I did get messed up by some anxiety and have these thoughts rolling through my head so I’ll leave it at cosmic horror warning.

spoiler

I’m not religious but I have thoughts about experiencing consciousness and what it is. I say that consciousness is independent of memory because we forget, clearly dependent on our physical body, etc. generally I do say that we don’t know consciousness so maybe it can be reconstructed (in the can’t rule out the possibility way)

So I can see scenarios were my conscious could pop into existence without my memories after I die (as I’m writing this I realized that’s nothing to fear).

I am trying to adopt healthier mindset of looking at everything in life as a quest, new things are a call to action, and that it’s okay if everything I do amounts to little in x number of years (worked out okay for ozymandias, right?).

Im probably just rambling because my life has got boring and monotonous along with actual fear of American politics.

  • missingno@fedia.io
    9·
    3 days ago

    Suppose reincarnation was real. But no one has any memory or awareness of a past life. So then what connection does said past life even have to you? How can any supposed past 'you’s really be considered the same you?

    • Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
      2·
      3 days ago

      But no one has any memory or awareness of a past life.

      Yes, that’s how the religion of reincarnation (sorry, I forgot which religion it is) has been taught in school to us westerners.

      But with that condition the whole thing is not provable and not deniable, and makes no sense in general, because it remains purely a theory far away from all normal life.

    • Cattail@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      3 days ago

      In my scenario it would be “consciousness” whatever that is. I could imagine myself with different set of memories or alternate timeline where a different set of events happened. I don’t have any evidence that those scenarios exist, but it would paint a picture that I could be a different person or even a different living continue being.

      But yeah if I did have a past life it’s totally lost to me.

      • missingno@fedia.io
        3·
        3 days ago

        But if this other consciousness has no continuity or connection to the consciousness that is currently ‘you’, how can it be said to be you?

      • Brave Little Hitachi Wand@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        This may be a problem created by the vagueness of language. We don’t yet know how consciousness works out what it even is, so we can’t assume that it functions independently of your perceptions, memories, and thoughts. It’s a bit like that chestnut about Star Trek transporters, does it kill you and recreate you somewhere else?

        Is consciousness merely a map of reality in a constant process of adjusting itself, or is there something there that exists separate from everything that makes us ourselves?

        I spend some time thinking about it. I’ve always been by turns impressed with consciousness and very annoyed with its limitations.