Would we want to live forever?

@glasstrees,

I have strange recollections of my childhood, really trivial and im not sure if they were real or not. Like seeing a dead man in my old house, waving at him and holding long gibberish conversations with him, even my mum remembers my behaviour that day, i remember tripping out massively when i had a fever and i remember a dream of mickey mouse chasing me with a chainsaw i remember everything else captured by photographs but thats about it, i was 3-4 before a strong concious memory developed.

@Imnotrussian,

Imnotrussian;76473 wrote:

I have strange recollections of my childhood, really trivial and im not sure if they were real or not. Like seeing a dead man in my old house, waving at him and holding long gibberish conversations with him, even my mum remembers my behaviour that day, i remember tripping out massively when i had a fever and i remember a dream of mickey mouse chasing me with a chainsaw i remember everything else captured by photographs but thats about it, i was 3-4 before a strong concious memory developed.

i think i was born old...
hated childhood-glad it's over, good riddance! :a-ok:

@glasstrees,

We fear death and love life. We want to live longer and longer and it is natural. But the fear that we cannot live happily for ever is something that harrows us.

Everything bores us if the use of it is prolonged. We need change, growth and transformation. That is why we hold jobs want to be promoted to higher ranks. We attend religious practices thinking that it enlightens us.

And I suppose if life grows, is transformed at different phases and intervals it does not bore us. Therefore there must be something that revitalizes us from time to time.

If we have another planet with lots of resources we can pass part of life in that new world and that preempts us from being bored with life.

Stagnation and averse to growth is what makes life despised.
Flow, transformation are antidotes in life.

@salima,

salima;76502 wrote:

i think i was born old...
hated childhood-glad it's over, good riddance! :a-ok:

I have a similar but unexplainable memory. It is about someone putting a large bird, maybe a turkey fully feathered into a large black three legged pot, full of boiling water over an open fire in a camp of some kind. It was not a movie it was a real event a real concrete memory

My parents dont have any recollection of an event like this but a great aunt told this was the practice when she was a girl, where her granny would put the bird into a pot of boiling water to loosen the feathers to make them easier to pluck

The strange thing is I remember actually seeing this happen long after this practice died out and my mother never used a three legged black pot on an open fire

Could this have been a memory of a past life happening?

@Alan McDougall,

Alan McDougall;76541 wrote:

I have a similar but unexplainable memory. It is about someone putting a large bird, maybe a turkey fully feathered into a large black three legged pot, full of boiling water over an open fire in a camp of some kind. It was not a movie it was a real event a real concrete memory

My parents dont have any recollection of an event like this but a great aunt told this was the practice when she was a girl, where her granny would put the bird into a pot of boiling water to loosen the feathers to make them easier to pluck

The strange thing is I remember actually seeing this happen long after this practice died out and my mother never used a three legged black pot on an open fire

Could this have been a memory of a past life happening?

Although past lives may never be proven, it is very strange that you would remember this. Past life recollections have been accounted all over the world with no real concrete evidence, some cases report after hypnosis that certain subjects have mentioned colourful and sometimes trivial "past lives" When we want something enough our brains are capable of creating new memories or even false memories. some people who have sufferred horrific circumstances don't actually remember the events that traumatised them but instead created (unknowingly) memories to replace the trauma. Its called regression or something like that. I'm not suggesting that you have suffered trauma and have replaced the event with the turkey but perhaps as a child you remember somebody recollecting the turkey times and built a memory out of empathy and fondness of your grandmother...im just spit-balling here lol

@Alan McDougall,

Alan McDougall;76541 wrote:

Could this have been a memory of a past life happening?

maybe someone was talking about it when you were very young and dont remember hearing it?

if it isnt that, then my explanation would be that we can tap into the consciousness of the whole of existence and have access to all that is, past present and future, but we dont know how to control it-most of us. sometimes it happens accidentally, and we get little snatches of events we never experienced. i think this is how edgar cayce was able to do the things it is reported that he did.

i dont believe there is anything like past lives. i dont see how a bubble of consciousness could stay intact and keep going around and around. picture a water fountain-every drop that goes up is part of the whole body of water, though it appears to be separate it only goes up so far and then returns. that one particular drop can never be again formed of the same exact molecules that once comprised it, though other drops will be born.
consciousness must be continually recycling itself, since energy cannot be created or destroyed.

@salima,

Alan McDougall;76541 wrote:

I have a similar but unexplainable memory. It is about someone putting a large bird, maybe a turkey fully feathered into a large black three legged pot, full of boiling water over an open fire in a camp of some kind. It was not a movie it was a real event a real concrete memory

My parents dont have any recollection of an event like this but a great aunt told this was the practice when she was a girl, where her granny would put the bird into a pot of boiling water to loosen the feathers to make them easier to pluck

The strange thing is I remember actually seeing this happen long after this practice died out and my mother never used a three legged black pot on an open fire

Could this have been a memory of a past life happening?

It might have been a dream that has gotten confused with your real-life memories. It happened to me several times, I commented/asked my parents about things that had happened and they told me it never happened, yet I remembered it as if it had. And oftenly me and my relatives/friends were involved in those memories so it couldnt be memories of past lives or anything like it, the only alternative other than real facts is dreams.

Sincerely, I think that text is just a big lot of gibberish Smile

The guy must have had an ultra-dream in his near death experience influenced by his christain beliefs and though it was real. His "god" has several characteristics wich I deem impossible, or, at least, absurd.

@glasstrees,

I wonder what immortality would do for the insurance industry....

@glasstrees,

It is a really scary thought to contemplate eternal existence and it is an even more scary thought to contemplate cessation of existence.

If I was put on the spot and somehow forced to choose between the two, I think like most of us I would choose immortality

But heck even that choice also needs thought because immortality might be an eternal hell!

So I will get cheeky and demand a meaningful eternity is a heavenly realm

@Alan McDougall,

What if eternal life was simply a continuation of the life we live normally?
no retirement age... no need for SS... Would we want to do the M-F 9-5 thing for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000...... years? besides, those holiday picnics would get kinda crowded, no?:whistling:

@Phredderikk,

Phredderikk;77934 wrote:

What if eternal life was simply a continuation of the life we live normally?
no retirement age... no need for SS... Would we want to do the M-F 9-5 thing for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000...... years? besides, those holiday picnics would get kinda crowded, no?:whistling:

We can always go insane and jump into the ******* lake! =)

@manored,

I can see the fun in living longer but only if i could remain able bodied and not some arthritic fool hardly able to even support his own body weight. There is however a beauty in growing old, like the seasons changing. What would life be like without regret and hindsight. We would be like a sprinter training all his life for the 100m meters only to find out that there is infact no end to the race. Maybe then we would loose interest in fighting to live life to the full. Wot would be the point.

@markymark phil,

I think i might like to live longer, but at 42, which isnt very old. I see myself losing interest somewhat, in things that used to fascinate me. I would rather turn back the clock to my 20s or 30s, and continue indefinitely from there.

Also, being immortal. I would always wonder about death. Is it the end? If not, then what is it? Of course i wonder that now, but thats different.

Neil

@salima,

salima;76186 wrote:

i wouldnt like to live forever without having an alternative. i want a choice rather than finding myself condemned to eternal existence. i want to be able to get my hat and check out.

You do check out. That's what death is. You get a fresh start. That's the beauty of it and why you don't remember your past; too much input. Too many flaws to deal with. Ingenious idea. Who wants to be in the same grade forever. Life as we know it is just a parenthesis in eternity. We would get horrifically bored if we did't get that refreshing break.

William

@William,

William;79142 wrote:

You do check out. That's what death is. You get a fresh start. That's the beauty of it and why you don't remember your past; too much input. Too many flaws to deal with. Ingenious idea. Who wants to be in the same grade forever. Life as we know it is just a parenthesis in eternity. We would get horrifically bored if we did't get that refreshing break
Quote:

True, there would have to be so many parameters in place before it would be viable. No more births would need to be in place for a start. Eventually jobs would become pointless as would money. In terms of the mind, I think you might start to get a bit stir crazy. Our biology has always be geared towards survival so it would be an unnatural combination of new biology and old mind state. I think if it was appoached gradually over generations then we could evolve the mind state to fall in line with our biology. The question still would remain.....would I get bored of my wife!!! Maybe we would become asexual beings. Just a thought.

@markymark phil,

@William,

William;79142 wrote:

You do check out. That's what death is. You get a fresh start. That's the beauty of it and why you don't remember your past; too much input. Too many flaws to deal with. Ingenious idea. Who wants to be in the same grade forever. Life as we know it is just a parenthesis in eternity. We would get horrifically bored if we did't get that refreshing break.

William

Well, assuming a "fresh start" is a reference to reincarnation. I would guess the reason we dont retain any memories, is because they are stored in the brain, and perish with it.

An afterlife is a nice thought, but of course there is no proof, and i dont call flaky mediums and their paranormal circus proof. Documentation of ghostly phenomena makes me wonder, but there is still doubt, as most of it is fake. Constructed for entertainment and the almighty dollar.

Maybe i am mistaken, maybe someone can direct me to the unequivocal evidence that i am unaware of.

Im not saying there isnt an afterlife, just that there is no proof that i am aware of.

Neil

@glasstrees,

There is no proof what so ever of the existence of ghosts or any other supernatural occurences including aliens that have visited us. There has been no proof either of life after death, none of this however disproves that it doesn't exist but you certainly cannot prove that it does.

@William,

William;79142 wrote:

You do check out. That's what death is. You get a fresh start. That's the beauty of it and why you don't remember your past; too much input. Too many flaws to deal with. Ingenious idea. Who wants to be in the same grade forever. Life as we know it is just a parenthesis in eternity. We would get horrifically bored if we did't get that refreshing break.

William

Im not really sure if we do lose our memories, because, well, it seens that winhout my memories I wouldnt be me, and therefore I cannot lose my memories. Though that raises the question of "How come you dont have memories of your past lives". Well, maybe this is our first life... that seens unlogical, but the very existence of the universe is unlogical: There is no logical way in wich it could have started, yet it exists, and thus I assume that something similar happens with our sucession of lifes: There is a first =)

@manored,

manored;79321 wrote:

Im not really sure if we do lose our memories, because, well, it seems that without my memories I wouldnt be me, and therefore I cannot lose my memories.

I disagree, If i were to be involved in any accident that causes trauma to the head, I may develop amnesia and forget who i am(what my name is), and all other memories could be wiped out as well. But, i would still be "me", or "I". I think memories are just a facet of "I", and "I" of course, would be my conscious awareness.

You know, the thing that exists if you close your eyes, and clear your mind. That is "you", but of course, its not absolutely clear what that is either, but it does seem certain that it is independent of memory.

Neil

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Would we want to live forever?

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