One of the greatest mysteries that continues to elude us is what happens when we die.
Many religions and spiritual belief systems believe in life after death–that one's passing is merely but a transition into the next realm of existence.
Are we immediately reborn? Do we go to The Good Place?
People shared their various thoughts and ideas when Redditor throwawayacctlmaooo asked:
"What do you legitimately believe happens after we die?"
Not having a clue what happens was a common response, and some quoted literature or movies to convey what they thought did the concept justice.
Uncertainty
"I don't know and that's mostly okay by me. Sometimes I stress about it because I enjoy my life right now and I'd like to keep it, but other times I realize there's a lot we don't know about existence. It's kind of weird to see living things blip in and out of existence for what is, ultimately, such a short time."
"People have long since said that children tend to reference memories that couldn't be theirs. There are countless stories of older people seeing people before their passing. Many people cite having dreams or waking nightmares about loved ones passing suddenly even though they had no idea death was imminent."
"In my humble opinion, if there's more to life than our current, we'll find out when we get there. If not, I suppose it won't hurt us either way. We just need to remember to enjoy the good times as much as we can so when the time comes, there's no regrets."
– tehnutmeg
A Quote Describes It Best
"No idea, but there is this quote from the TV show 'The Good Place' that I really like and have found comfort in."
'Picture a wave. In the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there. And you can see it, you know what it is. It's a wave.'
'And then it crashes in the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while. You know it's one conception of death for Buddhists: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it's supposed to be.'
– AlexEvenstar
Words Of Wisdom From LOTR
"Gandalf to Pipin:"
"PIPPIN: I didn't think it would end this way."
"GANDALF: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it."
"PIPPIN: What? Gandalf? See what?"
"GANDALF: White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise."
"PIPPIN: Well, that isn't so bad."
"GANDALF: No. No, it isn't."
– DiabeticDave1
A Poignant Novel
"I was forced to read a book called 'Tuesday's with Morrie' in my english class. I hated it, because I was forced to read it, despite it being a great book."
"Anyway, somewhere in the book that i forgot, there's this quote, a joke I guess."
"The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air-until henotices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. 'My God, this is terrible,' the wave says. 'Look what's going to happen to me!'"
"Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, "Why do you look so sad?' The first wave says, 'You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?'"
"The second wave says, 'No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean.'”
"Anyway, I thought it related. And read 'Tuesday's with Morrie', it's good!"
People found peace in accepting non-existence.
State Of Not Being
"Just like before you were born. Not good, not bad, just non existence."
– SniffCheck
"In the great words of Mark Twain:"
'I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.'
– Eva__Unit__02
Not Dreaming
"It’s basically being unconscious and not dreaming. I find it comforting."
– UncleRooku87
Life Goes On Without Us
"Almost everything continues like it did before we died. It’s not that the party is going to end, it’s that we must leave and the party will go on without us."
"But your question is probably about what will we personally experience after death..There will simply be no more me to experience anything, just like there was no me before I was born."
– Bilbo_Fraggins
A perpetual existence through transformation or rebirth was another idea that brought comfort.
Transference
"Our energy — just like that of every living thing before us — will go on and become new things. Soil. Plants. Lions. Toilet paper. Space ship wheel arches. Dragon fly toes. We're all just part of the same system. Neither manufactured nor destroyed. We're just transferring that bestowed upon us from all those before. Death is life."
– four__beasts
A Father's Poem
"My dad wrote a poem a few days before he died that basically said this - i don't have it with me and it was much more poetic, but it basically said 'i died a star and was born a planet, I died a bird and was born a seed, why should I be scared of dying rather than excited to be born again?'"
"At some point I want to get it tattooed (he died in 2020)"
– ermagerditssuperman
Interbeings
"I like how Thich Nhat Hanh taught it (paraphrasing here): We have our human ancestors. We also have vegetable ancestors, mineral ancestors, animal ancestors. All of these things exist within each other, the philosophy of interbeing."
"The vegetables you eat don't cease to exist, they become part of you."
"Just yesterday I laid my 4-legged best friend to rest. Instead of cremation or burial, he was laid down surrounded by flowers (he was a squirrel I had raised, so a small animal). Another creature likely already came along, whether a coyote, vulture, hawk, or any other such animals we have around here. He will live on in another form."
– SuperflyX13
A Fresh Start
"i'd like to think we reset like a game and we could choose weather we get reborn or go to some sort of heaven or something."
– No_But_Yes_
According To Calculations...
"I'm under the impression that death is a separate experience we can't comprehend. Like someone with vision will never truly know the concept of blindness or someone with hearing will never know the concept of deafness."
"You only experience it while you're doing it and I am currently experiencing being alive as a human. You don't know what it was like before you were born because you're obviously alive. Just like you don't know deafness because your ears work."
"Beyond that, I believe the universe is in endless million-trillion year long cycles of growth and collapse and the fact that I exist at all means, throughout infinity, I am a guaranteed mathematic outcome and must repeat again."
"If you have infinite space, infinite time, and infinite possibilities, everything will repeat eventually. If you have infinite space, infinite time, but limited possibilities, what currently exists is a possibility and must repeat eventually. If you have limited space, but infinite time, and limited possibilities, what currently exists is a possibility and must repeat eventually. I don't believe a combination of limited space, limited time, and limited possibilities even exists but if it does I believe that means the limited time, space, and possibilities is contained within something and must always exist, meaning this world always exists as if a point on a graph."
"In the time between I think it's possible for atoms and particles that once made my brain to periodically reunite for small periods of time meaning that my memories will echo for eternity. Potentially, if mixed with other memories, or reuniting in someone else's brain, fragments of me exist for all time in varying degrees of sentience and lucidity."
"I find something as simple as 'God' or even 'Nothing' to be too limiting to be accurate. I feel like 'nothing' is just one out of an unimaginable number of possibilities. To claim to know one single answer out of infinity is ridiculous - and that extends to people who thoroughly believe in any religion. 'Religion' and 'Nothing' are two explanations out of infinity and neither are likely to be true by that ratio."
"I also think it's a little silly to suggest that there're no elements at play in regards to the universe, consciousness, and sentience that might escape human comprehension or scientific observable measurement. We're limited by our technology and our own minds and to think that humans have (or even can) unlock the secrets to everything is foolish. I absolutely believe that the universe works in ways which can't, and never can, be measured."
– bermudalily
The length of our journeys on this planet varies, but we all inevitably wind up making a departure towards the unknown.
The idea is frightening to some, while others accept the unknown and find peace in what lies ahead on the other side.
Wherever that may be, I hope it's a place where our energies reunite with the memories of those with whom we traveled closely as passengers on planet earth.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
Every now and then, a friend of ours might say something, or we might overhear a complete stranger say something that makes us stop in our tracks.
More often than not, what we can't believe we just heard is something so ridiculous, we can't help but put the person who said it in their place.
Other times, however, what we just heard might have stunned us silent because of how shockingly clever it was.
Resulting in our not wanting to scold or yell at someone, but rather give them a handshake.
Redditor SubmergingOriginal was curious to hear the sharpest and wittiest things they've ever heard, from friends and strangers alike, leading them to ask:
"Enough with the dumbest; what is the wittiest thing you've ever heard someone say?"
Don't Give Me So Much Credit...
'I was on a team at work that was on a project working insane overtime."
"One night after an 80-90 hour week, we were all sitting around the table trying to finish up so we could go home."
"Around 11, my buddy's wife called, dubious about the hours he'd been keeping."
"We heard her through the line - 'are you cheating on me?'"
"Exasperated, he looked at our boss, then replied 'honey, if I was cheating on you, I would have been home by now'."- lionbatcher
Eternal Optimism...
"Asked a blind guy if he'd been blind his whole life."
"He said 'Not yet'."- Feeling_Mode_6465
Free time Isn't The Only Thing He Has On His Hands...
"My brother got a vasectomy and when the doctor was releasing him and giving him instructions (with the nurse listening in), one of the orders was to 'come back and have a follow-up appointment after you’ve ejaculated 30 times'.”
"Without missing a beat my brother asked 'what time do you open tomorrow?'”
"The nurse couldn’t keep it together after hearing that."- UtahUtopia
Awkward Season 8 GIF by The Office
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Double Whammy!
"My pal uses the phrase 'he doesn’t look strong enough to carry information' and it cracks me up every time."
"Calling someone stupid and weak in one fell swoop."- JennyW93
Can't Hide Your DNA...
'Whenever I jokingly insult my mum, she says 'that must be where you get it from'."
"She cracked the code."
"I can never offend her without offending myself."- JennyW93
Self-Sufficient!
"My brother was a line cook at a New Orleans restaurant."
"My mom was in town, staying at a fancy hotel, and he stopped by after work, still wearing his kitchen whites."
"He was reading a newspaper in the lobby waiting for her to come down when the shocked lobby manager sputtered at him, 'MAY I HELP YOU!?!?'
"He answered, 'thanks, but I know how to read',” and went back to his paper."- jobrody
Morph Current Affairs GIF by Aardman Animations
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A Miracle!
"My brother-in-law’s comment."
"The entire family went out for my mother’s 80th birthday and after the meal we all went to a local park, largely occupied by the elderly, to rest."
"My mother needed crutches at this point, and they were resting against her bench."
"My 10-year-old niece, who looked like every starving waif image from Dickens, grabbed the crutches and started hobbling round the park."
"All the OAPs were following her progress with looks of pity until my brother ran up behind her, and kicked away the crutches."
"There was an audible gasp from round the park and then my niece picked the crutches back up and started chasing my brother, clearly intending to hit him."
"In the confused silence my brother-in-law’s voice rang out 'Praise be! She can walk again!'"
"We still think this was the highlight of the birthday celebrations."- DdraigGwyn
Still Legal, Whichever Way You Cut It...
"I picked up my pleasantly tipsy boyfriend from a nightclub."
"We were stopped by the Police for a random breath test."
"They asked me my age, and I said, 33."
"My bf blurted out '33? You told me you were 22'."
"Police just laughed and let me go."- Aggravating-Corgi379
Music Video Police GIF by Andrew W. K.
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A Bit Too On The Nose?
"Business law class in college years ago, talking about the issues that black Americans had before the Civil Rights."
"Amendment, trying to travel through the south with the discrimination so rampant, trying to find restaurants to serve them and decent lodgings."
"My instructor was posing a hypothetical: 'So you pull up out front of this place, you're exhausted from driving for hours, and you see the sign out front says 'Ku Klux Klan Motel'."
"'What would you expect to find there?'"
"Without missing a beat, from the back of the room came this gem: "'Extra sheets in every room?'"- NedsAtomicDB
Not Yet, Anyway...
"I was working with my friend and his dad."
"My friend (26) heard an ice cream truck near where we were working."
"He asked his dad if he could have a couple dollars."
"His dad asked, 'what for?'"
"My friend told his dad that there was an ice cream truck in the neighborhood, and that they were playing music."
"My friends dad told him "'They don't charge anything to listen to the music'."- tatersalad1234567890
Words Escape You In The Literal "Heat" Of The Moment...
"A friend of mine is a teacher and her husband is known for his wit."
"She told this story to him:"
"One day at school a kid took the hall pass and returned reeking like smoke."
"She asked the kid if he’d been smoking and he denied it over and over."
"She was about to send him to the office when she noticed smoke coming from somewhere."
"She told the kid and he realized that he didn’t put his cig out completely and it was burning in his pants pocket."
"The kid noticed and frantically tried to put it out and someone finally poured water on it."
"Her husband sat listening to this with a weird look on his face."
"She asked him what was wrong."
“'What’s wrong???'"
"'This was probably the only chance you’ll have in your life to say literally, ‘liar,liar, pants on fire’ and you missed your chance'."- Luder714
On Fire No GIF by PEEKASSO
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Amazing What You Might Say A Few Drinks In...
"When I went to a renaissance faire once, I went to a beer tent and ordered a Newcastle Brown Ale (seemed the most fitting for the surroundings)."
"The beer wench, without skipping a beat, said, 'Everyone wants a Newcastle - no one wants to remodel!'"- jayhof52
Read The Room People!
"My dad wiped out when skiing down a mountain and lost a ski."
"After a few minutes of hunting for it, he gives up, slings the one remaining ski over a shoulder and starts walking down the mountain in his ski boots."
"About half-way down, another skier stops and goes 'Gee! Did you lose a ski?'"
"My dad instantly replied 'No, I was out for a walk and found one!'"- PeterJoAl
There's a reason your mother always told you to "use your words".
As clever remarks can have a much more lasting effect on people than a push or shove.
