What happens when you die?

Drowned By Darkness

Think about whose "when" it is in your question...it doesn't belong to the "deceased" unless you propose the continuence of "self".

Since "self" seems to depart into the void every time you go to sleep to re-appear the next morning why worry about failure to attend ?

Fresco, I've always wondered whether you're Buddhist.

As to the question posted, I believe that your substance still exist as a part of the whole, as it always is alive or not, but I think that your consciousness ceased.

Ray,

Buddhism is attractive in concept but not in detail like "karma" etc.

For me the problem with your a answer above is the word "your". In what sense is "my hair in the wash bowl" still "mine" ? .....It seems to me that "self" is a social concept involving "social responsibility for action".

I believe that when you die, your body decomposes, and becomes an altered part of the universe, still there, but different than when you were alive. As far as the person himself is concerned, being no longer alive will be, to him, exactly the same as before the person was born. No consciousness, nothingness.

The 1st law of thermodyamics describes this process well.



http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/thermo1f.html

a question whos answer lies within the deceased man or woman.

IV Entity Exit From Life


i A choice to leave

1) Normally the entity chooses when it wishes to cease dwelling in the physical plane.

2) When the entity ceases to dwell in a physical form, the form dies.

3) The entity's choice is based upon whether it has accomplished what it set out to accomplish; whether its termination may be of particular benefit to other entities; or whether failure to terminate might tend to allow retardation in its own growth.

4) The method the entity chooses to cause permanent separation is based, usually, on its own needs.


ii No choice at all

1) There are occasions when the entity's form is terminated without its own preparation or consent.

2) Such terminations might occur as in war, natural disaster, murder, etc.


iii Still hanging around

1) In most cases the termination of form also terminates the entities ties to the physical plane.

2) Some entities, unprepared for their separation, linger around familiarities of the physical plane.

3) The entity doesn't necessarily intend harm or disruption. It, simply, is unable to free itself.

4) Eventually other entities are able to guide it into separation from the physical plane.


iv What now

1) Upon exiting from the physical plane experience the entity enters a non-plane existence and is availed of the total knowledge of its past.

2) After evaluating its gains and losses in growth it sets the stage for its next experience.

3) The entity chooses in which plane its next sojourn will occur and the conditions that will be necessary.

4) It may proceed relatively quickly into another sojourn or it may delay quite a while in order to accomplish other needs.


From my chosen path i stray,
Yet my God ne'er turns away;
For i have learned -- and understand,
That where God is -- is where i am!

no one knows those facts Ethmer.

The question asked for opinions. i gave my opinion. i didn't state it as "fact".

I tend to agree with Phoenix.

Big cycle.

Makes me wonder why we bother with $10,000 caskets.

I think either

A. you die, you cease to exist... just nothingness... but like Phoenix said, you wouldn't know, it would be just like before you were born..

But that theory makes me think, well then what is the point of us being here just to die.. which brings me to

B. You go into a constant dream state until you are recarniated (thus de ja vu)

or

C. Different Dimensions

D. Heaven/ Hell

E. I have no clue at all...

I think you die physically and whatever you have managed to impart into or on behalf of others, be it genes, knowledge, works, etc. lives on. I believe we are collectively the product of our ancestors - all of our ancestors, not only those with a genetic connection. Our bodies will fade away but who we are will live on in those whose lives we have touched and the mark we have made during our lives.

The sensation almost feels cold. So intense that you do not realize it is actually hot until your skin starts to bubble, the hair on your body singing. Your nostrils are filled with a plume so acrid your breath is literally stolen away. I'd advise you try not to inhale anyway, spare your poor lungs the inconvenience. You suddenly understand the meaning of "blinding white light" as the heat entirely encompasses you.
When flames lick your chin, the flicker is no longer sporadic, not it is a constant. Like a fiery serpent winding its way up your body, the fire - as if trying to smell your eyes - lashes its tongue upon your brow and venom has been strewn into your soul and your head goes numb. It's a strange feeling. All senses have been turned to off. You feel neither warm nor cool. You see black and white at the same time. A rush of your favorite cereal streams across your tongue. A constant buzz, an eerie jingle, crickets and an opera. Oddly enough you hear the fat lady singing.
In a single and seemingly infinite moment you have transformed yourself. You exit the realm of the living and float on as a dream - patiently awaiting for your journey to come full circle - again.

To keep the casket makers in business?

No doubt! I told my family: 'Please DO NOT pickle me and put me in a box. Return me, however possible, to the perpetual carbon based food chain.'

We dwell too much on the body's death and disregard the soul. The ego must die but the spirit can not. The soul makes it choice accordingly.

IMO, that is.

We become farts.

Put me on an ice floe and let the wolves have my carcass.

Phoenix and Fresco are right: who is it that is dead after "you" stop living?
and
Is "before birth" more or less problematical than "after life"?

Know what'd really suck? If was just a deep coma, and you woke up with a wolf chewing your arse.

You go to hell, meaning you wake up living in Pittsburg.