Theory about what happens when you die. I came across this theory. I am not saying I believe this is what happens, just that it is an interesting concept.
Imagine what it’s like to never wake up from a dream, something none of us have experienced. You’re having your NDE (Near Death Experience). Effectively, you’re in heaven. But then you die, and so you never become consciously aware that you’re not in heaven, i.e., that your dream ends. It’s not like the dream screen displays “The End” or even goes blank! Thus, as far as you know, you’re in heaven forever.
The concept of time here is like that which you’ve “experienced” before-life, i.e., before you were born. Timeless! Billions of years pass by in no time at all, literally. The big difference, however, is that your “afterlife” begins at death enjoyably immersed in a glorious dream. While this dream physically ends, from your mind’s perspective it is now an NED (Never Ending Dream). After a billion years have passed by, for instance, you’re still unaware that you’re not in your NED.
Research shows that what we dream can be influenced somewhat by heavy concentration on a topic just before falling asleep. So what is one’s final dream after fixating the mind on death and its meaning? This happening for days while lying on one’s deathbed or during a tragic split-second when shocked into realizing one’s time is up.
In the context of timelessness, an afterlife must be perceived as a static, forever state of being, not as time one spends in eternity. When in your NED, i.e., your heaven, you won’t know whether an eternity, measured by human-time, slips by just before you die or just after. The last dream event you perceive—that moment and everything it encompasses–simply becomes your forever present. Thus death is irrelevant and your natural afterlife, entered via a dream, is essentially everlasting.
11 comments
Hey There,
I don’t want to toot my own horn, but you may be referring to some of what I’ve written on the subject of the NED experience online. I (if you’ve read my story) am the guy who was knocked unconscious as a kid at camp and had a very long dream in a second or two of unconsciousness).
There is another guy whose site I found and was overwhelmed with excitement that something in which I felt to be the only believer or the only one who could grasp the plausibility existed. So I am always, even on a sombre site like this, a little exited to hear someone else grasp it.
Of course I am here, and even have been intrigued by this theory even more for the reasons I am here.
So, as you seem to understand, it goes like this: The final nano-second of your still brain-functioning life, memories and personality, on a quantum physics-like level of time essentially lives in that bubble of stopped time eternally. It works. If dreams lasting a couple seconds can seem to the dreamer to last minutes or even hours, then there is no reason why a split second couldn’t span eternity. I believe this whole-heartedly and I also believe in God, I think that this is what is meant for us. Without a life with which to gain experience and perspective, to meet people and make connections, to live and to love…one would not ‘become’ an entity who would then be able to live in this limitless, personal ‘Heaven’ for lack of a better term.
This would be the greatest gift of an afterlife that any creator could give to his creations, its like your parents saying ‘today we have to do this and that and tomorrow you can do whatever you like -WHATEVER!’
I’ve often pondered, even as a very young child ‘what if I don’t like Heaven?’ and have come to the conclusion that if Heaven isn’t personal and unique to each individual’s likes and loves and interests, then it really wouldn’t qualify as Heaven as far as being an after-life paradise, it would just be another place, maybe great, but that would be point of view based and believe me, someone would hate it.
I have, over the years, combined this theory with more plausible (to me from a deist’s perspective) additions such as when you’ve exhausted your ability to mix up all your Earthly experiences into afterlife experiences (Eternity is an incredibly long time) you may wish to, and be able to, have another go at another life. Who knows, maybe when you get to your NED it’s like coming home from just another vacation and you build on them each time? i.e.. perhaps this isn’t our first foray in a life or existence.
Anyway, I know I got a little long winded there, but again, it excites me that someone else sees the concept as plausible as I have an uncanny sense in my soul that it is the way it is. I hope to find out soon, which, as per this site’s qualities, makes me wonder if a death where you immediately destroy your brain such as a gun shot or blowing yourself up, is worse than say drifting off while asleep? I think, as I mentioned above, that since this theory depends partly on planck? time-scales, that it really wouldn’t matter, in addition, (for me at least) since I am a deist, that really wouldn’t be fair that those people who have been blown up by terrorists or war would be robbed of an afterlife because of the quickness and abruptness of their passing. When you think about how much happened in the first one-millionth of a second during the Big Bang, then something like dying in an explosion would be the equivalent of the last 15 minutes of chemistry class on the last period of school on a Friday. I think that there really is no way that this state will not be entered into when we die.
Best regards – AHA
Interesting concept.
Reminds me of this book: ‘Tertium Organum’. Its author postulates a 5th dimension which is perpendicular to 4th dimension (time), so in 5th dimension time remains constant. He further speculates this might be the place where enlightened ones ‘live’.
You need consciousness to dream though, right? Without a functioning brain stored inside of a living body, can consciousness continue after death?
If consciousness ends after our brain stops working, then it’s lights out. It’s like unplugging a TV from a wall outlet.
Some people believe that consciousness can exist without a physical body, but I can’t say I’ve seen any evidence to support that claim.
It is interesting to ponder.
In this theory, the dream doesn’t continue after death. It is only from YOUR own perspective, because you can’t be aware of it ending. It’s hard to explain. I also do not believe that consciousness can exist without a physical body. Well, it’s either this or nothingness. Either way doesn’t really matter.
consciousness and sentience/self awareness is just the byproduct of chemicals and neuro-mechanisms evolved to make survival more probable. How feeble the whole concept of conscious is is exhibited by how easily it’s influenced by drugs and even itself (placebo + dreams). If consciousness can be manipulated by subjecting the brain to something it’s clearly motorized by the brain. So if the brain isn’t there nothing can produce consciousness therefore it doesn’t exist and once we die it’s gone.
@Russo; Thank you.
But what if there’s some intangible, non-physical part of us which holds some level of “awareness”, that is able to “move on” after all biological functions have ceased operating?
I’m not taking a hard line stance on either side of the debate, just throwing out a what-if.
Personally, I believe in more than this theory, or a complement in addition to that would allow for your consciousness moving on when you are ready but if it was all their was that would be fine too, and it’s nice to offer the atheist a ‘plausible’ theory in which the screen does not go black at death, after all, they will believe in 6 extra unprovable dimensions to keep string theory alive so a POV time stopping NED which spans eternity should not be out of the realm of their acceptance, as long as they are not Atheist for the sake of the shock value they get from telling others, and hearing themselves say, that they ‘believe in nothing’ because I know there are a lot of ‘them’ out there.
Absolutely agree with you there Russo. See reply above. I don’t think there’s any magical part of us that survives death. It’s just something we humans seem to need to believe in to make ourselves feel as if life isn’t just a whole pointless exercise.
The whole concept hinges on the fact that your dying second stretches forever. The dying process lasts to you in an extremely exaggerated span similar to how a couple second dream in real time seems to you, the dreamer, to last much longer while you are experiencing the dream. Imagine that time to you slows way, way down, if not stops completely. In and of itself, this theory requires no faith in consciousness after death which is why it’s called the ‘Natural Afterlife’. Your consciousness did not leave your body, it is existing as your memories or a NED (never ending dream) and you are existing outside of the time reference in which the world around you during your dying second is bound. Bigger things have happened in much shorter amounts of time, like the expansion of the universe after the Big Bang. I find this theory to be the most favorable as it means that your dreams will be your afterlife or vice versa. ‘Heaven’ must be personal and unique to each individual in order to qualify as ‘Heaven’ IMO.
Yes! Thank you! I am glad somebody gets this.
I’ve heard Salt espouse something like this before. He mentioned that, for this reason, it is important to die while in a peaceful or positive state of mind.
I guess this all sucks for people who die horrifically, in fear and in pain.