Do you fear death?

[Brennabean]

I do... Not knowing if my consciousness will end or if it will go somewhere is frightening, where would it go? I feel the same for all of my loved ones.

 

[Amelia]

Not at all. Sooner or later, it's going to happen and that's it.

 

[jean-vic]

I don't think anyone can truly fear death as no one can truly comprehend it. All we know is existence, so to imagine non-existence isn't something we're fully capable of. It's probably only in the final moment that we truly understand what lies before us, and I imagine that most people welcome it.

 

[Effervescent]

I do... Not knowing if my consciousness will end or if it will go somewhere is frightening, where would it go?

That's something I've always been wondering as well. Maybe it just gets turned off, just like when you unplug the power cable from a working machine.

It sometimes makes me sad thinking about it, we're trying to develop and use our thinking skills our whole lives only to end up slowly losing some of them at first and then completely having our mind shut down. Oh well.

 

[MisterLonely]

I do... Not knowing if my consciousness will end or if it will go somewhere is frightening, where would it go?

That's something I've always been wondering as well. Maybe it just gets turned off, just like when you unplug the power cable from a working machine.

It sometimes makes me sad thinking about it, we're trying to develop and use our thinking skills our whole lives only to end up slowly losing some of them at first and then completely having our mind shut down. Oh well.

I usually try to be prepaired for the worst case scenario, not being religious myself I think death is final, the soul is our brain and thoughts, our emotions and experiences that shaped us. You could say that being religious and believing in an afterlife has no down side, because what is the worst that could happen? it turns out there is no afterlife, by then you won't have that consciousness to care either.

What is the only downfall is when start to deny yourself things, or push things off thinking you'll have all the time in the afterlife to make up for it... You might be right, but what if you're not. I guess that also doesn't matter anymore at the point you'll find out

Live now, worry when you're dead...

 

[user 139760]

I've always thought I'd feared death because I saw it up close. I think anyone who's ever been in a situation where his life is threatened has a healthy fear that "this is it" beyong the implications of soul or afterlife or what not. Some people freeze, other people fight for it.
I always learned to trust not the guys that told me "I'm not afraid". I trust those that say "I'm afraid, but we gotta fight for it". Figure it makes you fight harder.

 

[SummerSkin]

I personally don't. After coming to the realisation that everyone will eventually die anyway, in combination with my terrible state of my life, I have had alot of time to think about the meaning of life and death in much depth and I've come to the conclusion that I don't fear death in the slightest.

At the moment in time, I belive if there was such a thing as heaven or the afterlife, then I would be much better off there then I am right now. And as overly dramatic and suicidal that sounds I geninuely think that at this current state of mind. As a agnostic I'm undecided and unsure to what will happen when I die, I quite frankly  don't give religion much thought at all, I do however have one belive and that is reincarnation. I belive that no matter how bad your life is currently, one day you will be reborn a different person in a different life, hopefully a life filled with peace and happiness because every person deserves a good life.

I'm sure the people who lead more fulfilling and eventful lives than me may have a different view. I suspect people who have great lives may fear death because they don't want to leave their great lives to end. As I don't have much in life nor do I expect much out of life, life isn't that important to me. And I don't think about or worry for, the people who would miss me if I was gone because there isn't many people who know me these days, as most people I used to know have forgotten about me and they have moved on with their lives.

I would be interested to hear other people's views on this subject.

No fear here. Truth be told, I'm looking forward to it. I was somewhere before I was here. If there's an afterlife, that's cool. If there's nothing but blackness, that's fine too because I won't know. Also, my dead grandparents visited me 2 days after I had my son. It was not a dream, and they were crystal clear, right in front of me. They told me (with their minds) that they knew I had a child and they loved me. They looked to be around 30 years old and had a white backdrop behind them. We weren't close while they were alive, but I guess they felt compelled to stop by. This may sound crazy to some, but I've had many other experiences like this, so it wasn't a big deal. I almost wish I'd never had experiences like this. That way I could not believe in an afterlife. Blackness sounds kinda nice....

 

[Liparks]

No because I am excited to see what my next life will be or if there is an afterlife. Death is only the beginning. But I wouldn’t want to die right now. My children need me for just a little bit longer in my humble opinion.

 

[Jessicat]

I do not fear death. I do not want to die ofc, but i am not scared of it. I have Ptsd so its probably a result of some of my experiences. Feel like i need to live life to the fullest now that i have a chance. Life can be taken away so easily.

 

[DeepTxWater]

I've had 4 occasions since I was 7 years old that I came very close. Surprisingly not once did I feel what I would describe as fear, barely even an adrenaline rush.  It was more a feeling like "oh so this is how."  I don't fear the act of dying.  However I worry a little about how. I don't want to burn to death or get eaten by anything.  I tend to believe there's got to be more than when I've known in life. If so, maybe ill get to see some people who were very important in my life. And if not, I won't know anyway.

 

[evanescencefan912]

very much so, the thought of not existing and losing all my memories and experiences, I think just suck. But then again when you think about it, existing non stop for all of time could also be unpleasant, even if things were good, constant existence could be exhausting and maddening.

 

[user 139760]

I had this convo again with a friend of mine, who fears non-existence. Told him "Do you remember and were you anguished or hurting these past 9 billion years? Well, aint no reason you'll feel like that when you die, either".
Sadly, we'll all get there, but how you live is more important for the short time we're on this mudball of confusion and pain.

 

[Joturbo]

Not really..I feel I've achieved everything I want with family and work.Every extra decade or even day is a bonus now..but just want to make sure my kids look after my wife if I go first that's essential to me

 

[Danielle]

Death has always scared me.... I am deathly afraid of death.. and now that I have a daughter, it scares me even more, because what will happen to her?

 

[Minus]

No, it is just the process that i can get concerned about.

 

[Joturbo]

This made me think about a few experiences I had this month.Firstly when I met one of my bosses a lovely big warm fella who had got me alot of work a year ago. I hadn't heard or seen him for just under a year . I met him by chance at one of the sites he sorted for me and he immediately told me about his battle with cancer for alot of the year and that he had to have a major operation to hopefully keep it at bay. Just before he left he shook my hand and said what he always said when I first met him 'any problems no matter what you call me up '. I felt a combination of shock about what he just told me and a bit of a selfish idiot for thinking he had just forgotten about me  and the sites .

One of my sister's  friends they had met when their kids were toddlers at the same nursery and who I have known for nearly twenty years . I heard recently she had been rushed to hospital for again another operation. We met by chance in town and we had our normal chat but I could feel the relief in her voice when she said she just needed a few more procedures and hopefully then all would be fine . I wished her well and said it was so nice to see her again and then what really effected me was the biggest hug she gave something she had never done before. 

Then lastly an incident with this amazing looking bird I saw sitting on a fence as I was walking the dog. It looked like a cross between a feasent and a pigeon sort of brown in colour. I quickly got my camera out and got a bit closer to take a picture but my dog obviously scared it away.  It attempted a short flight but after landing just ran like a chicken as fast as it could up the alley and into a neighbours garden through some thick bushes. As I walked back down the alley  back past the bushes I looked in and saw a big fluffy fat grey cat looking intently at where the bird had run too and I heard a rustle in the bushes.I tried to shoo the cat away but it just stood their dead still. I felt a total honeysuckle for taking that stupid picture. Life is so precious.

 

[X-1 Alpha]

Not anymore.

When I was a kid I was really scared of dying, but now I realise that this was mostly due to the influence of catholic church and its scare tactics.
As I grew older the fear slowly faded away. It's nature, plain and simple. Rich or poor, wise or smart - we're all heading the same way, just at a different pace.

Of course, whenever my depression gets a leg up on me, I don't simply "acknowledge" death, I actively look for it. I've yet to find it though.

 

[constant stranger]

I'm more afraid of dying without having lived happily than I am of death itself. I'd be so full of regret at the missed opportunities if I knew my permanent departure was about to happen and I'd never actually enjoyed living.

 

[Azariah]

How I might die is what I am afraid of more.

 

[Black Manta]

Sometimes, but I'm Catholic so I'm pretty much have a solid expectation of the afterlife.

But why do so many of you believe that death means non-existence? Our minds seem to be so much more than a bunch of gray matter and neurons. It stands to reason that that part of us could survive.