Do you fear death?

[cestpaspossible]

I know it would be a lot 'cooler' to say I don't, but I do. The idea that someday, perhaps within the next few minutes, I inevitably will die, really terrifies me, when you come right down to it. So much so that I have a hard time even comtemplating the subject in depth...

Do you fear death?

[mr_hat]

1. I don't fear death, no. I fear the pain those who love me

will suffer when I go, having known it myself.

[Kire]

2. I can't wait for my funeral.

It's a shame I won't be there.

If it was anything like my father's, well, I just hope somebody remembers to bring a video camera.

[WindRavenX]

3. I used to not fear death

Then I found out why people fear death- because I realized how beautiful everything is in my life, especially the ones I love. Especially the one I consider my soul mate.
The thought of no longer seeing this beauty...yes, I fear it.

[Floogeldy]

4. No. There is life after death.

But I do fear pain.

OUCH!

[Cadence]

5. I don't fear death.

Because I did it once. But I have a very big fear of experiencing something painful that causes me to die. Does that make sense? I guess I fear pain?

Actually when I died I didn't want to come back.

[amazona]

6. because I am happy I fear death

I remember as a child praying to die every day and it seems like a different person.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[cags]

7. Not death, but the way I die, I want to go instantly no pain.

And at least until my kids are grown

[Radio_Lady]

8. Yes, terrified...

More so as I get older and closer. I understand even Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who write the quintessential work on death and dying, had a difficult death.

My ninety year old uncle died in November. A major lover in my life turned eighty this month. I don't know what to make of all this time that has passed. Pictures of me look like my mother or some other old lady.

I have to undergo some routine tests soon and I absolutely hate general anesthesia. I even had two children without any drugs! The doctor told me to take some anti-anxiety medication before my husband drives me to the hospital. But what drug can you take to relieve the pain of death... absolute nothingness?

Surely Shakespeare stated it well in Hamlet, "To be... or not to be... that is the question..."

[forgethell]

9. No. But

I'm not anxious for it either. we will all die someday, so what's the use of worrying about it? Pass me just one more rib, please. Burp.

:9 O8)

[blondeatlast]

74. I just had a near MI. Tain't funny, trust me. nt

[Boswells_Johnson]

10. I fart in death's general direction.

[Heyo]

11. It's not death, per se....

... it's the whole STAYING DEAD part the bothers me.:dunce:

Heyo

[barackmyworld]

12. it's weird to imagine that I won't even KNOW

Really, really freaks me out a lot. I am 19, I shouldn't be worrying about this!

[Neoma]

13. Better death then living forever.

[CarbonDate]

26. On that I'll disagree with you

So much to do, so much to see, so little time to do any of it.

I'd rather be an undead predator than die. I know it's coming, but I just wish I had two or three centuries instead of this brief flicker of a life span. Of course, even after all that, I'd probably be wondering, "where did all the time go?"

The short life spans we live lend themselves to way too short-term of a perspective on running things on this mud ball. If we were an immortal race like the elves, I'd think we'd be a little wiser about caring for the planet, and for each other.

[Neoma]

39. just imagion if hitler could live forever.

really, living forever is not my thang.

[Modem Butterfly]

14. Nope. I'll be wormfood, all my worries will be over

I no more fear death than I worry about where I was before I existed. I just hope it's not especially painful or horrifying. To live a long life and die an easy death sounds like the plan to me.

[ashmanonar]

22. dude!

hello cthulu!

holy flurking shnit!

[Modem Butterfly]

58. You like?

Here it is again:

[ashmanonar]

64. that's awesome.

truly awesome.

[Modem Butterfly]

65. Check this out:

http://www.hello-cthulhu.com

[ashmanonar]

66. LOL

nice.

[SmileyBoy]

15. I'm not afraid of the actual fact that I'm gonna die. However...

I want to die in 60 years. I don't want to die tomorrow. I guess you could say I'm afraid of death that could happen to me in the immediate future. If an angel visited me and said "You will live to be at least to the age of 80, but I will not tell you exactly when you'll die", I would not fear death whatsoever.

[sasquatch]

16. Nope, BTW does anyone need a ride to work tomorrow

:evilgrin:

[SarahB]

17. Not really.

Natural cycle and all that fun stuff. I hope I get to live a lot more of it. I don't fear life either.

[eyepaddle]

18. I don't fear death

but I do fear DYING, I guess it's the whole pain thing.

[auntAgonist]

19. I don't fear death.. but I DO have a healthy respect for it..

I am not cavalier in the things I do, I try to take care of myself. I weigh all the possibilities before I make life decisions. I'm having surgery soon, I could die during surgery, but I'm still gonna do it. I'm not afraid.

[Skittles]

20. nope

I do not fear death, but I certainly fear DYING.

[no name no slogan]

21. Don't fear death, or dying-- what's the point?

It is impossible to stop either from happenning to me, so why worry about something which I have no control over?

Maybe it's because I've survived a suicide attempt, but I honestly do not fear death or dying. It will happen someday.

Do I hope I don't die soon? Hell, yes! I've got too much living I want to do yet! Even so, I still live my life as if it's my last day on earth: I try to be a good person, care for others, be compassionate, and make the world a better place with my actions.

Which is all any of us can do, really, since we don't know when our time is up.

[LynzM]

23. I'm not sure I fear death, exactly

I fear a long time of drawn-out pain before I die... being diabetic, I am all too aware of some of the types of complications that are likely when I am older. I think I probably spend too much time thinking about all the ways I might die, but I'm not sure that's because I am afraid of it, but more because I can't know how or when it will be.

[MrSlayer]

24. No, I don't think about it.

It's pointless to torture yourself over something that's inevitable. Try to drink deep the cup of life while you have the opportunity.

[Freebird12004]

57. excellent ~ I'll drink to that !

:beer:

[thecai]

25. No, I Fear Survival

I've had an OBE and no longer fear death. It's totally peaceful and painless. O8)

[PartyPooper]

27. As long as the next life is full of progressives, I do not fear death.

O8)

[leanin_green]

28. No, in actually, there is no death.

Only a transition from one experience to another. I know, I've watched it. I worked a part of my life with the dying in San Francisco during the height of the Aids crisis there. Really, it can be painful to separate from this life, and often graphic as hell. But something is definitely going on with them at the moment of transistion. They are going somewhere, for real. They taught me a great deal to where I'm no longer afraid. I'm more concerned with the manner it will take. What form will it take for me to let go of this life?

[Wapsie B]

35. That's how I look at it.

One door opens at the same time another is closing. A new experience awaits.

[kodi]

29. No, I just don't want to be there when it happens

Remember, there is hardly a worse way to go than auto-erotic asphyxiation.

So, buddy up.

[CarbonDate]

30. Okay, first off....

...how does anybody know that death is painless? Do we have any data on this? We just assume that it's painless.

I'm completely serious on this; I see a lot of people talking about what death is like. Have any of you ever been dead? If so, I want to talk to you. If not, how do you know?

I'm not scared of death, per se, but I am pissed off my mortality. A few years back I reached the age where a person knows, not thinks, but knows that someday he's going to die. And instead of being afraid, I got pissed off. I don't want to die; not so much cowardice, but selfishness. I have a hell of a lot I want to do in this life, and there's no way I can do it all in the time span I'm allotted.

Any vampires on this board? I've got lots of hot, fresh blood for you if you're willing to sire me....

[CarbonDate]

33. By the way....

...anybody who claims to know what's going on post mortem is just diverting their fear into an irrational delusion. Nobody actually knows what's going to happen.

I happen to believe in reincarnation, but believing is different from knowing.

[AlienGirl]

52. How do you know it's an "irrational delusion"?

Dr. Ian Stevenson published much evidence that some children have accurate memories of things that happened to people who died before they were born. They experienced these memories in the first person. While this is not proof that there is a nonphysical point-of-consciousness that survives death, it's at least evidence that some sense of "selfhood" exists tied to certain memories after the person who originally recorded those memories is gone.

Personally, I know reincarnation, just as I know gravity.

Tucker

[Book Lover]

81. Just in case you are interested in

reviewing Dr Stevenson's methodology, you might want to take a quick look at this:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:JzovHAscIr4J:www.skepticreport.com/psychics/stevenson-book.htm+Dr.+Ian+Stevenson+&hl=en

[psychopomp]

31. No, but I fear Judgement

And the possibility that I could be found lacking. This is why more than death, I fear an untimely death; one before I have a chance to redeem the wrongs I have done in this life. As you can guess, on balance I do not think I have done enough right in my life.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

32. At the risk of making this a faith issue, I don't fear death,

because I trust in the Lord. I don't seek death, but I don't fear it anymore, at least I try not to.

[yvr girl]

62. I don't fear death, but I do fear dying

My uncle died of lung cancer a year and a half ago. I was with him minutes before he died. It was the most horrible thing I've ever witnessed. Every breath was a struggle.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

69. That's a cruel way to die. My heart goes out to you.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

34. Not in the least

It's just another part of the journey.

I'd hate to go before my kids have grown, though...

[Withywindle]

36. Yes, sadly...

And it's really because I love life so incredibly much, and don't have enough faith in anything better to come. Trees in the fog, man! Fresh coffee. Cats. My boyfriend. The first Velvet Underground album. Flying into La Guardia or O'Hare at night, all those lights below me....

I have to give this UP? Don't wanna!

[LastKnight]

37. no. nt

[Bouncy Ball]

38. Nope, not a bit.

And I can honestly say that. I could die tomorrow, it doesn't scare me. It's just death. Though I do HOPE to live to be 108.

But I'm realistic about it. It happens to everyone. And we don't know when.

It also doesn't bother me to talk about it, but I noticed people sometimes get creeped out by it. Why?

Oh and yes, I am a happy person. I just know it's inevitable, so why worry about it?

[d_b]

40. Not death, per se.

I just want to be happy when I go. To be able to look back and say "Yea, that was good."

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

41. nah, goth chix are too cute to be scared of

[VegasWolf]

42. I died 21 times in three days during a heart attack, true. I don't

fear death at all now.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

43. um...how was that for you?

any lights at the end of the tunnel, etc?

[VegasWolf]

44. My wife says that i was clutching my chest and rolling on the

gurney, to me all I felt was a soft gentle sigh.

[VegasWolf]

46. But no, absolute black, nothingness. n/t

[thecai]

48. WOW!

You must have lots of work to do here on earth to survive all of that!O8) I'm glad you're here! B-)

[InvisibleTouch]

45. I fear dying in a hospital...

...rather than in my own familiar surroundings. To the extent that, if I became old and ill, I'd very likely not go to the hospital if I thought there was even a chance I'd not come back. Better to go in one's own time, and on one's own terms.

[billyskank]

47. Yes, certainly.

All of those people who said "no," I wonder if, when a hairy moment arises (e.g. you nearly get wiped out on the road), whether their heart rate rises, the adrenalin flows and all the normal reactions occur. If so, this indicates that you are, deep down, afraid of death, whatever you may like to think.

[thecai]

49. Fight Or Flight Response

My OBE occured years before a near-fatal car wreck, so after the wreck I was drifting in and out of consciousness, surprised I was still alive each time I awoke. It wasn't scary at all, but the body will fight to stay alive, even if you're unconscious.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

50. I fear the pain of dying, rather than fearing death

I would imagine suffocation, organs shutting down, hemorrhages and other forms of death to be very painful to the body. I'd also fear about "what happens now" as my brain starts to shut down. If I get a sense of the afterlife, is it real or is my brain projecting it to ease the trauma? Whilst I do believe in the afterlife, I don't think I could stop the scary "what if's" until I know for sure.

I also fear the trauma that my death would be to my loved ones. I do also fear 'dying early', I'd have liked to have led a good long life.

[ffm172]

51. I don't

not anymore. After being with my granddad and my dad when they died, death has nothing scary for me anymore. Thy both died (more or less) peacefully in the bed and the family was around. These were sad moments but it was nothing scary about that situation. Nothing to freak out. I dread more the possible suffering before dying than dying itself.

[leftydad]

53. "To the well-organised mind...

death is merely a gateway to another experience."
Although I'm not absolutely sure I quoted that right, JK Rowling's character Albus Dumbledore has a good point. Death is not to be feared, per se, but looked upon as another "coming of age" in the grand procession of ones soul through all phases of existence. That isn't to say that one should look for death before its time (the one bit of scripture I wholeheartedly agree with-"to all things a season..." You know the verse/s I mean), but when the time comes one should cease their struggles and allow their embrace by their deity of choice.
Of course, this is merely my opinion on the matter. Feel free to (politely, if you please) disagree with part or all of it! :-)

[China_cat]

54. I fear that whatever kills me is going to hurt like hell.

But mainly I'm just insulted that there won't be a me in any form whatsoever after I die.

[arwalden]

55. Being dead? No. --- It's HOW I Die That Bothers Me...

Drowning? Trapped in a burning car? Trapped in a burning building? Going down in a plane? Crushed by a Metro train? Falling off a balcony? Flattened in a falling elevator? Being eaten by a bear? Shark attack? Random drive-by shooting? Mugging? Being beaten to death with baseball bats?

[Az]

61. You planning on doing all those things?

Sheesh, no wonder why you are scared. :evilgrin:

[LynneSin]

56. I fear a very painful death

But the concept of death itself - well it's going to happen I just hope it's painless

[Az]

59. What's to fear?

Death is nothing. Literally. When you die everything from your perspective ends. You end. Sure its not something to look forward to. But fear? Be afraid of dentists. Be afraid of bears. They can hurt you. Death. Death is nothing.

[Corgigal]

60. like everyone else

I fear pain. I also fear leaving my loved ones. I think that is what worries me most, the idea that I may never see them again.

I read this book several years ago and I have never forgotten it. If you get the chance try to read this book;

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679742441/ref=pd_luc_17_lc_a53x40_r1c3_a3_t/102-1126484-5162553?v=glance&s=books

[Jamastiene]

63. Absolutely not.

I look forward to it. I see it as the one guarantee I have in life. Hey, at least it IS something to count on. Might as well embrace the idea. Then again, I look at it like a sort of liberation from the body and the imperfection of life.

[TreasonousBastard]

67. I fear life.

Death is the easy part, although dying can be a real bitch.

Life is the constant struggle, with only a few bright spots in a dark and troubled path. Most of the struggles seem to be to avoid death.

Life is where you have to work to make your death mean something.

Death is simply the last door we pass through, where, as the Bard said, "to sleep, perchance to dream."

[Chalco]

68. Yes, I have anxiety attacks about it almost daily.

I took a meditation course a couple of years ago and then did the "program" to help get in touch with death and got to the last step and quit. I couldn't face it. Now when the anxiety comes I just tell myself "You're not going to die." and it stops. But I know I'm deceiving myself.

At the same time I've had an OBE and flew over my own body once. Peaceful.

Also, my daughter because she was talking at 7 months and speaking in sentences at 15 months was able to describe what it was like in the womb. I guess that wasn't before her creation but it was before her birth.

My physician said that his father did remember pre-creation. He said that his spirit was "living" in a box on a shelf with lots of other spirits and then when it came his time to be born he "flew" into this woman's pregnant belly and became born.

[Xithras]

70. I fear being forgotten.

I do not fear death because I understand what it is. It is neither boring nor eternal, it is everything rolled into a single instant. Death is nothingness, no pain, no loneliness, no feelings, no sensation of time. We simply no longer exist.

My fear is born out of a nihilistic view of reality. Simply put, within a couple hundred years of existence the sum of our personal impacts on the world will amount to little more than a name carved on a rock in the forgotten corner of a weed-strewn cemetery. Everything we've made, everything we did, everyone we loved, everyone we knew, and everyone <i>they</i> knew will be erased from existence. We will be forgotten.

And if you want to get really depressed, understand that while you and I lay forgotten, George Bush will live on for potentially a thousand years more in the history books, until he too is eventually forgotten by our distant descendants. By that time, it will simply be as it we had never existed in the first place.

Hence my personal motto: Do Great Things

[blondeatlast]

71. Yes, I do, and have a few close calls in the past few years.

I know it isn't cool, but when he was staring me down, yeah, I was scared poopless.

[VOX]

72. The idea of "not being" is a drag, when there's so much going on here...

in this world that's so cool -- making love, having good seats at a baseball game, hiking in the desert after a cloudburst, kayaking on a quiet cove, eating a fine meal at a favorite restaurant, seeing the sunlight play on my wife's auburn hair, etc.

Honestly, these are things that I'd like to keep experiencing, not to mention those neat sensations that haven't yet occurred.

And I concur with others who've expressed a fear about the process itself -- indeed, there are better ways to "transition" than others.
Example: Being chewed to death by sharks over the span of several minutes, while in a state of utter terror and helplessness, vs. lying on a bed in your own home, having said your goodbyes to loved ones, blissfully medicated but conscious enough to experience your passing.

[Hell in a Handbasket]

73. i dont fear death, but i am unhappy about the idea that others

might be pained by my death.

[ashmanonar]

85. so leave your last wishes to be that you want them

to party it up! have them have fun, remember you fondly!

viking funeral all the way, baby.

[redqueen]

75. No. In fact I fantasize about it.

I'm pretty morbid, I guess.

:shrug:

[UdoKier]

76. Of course I do.

But I know that whether I fear it or not, I will die. And whether I think about it or not, I will die, so I choose to not dwell on it and enjoy life.

But I hate to think of my kids or wife dying just as much.

Mortality is the big downside to life.

It's a bitch, and then...

[Cuban_Liberal]

77. No, I don't.

I fear far more any pain or indignity that might be associated with it, but I don't fear death itself.

[pimpinella]

78. no

Because I'm sure I'll see my family & friends wherever it is I end up

[Book Lover]

79. Yes and No

When I look in the mirror and think about the absolute nothingness that waits after the final time I close my eyes, yes, I get so scared I have gotten panic attacks. Then at times, I realize that it's no more than my molecules stopping their dance; they'll move on to other beings eventually. And of course all of Earth will be burned to a crisp once Sol goes nova...

[ashmanonar]

86. "all of Earth will be burned to a crisp once Sol goes nova..."

lol. nice attitude.

:hi:

[cestpaspossible]

80. When I think of all the mornings when I did not want to get up,

it is strange to think that the prospect of never getting up is so terrifying.

[ashmanonar]

82. death for a cause, no. dishonorable death, yes.

i wanna ride the atom bomb down, baby. all the way.

[loudestchick]

83. Death? no. Dying? hell yes!

[Speck Tater]

84. For those of us who remember some of our past lives...

... it's a temporary break in the eternal continuity. Inconvenient, annoying some times, but it's so cool to get a fresh start every so often.

For those who don't remember or don't believe, just tell yourselves there's no such thing as reincarnation. It's OK. You're entitled to believe that too.

[iconoclastic cat]

87. No! Now, when White Rabbit peaks, throw that radio in the tub with me...

(HST reference. Sorry.)

[Deja Q]

88. Until my surgery, yes. After?

No.

I'm hoping mine will be swift and painless - either by operation screw-up or thermonuclear holocaust.