Are You Afraid Of Death

Are You Afraid Of Death?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 2 13.3%

  • No.

    Votes: 13 86.7%
  • Total voters
    15
China Cat Sunflower

China Cat Sunflower

Nimrod
Messages
2,924
Reaction score
13
Points
0
Are you afraid of death? I mean your death. Is it something you think about often or sometimes?

I am afraid of death. I find that the older I get the more I think about it. I'm trying to live a healthier lifestyle. I wonder if I have the beginnings of a disease that will kill me eventually. I think about my brother and my father. My brother died suddenly of a heart attack at age 44. My father was killed in an auto accident a couple of days before Christmas. My sister has type 1 diabetes. I wonder if I have the good genes or the bad genes. I try to be extra careful. I wear a seat belt now. I think about my kids and how much it will hurt them if I die. I think about all the things I haven't done. I think about it when I fly. I think about the randomness of death- how it just happens accidentally.

What are your thoughts about your own death? Is it something one takes for granted until they reach a certain age?

Chris
 
Chris,

I used to be worry about dieing. My belief system gives me a crystal clear picture of what to expect, a picture that makes perfect sense to me, and is a lot less scary than what many people say. For these reasons, I do not fear death any more.
 
I supppose I go through various stages of being afraid of death.
When I was a teenager, I didnt think about it at all, after all I was 10ft tall and bulletproof!! (aren't they all?!) LOL.
Then I was in a "bad" realtionship that lasted many years, I was constantly convinced that "tonight" I was going to die. While it was a very bad situation, I got used to the concept that my time was very limited. (sounds strange, i know).
I wasnt afraid of death, I was (at the time) afraid of how much it would hurt, and what would happen to my children if I wasnt there to protect them.
Then, as my life progressed, and my situation improved, I realised that, I wasnt afraid of anything, and death is one of those certainties that you just have to (dare i say it... ) live with.
I do go through a kind of "mild" fear when I travel, (fly). I usually consider,,,, ok, if the plane goes down , and i live through the crash, i could do this, or that... etc, then as the altitude increases i realise that there is nothing i can do, and I just accept that "if" we crash etc, there is nothing I can do about it, thts when I have a kind of "acceptance" about it. I do the same when I am driving, I am always considering, If I have an on coming car etc, where could I go, what would I do. ..(maybe I am paranoid?)
So, in short, I am not afraid of death, perhaps i am afraid of the "dying" part, but I am more afraid of how my children and my husband would be effected.
I do not want to die, I mean, I have always been here, as long as I can remember!! LOL
But I know it will come when its time, we dont know where or when. Just reading about young Jordan Rice (Toowoomba floods) reaffirmed this for me.
They say, only the good die young, well........... im immortal. LOL.

Love the Grey
 
It's a natural process it's part of the package.. And "for all you know you could still have a long way to go" I think people have a sense of loss which they fear not the essence of death. Then again "Something to die for" has always been an interesting statement I know there are those that see death as an amazing accomplishment a great feat! An honour! Not everyone fears death itself and I don't think we should. Sure we shouldn't go looking for it lol but I feel we shouldn't fear such a natural part of our cycle, then comes the great mysterious adventure in the unseen! Weeeeeeee. :D

Grey: You're immortal? So sorry to hear that wouldn't wish it on anyone ;)
 
I like it here, so I dont want to leave this world to soon I feel that there is still so much I have not done, but my main concern about dying would be for those who i leave behind, that they can be looked after and cared for and wont miss me to much.

As a Christian my destination is eternity with God the father not 100% sure what that will be like though.
 
China Cat Sunflower said:
Are you afraid of death?

I think about my kids and how much it will hurt them if I die.
Click to expand...
I'm not afraid of death. And I think it is for a number of reasons. One definitely is that my children I feel are self sufficient. They are high school seniors now, but for the past couple years they've indicated enough that they are progressing toward adulthood admirably, and I believe can handle themselves.

Also losing my mother and father in law, my father, and my sister all in less than two years...I aquired a comfort with the 'circle of life' that death is as natural as birth, finding comfort in their passing, created comfort in my own.

I'm not in any hurry, I don't know 100% what will happen, I'm not looking forward to it, but it doesn't concern me.

A slow painful death, either on my part or painful, drawn out, to my loved ones, that concerns me.... I want to be healthy and mobile till I die.
 
China Cat Sunflower said:
Are you afraid of death? I mean your death. Is it something you think about often or sometimes?
Click to expand...
Not afraid. Thought about it the other day when my brother was driving. :eek:

I wonder if I have the beginnings of a disease that will kill me eventually.
Click to expand...
Why? We all have to die of something.

I wear a seat belt now.
Click to expand...
Not compulsory in the US then?

I think about it when I fly.
Click to expand...
I don't like flying, I think it's a lack of control feeling. I may be statistically safer in a plane but when I'm driving my car it's me making the decisions...as long as I can avoid all the idiots :rolleyes:


I think about the randomness of death- how it just happens accidentally.
Click to expand...
You'd like a more organised system?

What are your thoughts about your own death?
Click to expand...
I'd like it to be pain free, in my sleep. I don't want pointless chronic pain, kept alive for no reason other than an oath. I don't want to live without dignity.


Is it something one takes for granted until they reach a certain age?
Click to expand...
What, life, or death? I'm 50 so deffo past the half way mark!

....and what is the theoretical alternative to death? Immortality, would you want that?

s.
 
China Cat Sunflower said:
Are you afraid of death? I mean your death. Is it something you think about often or sometimes?

I am afraid of death. I find that the older I get the more I think about it. I'm trying to live a healthier lifestyle. I wonder if I have the beginnings of a disease that will kill me eventually. I think about my brother and my father. My brother died suddenly of a heart attack at age 44. My father was killed in an auto accident a couple of days before Christmas. My sister has type 1 diabetes. I wonder if I have the good genes or the bad genes. I try to be extra careful. I wear a seat belt now. I think about my kids and how much it will hurt them if I die. I think about all the things I haven't done. I think about it when I fly. I think about the randomness of death- how it just happens accidentally.

What are your thoughts about your own death? Is it something one takes for granted until they reach a certain age?



Chris
Click to expand...


All part of the story Chris. The dread, the sorrow, the final acceptance etc.
Stay safe my brother, when its all said and done the only real thing is how well did you love? And how well were you loved? The rest is just fluff.
 
Nick the Pilot said:
Chris,

I used to be worry about dieing. My belief system gives me a crystal clear picture of what to expect, a picture that makes perfect sense to me, and is a lot less scary than what many people say. For these reasons, I do not fear death any more.
Click to expand...

I do not look forward positively about my death. However, as a realist, I know death is universal to all life. I enjoy life and I wish I could continue to enjoy life. Yet death is inevitable. We all must die to make room for out offspring. Without death there could be no evolution. Without death the human race would not be here. I would not be here. Death is a major component of natural selection.

I do not believe in some magical afterlife. That no longer bothers me. I consider that I am eternal in the time period 19** to 20**. I was not alive before 19** and I will not be alive after 20**. I accept the reality that I live only in a finite time period. My atoms were around when lobe fin fishes started to walk on land. My atoms were here when Dinosaurs ruled. My atoms were around when my Grandfather fought in WWI. Now those atoms are together in a complexity called a life form. Some day not to far in the future, my atoms will begin to disperse. In the year 3400 CE my atoms will still exist but not all in one location. My atoms are almost infinite. The complex of molecules comprising me did so in a finite time period.

Amergin
 
Amergin said:
I do not believe in some magical afterlife. The complex of molecules comprising me did so in a finite time period.

Amergin
Click to expand...
Yes, the complex molecules you have now are not the complex molecules you had when you were born eh? What were ya? a few kilos? and now? so how many of those few kilos do you think you still have...or the molecules you had ten years ago? what percentage have swapped out, and new arrived (some may have even left and returned, we'll discount those) how much of your baby amergin is with you now? How much of that ten year ago amergin is with you now?

Are you positive there is nothing after this plane of existence? Are you positive you as some other entity than a complex group of molecules did not exist prior to your birth here, this time?

I know I'm not. I find it interesting those that are positive they are going to a magical afterlife as well as those that are positive they are not.
 
This is interesting. Evidently I'm the only one who is afraid of death. That makes me wonder if there's a taboo against admitting it. I don't think about my death too often. It's not like I'm obsessed with it. I just don't like the idea of not being here. Maybe I'm la la la ing with my fingers in my ears to some extent. I dunno, the days, weeks, and years seem to click by so quickly and it doesn't seem like I'm getting to the bottom of my bucket list fast enough to fit it all in. I'm so bloody smart now, imagine if I had an extra 50 or 100 years. I'd be almost God-like.

Hell yes I want to be immortal! Well, I'd want the people closest to me to be immortal too. Kelly and our kids, my sister, my friend Tom so I'd have someone to beat at golf for all eternity! The rest of you buggers can wither away since you embrace your deaths and have no fear (so you say). I suppose at some point I might have had enough, but 40 more years, at best, isn't enough for me. I won't even be fully enlightened by then, much less learn to levitate or break 70 at golf (equally difficult to achieve IMO).

Maslow talks about "self-actualization" and "peak experiences" where a person comes to see the world as it really is in all its awfulness and splendor, and begins to cultivate the freedom of his own inner expansion within the realization of the miraculous nature of his own sovereign being. He calls this state "being cognition," the openness of perception to the truth of the world, a truth concealed by neurotic distortions and illusions that protect us from being overwhelmed by our experiences. It's all well and good to break out of the cave of our one-dimensionality, but the paradox of that triumph is that it utterly undermines one's self-perceived position in the world. It destroys the self-security mechanisms that we have spent our whole lives building up. It makes routine, automatic, secure, self-confident activity impossible. It transforms us into trembling animals at the mercy of the cosmos and its indecipherable meaning. The reward for this psychological break through is that we suddenly see ourselves for what we are: not gods or the children of the gods, but pseudo-intelligent worms with no greater standing than dumb animals awaiting slaughter- only they don't know it and we do. That's a hell of a thing to contemplate!

(last paragraph partly paraphrased from The Denial of Death, by Ernest Becker)

Chris
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top