Death of A Personality

When we die, some believe there is only death of the personality, the sense of self identifying with this terrestrial existence, or self consciousness. What then might life be like with the loss of character, or what one identifies as self?

Fool said:

When we die, some believe there is only death of the personality, the sense of self identifying with this terrestrial existence, or self consciousness. What then might life be like with the loss of character, or what one identifies as self?

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Reminds me of a SF idea that was around way back, on the question whether (what was essentially) the soul would go with you when you used the teleporting machine.

The thing that seems to me most equivalent to this idea is the sense of self that we all have, the place from which we learn about external reality through our senses.

But if you don't have a sense of self, are cut off from all recall of your education, experiences, skills, loves, if you can't process your sensory input or lay down memories of it, then you have nothing to distinguish you from all the other drops of water in the ocean ─ not that you'd know, and not that you'd care.

Fool said:

When we die, some believe there is only death of the personality, the sense of self identifying with this terrestrial existence, or self consciousness. What then might life be like with the loss of character, or what one identifies as self?

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Probably oblivion.

Fool said:

When we die, some believe there is only death of the personality, the sense of self identifying with this terrestrial existence, or self consciousness. What then might life be like with the loss of character, or what one identifies as self?

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It would be a life of true disillusionment, a monistic form of Oneness.

Fool said:

When we die, some believe there is only death of the personality, the sense of self identifying with this terrestrial existence, or self consciousness. What then might life be like with the loss of character, or what one identifies as self?

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This is one area where Science actually does make a statement. Many past civilizations popularly thought that they must strive to be remembered, preserved in memory. LIttle did they know that such memory was unnecessary for them to be preserved and that they would never escape the lives they were living. They may have suspected but did not understand the evidence, that each life is preserved forever in time. What I am doing now I do eternally, and it only seems to me to be a moment that appears and is lost. In fact no one can change the past, and everything I am today is what I always have been and always will be. Therefore my identity is never lost, not truly; nor does it come from anywhere or go to anywhere. If there is an afterlife, it must be some sort of duplicate of me; because I am never erased and must always be here in my bit of time.

Is there something more? Maybe. What is the difference between me and you and someone else? That's unclear, because we all consist of the same basic particles which are identical. It can be argued that we are all interchangeable, that if I do something good for you I am doing it for us and if you are harmed we all are.

The Sum of Awe said:

It would be a life of true disillusionment

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Taking that word apart: dis-illusionment I derive that the illusion of personality would be eliminated leaving the essential nature.