks, not to ignore human history. Lots of it is empty space apparently cosmic events can wipe you out with next to no warning, your made up of atoms and cells that can die and degrade, and we are stuck to this solar system because space isn't empty it's full of shit thats going to kill you

[–] sheogorath@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

Which is why my headcanon for this universe is that we're basically running rogue playthrough in this life. After you die, you'll regain all your "soul" memories and will be given a choice to "replay" with another life and losing your memories "again" until you've reached a certain level of enlightenment and then you'll "graduate" from our current level of existence.

Call me crazy but it helps me sleep at night, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] Kekzkrieger@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If there is reincarnation and you don't remember a single thing from before, why bother it doesn't matter.

If there would be reincarnation where you remembered your previous life, surely someone would have spilled the beans on this by now. I surely would contact any sort of family friends that i had previously.

Since both could be possible but 2. hasnt happened and 1 doesnt matter i would give this a no.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

That's my view too. even if reincarnation existed, it wouldn't matter. If each life has no memory of the others, then each life is effectively a different person altogether, so from the POV of any one of those people, there is effectively no such thing as reincarnation.

Now suppose there's some kind of 'soul' who the lives 'belong to' and will one day remember the lives, again -- so what? They're just memories. Those lives were each a separate person who no longer exists, and never knew the others or the soul.

[–] CallMeMrFlipper@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago

I get that. Have you read The Egg by Andy Weir? If not, there's a Kurzgesagt video that's just that story with animation. I'd suggest it. It touches on this concept and kinda paints a more optimistic picture.

[–] Electricd@lemmybefree.net 3 points 1 day ago

It doesn’t make sense biologically

Anyone who says they know what happens when you die is trying to grift you. No one knows and we all find out one day, no point in dwelling on it.

[–] laconiancruiser@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

The amount of effort people put into saying “Maaaybe. We really don’t know,” is just crazy to me. No, because it’s nonsense.

[–] FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

I hope reincarnation is true. I want to be reborn. But than again, I fear being reborn in some dystopian future.

[–] kromem@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

No. I believe in a relative afterlife (and people who feel confident that no afterlife is some sort of overwhelmingly logical conclusion should probably look closer at trending science and technology).

So I believe that what any given person sees after death may be relative to them. For those that hope for reincarnation, I sure hope they get it. It's not my jam but they aren't me.

That said, I definitely don't believe that it's occurring locally or that people are remembering actual past lives, etc.

[–] pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

I believe in reincarnation just as much as I believe any other theory of an afterlife - that is to say, I don't.

We don't know. Nobody knows what happens when we die. That's ok, and I don't feel the need to make up a story to explain away the uncertainty.

I think it's likely that something happens when we die, but it could just as easily be nothingness, the end of existence. I only think it's likely because I definitely believe that there is SO much that we don't understand about the universe that it's more probable than not that SOMETHING happens that we can't currently fathom, perceive, or understand.

But, right now there's no real evidence. So I don't care, and I don't worry about it.

To our best understanding, everything that lives will die. I don't know what happens, it might be some form of heaven, it might be reincarnation, it might be transcendence, etc. However, I take comfort in the fact that it's a shared experience, whatever it is. It's natural. It's part of the process.

The universe doesn't owe us an explanation. Maybe we'll figure it out, but we haven't yet, and I'm fine with that.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago

it seems reinicarnation, is an obsession amongst western countries co-opted from india/buddhism, and incorporated into many medias.

[–] TheGuyTM3@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

To be honest, the only answer i have to say is: "we'll see". Wheter it's nothing or not, the second option would imply that there is effectively something beyond what we know about the universe.

What even is the soul? YOU from now think very different than YOU from ten years ago. Can we say that those two people are the same? Not really. Yet you share common memories with this early you, who doesn't exist anynore. Is it technically correct in this point of view to say that you are the reincarnation of you from ten years ago?

If someone in the far future were to think like you, to remember exact memories from yours, would act the same way you would act in the same situation, it would not we wrong to say they are your reincarnation, no?

Again i'm just supposing.

[–] lb_o@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The fact that your particular molecules will reconstruct into something else is 100% certain

Will you keep your particular consciousness in this process - unlikely

However if you drop off the definition of You as your current limited body and mind, then reincarnation is exactly what happens.

[–] Cattail@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

This is hard to articulate, but like molecules thar make up a person constantly come in and leave the body and when their in the body they "change states". Technically while you're alive you changing into other things constantly. Person you were a second ago could be considered dead since that was a specific combination of atoms that are lost.

It just ads to the mystery of consciousness

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 19 points 2 days ago (7 children)

If it was real and you could retain memories of past lives, I'm confident we'd have some evidence/proof.

If it exists without memory retention and its just some sort of "soul" concept then it really doesn't matter since you won't remember anything for it to be worth worrying about.

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[–] Strider@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (23 children)

No.

Do you remember before being born? It's the same after.

[–] chunes@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So reincarnation is not a thing but what's to stop "you" from coming back as a new individual? After all, it happened at least once.

[–] Strider@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

That's where we get into technicalities and states of dying.

Ao while I was medically dead it wasn't so dead that it was unrecoverable. Akin to a reset. Which, depending on the state you were in and the measures taken, could also have side effects and damages.

Anyhow biologically 'you' are still there. And leaving the body is it after a bit of decay. Like a complex system falling apart unrecoverably.

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[–] Quazatron@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

No.

Enjoy the ride.

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