Should You Fear Death? Bernardo Kastrup's Confession

NOTE: The perspectives expressed by this guest (and every other) don't necessarily mirror my own. There's a versicolored arrangement of people on TOE, each harboring distinct viewpoints, as part of my endeavor to understand the perspectives that exist.

[mutterfudder]

As a survivor of a NDE in 2005 from a heart attack, I can assure you there is nothing to fear. It's wonderful on the other side. 😊

[acidskies]

I’m not scared of death, I’m scared of the transition

[clintnorton]

Let's try an Ego reframe.
Instead of "Ego death", which seems to be the most common description of loss of identity during peak experiences, what if the experience is simply the Ego being violently stripped of it's accustomed reference point, whatever that happens to be for the individual? What if the Ego is the anchor point for the submind systems that comprise the self, the map keeper if you will? Wouldn't the sudden loss berings _feel_ like a traumatic, death-like experience?
Maybe the illusion is the loss of self.

[marysharkey]

I will need to listen to this about 10 more times to truly grasp what he is saying. And I love thinking about this stuff!

[latinEU]

During a kick boxing sparring I got wheel kicked to my jaw. I got knocked out, but remained in guard, just standing.
I lost memory of who I was and what happened that day completely, mind you my sparring was around 8pm but somehow it wiped out the entire day.
I also didnt know who I was, who my mom and dad were etc
Funny enough, I still knew my sparring partner.
Had to do a tac scan etc and memory came back, my name etc but never got to recall my day completely.
The feeling of not knowing who I was overwhelming.
I do not sugest taking a wheel kick to the jaw for this kind of experience.

[walterbenjamin]

I have had two such experiences as Dr. Kastrup describes, yet neither was terrifying. The first occurred as a very young child when I had a high fever and experienced the universe as a dynamic between two forces of good and evil. I had no religious education, but saw or experienced a cosmic battle of forces that "appeared" as geometric lines of dynamic energies in eternal conflict. I never had fear during this but was an objective observer gaining education. Where did that come from? But in 1968, at the age of 17, I had an experience on LSD of classic ego death. This time I experienced a unified cosmic consciousness of shimmering beauty and truth. And yes, as Dr. K described, the come down was grim. Returning to the world of concrete, gravel and humanity was difficult, but never terrifying. After that, I determined to return to that state of unity without drugs. I went on to obtain a masters degree studying Asian philosophy, which certainly helped me understand what I had experienced. But I've never yet gone back to that bliss state.

[geoffroberts]

I took my first psilocybin at Glastonbury festival. It changed me profoundly. I saw everything as it really is. Even my second, nightmare🤯😫, session the next day left me feeling really good about everything.

[trackmasterjr]

As always Curt you are so authentic in your interviews! Keep moving forward and know how much you are appreciated!

[Autonomous_Don]

I just found this channel and MY GOD this is THE best channel Ive found on philosophy, science, God/spiritual essence etc I’ve seen. Well done man

[naytchh]

There are many thousands of Near Death Experiences and Alien Abductions that all point to the same truth: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

I went from being a materialist and staunch atheist to someone who no longer fears death whatsoever.

Namaste 🙏🏽

[kpllc]

The first time I had ego dissolution on LSD it was scary, and I fought it, I basically thought I was going crazy. The second time a decade later on DMT there was no fighting it, I was blasted right there, and I accepted it completely, for a few moments early on it may have been confusing with strange visions and an out of body experience but after that it was pure euphoria.

[pingpongpaddlehead]

Smokingo Bufo (actual 5MEO, not synthetic) erased all fear of death. When i did, in that monent, i saw the most intricate flower of life, yellow and in all directions, and in that moment I was not only with God, I WAS God, and God was me, and I spent infinity with him (he was male) in that momemt. I spoke the words "I AM", and when I said them I said them forever, and they went through all things. I also knew that that was where I come from and that that was where I return to when I die. It was the most profound moment of my life so far, and nothing compares to the knowledge of God. Belief in God vanished and was replaced with knowledge of God. They are two different things, knowledge and belief, and ever since then life has been a bit slower for me, anfld has much more meaning. To finish up, I understood that God is pure unadulterated love and does not judge, not now, not ever, and that I am his child. I understood how having my own child was the pinnacle of the human experience, and how my love compares to his was the ultimate gift.

I hope you find the courage to smoke Bufo.

[brunopropheta]

“I died as mineral and became a plant, I died as plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was human,
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? Yet once more I shall die human, To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul I shall become what no mind ever conceived. As a human, I will die once more,
Reborn, I will with the angels soar. And when I let my angel body go, I shall be more than mortal mind can know.”
― Rumi Jalal ad'Din

[Shane]

I experienced an ego death on psilocybin, and it was the most profound and amazing experience I've ever had during this lifetime.

[willyouwright]

You can't fear death.. only your ego can. When you have no ego you can't have a concept of trauma . It's all magical..

[JFox]

Asking things like “should you fear death” is like asking if you should fear snakes. That fear isn’t up to you. Just like you can’t control your heart rate, some things are just not yours to control. The fear of death keeps you alive. It’s that simple. And you don’t get to choose. Sometimes the spirit is weak and wants to give up, but entire power of your ancestors is driving you forward through history. And just like they didn’t get to quit when they were dying of starvation, you don’t get to quit just cuz “life is hard”. You get to press on cuz you’re afraid, too afraid to pull the trigger that sends you plummeting into eternal darkness. And thank god for that fear, cuz it’s what got us all here, and it’s what’s gonna get us through our own “hard times”.

And maybe one day, when you’re old and wisened, you will be ready for the “final frontier”. But you aren’t yet, and that’s good. Keep going, even when it’s hard. Your body knows best.

[hvalenti]

I love the joy on Bernardo's face while listening to Kurt's experience. I love that Bernardo admitted the terror of watching his ego dissolve. I think we have access to it after consciousness has moved on from the food-body. However, revisiting that library and regarding it simply like a child from the atman's perspective, I suppose, is another form of the ego's death.

[qassimmembery]

I don't fear death but I fear the loss of individuality, will the entity or consciousness that is my experience continue beyond this plane of existence or will I be absorbed back into the universe... is that permanent ego death?? or can you retain individuality (is that the right word? is there a right word?) beyond this experience... can you experience beyond this experience, still retain character and knowledge, to continue this journey??

[Fesenfull]

Questions for Tim Maudlin & Bernardo Kastrup

1. QUESTION FOR KASTRUP:

Can Kastrup try to explain how his chosen ontological primitive; consciousness (which he calls “natures only given”, doesn’t fall prey to the criticisms of “givenness” such as the one made by Wilfried Sellars

2. QUESTION FOR BERNARDO - WITH HOPES THAT mAUDLIN WILL ADDRESS kaSTRUP'S ANSWER

Modern branches eastern philosophical traditions often make the point that consciousness cannot be defined satisfactorily. These traditions rather tries to evoke, in ones experience, an insight into what consciousness is. (Rupert Spira makes this point explicitly)
This seems to ring true for Kastrup’s synonymous use of the concepts “what it is like to be”-ness, mentality, phenomenological consciousness, pure subjectivity; and he refers to this subjectivity as “natures one given”.
Can Kastrup try to explain how his chosen ontological primitive; consciousness, doesn’t fall prey to the criticisms of givenness such as those Wilfried Sellars directed towards the empirical fundamentalists and the logical positivists?

3. QUESTION FOR BOTH

It seems to me that Kastrup starts somewhere other than the manifest image, namely with the subjectivity that views the image.
Can you guys resolve this?

4. FOR BERNARDO

Is the least analytic part of Kastrup Analytic Idealism the notion of consciousness as an ontological primitive? The synonymous concepts of both “phenomenal consciousness” of David Chalmers, and the “what-it-is-like-to-be”-ness of Thomas Nagel also has a quite elusive or untypical definition. Still, Kastrup calls this primitive subjectivity “natures one given”.
Is it acceptable to have such an elusive foundation for a metaphysical theory?


6.FOR MAUDLIN

Do you think we have conscious experiences that we are not metacognitively aware of? Did you for instance experience your own breathing before this question made you explicitly aware of it?

7.FOR BOTH

Is it a weakness that both eastern and western mystical traditions converge on an idealistic leaning that physicalism does not?

8. FOR BOTH

Is it a contradiction if a theory of everything makes the claim that its own ontological primitive can be exhaustively or clearly delineated? Do you recognize this as a difference between physicalistic and idealistic TOEs?

9. FOR BOTH

Is both science and metaphysics reducible to language-games that take aim to integrate observations such as “how we all seem to inhabit a common world”?

11. FOR BOTH

A question on the general impossibility of metaphysics:
The notion of consciousness as an ontological primitive seems to be the least analytic part of Kastrup Analytic Idealism. It might be a better alternative than a physicalistic notion of what’s ontologically primitive, but is such an elusive primitive acceptable at all?

[ArtisanTony]

You are Bernardo are great together :)