I experienced something and that something was nothing

Last updated on: April 3, 2016 at 10:56 am by Marc

I experienced something and that something was nothing 2016-04-03T10:56:35-04:00 Marc

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m not trying to be butt about other people’s near-death experiences. When I mangle myself in a car or by insulting a bear, I’m sure I’ll regret this. But there’s a silliness indulged by the skeptic that makes me counter-skeptical, and seeing as this silliness has been well-expressed in a recent news article, I’m going to give it a swing.

When one says there is “nothing” after death, they’ve usually snuck “something” into their “nothing.” A recent and briefly-dead fellow said this rather poetically: “I experienced something and that something was nothing.” But “nothing” is not something that can be experienced, not even as a blank, a blackness, a void, a gap, or an emptiness. There is absolutely nothing that can be said about nothing.

Our man, who exclaims “now I know that there is no such thing as God or Heaven” describes nothingness as such: “Both times I was just ‘not there’. It was just all black.” But blackness is something. He “would describe it as when you take a nap. A short nap with no dream, you wake up and it feels like you’ve been sleeping a long time, when in reality it’s only been about 15 minutes.” But these are all experiences of consciousness, and even though they dive to the murkiest levels of consciousness (such as napping) they nevertheless pre-suppose something to be experienced, some event which can later be recounted on Reddit — as dark, ego-less, and all the rest. If one were to truly “experience nothingness” (a contradiction) there would be absolutely nothing re-countable — nothing one could say. From nothing comes nothing, as the medieval adage has it. Nothingness offers no content for reflection. To look into the abyss in this sense could only result in silence, and I often wonder whether Nietzsche, who spent the last years of his life without uttering a word, had some inkling of the fact.

I’m not trying to say that this shows that there is a Heaven or even an afterlife in any meaningful sense. The only thing worse than atheistic poetics is a Heaven-is-for-real apologetic. No, I am arguing that the proposition “there is nothing after death” is an unimaginable, incomprehensible idea, and any time we indulge the illusion that we know what this “nothing” will be like (and are thus able to take some attitude of fear or nonchalance towards it) we’re deluding ourselves with some metaphor of darkness or blankness, sneaking some low-level consciousness into our description. It might be true that I do not persist after death. But if I return from “death” speaking of how I experienced a nothingness — all black and without thoughts — I undo the claim.

Instead of a skepticism towards Heaven, we might just as well take a skepticism towards the tyranny with which the medical markers of death (whether based on brain function, respiratory function, or whatever) have become the real, subjective experience of death itself, such that anyone who is told by a doctor that, objectively/medically speaking, he “died,” assumes that whatever he subjectively experienced was, therefore, death.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 30, 2016

The Case for Complicating Sex

Next Post

April 4, 2016 Virtual Reality Sucks

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Another Look Atheism Bad Catholics Beauty Communio Crookedhart Destupidification Exiting the Culture Wars Gender Theory That Doesn't Suck How To Language Liturgy! Love One Another Marriage Equality Modesty Music Objectification pop culture Poverty Sacraments Sex Technology The Best Religion in the World The Erotic Phenomenon Time Uncategorized Virtue Ethics That Don't Suck Winning the Culture Wars

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 July 2016 June 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian tradition celebrates "Holy Week," including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Only Quakers Only Pentecostals Many (Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican) Only Baptists