# How do we know what happen after we died? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 6, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410 "2003-03-06T03:23:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LowerLip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/839c29/32.png) [@LowerLip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LowerLip)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/21 "2003-03-06T13:25:30Z")
Thank you lekatt. I visited the web site and I’ll look forward to the book. (late March) If I had a lamb I would have it bleat all through the night while the above is sleeping. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/22 "2003-03-06T14:33:58Z")
The point of the matter is, though, we only have one documented case of a person who died, stayed dead for long enough for all bodily functions to cease, and then returned to life. I… don’t think his experiences are typical, though, and the reports of it were written down a minimum of sixty years later. Near Death Experiences are interesting, even if the research is a bit lacking in structure, but the real problem with them is that they are merely _near_ death. Something entirely different may happen when one is completely deceased. We need a nice, rigid, well documented, scientific experiment to answer this. Unfortunately, while most of human history has been focused on more efficient ways to produce the first half, the second half of the experiment can not yet be reliably reproduced. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/23 "2003-03-06T14:56:11Z")
No one knows. It is unknowable. Anyone who tells you different has “faith”, not knowledge. Or they have “hope”, but not knowledge. You can’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/24 "2003-03-06T15:04:54Z")
> [@](#): > > **E-Sabbath** said: > The point of the matter is, though, we only have one documented case of a person who died, stayed dead for long enough for all bodily functions to cease, and then returned to life. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/25 "2003-03-06T15:06:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*Cite? \*\* Lazarus! 😉 Jesus? ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/26 "2003-03-06T15:12:55Z")
Ask **Doc Cathode**. That’s how I know what happens, (to us), after we die. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/27 "2003-03-06T15:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > **vanilla** said: > Lazarus! > 😉 > Jesus? I know **E-Sabbath** was referring to the NT. I was just facetiously trying to point out that religious literature hardly counts as reliable “documentation.” It’s not even fair to say that Jesus was the only resurrected person or God in a mythological context. Without making a judgement about the veracity if the gospels, I just want to say that they do not constitute reliable “proof” of anybody coming back from the dead. I’m not trying to denigrate the story, I’m just saying that it offers no objective, _scientific_ data as to the question of whether we can _know_ anything about a surviving consciousness after biological death. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/28 "2003-03-06T15:22:38Z")
I know, I was being funny, or trying to. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/29 "2003-03-06T15:23:53Z")
Oh, sorry. :o ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/30 "2003-03-06T15:27:06Z")
To be fair **E-sabbath** only made the claim that the event was documented. AFAIK, that just means that a document exists about it. But also to be fair there are more than just one documented case. Even the NT includes two instances as **vanilla** pointed out. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/31 "2003-03-06T15:35:11Z")
Man, if Houdini couldn’t make it back, I doubt anyone can! ---
**Author:** ![Dryga\_Yes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Dryga\_Yes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dryga_Yes)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/32 "2003-03-06T15:36:34Z")
Extrapolation. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/33 "2003-03-06T16:51:36Z")
An interesting sidestep to the unanswerable question in the OP is If something of us is left ‘alive’ after death, what does that something know? It seems to me that the something (let’s call it a soul for convinience) would not contain memories of the life that we had. My reasoning is that it is becoming pretty clear that the physical brain has the capacity and structures necessary for remembering the event of our life. Now such structures would be unnecessary if the soul was itself capable of remembering, so I would conjecture that the soul itself does not have memory. No when we consider how much of our ‘selves’ we associate with our relationship with our memories, this has the disturbing effect of showing that our souls are not synonymous with our ‘selves’. The soul would be hard to link with the life that begot it. It would also make reincarnation and the Jesus statement that who is mrried to whom does not matter in heaven, easier to understand. Without memories the soul would not drag skills from one reincarnation to another, nor would marriage remain an issue in heaven. If the soul exists, I think it contains only motives are decision making abilities. Hense a reincarnation may achieve similar things in different incarnations, and a soul in Heaven could be judged (good goals/motives, non-selfish decision making), and coul exist forever without ‘dieing of bordom’ because without memory time is not a discernable thing. As you may have guessed I could go on and on … 😉 But I’ll leave my ideas at that for now, Cheers, Bippy. ---
**Author:** ![FIREMAN44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4af34b/32.png) [@FIREMAN44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FIREMAN44)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/34 "2003-03-06T17:12:29Z")
The way I see it is, one day I’ll be proven right and be happy or I’ll be wrong and I won’t care. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/35 "2003-03-06T17:27:16Z")
I was attempting gentle humor, Diogenes. I was thinking mostly of the ‘three days’ part, as many resurrections occur nigh-instantly after death, in mythology. Or, actually, sometimes years later… The point I was making was, well, we can kill people real good, but they don’t come back. NDEs are, well, near, but not completely dead-dead. ---
**Author:** ![lekatt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lekatt/32/7269_2.png) [@lekatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lekatt)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/36 "2003-03-06T19:05:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* > \*\*I believe in life after death as much as life before birth. > > Which is not at all. > > Also, I feel I should warn unsuspecting lambs what happens when you [indulge **lekatt**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=156629) \*\* [http://www.prebirth.com/prebirth/index.html](http://www.prebirth.com/prebirth/index.html) All things are possible, skeptics should not limit their knowledge so much. They could learn so much more about the world they live in. Love Leroy ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/37 "2003-03-06T19:21:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lekatt \* > \*\*[http://www.prebirth.com/prebirth/index.html](http://www.prebirth.com/prebirth/index.html) > > All things are possible, skeptics should not limit their knowledge so much. They could learn so much more about the world they live in. \*\* HAHAHAHAHAAAAAA. Hello, Lekatt? This is the pot. You’re black. Don’t tell us about learning until you’re ready to open your own mind a few millimeters. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/38 "2003-03-06T19:22:14Z")
I’ve already learned what you believe. I just don’t accept it. Big difference. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/39 "2003-03-06T19:26:26Z")
Oh, by the way, there’s a difference between saying “all things are possible,” which _may_ be true, and “all things that we believe in actually happen,” which is definitely not true, and which seems to be a good description of your philosophy, based on your posts. ---
**Author:** ![FIREMAN44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4af34b/32.png) [@FIREMAN44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FIREMAN44)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410/40 "2003-03-06T20:21:45Z")
Why can’t we all get along? Everyone has an opinion and is free to express it, thing is when all is said and done, only one group will be able to say, “nay, nay, nay, nay-nay” and have anyone around to hear it! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-we-know-what-happen-after-we-died/159410.md?page=3)