Death

I fear the unknown - Death is the end.
The end of my life.

To imagine nothing, not being, non existant could be said about before we were born. We were nothing then.

The mind is seriously messed up when it starts to think of unknowns.

I think I'm more afraid of death of others than my own. Death of someone I know (close/distant) always daunts me and the closer they are, the longer it takes for me to get over it.

I don't fear my own death much, but just the thought of leaving behind unfinished business or unsaid words, that scares me. What if today's the last day on Earth and I said something terrible to a family member, then got shot a few hours later? That kind of situation would probably not do me well in the afterlife. I am not an avid believer of god, but I do believe that spiritually I will leave my physical body and end up...somewhere. So in my opinion of "fear of death" it's more of fearing that I don't live the life the way I think I should live. Which to borrow words from a song (forgot what it was, but I'll paraphrase here):

"Live each day as if it's your last,
Love one another as if you'll never meet again.
Greet each other as if it's the last person you'll see,
for you may never know when your time has past."

...or something like that... I don't know where I remember this from but it's stuck with me from somewhere.

Good point, Shorty. The idea of "unfinished business" would bother me as well. That's why I hope I die suddenly. I know it's selfish, but I don't want to have to wait for death. It would become a whole lot more frightening once it approaches.

But in general, it's really the death of others that I fear the most. I try to do everything to keep people safe, but it doesn't always work. I'm terrified, because I know that they, too, will, inevitably, die. That's difficult to accept and not think about it all the time. How do you guys cope with it?

Someone in my family just recently passed away and the feeling is entirely different with a previous death. This person was much older and more accomplished. The other was cut short and with unfulfilled potentials.

I think it's easier to accept death in your later years when you've done much and you can look back on a lot of experiences. I don't want death at this point because something feels hollow or unproven. This also applies to other people whom you've had a lot of experiences with.

So I've no idea why anyone would want to die because they've accomplished nothing yet. Makes no sense to me because you'd want to change that before you go.

I personally don't believe in an afterlife or anything like that, so the fear of what happens after I die can get on my mind sometimes. It is so hard to comprehend not being here(consciously) anymore when consciousness is all you know. The thought of it is a lot scarier than the actual act of being dead in itself.

Originally Posted by DragoonKain

I personally don't believe in an afterlife or anything like that, so the fear of what happens after I die can get on my mind sometimes. It is so hard to comprehend not being here(consciously) anymore when consciousness is all you know. The thought of it is a lot scarier than the actual act of being dead in itself.

I got this recently...the problem is when things are quiet and everyone is asleep I get attacked by this thought sometimes...It either gives me nightmares or gets me thrashing about. I've always thought about my death...its always thinking about the after that threatens to drives me crazy...literally.

I don't know, it's hard to get worked up about. "You won't exist!" I don't exist every damn night, it's called sleeping.

Yea, but when you go to sleep you dream often, so you aren't 100% unconscious. Even if you get put to sleep via anesthesia or something, you know you'll wake up before going under. In death you aren't waking up. Your consciousness is permanently gone.

"You know" you'll wake up when you're being put under anesthesia?

I wouldn't look up the numbers if I were you. You don't "know" you'll get back up at any time you become unconscious. You assume so, but you don't know.

All I'm saying is that we've all been "dead" for roughly a third of our lives already. There's nothing new and terrifying over that horizon. Just another long and peaceful nap.

I was just saying death is different from sleep, because when you sleep you aren't completely unconscious, when in death you are. Even in sleep, when you dream your body knows it is alive and you have a feeling of partial consciousness.

In principal they are alike, but I was just saying that the fear in never waking up and where your consciousness goes is what is weird to think about.

The thing i've always feared about death isn't the nothingness per se - i'm kind of on board with Pangalin on that one. For a good portion of my sleep i experience nothingness (you don't dream all night, and when not dreaming you are a blank slate).

Anyway, what freaks me out is the idea is that, once dead, you might not get to experience consciousness ever again. ever. When you put that word into cosmic proportions it can be kinda scary. But then again, you'd be dead so you wouldn't know what you were missing anyway.

As for coping with it, i personally take comfort in the fact that you are not alone in death. It's an absolute for everybody at some point or another.

Afraid of death? yeah but mostly I'm just afraid when I die it'll be not having finished whatever I should've done. I'm still looking for some form of adventure and if it works out and I die then excellent because it's in the middle of a place or something where I was happy. That's all I can ask for ya know. But I am curious to see what will happen after I die. I believe your soul or spirit still exists and you don't just rot away in a box.

Originally Posted by DragoonKain

I was just saying death is different from sleep, because when you sleep you aren't completely unconscious, when in death you are. Even in sleep, when you dream your body knows it is alive and you have a feeling of partial consciousness.

Although that is technically true, for a great deal of the night you don't even dream and really we have no memory of it, so we are "dead" in that sense. The point being made is a good one: we can fear dying, but death we won't really react to because, uh, we will be dead.

You shouldn't fear death, really, because it's nothing.

Originally Posted by Hachifusa

You shouldn't fear death, really, because it's nothing.

I don't know why but couple of months back I always said that to myself. But out of the blue I started to feel scared. The problem is that things seems so different to me now. I think I've almost erased my sense of humor (not that I had much to begin with). I usually end up trying to keep the fears quiet...either by playing a game that needs my concentration or reading a book that has got nothing to do with anyone dying.......

I'm blaming it on my Supernatural Series marathon......

i look at death all religiously and stuff, so I'm not worried about it. I have a decent idea of where I'll be hangin' out when this shell expires. And if there is nothing post life, then I won't really give a shit at the point as there won't be a me at all.

Only type of death I fear is that my son will die before I do.