Do people ever stop thinking?

Question

Do people ever stop thinking? If you are dead, do you still think in the afterlife? Eygiptians believed that when you died then you were in an afterlife with your stuff. Can people stop thinking? If you stop thinking then apparently you forget how to breath. Do people ever stop thinking?

Answer 1

It is possible to stop thinking. Thoughts are generated by internal and external stimulus, thus they can be stopped.

However, the absence of thought is an unusual sensation.

What happens is that thought dwindles away to nothing and all that is left is a non-thinking observer.

Very few people can do this. Probably only long-term meditators or others who have learned to control and direct the thought process.

And no, if one stops thinking, one does not stop breathing. Bodily functions such as breathing are not conscious - they are unconscious and not related to thought process. Otherwise we would all be thinking constantly to ourselves - "Now I have to take a breath."

As for the afterlife. Now, if one assumes that such a thing exists, then one would assume that thought would be a component of that afterlife. This is because we assume that the afterlife is rather like life but on a different plane of existence. Which is essentially what the Egyptians believed.

There is also a school of thought that believes that when we die, the thinking process can continue as it is not necessarily related to the existence of the brain.

The afterlife is not necessarily provable, but the contemplation of it's existence (and the belief in one) runs throughout every religion and spiritual teaching in the world.

It all depends on whether one believes we are simply mechanical beings composed of brain and body, or whether one believes that there is another component, which is beyond the physical. If one believes the latter, then physical death is not an end,it is just a transmutation.

Answer 2

I have to wonder if some people ever START thinking...Seriously though, certain bodily functions like respiration and heartbeat are carried out automatically by your brain, so you don't have to think in order to breathe or to circulate blood throughout your body or to digest your food...you get the idea. So there is a big difference between autonomic functioning of the brain and cognitive function (thought). Do we think in the afterlife? Good question. Since we don't have the use of our organic brain anymore then we wouldn't be able to "think" in the traditional sense, but if there is an afterlife (and I believe there is) then at the very least we would be self-aware. Can't say with 100% accuracy because I'm not dead yet...

Answer 3

Of course people stop thinking. There is no afterlife, everything "spiritual / mind / memory" arises from the body at that very moment when the male reproductive cell fuses with that of the woman causing the divine spark to start the engine of life that has just begun so

Thinking is a brain process involving chemicals in the brain therefore when one dies, the brain cells decompose and die therefore thoughts won't ever arise from that lost brain since it's not existing anymore.

Have u ever noticed that when you think too much you either get tired or weak and finally give up? Or when you are hungry you can't properly think (things go into one ear and out the other)? This is because your brain needs energy from food and the oxygen we breathe in order to proceed effectively with the body metabolism process in general and thinking process in particular.

So, yes, once the processing unit of our body (the brain) dies, no thought can ever arise from it ever! Nor is there an afterlife as Egyptians thought by embalming the dead in order to prevent the decay of the body and brain.

Answer 4

I guess that depends on if you are a atheist or whether you believe in a afterlife. If you are a atheist when you die that is the end of thought process. While those who believe in some from of belief structure will say thought continues beyond death.
In reference to while we are alive. There is brain activity even when someone is in a coma. It may not be conscious thinking, but it is thinking on a basic survival level.
CyberNara
P.S. Sarge927... There are people who can stop their heart beat, and anyone can hold their breath until they fall unconscious at that point it goes back to subconscious, (or what ever part it falls under), part of the brain. I have had loved ones in comas, and not all of the "natural" things were occuring while in the comas.

Answer 5

People never stop thinking and I doubt that when people are said to be brain dead that there is not some form of thought occurring. Religion perverts and uses death as a bully tool for the masses and the most violence cultures have religions that promise people that they will be basically the same after death but will be in paradise with all types of sensory rewards even though your body is obviously not receiving anymore. Death might not involve an afterlife that allows us to keep our personalites but religions, particularly American Christianity, holds paradise out there like a weinie on a stick to get people to conform and suborinate in this life because they are told that paradise or punishment after death is forever. Odd isn't it?

Answer 6

If people are people like you and me then they think themselves to be so; without thinking there is no perception of any thing in known reality of our being alive. The answer therefore is – no, people never stop thinking. Our thinking is what makes us know all things and this is how people know us; this is also the only way mind knows the existence of all things. A state of thoughtlessness in a living mind is almost impossible to acquire, and if it is acquired any description of that state in words cannot be made; the fact is that such experiences cannot be recorded as memories to be called upon some other time.

The beliefs of ancient Egyptians were intriguing and very powerful. They believed in everlasting life after death, and that the things that belong to us in this world we will need in the world thereafter. Nothing can be said about this apart from the fact that the awe-inspiring monuments of that marvellous civilisation still stand to this date making us wonder in amazement.

There are faculties in human mind that are beyond all thought. Without going too far we can see that there are states of mind not totally controlled or rationalised by our thinking mind. The states of mind induced by experiences of deep and genuine love, for example, cannot be put in words. We cannot understand things that we believe in and yet we our feelings and thoughts are often perfectly at home with our beliefs.

Imagine a calm and smooth surface of a lake, this is our original mind; now image a gentle gust of wind blowing across the surface making ripples, these ripples are our thoughts and the wind is the affect our outside world has upon our mind. In this sense, our thoughts are not our mind but the expression of our mind in face with the reality of the world. All thoughts are the only way our mind can interface with the real world outside. Whereas, behind, or beyond reasonable thinking mind, or formative mind peculiar to each person, there is an instinctive mind that give birth to our feelings. This mind can be incited into agitation by thoughts and is also capable of inducing intense thoughts of expression but is not automatically monitored by any rational thinking. It is somewhere here that all involuntary bodily functions are regulated, like breathing for example. One does not have to think to breath, or most of us would be dead long ago.

The highest in the mind, however, is our essential mind, which is universal. This mind would be like surrealist’s dream when unrealised where we are not lead by our reason, logical or by thought, but by the spirit of realisation that all things are in a state of co-existence, and that we excellence in existence. All our aspirations, dreams, prayers, and ambitions reside here to instructs our thoughts and therefore action of all kind. Beyond this point there is stillness or the calm of our essential being, a state of constant vigilance and observance of actual reality.

Answer 7

I used to think that I was crazy, because I never stopped thinking - I have constant thoughts running through my head. I don't believe that we can think when we are dead - as we would have an instinctive reaction to breathe - so wouldn't be dead?

Answer 8

It is impossible for a human to stop thinking. This is why we are what we are.............we are on top of the food chain because of our advanced thought processes. Though others would think that death ceases thought, it does not. When the shell or body dies all that will remain is the essence and thoughts we take to our place. These can be helloish or heavenly...........hence free will.

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

People stop thinking when they're dead ... or when they're in a coma and they're brain dead.

You don't need to think inorder to breathe. Your body does that automatically, just like blinking your eyes.