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Lv 6
? asked in Arts & HumanitiesPhilosophy · 5 years ago

Can the mind (conscience) survive after death?

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  • 5 years ago

    Regarding whether your mind or conscious still survives after death….Psalm 146:4 states regarding what happens to us when we die: His spirit goes out, he returns to the ground. On that very day his thoughts perish.

    Some religious teachings all share one basic idea—that some part of us survives the death of the physical body. According to almost every religion, past and present, we somehow live on forever with the ability to see, hear, and think. Yet, how can that be? Our senses, along with our thoughts, are all linked to the workings of our brain. At death, the brain stops working. Our memories, feelings, and senses do not continue to function independently in some mysterious way. They do not survive the destruction of our brain.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENS AT DEATH?

    What happens at death is no mystery to Jehovah God, the Creator of our brain. He knows the truth, and in his Word, the Bible, he explains the condition of the dead. Its clear teaching is this: When a person dies, he ceases to exist. Death is the opposite of life. The dead do not see or hear or think. Not even one part of us survives the death of the body. We do not possess an immortal soul or spirit. *

    SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE that we live on in another form, while others feel that death is the end of everything. THE BIBLE SAYS “The dead know nothing at all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5) When we die, we cease to exist.

    WHAT ELSE WE LEARN FROM THE BIBLE

    • The first man, Adam, returned to the dust when he died. (Genesis 2:7; 3:19) Likewise, all others who die return to the dust.—Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20.

    • People who die are acquitted of, or pardoned for, their sins. (Romans 6:7) There is no further punishment for sin after a person dies.

    As such, “The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all . . . So whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going.” - Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10

    “[Jesus] added: ‘Lazarus our friend has fallen asleep, but I am traveling there to awaken him.’ Jesus, however, had spoken about his death. But they imagined he was speaking about taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus said to them plainly: ‘Lazarus has died.’” - John 11:11, 13, 14

    Can the dead live again?

    WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

    • Yes

    • No

    • Maybe

    WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS

    “There is going to be a resurrection.”—Acts 24:15.

    WHAT ELSE CAN WE LEARN FROM THE BIBLE?

    • The Bible often compares death to sleep. (John 11:11-14) God can awaken the dead, just as we can awaken a person from sleep.—Job 14:13-15.

    • The Bible records several resurrections, thus giving us a solid basis for believing that the dead will be raised up.—1 Kings 17:17-24;Luke 7:11-17; John 11:39-44.

    Likewise, in response to your question…..the mind (conscience) does not survive after death.

  • Raja
    Lv 7
    5 years ago

    Human mind is like a computer's mind. A human body is a computer or a robot made of flesh, blood, tissues etc. After the destruction of a computer or robot completely you cannot find it's mind. The same is the case with the human beings. No one lives after death in any form. Once I was believing in reincarnation but after I have got the connection with the spirits and after many years I have understood clearly that no one lives after death. The mind never survives after death. To know this truth, I guess, God had created a situation to me, sent me to a computer center for a job where I have worked for few years and then He made me to read an English book (I don't remember the title of the book and name of it's author). My memory power is weak. Then I started to think myself and understood the truth.

    Spirits are separate elements. A human being is not a single spirit. A human being during his/her life time is living with many spirits which have joined one by one since birth. They are knowledge, skills, feelings, emotions, interests and everything. Even thoughts are not your own. For example, when you want to take a decision on a subject, one after another the spirits think and you just listen, choose or reject the ideas which they transmit to your mind through your brain in the form of thoughts. A human being is just a robot made of flesh, bones, tissues etc., and a toy of the spirits for their games.

    This is a great disappointment for many religious people.

  • 5 years ago

    Conscience is the meta programme of the mind

    The mind is the programme of the brain

    The brain is part of the body

    Therefore upon death the mind dies.

    The way for you to preserve your conscience is to record your thoughts and feelings, write them or use your computer.

  • 5 years ago

    There is certainly interesting evidence. Whether or not the evidence is convincing is a matter of opinion. The two studies I find most interesting are the 1997 study of the near-death experiences of the blind by Ring and Cooper and a case study, that of brain surgery performed on patient Pam Reynolds.

    Also interesting are the 2001 hospital study by van Lommel and another one by Parnia. Both are controversial but came up with interesting findings. Van Lommel found that if you know nothing about a patient except whether or not the patient has told an NDE story, you can make an educated guess about the patient's survival during the 30 days after his cardiac arrest, and the chance of this being lucky guesing is 1 in 10,000. A study considered too small to be be conclusive has raised a question about van Lommel's finding that there is no physiological explanation for NDE. That is, a small study found higher carbon dioxide in the blood of NDE patients. This led to a number of arguments among the researchers.

    Gideon Lichfield wrote a review of the studies for The Atlanic.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/0...

    Below: Dr Cooper and one of her subjects is interviewed - MSNBC report about the Pam Reynolds case

    Edit - Although I have seen down-votes to these studies a number of times, I have seen no attemps at refuting them.

    New York's a lonely town

    When you're the only surfer boy around

    - The Tradewinds

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKyQJDZuMHE&t=48s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO8UVebuA0g&t=112s

  • Marc
    Lv 7
    5 years ago

    Mine did last time I have a used consciousness , no memory of the life at all , I had reoccurring dreams from 3-5 years old exactly the same full colour , smells , no body consciousness hovering over my dead body on table in a medical hut , body covered in a sheet , much later in my 20's OBE's gave the same effect hovering over my present host exactly same feeling I learned to move around , later again using mindfulness same method to move consciousness around the body , its just energy doing its thing as an Evolutional Goodhist I see it as a natural part of energy driven evolution , I increase save-ability for re-hosting as a side effect of increasing inner happiness.

  • 5 years ago

    There is no substantive, demonstrable evidence of the mind surviving after the death of the brain. Damage part of the brain and the mind is also partly damaged. Damage the entire brain (death) and the mind ceases to exist. [Sam Harris]

  • 5 years ago

    The mind is not material. That being said, what affects the body doesn't not necessarily affect your mind.So I personally think it can still survive after death. However, I don't know if it will be awake/partially awake. Because when we're asleep our minds rest so that probably happens when you die too.

  • 5 years ago

    I don't know. Nobody living has ever experienced brain-death, thus nobody is qualified to offer anything more than opinion and theory on this subject.

    Sure, it's obvious to everyone that your physical senses cease to function.

    Which begs the following question - does consciousness require physical matter in order to exist?

    Then we're back to the start. "I don't know".

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    There is some good evidence for at least part of one's awareness and consciousness moving onward after passing on (generally, the outer waking consciousness is 5-sense-data-based, and it has to have some love of God and resonance with God's Truth and Mind):

    http://www.near-death.com/science/evidence.html

    http://www.nderf.org/

    http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/38/belief-in...

    Related: "The Answer You're Looking for Is inside You;" "Light Is a Living Spirit."

  • Anonymous
    5 years ago

    nope, the body dies, the mind dies, nothing exists... then, the mystery begins, what part of you exists through life and death, or if any does?

    it seems that according to buddhism of nichiren daishonin, the is a spiritual nature which exists, but it is no longer this ego-identity, it is the life-nature which manifests itself...

    dylan thomas speaks of a green bay upon which a wave arises and then falls back to be indistinguishable from the rest... this seems like the buddhist ideal of life and consciousness...

    the 'true entity of life' discusses the nature of life and the environment...

    the"heritage of the ultimate law" discusses the nature of life and death, and about the entity's existence...

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