In Part V of The Ethics, Spinoza writes that 'there is necessarily in God an idea which expresses the essence of this or that human body under a form of eternity [sub specie aeternitatis].' Insofar as the human mind, comprised of modes of the divine mind, is the idea of the body, and insofar as the divine mind is eternal, then from the perspective of eternity, there is always, in the mind of God, this idea. Hence, 'The human mind cannot be absolutely destroyed along with the body, but something of it remains, which is eternal.' [ . . . ]
https://aeon.co/ideas/there-is-no-death-only-a-series-of-eternal-nows
In this article, the authors, Robert Lanza and Bob Berman, argue a similar point, but from an entirely different perspective, (or perhaps from two apparently conflicting perspectives). The position they advocate is called biocentrism, the view that 'life and consciousness create the reality around them.' From this angle, there is no death because, strictly speaking, 'the' world is confined to each individual conscious mind that organizes the data within and without at each renewed Now. Death, then, is the literal end of the world (for this consciousness), at which we 'reach the imagined border of ourselves'.
At the same time, they also employ the metaphor of time as a vinyl record, where each sound being emitted at any given moment is akin to the Now, while the songs that haven't played yet are akin to what we would casually call 'the future' and the songs that have already played are akin to what we would casually call 'the past.' But the record itself persists as a whole, with its 'past' and 'future' relative only to the listener. This understanding of time seems to me to be closer to what Spinoza intends, but I'm not sure how well it gels with the biocentrist view that life and consciousness create the reality around them.
In this article, the authors, Robert Lanza and Bob Berman, argue a similar point, but from an entirely different perspective, (or perhaps from two apparently conflicting perspectives). The position they advocate is called biocentrism, the view that 'life and consciousness create the reality around them.' From this angle, there is no death because, strictly speaking, 'the' world is confined to each individual conscious mind that organizes the data within and without at each renewed Now. Death, then, is the literal end of the world (for this consciousness), at which we 'reach the imagined border of ourselves'.
At the same time, they also employ the metaphor of time as a vinyl record, where each sound being emitted at any given moment is akin to the Now, while the songs that haven't played yet are akin to what we would casually call 'the future' and the songs that have already played are akin to what we would casually call 'the past.' But the record itself persists as a whole, with its 'past' and 'future' relative only to the listener. This understanding of time seems to me to be closer to what Spinoza intends, but I'm not sure how well it gels with the biocentrist view that life and consciousness create the reality around them.
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