The connotation of the word “nothing”, the meaning that most people associate with the word when they hear or read it, is actually far less apt in describing the vast Nothingness that follows death than it should be. It is not just nothingness, but a profound Nothingness. One may take a blank piece of paper and state “There is nothing on this paper. This is nothing,” however the reality would be that the nothing which follows death is somehow more, or rather less, nothing than nothing. As paradoxical as this seems, it is a simple truth: there is no word in the English Language to describe this state of nonexistence. It is a complete and total eradication of consciousness and thought beyond anything we could ever hope to experience. If only because by experiencing it, we cease to experience. It is oblivion, it is void, it is the Russian toska1, but for all that is none of those things. To attempt to describe it is futile, and yet for eons this is exactly what mankind has sought to do.