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 Monday at 02:40 PM 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?

[LastThursday]

@Yeah Yeah I see it as knowing what the structure of consciousness is. Solipsism says that there is just one special viewpoint and no others. If that structure is true then if death erases that viewpoint then poof! everything in existence is gone.

The more commonly understood structure is that consciousness is spread out amongst different people, probably animals too, and each is a different viewpoint on the same thing. When one individual dies then their viewpoint goes with it, but consciousness in general continues.

But, maybe consciousness is actually everywhere and just concentrates in certain places to a higher degree. If someone dies then perhaps consciousness can no longer be concentrated in that place and it dissipates elsewhere. This is a more fluid kind of structure.

I quite like yet another view in that you have the mother consciousness and she has the capacity to hive off baby consciousnesses, like a fractal or a hologram. I quite like this because then consciousness gives rise to matter and matter can give rise to consciousness. In this view I see matter effectively being the same thing as consciousness: matter is the content consciousness the container.

In short no one knows the structure of consciousness.

[integration journey]

Every other thread now is about solipsism. 

[Yeah Yeah]

Thanks for the responses guys, but I'm just wishing like I could die or commit suicide and I had the courage to go through with it already as I've been like this for years daily and hate the human condition and don't want to reincarnate but unsure how to die or awaken from being human if I'm supposedly god then I should be able to just wake up from being human without having to die or commit suicide and I'm trapped I don't like being me I don't like humanity or society and I just want to be with God and not come back so I feel that the only way to escape myself and achieve this is through death since awakening only makes me have to adapt to being human and learn acceptance and surrender to things I hate about life and just want this to finally end already 

[Yeah Yeah]

I don't want reincarnation or soul contracts or unfinished business or spirirt guide soul trap coersion when I'm on the otherside with a different perspective then tricked to return or God sends me back, I just want to be with God and have easier states of conciosuness not bound to slavery of flesh and bone 

[Someone here]

2 hours ago, Yeah Yeah said:

I'm just wishing like I could die or commit suicide

Then talk to a therapist ASAP .  Nobody can help you if you are not willing to help yourself.

Edited 3 hours ago by Someone here

[Yeah Yeah]

@Someone here but I've tried my best to help myself, it doesn't work. I just don't like the human condition or having been born and in general hate life I want to stop being human I don't like this shit seriously, not that this is your problem I'm just expressing that I don't want to be human and hate life and humanity and I just want whatever this is to stop, stop, no more whatever this is that is life being human it needs to stop I hate it this is madness to be forced to keep surviving being alive I don't want to reincarnate I don't want to be me I don't want to be alive as a human I want it to stop seriously. I've called dozens of hotlines, hospitalized myself and now talking to a mental health councilor weekly I'm smarter than them, they don't solve anything, I don't find their lives inspiring they're bogan and just as dumb as me about the problems of life. I want god to answer me or the universe or to wake up as god I should have this power 

[Yeah Yeah]

Leo, Alan Watts, Bashar and other spiritual teachers repeat I'm god and divine and there is god mode and life is just a dream but when I exercise this it doesn't work I'm still human - I work hard at my job, pay my bills, whipe my own ass, and maintain a life but I'm one of billions interchangeable nobody significant and an outcast in a world I don't agree with. What more self improvement do I need to do? I've done hobbies, park walks, meditation, spirituality, healthy eating, reading, hustle culture, all sorts of shit and I'm still the same loser of a human forced to be alive and forced to God's work of love in a schitzophrenic universe I hate as a human ego which I can't stop but am forced to love when I should be the one in heaven and god should be down here fixing the problems of the world he created. I've done Abraham Hicks law of attraction I create my own reality yet I can't change my appearance, personality nor emotions or past nor my thoughts and yet I'll keep being this ego that attracts a life that means literally nothing to me 

[Someone here]

11 minutes ago, Yeah Yeah said:

@Someone here but I've tried my best to help myself, it doesn't work. I just don't like the human condition or having been born and in general hate life I want to stop being human I don't like this shit seriously, not that this is your problem I'm just expressing that I don't want to be human and hate life and humanity and I just want whatever this is to stop, stop, no more whatever this is that is life being human it needs to stop I hate it this is madness to be forced to keep surviving being alive I don't want to reincarnate I don't want to be me I don't want to be alive as a human I want it to stop seriously. I've called dozens of hotlines, hospitalized myself and now talking to a mental health councilor weekly I'm smarter than them, they don't solve anything, I don't find their lives inspiring they're bogan and just as dumb as me about the problems of life. I want god to answer me or the universe or to wake up as god I should have this power 

I’m sorry you’re feeling this way. Please know that I’m not judging you for feeling like this. I’ve actually been through a very similar experience myself in the past, and I’m genuinely glad I managed to make it to the other side.

recognise that simply opening up, expressing how you feel, being honest with yourself and others and  looking for ways to help yourself are already steps in the right direction. Don’t underestimate that. If talking about what you’re going through brings you even temporary relief, then please keep doing it. Don’t bottle things up.

I would suggest starting by trying to make sense of your confusion. From what you’ve written, you sound more lost and confused about what you want from life than depressed because of your current circumstances. I have a feeling that even if you were living in a palace, you might still feel unhappy if you hadn’t figured out what was missing.

Try to start by asking yourself what you actually want out of life. What would make you feel fulfilled? What kind of life would you genuinely enjoy living?

And if you feel comfortable sharing, tell us a little about yourself . your age, what you do for a living, your relationship with your family, your friendships, and anything else you think might be relevant.

I’d also suggest making two lists. The first should include the concrete things in your life that make you unhappy, and the second should include the things you believe would make you happier. Try to be as specific as possible.

Then start working on both lists. Take meaningful steps to distance yourself from the things that are making your life worse, and start moving towards the things that could make it better. You don’t have to figure everything out overnight, but you do have to start somewhere.

also you need to talk to a therapist , take potent medication or antidepressants , you need huge emotional support from people close to you , and you need a spiritual or religious practice of any kind that can help you .

 

 

[Yeah Yeah]

@Someone here

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I genuinely appreciate your understanding and the fact that you're willing to listen without judging me.

It does give me some relief to express what's going on in my head, as I often find myself dwelling on things that trouble me or trigger difficult emotions. Somqetimes there's a lot going on internally, and having an opportunity to put some of those thoughts into words helps.

I'll probably share a bit more of my background and experiences when I'm off work and have some free time, if you're comfortable reading through it. I'd also be interested in hearing more of your own thoughts, perspectives and ideas about what I've shared.

Thanks again. I appreciate it.

[cetus]

@Yeah Yeah You're getting into the area of a personal journal. Have you started one where you can discuss your personal shadow work?

[Breakingthewall]

@Yeah Yeah all that about suicide comes from the societies where you are a slave, and a slave can't decide, has to obey. In tribes suicide was a admitted and sometimes a virtue. Old people committ suicide for the sake of tribe, young people could commit suicide for sorrow, shame or anything,