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Fear of Death?

Bluntly, I fear death. Knowing there isn't an afterlife absolutely terrifies me. I actually have panic attacks because of this. Does anyone else have such issues and have you found anything to help ease the thought?

ClintF 5 July 14
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47 comments (26 - 47)

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1

I'll never know how it all turns out. That bothers me.

I get that. The fact that a million years from now or whenever some shit could happen and we can't even sympathise.

1

Life after death happens. Everything goes on like before. You're just not there is all.

zeuser Level 9 July 14, 2018
1

I fear dying without having lived.

1

From the great Jim Jeffries. 'I don't fear death because I'm an Atheist, I know I'll just rot in the ground. in fact I won't even know I'm dead, you want to know why, because I'll be fucking dead.

0

Thanks for honestly sharing this. I fear death too - more exactly that all the possibilities of life will disappear. I find no comfort in rationalization, e.g.: "It is a loss of time to worry about death because you will not feel anything." What really works for me is respecting the fear, recognizing it in my body a nourishing it with compassion. This strengthens the soothing emotional system and regulates the activity of threat system. You can learn more here:[en.wikipedia.org]

0

I think is normal, I get terrify when I am in those big roller-coaster waiting line!!!!

0

I don't fear death, I would find death a major inconvenience as I'm sure there'll be things I still want to do and my girls would miss me and that I find upsetting, not that I can do much about it.

As for no afterlife, there's no proof either way so as to what happens 'I don't know' but I assume I'll find out, if there is I'll know, on some level, if there isn't it won't matter.

0

I wish I could help you there. For the longest time, I wasn't sure what I felt about death, but had a suspicion. Two weeks ago, someone threatened to shoot me. I held my arms wide and calmly told them to do so. Needless to say I am writing this through a ouija board....

Guess the last thing to go through your mind after saying it was... hot lead?

@HeyHiHullo
Hahaha! Kind of like the last thing to go through a bug's mind when it hits your windshield is its arse. 😉

0

Thinking about death and the limited time I have drives me to do more, waste as little time as I have, and to try as many things as I can.

Just do what you enjoy, there is not prizes at the end of life for the amount of things you've done.
Doing nothing is a choice to do something.

0

My brief thoughts about death just lead me to focus on my life and try to enjoy it to the full while hopefully having a positive influence on the world while I'm here! Death is guaranteed therefore it's counterproductive to worry about it!

Pete66 Level 6 July 15, 2018
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Yea it is depressing but at least when you die the suffering is over. I fear that i will never know how things turn out for humanity.

0

Yes of course , I think most normal people think about death especially when you get older and see your loved ones and friends passing away. Personally I have come to believe that you die and that is it , same as any other living thing. And I also believe that the fear of death is a prime driver in people accepting the belief that there is a hereafter, promised by religion. Governments has used religion many times in history, be it be religion or some deity , to control people , by promising some form of afterlife . I certainly also have a fear of death, but I also believe in provable facts , not fiction, or words from books , written by man that in no way is proof of a supreme being or god of some sort. But I believe the only hereafter you have is in the children, relatives and friends you leave behind , as is the case with all other animals and plants living on this earth.

0

I don't we don't know what happens affter so why should i fear what i don't understand im mostly intriged if anything

0

Nope. Never have. Don't really understand the problem. Were you raised / steeped in some sort of hellthreat doctrine? In my experience that is usually the source of such terrors. That, combined sometimes with a personal vulnerability to shame, guilt and/or strong needs for constant reassurance of approval. I grew up in Christian fundamentalism, and even though those doctrines didn't cause me any concern, there were certainly adherents around me who were tormented by it. In fact more than one pastor confessed to me that one of their biggest challenges was to help people find what we called "assurance of salvation". We were of the "once saved, always saved" persuasion but there were certain people who would answer every altar call "just in case" and never "felt saved".

Of course, part of the human condition is self-awareness of the story arc of your life and where it's heading. When natural selection bestowed this on us, it was almost more than we could bear. And so there is a sort of overarching existential dread in people who have not dealt with the fact of their own mortality -- even apart from toxic religious indoctrination amplifying it. This dread is usually sublimated in various ways; in you, it seems much more on the surface for whatever reasons.

What has been very helpful for me in this regard are the writings of anthropologist Ernest Becker, particularly, his Pulitzer-winning Denial of Death. Which was written, incidentally, while he was dying. He explains in this book how much of the human condition and human activity throughout history is explicable via the mechanism of "immortality projects" -- the dysfunctional things we do as individuals and groups to try to obtain some measure of immortality. You might give that a read. It's not light reading but it's still fairly approachable, and might help you think through some of these questions more calmly. Feel free to ignore his frequent digressions into talk about his idol, Freud (in other words, humor a dying man who had a few things to say about Freud in what was to be his final book, even if it was only tangentially relevant to the main topic). If you avoid that distraction, you'll get some good insights.

0

NO.
I was born remembering a past life, my sister did as well. I later remembered more than seven more past lives and even googled several of the more scary events I remembered, and found that the details were accurate.

Einstein showed that all matter is a form of energy, so since energy can neither be created nor destroyed, we have always existed and will always exist in some energy form.

"For physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." -Einstein.

I'm sceptical of 'remembered' previous lives. In every one did you speak a language that you have only learnt in this life?

@Gareth LOL! You don't know what you're talking about. I don't know the languages now, but in the memories I did.

I also knew the cities, location, culture, context, my relatives, and even who the "souls" were in the past lives. Souls tend to reincarnate in groups and I discovered I've been with certain souls groups in varying configuration, off and on, over centuries, and recognize them when not actually present in that lifetime.

My family, for instance has recycled with me a number of times, in different roles, usually hostile. Figures.

When I was a Belgian Jew, just before WW ll, for instance, I knew Dutch, or my Jewish community's corrupted version of it.

I'd only revisit small sections of past life time..usually just before I was killed, in this case, gunned down by the Nazis while trying to escape to the river.

There are many books of research done on children around the world, age 2-6, who recalled past lives, with researchers verifying their memories and they were proven correct. Educate yourself, or do a google search.

If you're a troll I will block you.

@birdingnut I hope this conversation doesn't go down fast, but here goes. I've had a dream where I was fluent in French. I woke up in the middle of it and could remember what I'd just said. I do speak some French, but not fluently, and what I was saying was just gibberish. The dream was entirely made up of information that I either gained from my real life (the general tone of French) or imaginative nonsense that nevertheless 'felt' real. It's possible to dream lucidly, although I don't do that. The ONLY thing that could distinguish a REAL memory from a false one is if it contained information about the real world that I could check and wouldn't otherwise know. I've never known this happen with any claims of memories of previous existence, which is why I'm sceptical. For instance - if you could remember a single detail from your 'holocaust experience' that could be validated but not otherwise known to you, I would treat your claim much more seriously. For instance, words that were spoken, your own name and surname, the insignia on the Nazis' uniforms - anything, absolutely anything that you would know only from being there, not from having learnt in your current life, and which could be verified by historical records. It's a fairly low bar but it's not going to happen, is it?

0

Doesn't bother me at all.

0

Death is inevitable, it will happen. We just don't know when and that terrifies people. It is the greatest unknown. No one has died and come back to tell us about it. I don't think there is anything to fear about dying. You cease to function, you no longer regenerate cells. The bacteria in your body start to break you down. The cycle repeats. You came into this world with nothing, you leave this world with nothing. My only fear is if it will be painful. I don't want that.

0

Why does that terrify you? You are young and likely have a long life ahead of you. I am 81 years old, and do not fear death at all. What is to fear when nothing follows?

@ClintF I'm sorry to hear that. Live what you have left with dignity, intelligence and caring. There will be no pain afterward.

0

Do you have a fear of hell? My fear of hell greatly diminished as I deconstructed the history of the doctrine of hell and the afterlife. It's pretty clear that Christian leaders perpetuated the fear of hell as a way of controlling followers.

Otherwise, I think the fear of the unknown is understandable and even rational. I was shocked when my religious grandmother who always said she looked forward to heaven admitted that she was scared after experiencing a near-death health scare.

0

It's got nothing to do with being athiest or agnostic, even really religious people fear death. It's really fear of the unknown, albeit different types of unknown.

godef Level 7 July 14, 2018
0

Nope. I welcome death. I’m glad to know that one day I will cease to exist. And one day, all humans will cease to exist. That is very comforting. My son died almost 3 years ago, hence my feelings concerning death. Anyway, that’s how I see things.

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