Since the dawn of humanity, the only way we have learned about death is by observing others die. Sometimes, this observation is limited to our five senses; other times, scientific tools extend our perception. Yet, no matter how advanced our methods, all our knowledge of death remains secondhand—shaped by external observation, never direct experience.

The core problem is this: the person who dies does not return to tell the tale. Even in life, the deepest aspects of human existence—insight, emotions, and subjective experiences—remain largely inaccessible to outsiders. We attempt to describe our inner worlds, but no words can fully translate the complexity of our consciousness. If this is true for the living, it is even more so for the dead. Near-death experiences offer fascinating glimpses, but they do not equate to actual death—only a brush with its threshold.

Another mystery compounds this dilemma. While alive, we do not fully understand what we “are.” Do we possess a soul? A mind? Consciousness? Something else entirely? Science attempts to answer this question, but it remains elusive. We measure the physical effects of non-physical experiences—heart rate changes, neurotransmitter shifts—but the essence of the non-physical itself evades us. Psychological frameworks like the DSM categorize mental phenomena based on external behaviors, yet they, too, rely on observation rather than direct access to inner experience.

Life, then, is an enigma, an interplay of physical and non-physical elements. And because our definition of death hinges on our understanding of life, we are left with a paradox: how can we truly define death if life itself is incomprehensible?

Death is like a deep, dark pond whose surface reflects the structures above it. We look at the water, but what we see is not death itself—it is merely a distorted reflection of life. We define death as the absence of life, yet in doing so, we are still defining life. The only true experience of death comes at the moment we pass away, taking its secrets with us.

Unless the future offers a radical breakthrough, death will remain an unsolvable mystery. Each person who dies carries their knowledge of the experience beyond the veil, leaving the living forever grasping at shadows. In this sense, death is not just the end of life—it is the ultimate, unshareable unknown.