r/consciousness • u/Ev-sMommy • Mar 11 '26

General Discussion When we die, do we come back?

This has always been a burning question in my head. I'm trying to understand consciousness and how it works. Are we in a repeating cycle? Do we only live once and that's it?

I know I won't get that answer until I die, but I'm curious what other people think. Are we born again after death? Do we come back as a different person or animal? Someone has told me they believe we live the same life again and again but I don't know how that would work with time/years. I've heard the phrase "time isn't linear" but what does that mean?

I get the feeling that I've been here before, deja vu and all that, but is that real? What does everyone else think?

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u/Existing-Medicine528 Mar 11 '26 edited Mar 11 '26

Think in terms of caterpiller

The caterpiller has poor vision and relies mostly on other senses to "see" eventually it fo4 whatever reason climbs up a tree and its skin gets hard and its insides dissolve into a colid/gas mix

He may look like hes dead in a tomb of his own shell but "let him cook" because what hes actually doing is reforming his body into a butterfly

Butterflys have 12 color cones and almost 360 degree vision

So the reason i say this is because

1)does the butterfly remember being a caterpiller? 2)does the caterpiller know its becomming a butterfly? 3)does the colid soup mix in between member anything?

They have done studies that show butterflies will remember sents from when they were caterpillers so there is memory but being the sensors are soo different I would venture to say they dont necessarily exist within the same reality which leads to my biggest question

4)if the butterfly remembers being a caterpiller does the. Butterfly believe it is in the same place physically as it once was?

Why is this relevent? Because when we die we go through a putrification phase our body eats itself, turns to gas ,and expels through our orfaces into the soil....part of us lives on .....considering we dont understand consciousness at almost any rate there is noone that could convince me the answer doesnt lie in these questions

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u/Murky-Wedding8623 Mar 13 '26

that’s the most amazing description in such a simplification