Do desires, pleasures, and pains that have a biological origin continue in the afterlife?

Question

Many people assume that, when we die, all of our "bio-thought" is extinguished. In other words, we will no longer have the desire for food, water, sex, physical comfort, etc. In a sense, both the Western and Eastern religions believe in a Nirvana-type state, even though the Westerners don't like to word it that way.

However, consider the fact that our minds remember the pleasures and pains of the biological aspect of their existence, and would probably still want the positive aspects them later on. Even once the soul has disincorporated from the physiological matrix through which it perceived the world, it would still remember. Let's face it, can't you imagine how good your favorite food tastes, even when you're full? Can't very old people remember how good sex was when they were young, even though they can't do it anymore? Once the mind grasps a pleasure or a pain, it remembers, and from there is goes beyond the physical.

When we die, is it really "Nirvana time, dude"?

Answer 1

Hmm, this is a very good and unqiue question that has pondered me as well for a long time. I am only 14, but I think about this alot. I think about after I die is there really a heaven that I go up to? Or do a really reincarniate into another being or animal? Or do I just vanish and not feel anything not remember anything, the thought of that to me is just dreadful it would be like being in a deep coma for the rest of eterinity. I really cannot awnser this question because there really is no right or wrong awnser unless we experience death ourselves, but I can relate to it. I do wonder if after I die I still remember all my memories, my favoruite food and my parents after, or do i just completley vanish?

Answer 2

Very thoughtful question. And I'm not sure I can answer it with certainty. Nevertheless, I'll take a stab at it.

Most of the feelings we have are biological in origin, but to my knowledge, just as physics/biology cannot explain experiential consciousness by itself, so it cannot explain an apparent element of experiential consiousness- qualia. Qualia is quite simply those intangible and personal feelings and sensations as you experience them. It is the difference from recieving information that the sky is blue and the grass is green, and actually experiencing the colors blue and green. Sound, sight, sensation, taste, smell, and emotion all have qualia to them. What qualia is, how it works, what makes up its substance, and how it relates to the biological part of the brain is a complete mystery as far as a I know. But identifying qualia as opposed to the nervous signals and information is the first step in examining this problem.

The second step is asking yourself- does the soul/spirit actually remember? We know that memory occurs biologically in the brain, through neurons. The soul/spirit having seperate memory might be considered redundant. Then again, it may itself have memory. Who knows? But the question must be asked, and must not be assumed. We must remember that we have a natural, physical brain, and that the soul obviously makes use of it. That begs the question, "is the soul unable to perform mental functions on its own?" Mentation, thought, and memory may be soley the function of the brain, the soul's function may be entirely different, soley related to experiential consiousness and qualia. Thus the brain and the soul may need each other.

With these two things in mind, the question is more up in the air than ever. But, I would argue that a soul/spirit without a body and mind isn't doing much. Kinda like when you are asleep, but deeper. If in fact the spirit is dependant on the mind for mentation and memory, and qualia is an interaction between the mind and the spirit, then this would only make sense. But this is all mostly speculation.

If it were true, though, it would also go right along with God raising the dead at the return of Christ, recreating their bodies, and giving new ones to those who are found in Him, and why He doesn't just let us be souls without bodies forever after we die.

Answer 3

"consider the fact that our minds remember the pleasures and pains of the biological aspect of their existence"

And, how do you know this is a fact? You have never died, and you cannot ask anyone who has. (Perhaps you know someone who has died and come back, but dying and coming back is different from dying and staying dead, so you cannot assume the experience is the same.)

Consider this: When you're dead, you are absent from the body, and no longer experience memories, which are biologically stored cognitive events. The cognitive is finite-based, while spirituality is infinite. When you're dead, you will understand too much to recall you once had a life on earth. Where you will go, the life you once had on earth will look like a millisecond, a blink of an eye, negligible and unimportant. When's the last time you recalled something that small?

Answer 4

Nirvana is a state while yet "living" so the question has no relevance upon "death." In faith though, the original word of this "nirvana" comes from the ancient Egyptians where in faith they willed to achieve a state of "maat" or spiritual peace.

Having had one death experience and many NDE's since I live with health problems, I have never logically been able to piece together why "feelings" seem to be felt even though in death we have no body. I have found myself in "limbo" several times, YET can still feel, though I am in a state where I have no body, and in the death experience, found myself in a place I could see everything around me like looking through a veil (sheet of plastic) and an inner peace I have never experience in living upon this planet. I have MS, chronic asthma, and debilitating arthritis. One thing though I have never felt in death or the NDE is "pain." Maybe that is reserved for the non-believers, as I am one of "faith."

Answer 5

Your body is made of energy. No matter what your thoughts on the afterlife or religion, your energy will distribute somehow right? Your memories & thoughts are not carried in your energy, so I can't find a scientific way to say yes.
I am a Christian & have been taught that I will move on to a better place. I will be complete in the company of the Lord.
I believe that good gets good. Good energy comes back when you put it out there. I live as though I will answer to my maker. I try to do good onto others. I hope to have the knowlege I seek. Good ?!

Answer 6

Ah, you are asking questions that mankind has been asking for thousands and thousands of years.

But in all that time we still don't really know what happens after we die. Religion says there is an afterlife, be it a Utopian place, or a not-so-nice place for those who "sin,"

Science has found that many out of body and near death experiences can be recreated in a lab where the subjects are NOT dying.

In other words, we still don't know.

Personally, no one has come back to tell me what happens. Therefore, I do not "believe" religious stories just because someone told me to believe them. I do not "believe" in any magical thinking or religious dogma. Those answers were made to explain the unexplainable.

I either know, or don't know, and these things I do not know.

Answer 7

Great question. I would think the mind creates pleasures after death. Or should I say the soul. There is a theory that the oxygen starved brain creates images similar to the after life and that the after life does not exist at all. I do not know what to believe. I think there is a heaven or I would like to think there is

Answer 8

Nirvana is a state that makes "spirit free from body". Nirvana is not "physical pleasure after death".

In Hindu philosophy, Nirvana is believed to be the ultimate aim. To be free from the cycle of birth and death.

It is believed that when you have good karma, your soul attains Nirvana and is no longer (re)born in this world.

No one has seen "life" after death, but as per ancient Indian scriptures (like Garud Purana), the soul (without the body) goes through various experiences that are similar to what we experience with our bodies.

Answer 9

No, in the afterlife there is no need nor want for desire, pleasure, or pain. All of that imagining will be done while here on Earth still.

Yes, then it is "Nirvana time" dude.

Answer 10

When we die, we take all of our worldly memories and experiences with us. I can't answer whether or not we can experience them again in heaven, but once our bodies are re-united with our spirits after the second coming of Christ, we will be able to experience them all over again, so keep your head up cuz you won't lose out on all your favorite experiences just cuz ya died ;)