Where do we go when we die?

Hm, I’m gonna have to go with Pittsburgh. I think there are some spots open in Wisconsin though, but you may need reservations.

Deist with a strong belief in reincarnation, here.

I believe (and it is only a belief, and I offer no proof) that we keep coming back until we’re ready to move on to something else.

Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which has died. Therefore, grieve not for the inevitable.
The Bhagavad Gita

Indeed so. Trunk’s analogy of going to sleep makes sense, but to me there’s still the thought of what happens next. Somehow my imagination won’t take “nothing” for an answer. Every time each of us here has ever gone to sleep, we’ve subsequently woke up.

Another strain on the imagination is what happens when it is sudden and does not involve a gradual loss in consciousness. (I’m thinking catastrophic type death here.) Not so much what happens to the person but what’s it like for them. I like to think of it as effectively spending eternity living out that last final moment, unable to think and unaware that time seems to have stopped. Maybe not the most accurate description but at least it’s easy enough to comprehend. In fact, that line of thought kind of works for all ways of dying anyway, even if that last moment is right at the point where consciousness ceases. For instance, a relative of mine passed away in 1991; for all he ever experienced, time may as well have stopped; his consciousness is stuck in 1991 forever.

It would be so much easier to believe in reincarnation. Going to sleep at the end of one life and waking up at the beginning of a new life. I wish there were more solid evidence for it; I wish I could still believe in it like I used to.

Hopefully some of that makes sense. It was written by a mind that would normally be in a non eternal state of unconsciousness at this hour. :smiley:

I think that when we die, that’s it. No heaven. No hell. Just death.

But I do believe that the energy that once lived in our bodies goes somewhere.

Reincarnation, perhaps?

My commiserations ice1000.

I believe that death is final. I find the concept of an eternal soul something of an oxymoron. Life is a process, my personality is not completely fixed. I’m as much a product of my experiences as my innate nature (genes?). An eternal soul implies stasis, which has nothing to do with life as I understand it.

However, there are some aspects of a person that remain after their death, in a sense at least. Parents pass on their genes to their children, and much more besides. The living retain memories of the dead. Both of these can be very positive, if the person has led a good life.