I suppose if everyone is wrong about all their afterlife beliefs & experiences then at lest we will never know any of us were wrong!! Not sure if I like the idea of that or not??
The only thing, I wonder is that even if there is no afterlife as such, is it possible that the inherently true statement that it is impossible for a conscious being to experience non consciousness ie non existence - so as we can ONLY experience therefore MUST we only experience. Could that last second of consciousness somehow dilate into eternity, to us last forever?? Because we could never actually experience the moment of death then maybe we, from our pov, cannot die. maybe create our own afterlife. Think about it, it's crazy but no one really knows the subjective pov of a person at the second of death. Lights out, maybe - but YOU don't get to see them go out do you? I guess Im speculating something similar to Anthony Peake's Cheating The Ferryman theory although his is far more complicated in that he suggests just prior to death, the brain is flooded with DMT and other chemicals that cause time dilation on a massive scale, he says from the subjects pov they NEVER reach their own demise, they literally reboot and lead their life over and over again potentially 1000s of times. To the outside world the person is D..E..A..D Dead. Gone, But to the mind of the deceased life is just beginning again. It may sound extraordinary but after I read his book, I thought it sounded at least a workable theory. It certainly explained deja vu and precognitions as it basically says the brain is just experiencing a recording of a past life and these phenomenons are just glitches. I would really recommend Is There Life After Death by Anthony Peake, it's a really interesting read, refreshingly free of references to reptilians, garden gnomes and werewolves etc.
From a personal pov, I remember watching the life leave my mother's eyes 4 months ago and I remember thinking did you actually know that you passed mum and then are you still self aware, are you still experiencing. Then I think of all the memories that she had, of growing up in the war and thinking are they still somewhere?? To truly not exist, you may as well never have been born if so.
I'm just hoping that even if there's no afterlife (Im on the fence) that my thing about not able to experience non existence creates a subjective afterlife of sorts even if not as as complex as Anthony Peake's.
(Being unconscious during anaesthetic to me doesn't count at all as relevant to death as quite obviously you wake up!!)
I suppose too that billions of years could go past and by some mechanism that we don't understand if you could find yourself conscious again in another body not as you were before but still experiencing as it were then you would be none the wiser ..but if you never experience again. That is just beyond human comprehension. Maybe even evolution has built something in that prevents this. Maybe we switch awareness to another living body, no longer as we are/were but still experiencing life, perhaps through our relatives eve? Its all headbending but if there literaly is nothing at all, not even a blackness..Brrrrr. Scary, it must cross the minds of even the most hardened, spiritually aware here
I hope I don't give anyone nightmares on here re this but Im really surprised to see the concept of non existence explored so sparingly on here as it may be our ultimate if unpalatable reality and the Supernatural may be our mind's or even collective consciousness' coping mechanism - I HOPE TO BE COMPLETELEY WRONG ON THAT!!!!