The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

my question, and often something that i ponder is 'what happens to our conscious thought when we leave this life? Is it possible to have a continued reality without thought?'

sorry if this seems a stupid question but i would love to hear some views and opinions on this subject.

I think the problem is quite the other way around:
Is it possible to have thought without continued reality.

Meh. To elaborate, without wading through the marsh of religion, or trying to define concious thought;

Thought, as we know it, requires a thinker.

On another note, some animals, who need to be on their feet as soon as possible because of the constant threat of predators, immediately try to stabilise themselves, and are on their feet within minutes. Whether this is an evolutionary need or not, there may be some form of Genetic Memory involved.

If this is the case, a shred of us may be carried over to our offspring, but not _concious_ thought.

Who's to know until we cross that plane upon our death?

A life force can be just energy. Your lifes energy can still exist without you havinng conscious thought. The energy of a soul I think can go back to the Earth's overall energy field. Some people believe that. Also, in reincarnation, the same person is born without having the prior lifes memories ( much of the time ). In other words, you would not need to have your mind thinking about it to exist.

to have a memory, you require conscious thought. can you have an unconscious thought?
otherwise we will lose all memory, which would make life insignificant.

What signifigance do you think it has?

erratik, do you not believe in the unconcious? Instinct? Muscle memory?

Hey! Muscle memory is a great point to bring up CTyler! One time I had a bloody mary day~ drank way too many. Was I ever sick! Anyway, my stomach remembers even though my mind is long over it~ it doesn't want me to drink another one ever!

Hehehehe.
Not exactly what I was referencing, but hey..

(by the way, I know very well what you mean :P )

LOL Well I think we will not ever know till we cross the plane ...so .

again who is to say one way or the other until we have passed on to the next existance. no one can actually tell you simply because they are gone.

That's true. And Houdini and his vwife tried it remember. He said that he would make sure he came back to tell her. It's a shame that didn't work.

I'm following you CTyler, it may not be thought but possible other things not based in thought. Maybe emotions that are not physically based: Love, fear etc..

I'm with CTyler on this one as well. And there is proof of unconscious thought every day. A beating heart, blinking eyes, and breathing lungs are all things that are done without conscious thought.

Along the lines of what CTyler was talking about I would suggest reading: Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. This book brings up several cases where the genesis of thought is basically scientifically proven to reside in the brain. Thus all of our thoughts and emotions are nothing but chemical impulses that our neuro system interprets and then secretes the appropriate hormones for.

That said, this does not rule out the idea that spirit can have thought since it basically goes over that our thoughts are neurological impulses which are nothing more than energy, and chemicals exchanged.

The question becomes when separated from the physical form to just energy, if consciousness continues; what changes does it go through. We know that damage to our systems can cause personality, emotional and behavioural changes- is it the same when not connected to the physical body, does the thought of energy become less or more of what it should be?

thankyou everyone for you comments you have given me alot of ideas to look through. thankyou saharia i will definently be reading that book, it sounds as though it will help me alot.

well look at people that are in a coma they have lost consciousness but all of there physical life is still there . There heart beats , they breath , some say they even dream .

now the thought of consciousness after death is still a mystery . You would have to ask someone that has died

I think when u leave this life u dont have any more thoughts

I have thought about this some. I don’t think that we can have conscious thought without reality. I think that once all reality is gone so is conscious thought. The hell of it is that if I am right we will never know what happens. Once all life is gone from us so is thought.

Is there any proof that there is a life after death.

No proof in life after death as of yet, just a deep rooted belief. Perhaps our conscious thoughts are like dreaming. Like memories from a past life dream like pictures or feelings without words.

People keep saying reality... perhaps they mean "physicality". Even when dead the body has energy that is put back to the earth. Decomposition takes energy and other organisms to occur.

Just because we don't understand them, there are plants that actually go "sour" when an animal eats their leaves. Thought or just chemical reaction? Either way it is a reaction that seems to have thought behind it.

This is part of the idea behind the ideal of thoughts being things. Placebo effect should also be considered. This is where our thoughts actually seem to have an impact on how our bodies respond.

So if part of our thoughts are energy, there is a potential that the energy we view as "soul" theoretically could exist outside of our physicality.

When I am feeling loved, or love towards someone, I feel warm and joy, No concious thougt, I just am. This is what I hope the otherside oflife is like. Pure joy,pure love. And depending how the measure time on the other side of life, this sensation could last forever.

Which are we discussing here, sub-concious thought, super sub-concious thought? As they both partain to the inactive thought processes the mind attributes.

wow confusing.. I don't even know how to answer this, the question makes my head spin. (or maybe thats cuz I'm overtired)... but I would think that thought would not cease to exist. I mean they are beginning to be able to prove that people who go into a state where they would be considered a vegetable still have thought going on. To me that just says that thought is stronger than the physical world.

That and after the body dies, the brain still functions for quite sometime...Brain death is the only out for true death to be apparent.

I think that idea is possible.

I believe that has been already called a mind over matter state.

The brain dies after 6 minutes with out oxygen.
Once the cardio vascular system collapses the clock is ticking. This is fact, not speculation. Certain evironmental factors may effect the actual time it takes until brain death.

Beyond that any thought would have to be related to the "soul", a widely debated topic in it's self.

When we leave this life I dont beleive we have any more thoughts

with no more thoughts, that would mean that we would not have any memories?
do you need to think to have a memory?

without memories your own life itself would not be remembered making it pointless?

thoughts are always there.its what ties us to this life.when we die someone always has us in there thoughts

I think that even without thought you would have memories.. you just wouldn't know what they meant... I think that you would see them go through your head but not be able to comprehend what they mean or remember how you felt.

The conscious thoughts that impress upon the soul ... for example a meditative mind that pauses with the soul could resonate with-in the soul soul implacated thought perhaps Limbo will let a cross between the two a how light was your mind when you past.that could play a part in the die with a smile or frown so what crashes your mind (the life before yer' eyes cliche)could be the summery of the spark that condensses or signs out of the shell/vessel.

Good point made earlyier brain death is final death . they can keep the body alive with machines but the soul has gone on

TegoSanguisitim has a valid point.
I believe that mental processes vs. consciousness of the soul itself would be the core question here.

again who is to say one way or the other until we have passed on to our next life.

I think its reborn in another being.

I think most just disappear, as it were.

Its hard to say but the more you think about it the more sence it could or could not make. It sometimes brings me fear to knwo there wouldn't be anymore.

you could always consider that we are energy and energy keeps going till it runs out but even when it is preceived as being gone its just transformed in to some thing else that continues on in its place.

I don't see how it would be possible to continue in reality with out the thought process. It just seems like we need our thoughts too much to not have them.

could a movies be watched without screens,without projectors,possible but frame by frame.

concious thoughts- i always believed that was part of the memmory of our free will,which everyone has,and believe that all the impressions and memmories in our conciousness goes with all those who depart from this earthly plane onto their next existance,wherever that may be.

Persons have reported leaving their bodies and going to some other place (sometimes distant) that is out of range of their normal senses and observed and later reported on events while astral traveling so Yes i do think the other is possible also....

I would have to say that when we pass the conscious thought does too.

I feel we are part of 'the one', so on our physical death, we return to 'the one.'

It's a hard concept to imagine...That's one thing we do without being able to help it. Form thoughts, ideas...I really don't know what happens to us when we die, I think if we do move on to another place, our thoughts are part of that.

Seems like the only thing that keeps our memory alive are those who are still living.

We probably don't really have thought, just feelings.

I think this was a great question, and I don't really think there would be a way of knowing, maybe unles you think of those that have had died and were brought back as in, flatline and were able to be revived, are they able to remember dying ?

The answer depends on the definition of "thought", and the definition of "reality", and is going to be as varied as all of us trying to answer it.

Is a thought simply chemicals and electricity firing in our brains? That would imply that thought is dependent entirely upon the flesh of the brain, and that without it, there is no thought. In order to have a thought that continues after all activity in the brain has ceased, it needs to be assumed that thought is not dependent upon the brain...or not entirely so. If it were entirely independent, why stay within one brain? Why stay in a brain? Since our thoughts are anchored in our brain, (seen by the fact that I am never not the body that fell out of my mother) it is certainly implied that there must at least be a co-dependency upon the brain. The question then becomes, what evidence is there that thought is not entirely dependent upon the brain?

I think that it is possible.

The mind is always thinking weither we're conscious of it or not. I think the only time its not is when you're dead.

that's something i too have wondered quite a lot. what if one were to blow it off as dumb, and then some wrathful god wre to damn them? but is it better to believe, just to save your soul for what may be after death, when you normally wouldn't? most religions seem to have some similarish form of utopia to go to after death, depending on who lyou worship...but why does it matter? as long a s you worship a god then why does it matter? cause no matter whom you believe in don't all you thoughts or prayers or whate4ver getto the same place,? maybe whatever you beleive will happen to your soul afer death is what happens...? have you ever seen dead like me? its the awesomest tv program, discontinued, but showed that when one died the soul would go some whre where it would be hapiest...

Well that is what I want to know, and why I posted the near death experiences thread, in addition to the other one here.

One man told me once that had passed, that he went through all the experiences that he had had with other people, such as conversations and fights and saw their point of view and would then understand things clearly and learn from it. He said that is what we all do when we pass. I wonder. I wonder where my Mom is now.

DarkSyn -

Or when you're brain dead.

This is a really interesting question with many interesting ideas.

I think that thought is co-dependent on the physicality of the brain in order to be expressed in this reality/plane. But I also believe that thought is expelled energy which leaves us and moves throughout on an entirely different realities/planes as well.

(that's just my two cents)

'what happens to our conscious thought when we leave this life? Is it possible to have a continued reality without thought?'
???? good question

i believe our conscious and unconcious thoughts are all part of our soul so they go with the spirit, the soul off to either accend, decend back to earth, or be recycled, as in another round on earth in a new body.

Tough question ... one that can't really be answered with much certainty here as you would have to ask someone who dies. But I don't know that you would have conscious thought after death ... Would you even want to? I believe that we are energy and our energy will then be redistributed ... so the conscious mind would essentially cease to exist.

in my oppinion,
our thoughts are continued but not without reality.once we leave this earth our thoughts are nothing more than mere memmories for our loved ones to carry on and ponder upon.

Well if one is dead you are unconscious, and if you are unconscious, I think its logical to assume that all conscious thought patterns are terminated...

When we die our physical body, including our brains die as well airgo our thought included

Mara -

To be unconcious doesn't one have to be alive?

I don't think anything happens to our thoughts when we die, we just stop having them as a person

knights -

Then something does happen to them.

Who can honestly say for sure, i mean it could just stop or it could go on i mean anything is possible

In my opinion, reality only exists as we perceive it to be, thus, our conscious thought is the reality we imagine...

I think that once we pass or cross over we dont necissarily have conscious thought as we dont percieve the physical realm anymore.

~Tego~ had a great point with the soul thought process, I would take this under concideration as it partains to sound waves and thought patterns.

For example, we seem to relax with music, which to us is an invisible wave of energy coursing through our body. But, after we die, our soul as the wave of energy itself would begin its transition into the next dimension.

This I think would be considered as soul thought. Though it cannot be proven, since perception is again, within the eye of the beholder before and after death.

If you mean using the same brain we have today then no because when we die our physical body is gone

Although I believe we can live on through our spirits who in fact can still think

It’s not a stupid question and one Quantum research is trying to help answer. Sadly there is no solid answer nor is anyone close to one yet.

One of the founding debates is weather our energy continues and to what degree. If it continues as a whole than it’s possible that “we” will continue to exist in a different state. If our energy breaks up to small than “we” most likely do “end” but our energy would still continue and possibly be recycled.

Sadly no research group sees the possibility of any eureka moments of discovery any time soon. We seem to be a millennium away from any progress in this area of understanding.

Could very well happen. But most don't realize things like that.

There is nothing but thought and speculation on this subject until something is scientifically proved.

There have been great discussions here and the book that was mentioned is very good reading. Wish I got more than 1/3 through it before I lost it.

That is very true. But people most the time are so closed off to things it makes me wonder if they even have a conscience worth anything.

I personally feel that after we leave this life, our conscious thought continues with us into the next one, even in the after-life. Think about it...how else could mediums know exactly what message a spirit is sending their loved ones here in this realm if it wasn't a conscious thought? Just something to ponder. :)

i agree with shattered. our concious goes with us . but its not a stupid question. actually pretty cool. i never thought about it before and thats the object sorta of this gd thread. my personal belief is if we are reincarnated then the concious mind goes with us.

perhaps the conciousness purges all things trivial and anything significate is transferred to the soul the rest may dissapate to those you love and those who share your gene line (there for transmiting your concious until a "radio"tune to the right 'frequancy"ie your relatives yet born.get a touch of you and what dominated the conciousness of their ansesters

Sadly,my mind tells me it all stops period and that is the end of us.

This is a tough one. I know when I have passed out due to shock (not a fan of needles) I will have a killer micro-dream.

I will only be out for 20-40 seconds, but the dreams I have feel as if they last for days.

I belive that once you are gone, you would go into a hyper-conciousness, where your being is aware of so much more, but not aware of the present.

Kind of like when people die on the ER table but then are brought back.

As I see it.. Death is an end and a new beggining.. I will continue on but this story must end so a new one can start. There are ghosts, comunications with such enities.. that happen daily to those who listen.

I dont really know the answer to that, but possibly i would just imagine that our thoughts would just stop when we pass away.

our thoughts are replaced by other peoples memory of us, which i hope is a positive thing.

I think our thoughts can only be continued through others. They will never be directly our thoughts but what we believed or felt passionate about can be passed on from person to person.

When we die, I think we just...die.

Well in your question you are asking if thought continues on and the answer is yes as thought i energy and energy continues on forever it just changes shape and form .

I wrote an article on that some ages ago. It's still in the Member Articles section.

Our thoughts are nothing more than Neurons firing with electricity. Energy.
And since energy is a universal constant it could be argued that thought is energy.

If that is true, then WE do not create thought, but simply restate thought already existant in the constant. Reincarnating the thought, so to speak.

It is depressing. When we die, our thoughts, our energy just return to the constant, and nothing has changed. Nothing has been invented, and nothing has been lost.

concidering that there is no proof to this I really couldnt tell you. If you think about it where would the conscience thought be coming from? If the body and mind is gone there is no conscience is there?

The thoughts probably stop.

There are brain functions that work automatically, like blinking, breathing, etc... those that have been around for millions of years and then the actual mind.

When someone is in a coma or unconscious, their brain is still functioning but in a limited capacity in that condition.. but, who's to know if there is dreaming of some kind while in that state?

A body can be kept alive indefinitely but if there is a flatline brain wave, then the mind is gone.. wouldn't that mean the conscious mind or even soul is already vacated the body? Or held until the body dies?

hottubmolly -

Could you explain that a bit more?

i like to think of today that what happens later because could there be nothing no more thoughts or is it just a new beginning.. who knows

It probably is either re-incarnated into a new body or disappears completely.

Thought is want makes us realize we exsist. If there is no conscious thought, we don't exsist. I suppose the best example is the comatose patient who awakes and doesn't know how long they've been "asleep" They had no conscious thought during this period so they didn't exsist in that time. I suppose the thought process is relative to perception. Perception IS reality and if you don't perceive, you don't have realization either.

I believe that our thought process,more often than not, will go with our spirit into the next plane of existence...but sometimes,just sometimes our spirits stay on in this plane and some other body ends up with our thought process,hence our memories and this i believe is why some ppl can recollect events from an era before....just my 5 cents worth.

Technically a person with concious thought is able not to exist, if you look at in the way that some people might believe reality isn't real.

I think they die with our brain.
Perhaps our memories, wisdom and knowledge are imprinted upon our souls, but only as am imprint and not a solid thing.
Otherwise, when our brains die, so does our thinking.

Well I do have a question... if we had no conscious thought beyond death.. why is it we have past life memories... or near death experience memories?

I think that when we pass there is still some conscious thought. But not much.

This thread has been automatically closed for length.