When you die are you aware that you are dead?

Answer 1

There is a tremendous amount of debate on the topic of life or consciousness after death. The materialistic or skeptical response would be, no, when you are dead you no longer exist and therefore you do not know that you are dead, nor do you know anything else. The most usual religious response would be yes, you would know that you are dead, when you are in either heaven or hell (Christian version). In the Hindu version you would be reincarnated and so you would actually still be alive. Various other versions exist, but all religions believe in some form of life after death.

Answer 2

Whether or not you are actually aware that you are dead seems to hinge on whether you have a soul, or spirit. Clinical death or near-death experiences are not evidence for after-life awareness. Those who suffer a near-death experience have not gone to heaven. Their brain function has simply created 'experiences' in the same way as it creates dreams.
The general scientific view is that we evolved from lower animals. Since lower animals are universally regarded (at least in major Abrahamic religions) as not having souls, it is difficult to imagine how, and at what stage in our evolution, humans could have acquired souls.

The hope for an afterlife is one of the most enduring emotions in humanity. The belief in a soul and some form of afterlife is probably as old as organised religion. The ancient Greeks believed that the spirit entered hades, which from Homer's account seems a rather dismal place.

The biblical creation stories did not mention God creating a soul for Adam or Eve, and in fact, the concept of an afterlife is not evident in the earliest biblical accounts. However, in the period prior to the Babylonian Exile, the Hebrews believed in the soul and that the soul of a deceased person went to sheol, where it continued in a passive state similar to semi-conciousness. What the Greek and Hebrew beliefs had in common was that there was no judgement and no division of the souls of the good into heaven and the souls of the evil into hell.

The ancient Zoroastrians believed that the souls of the good went to paradise, while the souls of the wicked went to hell. They also believed in a Final Judgement, when a messiah-like figure would defeat evil and pass judgement. Following the Babylonian Exile, the concepts of heaven and hell entered Judaism. Bruce Feiler (Where God was Born) says that, while scholars dispute the origins of these ideas, most agree that they began to enter Western religion during the years when Persia was ascendant.

Thus we can see the evolution of the concepts of soul, from merely existing to the expectation of paradise. Whether or not there is a God or gods, the concepts of soul were invented by humans as a way of comforting the dying. Once we accept this, we can accept that after death we can no longer be aware of anything at all. We will not know that we are dead.

Answer 3

Different people will give different answers. An atheist may say No, while some beliefs might say "In a vague way only."

The existence of a spiritual place or places in which the souls of the dead are treated in accordance with their behavior when alive (reward or punishment), is an ancient tradition of mankind, which finds expression (in differing details) in various religions. It cannot be conclusively proven as long as we're alive; and that's the whole point: God tests us as to whether we will live in a way that demonstrates that we're aware of His presence, even though His presence is not readily visible.

One of the central beliefs of Judaism, as stated in the Talmud (Mishna, Sanhedrin 11:1) and codified by Rambam (Maimonides, 1135-1204), is that the soul continues to exist and is treated in accordance with the person's actions while he or she was alive. This applies to all people, whatever their religion.(The creation of the soul is stated in Genesis 2:7.)

The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) doesn't dwell at length on the afterlife; and nor does Judaism spend a lot of time speculating on its details. However, that is not meant to diminish from its importance. Rather, the Torah implies that we are to use the bulk of our energies in keeping God's ways and commands in this world, with our feet firmly planted on Earth, while nonetheless not losing awareness of our beliefs.
Our ancient sages stated the importance of being aware of the next world: "This world is a mere entrance-hall before the afterlife" (Mishna, Avot ch.4).

All outstanding accounts are settled after this life. Some cases illustrate this point, since this entire world wouldn't be enough to reward a Moses or punish a Hitler. And while we're alive, knowledge of the future world serves as one of the motivations to keeping God's will.

The Tanakh does not delve into detail of the rewards of the righteous because other religions could compete with even more poetic promises. Also because belief in the afterlife was shared by all ancient societies and needed little reiteration. Besides, it would be like describing the colors of a sunrise to someone who was blind from birth.
It is, however, referred to briefly in Torah verses such as Genesis 15:15, which states that "You (Abraham) will come to your fathers in peace and will be buried in good old age." Coming to his fathers does not mean simply to be buried with them, since Abraham was not buried with his ancestors. Such verses are stated many times.
The prophets are more explicit with such references (see Isaiah 26:19 and 66:24, Daniel 12:13, Zechariah 3:7, 1 Kings 8:30, 2 Kings ch.2, Ecclesiastes 12:7). The afterlife is spoken of at length in the Talmud. More than 20 pages of Talmud (Sanhedrin 90-110, Rosh Hashanah 16-18, and other passages) are given to this subject.

See also:

Did Jewish beliefs come from Zoroastrianism?

Answer 4

No. When you are dead your brain stops functioning, and then you decompose.

Answer 5

It depends entirely on the circumstances.