this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024

-49 points (18.2% liked)

Asklemmy

43148 readers

1591 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

-49

Can i talk with a person who passed away ? (lemm.ee)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

NSFW 31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

top 31 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

No and anyone claiming they can is lying, mentally unwell or both.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Or they're attempting to leverage a person's grief for financial gain.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Which falls under 'lying' category.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I agree, but I figured I'd draw particular attention to this lie on the off chance that op was about to give a charlatan a sum of money in a misguided attempt to assuage some grief.

[+] [email protected] -6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So which piece of technology or piece of science did you use to absolutely prove that there is no afterlife?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Which did you use to prove there is? What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The problem is there is no way to prove there is or isn't an after life. My point is that he's acting like it's already been proven.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

If I tell you I'm your god and you should give me all your money or you won't go to heaven, you will rightly call me a liar, even though you can't really prove that I'm not.

You won't say "oh I guess there's no way to prove he's not god, so I'd better give him my money".

In science, the default stance on something existing is that it doesn't, unless there's solid proof, or at least a compelling scientific theory suggesting that it does.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

He is not explicitly saying there is no afterlife, just that there is no way to communicate with a potential afterlife.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Oh. Good point. Guess I misread that

[+] [email protected] -20 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It seems you are absolutely sure that dead people cannot hear or understand you, so sure that you think there can be no wiggle room.

But did you know that during the French revolution, severed heads of those executed hours ago were known to open their eyes and look at people who spoke their name?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There must be a lot of wiggle room inside your skull to believe that utter rubbish.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

It’s not hard to believe. It’s not like the neurons connecting the ears to Wernicke’s area magically disappear. The part of the brain which processes one’s name is known to have evolved earlier and is more basely integrated. And there’s no rule that says neurons cannot fire even once after death. Indeed, bodies are known to move or twitch hours after death – so why not there brain, where most of the body’s neurons are?

Arguments for and against: www (dot) cureus (dot) com/articles/133225-the-most-gentle-of-lethal-methods-the-question-of-retained-consciousness-following-decapitation#!/

Decapitation experiments of Louis: www (dot) cairn-int (dot) info/article-E_RHS_612_0333--the-debate-over-severed-heads.htm

“Languille!” he called out the criminal’s name. To his astonishment, the eyes lifted and “…fixed in a precise fashion on mind and the pupils adjusted… I had the impression that living eyes were looking at me”

(this isn’t hours later but it’s the first source I can find rn)

Some organisms have detectable brain activity 96 hours after death (nobody has done this experiment on a human) www (dot) sciencealert (dot) com/how-long-does-a-human-head-actually-remain-conscious-after-being-cut-off

I’m not claiming 100% that consciousness can return even for an instant after death. I just think there’s enough question marks here that it can’t be entirely ruled out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

source: i made it the fuck up

[–] [email protected] 38 points 3 months ago

Of course you can. But if you think they can reply, then you might have a problem.

I still talk to the mother of my children, more than 10 years after she passed. I tell her how they're doing, and I ask her questions I know she cannot answer. I am an atheist so I know that of course there is no way she can hear me, but it's not for her. It's just for me. I hear her voice in my head, guiding and advising me. Now that they are all adults and living their own lives, I don't talk to her as much as I used to, while they were younger.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If there was a way, there'd be huge corporations offering it as a service.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Well, some are certainly trying with AI.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

You can, but it'll be a pretty one-sided conversation

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

Just died yesterday, AMA. Turns out your mind gets updated to the fediverse automagically when you are browsing lemmy the moment you died.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

You can, and it can be liberating, but they won't talk back.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Sure, but don't expect them to reply at that point.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Seems like kind of a "you" question. Can you?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Yes. So can I, or so can any man: But when you talk to them, will they answer?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I think it depends on what you are expecting out of the conversation. The chances are they will be excellent listeners. Buf that's about it unless something is wrong with them or you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Yes, but they can't talk back.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Even while people are alive, a huge proportion of our full experience of them involves expectations, assumptions, recollection, expectation…in addition to direct interaction.

Post-life, we mist remove the direct interaction, but the rest remains. Talk away!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

For what? In a literal, empirical sense, no, you can't. But there could be underlying motives that can be addressed through alternative means

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I still talk to my dead dog sometimes. Mostly about whether or not she’d like the weather on a given day, how much she’d like our current dog, and how much I miss her.

I don’t expect replies. It’s for my own benefit more than anything.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Strictly no. Deepfake alert!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

In your dreams.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

Yes, but please don't talk to them on Facebook. About them is ok. To them is fucking weird and creepy!