Would you want to know?

[ambi53mm]

“If you were given the opportunity to know in advance when your last day of life would occur…and you learned you had two years and not a second longer.. just go to sleep that night and not wake up the next morning, Would it change the way you live today? What difference would that knowledge make in how you spent the time left?…..or would you just prefer not to know at all?”
Most people I’ve posed this question to fall into the latter category of preferring not to know…since it’s pretty much the way it is anyway… I guess there is a comfort level because it’s what we’re used to living with…

Personally, I think I’d prefer to know and I believe it would alter many aspects of my life. Things like retirement, financial plans and existing on a mundane level of the day to day grind of work…sleep…work , with those limited slices of time to call my own, would be the first two things to be altered....and that would just be the begining.
The biggest challenge I find for myself…is staying focused on the here and now and trying to live each day as though it could all end today….It effects how I treat both others and myself and creates priorities on the choices I make, and of how I want to live life….and it presents each new day as an opportunity to grow and become that person I’ve always wanted to be.

Would you want to know?

Ambi :)

[Skater Boy]

Personally, I think I’d prefer to know and I believe it would alter many aspects of my life. Things like retirement, financial plans and existing on a mundane level of the day to day grind of work…sleep…work , with those limited slices of time to call my own, would be the first two things to be altered....and that would just be the begining.
The biggest challenge I find for myself…is staying focused on the here and now and trying to live each day as though it could all end today….It effects how I treat both others and myself and creates priorities on the choices I make, and of how I want to live life….and it presents each new day as an opportunity to grow and become that person I’ve always wanted to be.


http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/signs064.gif (http://www.freesmileys.org)

[bigirl_inwv]

Part of me would want to know...but part of me wouldn't.

I'd want to know so that I could do all the things I've said I want to do before I die. I'd want to travel abroad. I'd want to go bungee jumping and sky diving. I'd know when my finances were going to run out, so I'd buy anything I really wanted to buy instead of worrying about saving for the future.

But I also wouldn't want to know because it would make it terribly hard to be around my family. Knowing that in "x" amount of days, I won't be with them anymore. Knowing that there are things I'll miss while my little sister is growing up. I just don't think feeling the pain of losing my family everyday would be worth knowing the exact moment of my death.

So I guess, no. I really wouldn't want to know.

[MarieDelta]

I would want to know.

That way I would know when to stock up on life insurance!


It would be good to know, just for plannings sake.

Would it be hard on everyone? Yeah Probably, but at least they would be prepared.

[Skater Boy]

But I also wouldn't want to know because it would make it terribly hard to be around my family. Knowing that in "x" amount of days, I won't be with them anymore. Knowing that there are things I'll miss while my little sister is growing up. I just don't think feeling the pain of losing my family everyday would be worth knowing the exact moment of my death.

So I guess, no. I really wouldn't want to know.

The way I see it, everyone's gotta go sometime. And therefore, you'll ALWAYS miss out on SOMETHING, like parts of your future childrens' or family's lives. Better to know this, and therefore be able to fully utilize every last second, than to suddenly die (without having known) and therefore not have got to do or say any of the things that you would've really wanted to.

:2cents:

[Michael623]

I'd rather live each day as if it were my last.

[DiamondDog]

I'd rather live each day as if it were my last.

Some of us do that already.

If I only had ~2 years left to live like in the scenario that Ambi wrote I'd sure as hell want to know.

[lonelygirlintx]

Yes, I often think about this and I would want to know.
I could make plans for where my children will be when I am gone, and it would give me a whole different perspective on things. I believe that I would give into all the things I have always wanted to do, the things that I have put on hold. I would treat people a lot better than I sometimes do when I am frustrated or angry. And just try to live my life the best I can.

[onewhocares]

Yes, I would want to know for sure. Although I am a believer of living each day to the fullest, there are times in life for whatever reason we never seem to make time for things. One thing I would make a priority would be to tell those people in my life that I love and admire just how much I do love and care. Learned this the hard way. When my dad had a brain hemorage he was alive for a few days following. In that time we had so many people come up to all five of his children and told us of countless stories and just how proud he was of us. Funny the only persons he did not tell were us..his children. How sad. At his funeral at the end of his eulogy, which I had written, we asked all the guests assembled to turn to the one with whom the came or when they got home their family and tell them how much they love them. Learning that four years ago has changed my thoughts on how to live. We have been given a life...wonderful and sorrowful at times but we must remember the joy which we can make of it.

[The Barefoot Contess]

I would definitely want to know. I don't live every day as if it were the last one, so with that information I would. Why do I not live my life as if today were my last day? Well, I go to work, and I like it but don't love it, I eat food I don't like because it is good for me, I don't travel as much as I would like...
So, I would spend more time with the ones I love and care less about those I don't like, travel to Japan, Russia, India, Machu Pichu, and South Africa, eat different foods, try different sexual possibilities, make nice gifts to people, try some extreme exports, be in a movie, meet Bono, go to concerts by Depeche Mode, The National, U2, Editors and Radiohead, write a book, live in a loft in Paris, say out loud many of the things I have not said, be in love...

[Bluebiyou]

Oh, everyone would LIKE to know, for advantage of the moment.
Those of us who believe in spiritual matters sometimes get a glimpse of the future... which can usually be altered.
Not meaning to twist this thread (as I have in the past with other threads), but this would ultimately lead to the question of existance:
Is there predestiny? Is the universe a huge - virtually infinite - equation that can ONLY play out one way? Cassandra effect? Free will is an egotistical and self-centered illusion?
OR
Is there truly free will, infinite dimensions of our universe (physics) with a different and very real universe existing for each and every quantum outcome/possibilty occuring in the universe?
OR
perhaps something inbetween the two?
OR
something else even more bizzare?

Inquiring minds periodically want to masturbate - I mean - want to know!

[Mrs.F]

I'm going to be different and say....I don't want to know! I'm very much a worry wort and I would worry everyday if I had done enough, what do I do next, will I have enough to time to do this or that. As the time got closer it would consume me and I would make myself sick over it. For me living each day without having the stress of a time line would be so much easier.

And to add on to what Belle said...when my dad had his accident a yr. and 1/2 ago...we also had a line people for hours telling my brother, my sister and I how proud he was of us. Many told us he was such a good man and would do anything for anyone, that he would be greatly missed. My dad was also not one to tell how he felt unless he was mad, then you knew and so did everyone else! So from that moment on, my family changed and we hug, tell each other we love each other and make sure that we remain close. It's been a struggle but we've gotten through it.

Funny how something drastic has to happen before we wake up and see the light.

[alaskacouple]

The very fact of knowing would,I think, defeat the ability to live in the absolute present moment. As many have said, they would somehow "change" the way they are now living so as to have a happier and more fulfilled life. But, most of the things we would choose to do "if we just could" tend to be focused toward a desire for a more spontaneous life lived in the "now" of this moment.

But, I think that if we really did "know the day and the hour" of our transformation out of this world - we would find it almost impossible to remove our mind from projecting out to that upcoming day - and thus, we would be defeated in our desire to live in the "now" due to "living" that future day over and over in our minds eye.

So, I would not want to know - enough I think is to recall often that we are all on a mad rush to that day. IMHO, the key is to seek the ability to live this moment as IF it were your last - and then, live the next moment as IF it were your last, and then...

[alaskacouple]

Oh, everyone would LIKE to know, for advantage of the moment.
Those of us who believe in spiritual matters sometimes get a glimpse of the future... which can usually be altered.
Not meaning to twist this thread (as I have in the past with other threads), but this would ultimately lead to the question of existance:
Is there predestiny? Is the universe a huge - virtually infinite - equation that can ONLY play out one way? Cassandra effect? Free will is an egotistical and self-centered illusion?
OR
Is there truly free will, infinite dimensions of our universe (physics) with a different and very real universe existing for each and every quantum outcome/possibilty occuring in the universe?
OR
perhaps something inbetween the two?
OR
something else even more bizzare?

Inquiring minds periodically want to masturbate - I mean - want to know!
The Bible speaks of "predestination", but there is an added element that perhaps you have not considered. The referenced passage goes something like this; 'for those He foreknew, He predestined, and those He predestined He called...'(please insert whatever "name" for the Creative Being you are comfortable with)

The added element is the "foreknowing" - considered in this way, predestination becomes but one part of the whole existence of a thing. Now "foreknowing" implies a Being that is not bound by space and time as we are. Such a being can insert Himself into any moment of what we view as the linear progression of time - (think of time as a circle, with all of your moments on it - on a circle, there is no beginning nor is there any ending - all things just exist on the circle.) Now for a Being outside of our time perspective, it is a simple matter to insert into any point on the circle - so, it is also easy to say that ones circle could be "prearranged" (predestined) by such a Force.

But as to 'free will' - does such a "prearrangement" by the Creative Force equate to no option for the creature to choose it's path? I think not necessarily. For recall that the Creative Force "foreknows" any choice you would ever make of your own free will - knowing your future choice in every matter, that Creative Force could then "prearrange" (predestine) the events of you existence to to coincide with the choices you will make of your own free will.

But now we have truly "hijacked" this thread - so I will stop with the hope that this gives you some new material for your masturb... - opps! I mean for your thinking.

[HighEnergy]

My sister and I have spent a lot of our lives working with the dying. Lots of my family died relatively young (my father at 45 when I was 11). You don't need to know the date of your death to change your life. Insist on being happy and grateful for what you've got now, and remember to tell folks that. Yeah, I still struggle with being an absolute bitch to my kids sometimes, but I do try everyday to tell folks I love them. Instead of buying my kids things, I buy them family memberships to the zoo and the museum center and the art museum. Looking back at life, is it the things you own you remember, or the times you've had?

I saw The Bucket List recently, and it's old news, and they got to go wherever they wanted because Jack's character had all the money in the world to spend, but we can all do that to some degree. Even though I'm not making the money I want, I still set aside some for special things, even if it's just a camping pass or buying shrimp instead of chicken at the grocery once in a while. Folks come to my house and are shocked that I actually cook a meal almost every night, we sit at the dining room table, we light the candles, use linen napkins and the good china, and treat each other like we are company and actually sit and talk to each other. I also tell my friends I love them and it surprises me the number of folks I talk to that haven't heard anyone say that to them since the last time I did.

YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW THE DAY YOU ARE DYING, YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT YOUR PRIORITIES AND MAKE TIME FOR THEM NOW.

[captslaprock]

AMEN WOMAN NO TRUER WORDS HAVE EVER BEEN SPOKEN

[proseros]

I would want to see- ala Don Juan Mateas.

Yes. If I were to know that I would take the "little smoke" (or any other hallucinogen providing the same or similar affects) as often as possible with the aim of seeing the world exactly as it may really be.

Now I realize many are thinking-"well that's just plain stupid"(since I might risk dying prematurely). Though consider what more is there for you to do in the World that should make any difference one way or the other? It is normal for the psyche to desire to accomplish, being crushed under the impending gravitational mill of time, everything-the body has left-unaccomplished-without such knowledge one might not, or at the very least, attempt at an opportunistic pace, without concern of success or failure. Though that is where knowing has its advantage, as long as one realizes it will ultimately never make any difference anyway that even a single success will forever have any more or less value than one hundred failed attempts. And as "seeing" as much as one would hope to see after life in the World has expired-while living, at least knowing without vain hope or expectation that indeed the World is "full to the brim" is worth the privlege of death itself; something, like life, as far as I know, I will only do once.

[mistymockingbird]

My best friend has brain cancer. A particularly aggressive form. Even in the best case scenario his days are very limited. He is only 45. I asked him this very question a few weeks ago. Now that he knows, would he rather he didn't. I hope that one day I have his grace.

His father died at a younger age than my friend is now. He said first that somewhere in the back of his mind he'd never expected to live past the age that his father was when he died. But then he passed that age. He is now the eldest living male in his bloodline. He passed that mark a year and a half ago.

There's been quite a bit of strife in his last couple of years. Priorities had already been shifted and negative ties had been cut. He told me that he is ready. That he feels like he has led his best life. Knowing that the time is short gives him the strength to continue to cut out the BS. Knowing that his days are very numbered has not made big changes in his life. Those had already been made. What it has done is to bring peace. A peace and a calm that are as inspirational as they are heartbreaking.

[darkeyes]

No..don wanna know the specific day..wetha me likes it or not it wud change the way me has me life planned out. Long as me healthy durin that time an able 2 enjoy life.. wud carry on as now. Conversely if me had sum orrible disease wich wos gonna kill me..ye..wud wanna know that me gonna die. Wudn wanna know wen tho.. not 2 the minute or even day. Given a ruff idea in months or years is 1 thing.. told wen think it wud make us stop livin as we shud.. wiv joy an a sensa fun an doin the things we shud.. knowin the exact day..wot wud b the point?? Apart from the lil things we do like havin sex.. goin 2 football theatre an so on... things we luff but are in terms of the greater schema things... things 2 enjoy but fleeting.. wot do we hav then 2 truly plan an look forward 2?? Me luffs life...an intend 2 hold on 2 it as hard an wiv as much pash as me can... even bein told me wos badly ill, had a few years or months 2 live wud fite 2 the end 2 hold on to me life..an enjoy its pleasures as much as me can...an who knows..mind ova matta mite jus prolong me life an even who can tell, cure me illness...or even science wud find a cure... a definite date that no matta wot yas gonna die?? Naaa.. don wanna know.... even then..me wud try an beat the reaper.. cum near me wiv is big scythe me wud get out Cleave an lets c who wins the scrap!!!!

An forya info hav had a lil prob in me adult life wen me didn know wetha me wos gonna survive.. gave me the shits..wos scared 2 death but determined it wosn gonna get me wiv ease..the gud ole NHS dealt wiv it an me hale a hearty an still a pain in the arse 2 many peeps but if it eva cums bak...it will hav a fite on its hands if it thinks me gonna go wivout a gud barney!

[Skater Boy]

Yes. If I were to know that I would take the "little smoke" (or any other hallucinogen providing the same or similar affects) as often as possible with the aim of seeing the world exactly as it may really be.

Forgive me if my line of reasoning seems an ignorant one, but I thought the whole idea of such "hallucinogens" (as their very name suggests) is to induce a state of mind that allows one to perecive the world in a way OTHER than exactly as it may be?

Personally, I wouldn't be overly concerned about dying prematurely as a consequence of using such hallucinogens. But I would certainly want to limit their use in order to enable me to fully experience every last detail of the activities that I might choose to do, whilst in a clean and sober state of mind.

:2cents:

[someotherguy]

I would want to know, but I would also like the prediction to be wrong. That way I could go along thinking everything was settled and then die of something else early anyway, or else have my expiration date come and go and be left thinking, great what now? The only way I know of to know the time and way of death is suicide. That is not a cheerful idea. I would settle for knowing the date on which I get laid for the last time, unless of course it has already happened, in which case I am better off not knowing, so I have something to look forward to even it will never happen. This is a depressing thread. I am going back to bed.

[DiamondDog]

Are you wondering because a certain hollywood celebrity has a type of cancer that's mostly fatal and has a high mortality rate and little chance of remission?

[the sacred night]

I'd want to know. Like a lot of others, I'd want to be able to do all the things I'd been wanting to do without having to worry about the future. Perhaps unlike others, I'd enjoy the opportunity to reflect on my own impending death, in sort of an impossible to explain way. I've done it before when I thought there was a possibility I might die soon, but obviously I didn't actually die those times. As to it being hard on my family... Ambi didn't say everyone else had to know, only me. I could bear that burden for the opportunity to live those two years more fully. Who knows, I might choose to tell some people, but I'd have to make that decision when I came to it.

[the mage]

You (and most people ) would go insane if you knew it was coming. People falling to death do die before hitting the ground........

[BreeIsMe]

Personally, I agree with Mrs F, I would NOT want to know since that knowledge can lead you to live your life NOT as you would want as well. Instead, although it may be very hard and essentially impossible, you should live your life to its fullest every day and live "like today is your last day" Having said that obviously you are not going to go out and spend every last dime and find out that today isn't your last day, but I don't think that you should live like that either. You should always live so that you will have NO REGRETS when you die. only then can you live every day to its fullest and not worry about getting everything in before a known death date or worrying about not being able to do something before that date, etc. I know this kind of sounds rambling but the bottom line is that I can live a full life if I take advantage of every opportunity that I have and do the things that I feel are important (not necessarily everything that I can think of to do before I die), and I treat everyone else with respect and let everyone in my life know that I LOVE them....

then whenever I dies, I will be happy.....

Bree

[proseros]

Forgive me if my line of reasoning seems an ignorant one, but I thought the whole idea of such "hallucinogens" (as their very name suggests) is to induce a state of mind that allows one to perecive the world in a way OTHER than exactly as it may be?

Personally, I wouldn't be overly concerned about dying prematurely as a consequence of using such hallucinogens. But I would certainly want to limit their use in order to enable me to fully experience every last detail of the activities that I might choose to do, whilst in a clean and sober state of mind.

:2cents:


Ah. But indeed quite the contrary to wit; the 'exactness' of the one being the illusion perpetrated by natural and artificial limitations of our sense and sensibility. That we humans do not think about THE world that is just as much the lion's, the tiger's and the bearses; the birds and the bees. Hell, we are hardly aware enough to give a shit about the next human-let alone some bug or tree; or any number of living breathing realities just beyond our reach-

1) What are “Astral” and “Spiritual Beings?”

Man is one: it is a case of any consciousness assuming a sensible form.
Microcosms and elementals. Maybe an elemental (e.g. a dog) has a cosmic conception in which he is a microcosm and man incomplete. No means of deciding same, as in case of kinds of space.See Poincare, passages quoted infra.
Similarly, our gross matter may appear unreal to Beings clad in fine matter. Thus, science thinks vulgar perceptions “error”. We cannot perceive at all except within our gamut; as, concentrated perfumes, which seem malodorous, and time-hidden facts, such as the vanes of a revolving fan, which flies can distinguish.
Hence: no a priori reason to deny the existence of conscious intelligences with insensible bodies. Indeed we know of other orders of mind (flies, etc., possibly vegetables) thinking by means of non-human brain-structures.
But the fundamental problem of Religion is this: Is there any praeter-human Intelligence, of the same order as our own, which is not dependent on cerebral structures consisting of matter in the vulgar sense of the word?
2) “Matter” includes all that is movable. Thus, electric waves are “matter”. There is no reason to deny the existence of Beings who perceive by other means those subtle forces which we only perceive by our instruments.
3) We can influence other Beings, conscious or no, as lion-tamers, gardeners, etc., and are influenced by them, as by storms, bacilli, etc.
4) There is an apparent gap between our senses and their correspondences in consciousness. Theory needs a medium to join matter and spirit, just as physics once needed an “ether” to transmit and transmute vibrations.
5) We may consider all beings as parts of ourselves, but it is more convenient to regard them as independent. Maximum Convenience is our cannon of “Truth”.

The world EXACTLY as it is is not one we have ever seen and more often avert our eyes and ears and keep closed our mouths; not seeing its exponentially fluctual monstrosities, not hearing its screams for mercy, its cracking,scraping tearing and hemorragic perpetuations of misery, nor speaking a whisper whether of the mind or the mouth on its behalf -That all the good Earth and Heaven may have mercy on US.

One cannot avoid the awsome tactility sobriety affords us. The World exactly as it is, is every frequency, every vibration, every indulation, every sensation of our awareness, again, that indeed the world is "full to the brim" and that there is no thing left to emptiness, lest we are overtaken by want.

There is a tremendous amount of importance in that last line. I sincerly thank Bluebiyou (http://main.bisexual.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5306) for the noble considerations in this thread. [linked]

I'm not talking about sitting around stoning (not that it would, given the context of the question, change anything :tongue:)

But okay let's take a look at that again...


And as "seeing" as much as one would hope to see after life in the World has expired-while living, at least knowing without vain hope or expectation that indeed the World is "full to the brim" is worth the privlege of death itself; something, like life, as far as I know, I will only do once.

It being impossible to know the World any other way than it is, whether you're stoned or tripping-or not. It just as much is, and no less is not. What would it be without death's noticing too, whatever death lives!

Once again Bluebiyou, thank you.

[Skater Boy]

Ah. But indeed quite the contrary to wit; the 'exactness' of the one being the illusion perpetrated by natural and artificial limitations of our sense and sensibility. That we humans do not think about THE world that is just as much the lion's, the tiger's and the bearses; the birds and the bees. Hell, we are hardly aware enough to give a shit about the next human-let alone some bug or tree; or any number of living breathing realities just beyond our reach-

1) What are “Astral” and “Spiritual Beings?”

Man is one: it is a case of any consciousness assuming a sensible form.
Microcosms and elementals. Maybe an elemental (e.g. a dog) has a cosmic conception in which he is a microcosm and man incomplete. No means of deciding same, as in case of kinds of space.See Poincare, passages quoted infra.
Similarly, our gross matter may appear unreal to Beings clad in fine matter. Thus, science thinks vulgar perceptions “error”. We cannot perceive at all except within our gamut; as, concentrated perfumes, which seem malodorous, and time-hidden facts, such as the vanes of a revolving fan, which flies can distinguish.
Hence: no a priori reason to deny the existence of conscious intelligences with insensible bodies. Indeed we know of other orders of mind (flies, etc., possibly vegetables) thinking by means of non-human brain-structures.
But the fundamental problem of Religion is this: Is there any praeter-human Intelligence, of the same order as our own, which is not dependent on cerebral structures consisting of matter in the vulgar sense of the word?
2) “Matter” includes all that is movable. Thus, electric waves are “matter”. There is no reason to deny the existence of Beings who perceive by other means those subtle forces which we only perceive by our instruments.
3) We can influence other Beings, conscious or no, as lion-tamers, gardeners, etc., and are influenced by them, as by storms, bacilli, etc.
4) There is an apparent gap between our senses and their correspondences in consciousness. Theory needs a medium to join matter and spirit, just as physics once needed an “ether” to transmit and transmute vibrations.
5) We may consider all beings as parts of ourselves, but it is more convenient to regard them as independent. Maximum Convenience is our cannon of “Truth”.

The world EXACTLY as it is is not one we have ever seen and more often avert our eyes and ears and keep closed our mouths; not seeing its exponentially fluctual monstrosities, not hearing its screams for mercy, its cracking,scraping tearing and hemorragic perpetuations of misery, nor speaking a whisper whether of the mind or the mouth on its behalf -That all the good Earth and Heaven may have mercy on US.

One cannot avoid the awsome tactility sobriety affords us. The World exactly as it is, is every frequency, every vibration, every indulation, every sensation of our awareness, again, that indeed the world is "full to the brim" and that there is no thing left to emptiness, lest we are overtaken by want.

There is a tremendous amount of importance in that last line. I sincerly thank Bluebiyou (http://main.bisexual.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5306) for the noble considerations in this thread. [linked]

I'm not talking about sitting around stoning (not that it would, given the context of the question, change anything :tongue:)

But okay let's take a look at that again...



It being impossible to know the World any other way than it is, whether you're stoned or tripping-or not. It just as much is, and no less is not. What would it be without death's noticing too, whatever death lives!

Once again Bluebiyou, thank you.

Well, I'm pretty simple-minded (in case you hadn't guessed), so I'm in no position to critique your above theory. But if you feel that drugs are a means to take you there, then more power to you. I certainly would stop you from sparking up...