History Main / TheNothingAfterDeath

* [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons]] In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E9HolidaysOfFuturePassed Holiday of Future Passed]], Ned mentions that he remarried Maude's ghost who lamentably informs him that there's nothing but a meaningless void on the other side. Ned just brushes it off.

* Madison from ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' claims this is what's in store for people in the afterlife - a cold nothingness void. This is one of the reasons why she's so empty after being revived. She seeks comfort in Kyle, because he also experienced that empty void.
** Ultimately averted when the existence of hell is confirmed. Though it is possible that those not wicked enough simply go to the cold, empty void.
* Played with in an episode of the 1960s ''Series/Batman1966'', believe it or not. In "The Riddling Controversy", the Riddler - who has already come close to crossing the MoralEventHorizon by [[ChildHater stealing money intended for starving children]] - buys a device from a MadScientist that the scientist claims causes matter to completely disappear. The Riddler tries out the device on his hat - and once it has disappeared, he tells the scientist "Make it come back now"...only to be told that the technology to reverse the device's effects has not been created yet. So the things - and, potentially, people - that the Riddler causes to disappear are still ''somewhere'', but it's obviously some place no one on Earth can see [[FridgeHorror (and assuming the scientist never completes his research, they will stay in that strange place forever)]]. Delighted with the results, the Riddler threatens to make Gotham City Police Headquarters disappear unless City Hall legalizes all crime in Gotham. When he hears that Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara, and their bomb squad have refused to evacuate the building, the Riddler is completely without remorse: "Let [Gordon] go down with his building". Pretty grim for a series that was essentially a comedy, and on which only two characters ever died onscreen.

-->'''Melisandre:''' You've been to the other side.
-->'''Dondarrion:''' The other side? There is no 'other side'. I have been to the darkness, my lady.

* The eponymous character of ''Series/MurphyBrown'' spends an entire episode asking people about their thoughts on the afterlife after asking herself what she will tell her son when he is old enough to ask where people go where they die. Miles ends up having a a freak-out after speculating that it may be this trope, described in terms much like the ones at the top of the page.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Season 11 reveals the existence of "the Empty," a void separate from the other afterlife dimensions (Heaven, Hell, etc.) that is implied to be this. In the episode "[[Recap/SupernaturalS11E02FormAndVoid Form and Void]]", the Reaper Billie tells Sam that the Reapers are all fairly pissed that the brothers [[spoiler:killed their boss (a.k.a. ''[[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Death himself]]'')]] at the end of the last season, not to mention they've been sick of the two of them repeatedly dying and coming back to life for a good while now, so the next time they die, Billie will personally send their souls to the Empty [[DeaderThanDead to ensure they'll never be able to come back again]]. It's later confirmed that the Empty is a black void predating God and [[TheAntiGod Amara]] and all of reality, and that it's actually where the consciousnesses of angels, demons and TheSoulless go when they die, where they sleep for eternity. The Empty [[GeniusLoci is also itself sentient, although it doesn't like it when forces within reality force it to awaken from its slumber]].

** In the episode "They Keep Killing Suzie", after bringing Suzie back, she explains that the afterlife consists of total darkness, with nothing but the footsteps of an ominous creature that lurks within The Rift.
** "Dead Man Walking", Owen notes that there was nothing ''he can remember'', raising the possibility of DeathAmnesia. That also may have been an effect of the resurrection gauntlet, since [[spoiler: Owen experienced the same thing ''after'' he was brought back, albeit with a different glove.]] But since the only person who ever comes back from death without the gauntlet is Jack, and his description of death is just that there's nothing, it's possible that normal death is [[CessationOfExistence literally nothing]] rather than a featureless plane.
*** Suzie and Owen weren't especially nice people, however, so there is [[{{Hell}} another interpretation]].
** In series eight of parent show ''Series/DoctorWho'', however, this is all vaguely contradicted. There are a bunch of deceased people in a matrix, but even after that matrix ceases function, there seems to be ... a ''somewhere'' after.
*** Though considering it ''is'' the timelords, they might have simply been moved to another version of the matrix through the use of time-travel.
* In ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'', undead characters tell outsiders that heaven is like your typical Fluffy Cloud Heaven, but confide amongst each other that it's more like a long, dark corridor, where the only other people are "the men with sticks and ropes" who wait at the end.
** In the Series 1 finale, Annie (the ghost) [[spoiler: realizes she is about to "move on" when a literal door to the afterlife materializes. One of her friends asks her if the door leads to "something good, or... something else?" Annie replies, "I think it's something else".]]
** And in Series 2, after Annie [[spoiler: has been dragged through the door against her will]], she complains of having to [[AndIMustScream fill out forms]].
** By the end of Series 4, both a good and bad afterlife have been strongly hinted at; WordOfGod has further confirmed that [[spoiler: the original cast was reunited in the afterlife]].
* One episode of ''Series/BabylonFive'' warns telepaths not to linger in a dying person's mind, lest they be pulled into the black void that is death.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
** When Neelix is brought back from the dead, he remembers nothing of the afterlife. Since he was expecting [[spoiler:to be reunited with his family]], you kinda feel sorry for him...
** Followed up on in the 5th season premiere "Night", in which Voyager is traveling through an area of space without any stars. The Doctor diagnoses Neelix with "Nihiliphobia: the fear of nothingness. Or in LaymansTerms, the fear of...[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment nothingness]]. If it's any consolation, I can relate to it. I go into a void every time I'm deactivated. Emptiness, complete and utter oblivion. I'll admit, it was unsettling at first--the existential horror of it all..."

* In the ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' episode "Time Will Tell", [=MacPherson=] claims to have experienced this between burning to death in a house fire and resurrecting. He's shocked to learn that Artie experienced a more pleasant afterlife following his own temporary death.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' After realizing that she will never get the satisfaction she desires no matter how much revenge she gets, this is Callisto's one desire. [[spoiler: Subverted quite ironically as she experiences more versions of the afterlife than any other character EXCEPT for this.]]
* ''Series/IronFist2017'': After the resurrected Harold Meachum kills his assistant Kyle in a random outburst, he says to the corpse, "It's okay. I've been where you're going. It's not so bad. It's just... nothingness". In a later episode, Harold elaborates to Joy on what it was like for him in between his death from cancer and his resurrection by the Hand.
* After [[spoiler:Slade's]] death in ''Series/{{Cleverman}}'' his soul is seen vanishing into a black void. This might be because of a side-effect of his occult dabblings, or it might be simply that [[BarredFromTheAfterlife the afterlife despised him]].

The Nothingness is an afterlife where souls go to a bleak, featureless [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Plane of (Non) Existence]]. Whether or not this "non-existence involves the souls" existence and whether or not souls are consciously aware of the lack of existence around them is DependingOnTheWriter.

* Played for laughs, as with everything else, on Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}}'s "You Are Dead" article.

* In ''Literature/AmericanGods'', people who pass judgement are permitted to choose their destination. Some [[spoiler:including the protagonist]] choose this. [[spoiler: More accurately, Shadow chooses CessationOfExistence, but gets this for a brief time before being brought BackFromTheDead.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' had an episode parodying ''The Coven'', where Steve, Barry, Snot and Toshi get witch powers after reading a magic tome, and Steve eventually turns evil, forcing the others to fight him in the climax, with Barry being killed in the process. Agreeing to turn back time to before they had their powers to bring Barry back to life, things go back to the way they were... until Barry talks about what it was like being dead, in a very matter-of-fact way.
--> '''Barry''': By the way, I forgot to tell you. When you die, there's nothing, it's just a total cessatation of existence. (Not the trope of the same name, since he was apparently aware while dead).
** Barry's comments may not hold true, however, since within the ''American Dad'' universe, God, Heaven and Hell have all been depicted as very real. Given that Barry also happens to a complete psychopath without his medication, it's likely what he saw was just his version of Hell.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate_state#Islam Barzakh]] in UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}.

* In ''Manga/SoulHunter'', when [[spoiler:Taikobo]] is apparently killed, he finds himself in this sort of situation and wonders if this is what death is. However, it was something else entirely.

*** An apparently significant phrase in the article, [[spoiler:"Belief is the key"]] suggests an alternate, more uncomfortable possibility. [[spoiler:What happened to the resurrected 05 [[HopeSpot may ''not'' be the default afterlife for all human beings]]. Just [[SelfInflictedHell those who learn about it]] by, say, reading about his experience]].

* Myth/NorseMythology has many places the dead can go after they pass on. All of them have ''something'' happening, whether that's training for the End (i.e. Odin's and Freyja's halls), dining with kin (i.e. Helheim), or being tortured for all eternity (i.e. Nidhog's maw or Niflhel). There's even {{reincarnation}} within the family line. The Nothing After Death in Norse Mythology comes in one of these alternatives; the dead can reside in their graves if they so choose. Sometimes, this means they roam the Earth, but other times, it means that they literally stay in the ground and do nothing.

* Myth/GreekMythology's Hades (More specifically, the Asphodel Meadows) was a lot like this: a quiet, lonely place underground with nothing much happening. The only alternatives were Tartarus, a hellish place where those who angered the gods went, and the Elysian Fields, where the heroes of antiquity wound up. Unfortunately for Greeks, you had to be a real bastard or a real saint to get into those, respectively, so for the vast majority of the population, who simply lived a normal life, this is where they'd be headed. That's not to say the meadows weren't a ''nice'' place; you'd get to spend your long post-life walking among the serene [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin meadows of]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphodelus asphodel flowers]], but this would come at the small price of losing your memories if you chose to drink from the River Lethe, which runs through the area.

* Myth/GreekMythology's Hades (More specifically, the Asphodel Meadows) was a lot like this: a bleak, barren place underground with nothing much happening. The only alternatives were Tartarus, a hellish place where those who angered the gods went, and the Elysian Fields, where the heroes of antiquity wound up. Unfortunately for Greeks, you had to be a real bastard or a real saint to get into those, respectively, so it was the barren version for most of them.

* At least one afterlife of '' VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is like this. While happens to those claimed by [[TheGrimReaper Kindred]] is up in the air, Mordekaiser notably expected to pass into the "Hall of Bones," a [[{{WarriorHeaven warrior's afterlife]] alongside his gods and victims, but instead found himself in a barren, sandy wasteland devoid of anything except the shades of the dead. Through force of will, he was able to build the nothingness into a fortress, and Mordekaiser now works to stock the afterlife with as many raw materials and slaves as possible.

* Though we know thanks to [[Series/MoonKnight other]] [[Film/ThorLoveAndThunder entries]] in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse that there is an afterlife, and more than one, Shuri tragically comes to believe this is the case during the events of ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever''. Not only did her prayer to [[spoiler:save T'Challa's life from his illness go unanswered, but her loved ones did not appear to reunite with her once she took the synthetic heart-shaped herb, leaving only the monstrous Killmonger to confront her.]] With this, she bitterly laughs off being asked to respect [[spoiler:her brother and mother's memories]], since as far as she is concerned, they are ''dead'' and their souls and ideals with them. [[spoiler:Ramonda finally appears to Shuri during the climax from the Ancestral Plane, however, finally convincing Shuri that her loved ones are still there for her.]]

* Featured rather ironically ([[spoiler:heaven, purgatory and hell are all identical, except that the TV explaining the situation is increasingly cheaper in the worse afterlives]]) in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=769Nkn2df-4 Fifty Percent Grey.]]''

* After being paralyzed in a cave-in, ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} commits suicide so her teammates can heal her in a nearby Lazarus Pit. After being revived, she describes death as being "like riding a roller coaster in the dark."

* ''Film/TheNightHouse'': Beth says that when she died she saw nothing, and this leads her to term her and Owen's existential fear "the Nothing."

* ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'': When asked what death is like, [[spoiler: the Marquis de Carabas]] says "It's very cold, my friend. Very dark and very cold."

** Another Asimov story has the Last Trump played, and everyone who has died is resurrected. Buildings, clothing, everything but people starts to disintegrate, the landscape is leveling itself out and the stars go out. A character says this is to create Hell: "Visions of hellfire and damnation were very childish. A featureless eternity will be hell for a species that can't occupy itself for a wet weekend." This is pretty much the description of the Jewish version of hell, Gehenna - Asimov himself, of course, was Jewish.

* Though there's no direct textual evidence for this, readers of Creator/EdgarAllanPoe sometimes suspect that the narrators are speaking from this vantage point, telling the stories of their lives to themselves to try to, in the words of one critic, "try to persuade themselves that they're not dead."

* Played with in an episode of the 1960s ''Series/Batman1966'', believe it or not. In "The Riddling Controversy", the Riddler - who has already come close to crossing the MoralEventHorizon by [[ChildHater stealing money intended for starving children]] - buys a device from a MadScientist that the scientist claims causes matter to completely disappear. The Riddler tries out the device on his hat - and once it has disappeared, he tells the scientist "Make it come back now"...only to be told that the technology to reverse the device's effects has not been created yet. So the things - and, potentially, people - that the Riddler causes to disappear are still ''somewhere'', but it's obviously some place no one on Earth can see [[FridgeHorror (and assuming the scientist never completes his research, they will stay in that strange place forever)]]. Delighted with the results, the Riddler threatens to make Gotham City Police Headquarters disappear unless City Hall legalizes all crime in Gotham. When he hears that Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara, and their bomb squad have refused to evacuate the building, the Riddler is completely without remorse: "Let [Gordon] go down with his building." Pretty grim for a series that was essentially a comedy, and on which only two characters ever died onscreen.

** In the Series 1 finale, Annie (the ghost) [[spoiler: realizes she is about to "move on" when a literal door to the afterlife materializes. One of her friends asks her if the door leads to "something good, or... something else?" Annie replies, "I think it's something else."]]

* ''Series/IronFist2017'': After the resurrected Harold Meachum kills his assistant Kyle in a random outburst, he says to the corpse, "It's okay. I've been where you're going. It's not so bad. It's just... nothingness." In a later episode, Harold elaborates to Joy on what it was like for him in between his death from cancer and his resurrection by the Hand.

** One Jewish prayer honors God for "keeping faith with those who sleep in the dust." While this could refer to bodies buried in the ground, which did happen, burials in that part of the world in Biblical times tended to be two-part: an entombment in a re-usable space to allow the flesh to rot away entirely, followed by a second burial in an ossuary, which took up less space. The line could thus refer to the after-life: a bleak place of dust possibly made more bearable because the soul can sleep through it while waiting for resurrection.

* The musical adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Beetlejuice}}'' plays with this. While the Netherworld has some sort of a hierarchy and day-to-day life, it is described by Juno as a numb, lonely "endless abyss of nothingness" where everybody who has ever died eventually ends up. There is the implication the only beings who can freely come and go are humans who accidentally wander in or demons. When [[spoiler: Lydia goes into the Netherworld [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe to avoid her fate with Beetlejuice, she tries to find her mother]]]] and is shocked to find the Netherworld is so big and empty that she could search for all eternity and never find her, even comparing it to the "emptiness of space."

-->"There is no Hell, just Darkness."

* At least one afterlife of '' VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' is like this. While happens to those claimed by [[TheGrimReaper Kindred]] is up in the air, Mordekaiser notably expected to pass into the "Hall of Bones," a [[{{Valhalla}} warrior's afterlife]] alongside his gods and victims, but instead found himself in a barren, sandy wasteland devoid of anything except the shades of the dead. Through force of will, he was able to build the nothingness into a fortress, and Mordekaiser now works to stock the afterlife with as many raw materials and slaves as possible.

-->[[spoiler:''"You're curious about what happens after you die, right? Guess what? I know! You're going to find out first-hand before I can finish telling you, though, so I won't bother. I'll give you a hint: you're going to want to pack as much living as you possibly can into the next couple of minutes."'']]

* In ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'', near the end of Blue's game, you're told that trying to use Gate magic, which normally allows you to teleport between the regions, will result in you being "cast away into the eternal oblivion."

-->''"Remember how, when you were alive, you wasted hours and hours watching daytime (and probably night-time) television? Well, this is exactly like that, except without the television. And without the day and night. And without time."''

* ''Franchise/{{Nasuverse}}'': The concept of [[AkashicRecords The Origin]] is fundamentally similar to this, expounded on by ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners''. After death, souls just exist in the Origin, waiting to be recycled.

** Barry's comments may not hold true, however, since within the ''American Dad'' universe, God, Heaven and Hell have all been depicted as very real.

* One Tale from the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' revealed what happens when SCP-447 makes contact with dead bodies; it brings them back to life. They tell that there's simply nothing there for anyone, and the reason 447 isn't allowed to go near dead bodies is because people can't accept how pointless it all is. An odd example, considering one of the characters from the original SCP article is literally Satan and has had several conversations with God.

** The first episode establishes the series' DarkerAndEdgier cred right away by having a character brought back from the dead for one minute. Asked what he saw, he says "Nothing..." then, with growing horror, "Oh God, there's ''nothing''!" just before he dies for good.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Some {{Near Death Experience}}s are in part or wholly described as such - total sensory deprivation and paralysis, with a loss of ability to perceive the passage of time. This may be related to sleep paralysis, which is believed to be responsible for many claims of AlienAbduction and claims of visitation by otherworldly beings. Other experiences start out as this but transform into more conventional "pleasant" ones later.
* Some past life regression subjects of Brian Weiss described being in a kind of void after death. It was generally perceived as a place to rest between incarnations, and with other people.
[[/folder]]