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I'll tell you a bit of a secret: when you die you don't really die. First of all - there is no real you. Each human experience is nothing but an illusion. There

I'll tell you a bit of a secret: when you die you don't really die. First of all - there is no real you. Each human experience is nothing but an illusion. There is no percieved 'self.' We all are everything all at once - an infinite array of lifetimes experiencing everything and perceiving it as a fractured self. In reality - everything that you do you do to yourself. This comes with both dire but also amazing consequences. Each animal you slaughter is you. Each hero you elevate is also you in another timeline. You are all that is and everything that will be - you just don't fully understand it yet. This response that I'm writing is to myself and yes I'm fully aware of it. You should read this is water by David Foster Wallace to maybe get a glimpse of what I'm talking about but even then it's a very small glimpse of who we truly are. Also you should thank god that you don't live forever. Living forever would be hell in your current form. Trust me on this one. Enjoy and fully embrace this life :)

walterlb 3y ago
This Is It, by Alan Watts also describes some of the same feelings. I picked it up recently and am still trying to digest the concepts he describes.
TedDoesntTalk 3y ago
Although I agree with you, I do not agree that This Is Water is helpful in learning the truth of which you write.
- photon_lines 3y ago
  I suppose you're correct. Maybe this conversation with Alan Watts is a better description of what I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/NpS85_E4xj4 https://youtu.be/NpS85_E4xj4
PcChip 3y ago
Thank you for writing this. I believe almost the exact same thing and it's nice to see someone else feels similarly
wruza 3y ago
Living forever would be hell in your current form. Trust me on this one Uhm, this knows why it’s bad to use this form, but why in general? This asks for elaboration.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- photon_lines 3y ago
  Actually you're right - living forever in general would be a nightmare regardless of intelligence i suppose, but neither I or you yourself can comment on it since I don't believe humanity is close to having super-intelligence yet? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your question though. If you're asking why living forever would be a nightmare - this quite by James Joyce sums it up nicely: "What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell forever? Forever! For all eternity! Not for a year or an age but forever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness, and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of air. And imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all. Yet at the end of that immense stretch time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been carried all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals – at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not even one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time, the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would have scarcely begun."
bowsamic 3y ago
I think it's quite sad and pessimistic to be so unable to deal with the horror of death that you actually go as far to deny that you even really exist right now.
- photon_lines 3y ago
  I'm not sure where you got that message from. Nowhere in my response did I state that I or anyone else should deny existence - in fact what I'm implying is quite the opposite. I'm simply stating that our perceived experience of having a fractured existence as individual beings that die and are extinguished within a single lifetime is an illusion (i.e. you not only exist currently but you exist in a myriad of forms). In fact - time itself is also an illusion. Read about the theory of relativity if you don't believe me. Brian Green also explains it well in his Frozen River chapter in Fabric of the Cosmos.
  - bowsamic 3y ago
    You said that we should consider our existence as an illusion. I am not scared of death enough that I feel the need to consider my existence to be an illusion. Trust me, I practised Buddhism quite heavily with a teacher. I understand what impermanence and no-self means. I still think that it's sad to use impermanence and no-self to cope with death. Accept your clear, bright vitality, despite death. > In fact - time itself is also an illusion. Read about the theory of relativity if you don't believe me. I have a PhD in theoretical physics and this is very incorrect.
    - wholinator2 3y ago
      Ah thank you for this. I'm a little too early in my physics career to feel comfortable speaking authoritatively when people come out like this. Besides, if everyone is you than isn't that a pale approximation of unending life? I hate it when people either read or think up an interesting philosophy of existence but then become convinced that they know The Truth. If existence is a vast and strange as claimed is it not equally if not infinitely more likely that they have no idea what the hell they're talking about? I mean, no matter how many human lifetimes you traverse you're still just a human. That is, unless your philosophy also involves you being the One True God, which i think devolves into narcissism pretty fast. I must admit i have found myself wishing that i had been all of them in separate times. It's just so alluring to think i was Einstein and Feynman and Turing and everyone else. I can almost convince myself that i can see enough similarities to make it possible. But that's actually crazy. It's a sensation, a desire. A way of fighting off both the fear of death and the fear that this life won't matter as much as I'd like. After all, who cares, one day I'll be the leader of the free world and i guess also an asshole most likely. It's just a cope for me. It's also sad that so many purely pull to the authority of physics to justify their personal philosophy. "Quantum" has been butchered by popular media in such a way that everyone just takes it to mean what they want it to mean. Anyways, I'd love to read or hear about your PhD in theoretical physics, I'm about a year away from starting a PhD

walterlb 3y ago

This Is It, by Alan Watts also describes some of the same feelings. I picked it up recently and am still trying to digest the concepts he describes.

TedDoesntTalk 3y ago

Although I agree with you, I do not agree that This Is Water is helpful in learning the truth of which you write.

photon_lines 3y ago
I suppose you're correct. Maybe this conversation with Alan Watts is a better description of what I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/NpS85_E4xj4 https://youtu.be/NpS85_E4xj4

PcChip 3y ago

Thank you for writing this. I believe almost the exact same thing and it's nice to see someone else feels similarly

wruza 3y ago

Living forever would be hell in your current form. Trust me on this one Uhm, this knows why it’s bad to use this form, but why in general? This asks for elaboration.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
photon_lines 3y ago
Actually you're right - living forever in general would be a nightmare regardless of intelligence i suppose, but neither I or you yourself can comment on it since I don't believe humanity is close to having super-intelligence yet? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding your question though. If you're asking why living forever would be a nightmare - this quite by James Joyce sums it up nicely: "What must it be, then, to bear the manifold tortures of hell forever? Forever! For all eternity! Not for a year or an age but forever. Try to imagine the awful meaning of this. You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Now imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness, and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of air. And imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all. Yet at the end of that immense stretch time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun. And if that mountain rose again after it had been carried all away again grain by grain, and if it so rose and sank as many times as there are stars in the sky, atoms in the air, drops of water in the sea, leaves on the trees, feathers upon birds, scales upon fish, hairs upon animals – at the end of all those innumerable risings and sinkings of that immeasurably vast mountain not even one single instant of eternity could be said to have ended; even then, at the end of such a period, after that eon of time, the mere thought of which makes our very brain reel dizzily, eternity would have scarcely begun."

bowsamic 3y ago

I think it's quite sad and pessimistic to be so unable to deal with the horror of death that you actually go as far to deny that you even really exist right now.

photon_lines 3y ago
I'm not sure where you got that message from. Nowhere in my response did I state that I or anyone else should deny existence - in fact what I'm implying is quite the opposite. I'm simply stating that our perceived experience of having a fractured existence as individual beings that die and are extinguished within a single lifetime is an illusion (i.e. you not only exist currently but you exist in a myriad of forms). In fact - time itself is also an illusion. Read about the theory of relativity if you don't believe me. Brian Green also explains it well in his Frozen River chapter in Fabric of the Cosmos.
- bowsamic 3y ago
  You said that we should consider our existence as an illusion. I am not scared of death enough that I feel the need to consider my existence to be an illusion. Trust me, I practised Buddhism quite heavily with a teacher. I understand what impermanence and no-self means. I still think that it's sad to use impermanence and no-self to cope with death. Accept your clear, bright vitality, despite death. > In fact - time itself is also an illusion. Read about the theory of relativity if you don't believe me. I have a PhD in theoretical physics and this is very incorrect.
  - wholinator2 3y ago
    Ah thank you for this. I'm a little too early in my physics career to feel comfortable speaking authoritatively when people come out like this. Besides, if everyone is you than isn't that a pale approximation of unending life? I hate it when people either read or think up an interesting philosophy of existence but then become convinced that they know The Truth. If existence is a vast and strange as claimed is it not equally if not infinitely more likely that they have no idea what the hell they're talking about? I mean, no matter how many human lifetimes you traverse you're still just a human. That is, unless your philosophy also involves you being the One True God, which i think devolves into narcissism pretty fast. I must admit i have found myself wishing that i had been all of them in separate times. It's just so alluring to think i was Einstein and Feynman and Turing and everyone else. I can almost convince myself that i can see enough similarities to make it possible. But that's actually crazy. It's a sensation, a desire. A way of fighting off both the fear of death and the fear that this life won't matter as much as I'd like. After all, who cares, one day I'll be the leader of the free world and i guess also an asshole most likely. It's just a cope for me. It's also sad that so many purely pull to the authority of physics to justify their personal philosophy. "Quantum" has been butchered by popular media in such a way that everyone just takes it to mean what they want it to mean. Anyways, I'd love to read or hear about your PhD in theoretical physics, I'm about a year away from starting a PhD