Consciousness after death?

Question

When it comes to what happens you die, I can accept two things:
One, is that your consciousness shuts down, which seems scary but if you think about it you won't be AWARE of it, sort of like before birth.
The other option would be that in some form you are still conscious, whether it be something as silly as floating as a ghost, or racing through the universe as now your consciousness is not behind the wall of our brains (http://www.near-death.com/experiences/judaism03.html is one of the few reports of NDE in which without the brain they were able to understand everything).
What do you think happens? What do you define as the human "conscious", and do you think it simply stops after death, or continues on somehow?
I would like to be conscious in some kind of way, because I do ENJOY being alive...but I've come to accept the fact that if I do just shut down - like I said, there will be no feeling of being sad about it, no worry or pain.
Please no "JUST CONVERT TO (religion)" replies. :)

There are a couple of answers saying they believe in the spirit - I suppose I should add this:
I believe in a "soul". My definition of a soul is that extra bit in humans that makes us different from the rest of the life on Earth. And even if the "soul" is a process of evolution, I believe it's still there.
Now, who is to say that it goes on after death? It might stop just as much as the brain does, right?
Anyways, back to what I was original talking about...if the conscious were to go on after we die, I believe that IS a soul, so I hope we're on the same page. Consciousness = soul/spirit.

Answer 1

You have answered your own question. There is no way for us to know wether there is continuation of consciousness, so let's live this present moment right and fully, and be happy today. Like Epicurus said:
"Death should not concern us, While I am, death is not, and if death is, I am not." Death is foreign to us, or like Socrates said before drinking the hemlock: if death is like sleeping, a long sleep then how pleasurable it is, and if there is something after, how great it would be. So either way, it's all right.

I recomend that your read Pascal's pensees and pay special attention to his wager, it's very enlightening.

Answer 2

I cannot give you the answer you are looking for yet I can tell you what happened to me when I died. I was clinically dead 5 separate times and the doctors brought me back against my will. Yes I could see everything hear and (feel(understand)) everything there is no pain no fear no hurting (emotionally) I felt one with the universe or as some call GOD and GOD is not a religion It is much more I can't even begin to explain God. Keep looking for your answers you will find them. There are other things that happened to me also I sometimes know things now that I should never know or have a clue to. I have short term memory loss; but I can remember bits of information my previous lives we are all connected in more ways than we know. Oh I almost forgot I did not see a heaven or hell nor any of my dead relatives. I believe that we will return again and again. I know that I will die again (this body) sometime near the end of november or the first december 2007 and will be returning sometime in 2027 and no I am not afraid
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Answer 3

I believe consciousness (firings of cells in the brain) does not continue after death, but that the eternal soul continues to exist.

Answer 4

i once lived lived with an RN who scored extremely high on her state exams, she worked in intensive care and the recovery room at a major hospital, she had been there and seen many people pass on.one night shift a patient in terminal condition coded and could not be revived, he was covered by a sheet and left in a room with the door closed about 8 rooms down from the nurses station. one of the nurses started berating the dead man for very insensitive,bitchy and selfish reasons from what my ex live in told me.all of a sudden amonitor sounded from the room the man was left in, my ex lady friend hurried down there and found the man breathing lightly with a bare pulse. immediate procedures were followed and the man was revived and lived. when the nurse who had done the talking left her break and came to see what was going on the former coded dead for almost 7 minutes, man looked right at her and ask her;IN THE VERY WORDS SHE HAD USED WHY SHE HAD SAID THAT ABOUT HIM! there were 5 witnesses,death as we define it is not real,think of youself as conscious energy that has another state of being that you pass into when your body ceases to function

Answer 5

I think that it's "lights out" time. Your consciousness is a product of the working human brain.

Answer 6

While it might be nice to see long dead relatives and to think that we'll continue into another peaceful existence, without proof, it's only fanciful thinking.

Answer 7

And on my death bed, I will experience complete consciousness. So, I have that going for me.

Answer 8

i think concsciousness is awareness, perceptions and sensations of our body and spirit. probly your body stops, but i think your spirit will live on.

Answer 9

I sure that we are more conscious when we die.

Answer 10

I figure I'll find out eventually, as will we all.