If no afterlife exists, where does the “self” go when it disappears?

If no afterlife exists, the “self” ceases to exist upon death. The self is generally understood as a product of brain activity—consciousness, memories, personality, and identity arise from the physical processes of the brain.

When the brain stops functioning, these processes end, and with them, the experience of self. There is no separate entity that continues; rather, the self simply dissolves as the biological basis that sustains it no longer operates. In this view, the self does not “go” anywhere—it ends.