I am terrified of death.

In a recent survey it was discovered that the biggest, by far , cause of death ..was dying. When faced with such an overwhelmingly evident eventuality, Being scared of it, or indeed having no fear of it at all, makes very little difference. Maybe. Being secure in the knowledge that we are not going to avoid dying at some point or another in the future is an indication that we should not be so troubled by things that will happen anyway.

Easier said than done , I'm sure.

I'm not sure this post will be of any use here, but still I decided to share my two cents anyway because one never knows. For years I was afraid of dying too. Mostly I just ignored the fact and life went on, but there were times when for whatever reason I would get anxious over it. Over the last few years though my whole situation and view of that has slowly evolved until finally I now have my current outlook on the matter. No, I'd never tell someone else what to think or believe but still, this is my personal thought on things.

I have no idea at this point what actually happens when someone dies, but really I can logically see only three possible outcomes myself. First possibility; we move on to some kind of afterlife in some nonphysical dimension. (I believe. This to be simple another complex world in which we just continue on with a life in some greater perspective somehow. How can this be a bad thing? We leave family on Earth yeah, but it would never be forever.) Second possibility; we reincarnate into new bodies and new lifetimes on earth or other wise, and of course then lose all memory of this lifetime. (Another chance to live again? How can I fear not living if I am indeed alive and still physical? And with the forgetfulness issue, we won't even recall anything before so what is there to fear?) Third possibility; nothing at all happens. We just sort of stop existing. Lights out and no more consciousness of a thing. (Yeah that one sounded a bit harsh and brutal to me too when I first tired to wrap my head around it. Then I realized that if I do not exist, how can I possibly care that I don't.)

The Lights out and no more consciousness thing seems very much akin to that deep dreamless silence that we at first fall into when going to sleep. Deep Delta Waves which begin at about 0 to 4 hertz. Clearly 0 Hertz is No brain activity. Presumably the then , shold we reach such depths of delta in deep sleep our brain is almost if not quiet almost devoid of activity (aside from the large propotion that reminds us to breath and encourages the heart to continue to beat and various other subsystems.. Aside from that No consciousness is present.

The waking Part of our brain is akin to death. death then being 0 hertz across all the brain on death. Means Deep sleep in perpetuity ..Thats not so bad to me. Karmic debt in other life is someone elses problem presumably.

No ...I am digressing, as usual...The general gist of this thread is that peopl are not at all scared of death.. Its the process of dying which is causing all the trouble IMO. Ideally we would all like to go to bed one night in good health in our 90s and slip away along with the deep sleep.

Sadly though there are many painful, unpleasant ways of going and this is what is scary.

Originally Posted by Neville

Ideally we would all like to go to bed one night in good health in our 90s and slip away along with the deep sleep.

Indeed, Neville. Both of my parents took that path - went to bed one night, didn't wake in the morning.

One was disgustingly and disturbingly healthy, the other, a chain smoker, hard drinker, hard player and workaholic. Both died young (62 and 64) and without so much as a 'by your leave', thank you very much.

Yet neither died in pain or as the result of illness. It was as though they just flicked a switch and away they went, off to their next great adventure.

Seems so unfair on the rest.

I wish we could all go that way, when our time comes.

Hugs
MorningMist

[Truth_Seeker]

I think the things the come into your conciousness are the things you need to trancend to keep evolving, I am also terrified of death lately and leaving the people I love behind. I have heard of monks meditating on tiger tracks and in graveyards to overcome this fear, I might go and find a nice grave to sit on for a while:)

Originally Posted by Wolf Heart

I am so afraid of death that when I think about it my mind throws itself into flurries, my stomach knots, and I break down into a panic attack.

I've had this fear since I was 13, I am now 23. It haunts me no matter how much I try to ignore and escape it.

I am terrified of the idea of "forever" and I'm also afraid that when I die I won't exist at all. I'm afraid of never seeing my children or my husband again.

So many unknowns, it terrifies me and I don't know what to do to become at peace with the idea of dying.

Just ask God to forgive you your sins. God is wating for you to come to him. The price is paid. You just have to pray and ask him to come in to your heart and you will recieve eternal life.

I think that when our sins are erased and we really have recieved Jesus as our saviour we can know deep in our hearts that we will spend eternity in heaven. Religion is made by man, but true biblical christianity was made by God coming to us through Jesus Christ.

Originally Posted by Shabby

No one will ever experience death. In order to experience death...one has to be present....if there is life beyond this physical experience which we call life...then you will not experience death but the soul continuing it's journey. If there is no life beyond this experience of life on earth then you will not be present and you will not experience death either.

Everything that has a beginning has an end and an end only means the start of something new. As I see it true life has no beginning nor end as true life itself is life and life has no part in decay or death.

This is possibly the most flawless logic I have ever run across!

[Truth_Seeker]

Originally Posted by believer

Just ask God to forgive you your sins. God is wating for you to come to him. The price is paid. You just have to pray and ask him to come in to your heart and you will recieve eternal life.

I think that when our sins are erased and we really have recieved Jesus as our saviour we can know deep in our hearts that we will spend eternity in heaven. Religion is made by man, but true biblical christianity was made by God coming to us through Jesus Christ.

No I dont believe this is correct, there are no sinners and non sinners just human beings.

[Teal]

I am more afraid of the people I love going before me.

[theophilus]

Originally Posted by believer

Just ask God to forgive you your sins. God is wating for you to come to him. The price is paid. You just have to pray and ask him to come in to your heart and you will recieve eternal life.

Forgiveness is available to all of us but I think you are leaving something out. It is necessary to acknowledge that we are sinners and to repent of out sins in order to be forgiven for them.

http://carm.org/christianity/devotions/repentance

I think that when our sins are erased and we really have recieved Jesus as our saviour we can know deep in our hearts that we will spend eternity in heaven. Religion is made by man, but true biblical christianity was made by God coming to us through Jesus Christ.

This is absolutely true. But if someone doesn't fully understand what is involved in salvation there is a danger that he can think he is forgiven when he isn't. Here are a couple of good sites that show what is means to be saved.

http://www.backtothebible.org/Indexes/index.php?option=com_mosforms&Itemid=180

http://carm.org/jesus-saves