If that were so, people would be far more accepting of the idea that life, the one thing we do know that ends for everyone, just... ends, and that there is nothing for the dead after that.

But people struggle even just with entertaining it as a thought experiment. Some are terrified of the concept that when you die, you just stop existing full stop, no ifs and buts.

I've always assumed my experience after death will be a parallel of my experience before birth: nothing.

That is why one might recommend psychedelic experiences: you are likely to come back with a conviction that your soul existed for eternity before your birth and will exist for eternity after as well.

I think this is highly dependent on what your beliefs are pre-trip and how you define what makes you you. I've had many psychedelic experiences and while I often feel greater connection to living things around me, I've never been left with the feeling that my "soul" or anything I'd define as me will exist when I'm gone.

This is congruent with the sense that my ‘soul’ is a local aspect of the dynamics that have been playing out in the universe and will continue after my death. I am a little piece of the dance, for a while.

That works for me.

Sure, but you have no more evidence of that sort so what's the point? Get high if you want but it's not going to tell you anything.

Exactly. You've been dead much longer than you've been alive, so death is no mystery :)

I’m trying, but I don’t understand. Birth and death are the beginning and the end, respectively. What’s missing?

Why do you think anything happens when you're alive?