Suicide, Solipsism and the Question of What Happens to Everyone Left Behind

[Yeah Yeah]

 

I've been thinking about the relationship between suicide, solipsism, consciousness and near-death experiences, and there's a particular question I haven't been able to resolve.

If solipsism were true, what would suicide actually mean for the apparent world of other people?

We ordinarily understand suicide as the death of an individual within a shared reality. Other people continue living. They experience grief, confusion, sadness and the consequences of losing someone they knew. Their lives continue, even though the person who died is no longer participating in them.

But what if our ordinary understanding of individual consciousness is fundamentally mistaken?

If consciousness is more fundamental than the physical body, and what we experience as an individual identity is only a limited perspective within a much larger consciousness, then what exactly happens when that individual perspective ends?

Do other people continue existing independently of that perspective? Does the apparent external world continue unfolding? Or is the entire question complicated by the possibility that our understanding of consciousness, individuality and reality is incomplete?

I've also thought about this in relation to an NDE-like experience I once had.

During that experience, I seemed to perceive people continuing to live with the consequences of my death, as though I had died and was observing the aftermath of my absence. I had the impression that there were people experiencing the effects of losing me, while I was somehow outside my ordinary life.

There was also a sense that I could return to my life rather than remain in that state.

I don't know how to interpret this experience. Was it an internally generated experience? Was it a perception of an alternative possibility? Was it something occurring within consciousness that our ordinary material understanding cannot adequately explain?

I'm not claiming that it proves an afterlife, that other people are projections, or that suicide leads to some kind of liberation. I'm genuinely uncertain about what it means.

What interests me is the relationship between the subjective experience of dying and the apparent continuation of everyone else's lives.

If consciousness is fundamental, could individual death represent a transition in perspective rather than the annihilation of consciousness itself? And if so, how should we understand the people who appear to be left behind?

I'd particularly like to hear from people familiar with solipsism, idealism, non-duality and NDE research.

How do these philosophical frameworks approach the apparent independent existence of other people when an individual consciousness dies?

[Yeah Yeah]

There is another question I'd like to introduce into this discussion, concerning individual autonomy, suicide, euthanasia and the philosophical assumption that human beings must continue living regardless of their circumstances.

Are adults entitled to decide that they no longer wish to participate in existence? Why has society historically treated suicide as something that must be prohibited, condemned, prevented or morally judged, rather than examining the question of individual autonomy?

Throughout history, religious institutions have often maintained that life belongs to God, that human beings have no authority to end their own existence, and that suffering must be endured rather than escaped. These beliefs have profoundly influenced cultural attitudes, legislation and the way people experiencing unbearable circumstances are treated.

But what is the philosophical justification for compulsory survival? Is the preservation of biological existence automatically more important than an individual's subjective experience of living?

Consider someone experiencing disability, chronic suffering, profound loneliness, sexual deprivation, grief, deteriorating health or circumstances they regard as fundamentally incompatible with the life they wanted. Why should society assume that continued biological existence is necessarily the best outcome for that individual?

I'm interested in whether voluntary assisted dying should be understood as an expression of individual autonomy, and what ethical limits or safeguards society should establish. Should this remain restricted to particular medical circumstances, or does the underlying philosophical question extend further?

There is also an enormous metaphysical uncertainty that I don't think we can simply dismiss.

Can we actually know what death represents? Is it annihilation? A transition of consciousness? Liberation from the limitations of biological existence? A return to some more fundamental state of awareness? Or could our assumptions about both life and death be fundamentally mistaken?

I don't think anyone can honestly claim certainty about what subjective experience, if anything, follows biological death. Near-death experiences, idealist philosophy, non-duality and theories of fundamental consciousness all raise questions, but none establishes a definitive answer.

Alan Watts explored the peculiar human relationship with existence, including the anxiety produced by our attachment to the separate ego and the attempt to control life. One recurring theme in his lectures was the paradox of trying to justify existence as though life must serve some external purpose before it can be experienced. He challenged the tendency to turn living into an endless obligation or achievement project.

However, I think another question follows from this: if life is not an obligation to achieve something, why does society so often treat continued existence as an unquestionable obligation?

Shakespeare's Hamlet also explored this dilemma in a different context. In Hamlet, the contemplation of whether to continue enduring suffering becomes inseparable from uncertainty about what follows death. His famous soliloquy raises the problem that we cannot confidently compare the suffering we know with whatever might lie beyond it. The unknown is precisely what complicates the question.

That uncertainty remains philosophically significant.

Perhaps we are too confident about what death means. Perhaps we are equally too confident about what life is supposed to mean. We might be operating with an incomplete understanding of consciousness, identity, embodiment and existence.

I'd like to hear how others reconcile individual autonomy, the ethics of suicide prevention, voluntary assisted dying, religious prohibitions and the uncertainty surrounding death.

Can a society respect an individual's autonomy while still recognising that decisions made during periods of extreme suffering may be affected by circumstances that can change?

And perhaps the most fundamental question is whether our understanding of life and death is sufficiently developed to make such absolute declarations about what an individual must endure.

[Someone here]

   If solipsism is true, nothing happens to the apparent world of other people when an individual dies . It will just disappear from his experience. If solipsism is not true , then the world keeps existing after his death . And the closed ones to him will grieve his absence .

 So you’re asking do other people continue existing independently after one’s individual consciousness ends . The answer is maybe yes 50% and maybe no 50 % . So go figure that out on your own. But more importantly, figure out why are toying with the idea of suicide at all . 

adults are entitled to decide that they no longer wish to participate in existence if they are suffering horribly with no hope in sight and I’m with euthanasia in cases of hopeless unbearable suffering.

 society and religion historically treated suicide as something that must be prevented or morally condemned for the same reason they condemn homosexuality. Because it threatens the survival of humanity. But obviously people have homosexual relationships and commit suicide everyday regardless. So don’t worry too much about prohibition of society. Worry more about why are you thinking about suicide at all .

Nobody genuinely knows what happens to subjective experience after biological death . You would have to physically die to know . That’s how death works .

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Someone here

[r0ckyreed]

If a dream character in your dreams dies, do you die as well? Are you a dream character in someone else’s dream?