I just meant that I was under the impression that the human brain is simply incapable of retaining information from the period prior to birth. I thought it was an accepted fact.
If it isn't then I'll just accept that I was mistaken.
So, let me ask you this: can we ever accept the reality of our own death? Is it even possible to live in the knowledge that our lives are limited, and that every second has intrinsic value?
We can and it would probably behoove us to do so. Heidegger thought that as Dasein (human beings being in the world in our everyday sense) our "knowledge" of our own death is one of the things that made us authentic and resolute. Human beings are their most authentic when confronting their own death and living with the knowledge of their own mortality.
People who live their lives under the delusion that they will live forever, or who don't think about their inevitable death live inauthentically and fill their lives with worthless and inauthentic things.
So, yeah, best to acknowledge your own mortality and live with the knowledge that you will one day die.
I don't fear the pain of death so much as the concept of non-existance
Why would anyone fear not existing? If you don't exist nothing matters. There's no reason to fear a state of non-being, because once you reach that state of non-being you won't exist anymore.
When I was a kid I used to remember my dreams almost every morning. The earliest ones I remember having were recurring dreams of being in a dark place when a giant line of light, like a gash, appeared kind of in front and to the side of me at a weird angle. Then I was lifted out into the light by some force and once I was in the light there were lots of loud sounds and then I'd wake up. The details of the dream varied - sometimes I was in an egg, sometimes I was in a sleeping bag, sometimes I was in my room but the room was empty except for me. But every time it was dark, and every time the 'fabric' of whatever I was in was torn open and pulled apart. Every time I was pulled out of the darkness into the light and noise by some unseen force. And every time there were weird cacophonous noises - sometimes the noises were different, like lots of people talking, or white noise like engines rumbling, or whatever, but it was always the incomprehensible loud noises that woke me from the dream.
I just assumed it was just some goofy thing my brain made up for years - even after seeing The Miracle of Life, I didn't put two and two together. It was only after learning that I'd been born by Cesarean section that it clicked for me.
And I'm sorry that I got kind of snarky. I don't describe this to people often, but once in a while I do and I get somebody telling me that it's impossible, that I must have been described the C-section process when I was very, very young and it was that description that caused the dream. That doesn't make sense to me - if I was neurologically incapable of forming a vague memory of the first intense experience of my life and retaining it long enough (even in some fuzzy capacity) to dream about it later, how was I neurologically capable at the age of two or three of hearing an abstract description of a medical procedure and imaging that abstract description as a first-person-viewpoint experience with sensory detail? Being told by people, "Your experience is impossible" on more than one occasion tends to make one slightly irritable about it.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
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DVGNo. 1 Honor StudentNether Institute, Evil AcademyRegistered Userregular
edited July 2007
I don't think I fully comprehend mortality, or, perhaps more to the point, I don't fully comprehend death. While I'm not ready to declare myself an atheist, or care to for that matter, I don't really believe in an after life. The idea of not existing is problematic, in that I cannot fully wrap my head around the idea that one day I won't wake up.
Anyway, back to mortality... the experience I described above makes me sympathetic to people who have claimed to have near-death experiences. Even though it's widely believed that a true NDE is neurologically impossible and must be a 'false memory,' I'm not willing to just jump to that conclusion and discount the experiences of thousands of people that easily.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I don't think that's possible, and at the very least it's completely unverifiable.
I love how people immediately jump to "that's impossible" simply because they can't imagine it being true.
Hooraydiation didn't say that, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with the skeptical position. I would argue it's actually a very reasonable and safe place to be, much of the time.
I don't fear the pain of death so much as the concept of non-existance
Why would anyone fear not existing? If you don't exist nothing matters. There's no reason to fear a state of non-being, because once you reach that state of non-being you won't exist anymore.
Problem solved.
Non-existence is horrifying
As a subjective being, when I die, the universe ends. If something doesn't happen in my lifetime, it will never happen at all.
It is like going into dreamless sleep and never waking up, and that is absolutely the most terrifying idea ever.
Hi I'm Vee!Formerly VH; She/Her; Is an E X P E R I E N C ERegistered Userregular
edited July 2007
I'm not afraid of death so much as I'm just kind of annoyed by it.
There's so much that I want to do while I'm alive, and there's no way I'll have enough time to do it all.
If I could wish for one thing, it would be to be able to modify my body's physical age at will. Live my current life until the age of 65-70, pretend to die, then escape and return my body to that of a teenager and start all over again.
Obviously, that's not really possible, but I do spend a lot of time hoping nanotechnology will progress enough in my lifetime to extend my lifespan significantly. Maybe that's not a healthy philosophy, but meh.
As a subjective being, when I die, the universe ends. If something doesn't happen in my lifetime, it will never happen at all.
It is like going into dreamless sleep and never waking up, and that is absolutely the most terrifying idea ever.
I don't think you understand.
If you never wake up it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. You don't exist anymore. What is there to fear? You won't feel pain, pleasure, fright, anything. You cease to exist.
There is no "you" to be afraid. So how can it be scary?
As a subjective being, when I die, the universe ends. If something doesn't happen in my lifetime, it will never happen at all.
It is like going into dreamless sleep and never waking up, and that is absolutely the most terrifying idea ever.
I don't think you understand.
If you never wake up it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. You don't exist anymore. What is there to fear? You won't feel pain, pleasure, fright, anything. You cease to exist.
There is no "you" to be afraid. So how can it be scary?
I don't think you understand
"Nothing matters," "you don't exist," "you won't feel pain, pleasure, fright," these are not good things. These are terrifying.
I'm not saying I will be horrified then. I'm saying that it is horrifying now, the idea that I will inevitably cease to exist.
People who are not horrified by the idea of oblivion either push it aside or don't really understand it. Or they're consigned to horrible pain for the rest of their lives and would rather cease to exist than continue living.
"Nothing matters," "you don't exist," "you won't feel pain, pleasure, fright," these are not good things. These are terrifying.
I'm not saying I will be horrified then. I'm saying that it is horrifying now, the idea that I will inevitably cease to exist.
People who are not horrified by the idea of oblivion either push it aside or don't really understand it. Or they're consigned to horrible pain for the rest of their lives and would rather cease to exist than continue living.
People who are not horrified by the idea of oblivion either push it aside or don't really understand it. Or they're consigned to horrible pain for the rest of their lives and would rather cease to exist than continue living.
Come on, dudes. You're afraid of death because that's an obvious necessity of survival, especially for a conscious species like ourselves. Once I realized that my fear of death is just an instinct, a material thing just like any other that will eventually fade away, I got over it. Whatever my ability to comprehend death is it's not what prevents me from being afraid, it's that you refuse to try to comprehend it that keeps you afraid.
I don't fear the pain of death so much as the concept of non-existance
Why would anyone fear not existing? If you don't exist nothing matters. There's no reason to fear a state of non-being, because once you reach that state of non-being you won't exist anymore.
Problem solved.
Non-existence is horrifying
As a subjective being, when I die, the universe ends. If something doesn't happen in my lifetime, it will never happen at all.
It is like going into dreamless sleep and never waking up, and that is absolutely the most terrifying idea ever.
From the point of view of a subjective being, I can see how non-existence would be horrifying, but is this really our main way of being in the world? It seems to me that, as rational thinkers, we perform self-abstractions all the time. We frequently do conceive of a world of which we ourselves aren't a part. It's only thus that we could ever learn to consider ourselves as objects present in the world alongside other objects; that is, by examining what the world would be like if we didn't exist, and inferring from this what our role in the world actually is.
To get back to an idea in my original post, I find it interesting that in Western philosophy and religion, what's closest at hand is nearly always what's least holy. Divinity typically stands at a distance, across an unreachable divide, or relegated to the end of time. As such, what's most real for us, in the sense of being most clearly verifiable, is actually what's least real, in the sense of being at a lesser grade of reality. Our material existence is devalued as either a stepping stone to our real existence, or an illusory veil blinding us to the truth. But if this is all we have, then in the final analysis, it seems that all apparent mysteries are actually contingent on the point of view of pissing and shitting organisms in the here and now. Does this make existence somehow less noble, or does it actually elevate our material existence in a way that we wouldn't normally conceive? It seems to me that if our lived experience is all we have, then our lived experience is actually quite a wonderful thing, since it's in life, not death, that God and heaven have their greatest reality.
Symmetry on
Perhaps it is not-being that is the true state, and all our dream of life is inexistent; but, if so, we feel that these phrases of music, these conceptions which exist in relation to our dream, must be nothing either. We shall perish, but we have as hostages these divine captives who will follow and share our fate. And death in their company is somehow less bitter, less inglorious, perhaps even less probable.
I'd say that we can't completely face our mortality, but some people are closer to facing it that others.
I have a chronic disease (Crohns Disease), and it's nearly killed me a couple of times, but through a combination of great doctors & surgery, lifestyle control and dumb luck, I've survived 16 years with a very serious illness. Basically, I had my mid-life crisis when I was 20.
The thing about this disease is that I'm not too bad now, but things can change extremely fast - I've gone from 'absolutely fine, on my way to work' to 'ICU and heart monitors' in two hours.
When I first got really sick, I ended up living as if each day was my last, and that sucks. No plans, no motivation, just fear. I got better, and then sick again over the next few years, still living with that mindset, causing problems (like running up debt and not bothering to pay it off, since I was just waiting to die).
After another bad scare I changed my life drastically - started doing things I wanted to do now. One specific example is I'd never travelled, so I went and lived in Japan, where I've settled now (and still travel quite a bit).
Over the years, my mindset has become 'Live each day as if it could be your last. But it might not be.' And this has improved my life in so many ways. I've done things I would never have dreamed of before. Life, even despite being sick, is great. I'm married, hoping for kids. I have a positivity that no-one around me can match. I feel that I am living on extended time - that it's all gravy now, since I'm bloody lucky to be here.
But if I get really sick again, I know I'll be scared and pathetic. That's what I mean by 'we can't face our mortality completely'. I live with my mortality very close to the surface. It influences my choices every day. But I still don't really face it, and when it comes very close, I get scared.
tl;dr - You can semi-face death, and it can have a good or bad effect on your life, depending on how you deal with it. But people don't really face it. When you get right up close to it, it's always scary.
I'd say that we can't completely face our mortality
...why?
Because people still flip-out and do death bed conversions and I'm betting a certain amount of money that there's a decent possibility this is what my father will do. It's going to be incredibly disappointing.
Because it's been my experience. I've lived with it for a long time, and I'm happy with my attitude towards it. People tell me I seem like someone who's really well-adjusted about life and death.
But then when I'm alone in a hospital bed things are different. All on my own, in the privacy of my own head, I fall apart.
I think there are levels, degrees of coping, ways of approaching the fear indirectly. But I think this kind of fear is not subject to the rationalising I've seen you doing in this thread, and sorry to say, I don't think you would maintain your equanimity in a really dangerous situation. Maybe your external composure, but not your internal mindset.
When you get right up close to it, it's always scary.
To some people.
The brakes went out on my car on Monday while I was driving. I slammed on the brakes to not hit a squirrel and they went out. Apparently there was a leak in the brake line and when I slammed on the breaks it caused the leak to actually brake and the fluid all poured out. So I was driving, on a road, in traffic, unable to stop. I took my foot off the gas, made my way off the main road, and then got into a parking lot and used the emergency brake to stop.
And I didn't freak out because I didn't give a shit. I almost died, but I didn't, which just meant that I had to get my car fixed and go to work instead of not exist anymore.
Some people are afraid of death. Some people live with it close and some people live in complete denial of it. Some people aren't afraid of death, and when situations arise in which they could die they just go about their business and if they die then, well, they're dead so it doesn't really matter anymore.
Because it's been my experience. I've lived with it for a long time, and I'm happy with my attitude towards it. People tell me I seem like someone who's really well-adjusted about life and death.
But then when I'm alone in a hospital bed things are different. All on my own, in the privacy of my own head, I fall apart.
I think there are levels, degrees of coping, ways of approaching the fear indirectly. But I think this kind of fear is not subject to the rationalising I've seen you doing in this thread, and sorry to say, I don't think you would maintain your equanimity in a really dangerous situation. Maybe your external composure, but not your internal mindset.
You shared your story about your situation, and that was nice and brave. And I don't think you're a weakling or anything. You're strong to have made it this far.
But not everyone is afraid of death. And that doesn't mean anything, it's not that they are stronger or worth more or anything. It's just a way of being in the world. Not everyone freaks out about it.
So I'm trying to voice my thoughts on the matter without attacking you personally or making it sound as if I am. Because I'm not.
Some people are afraid of death. Some people live with it close and some people live in complete denial of it. Some people aren't afraid of death, and when situations arise in which they could die they just go about their business and if they die then, well, they're dead so it doesn't really matter anymore.
I think you'll find most people aren't not afraid of death, they're actually terrified and are dealing with it in arguably the best way - by doing what they know is the sensible thing to do. As you did, as numerous pilots have done when plane engine's go out, etc.
Some people are afraid of death. Some people live with it close and some people live in complete denial of it. Some people aren't afraid of death, and when situations arise in which they could die they just go about their business and if they die then, well, they're dead so it doesn't really matter anymore.
I think you'll find most people aren't not afraid of death, they're actually terrified and are dealing with it in arguably the best way - by doing what they know is the sensible thing to do. As you did, as numerous pilots have done when plane engine's go out, etc.
Some people are afraid of dogs. Others are not. Some people are afraid of death. Others are not.
People just deal with things differently. Some people would freak out if the brakes went out, others do not. Some people would lose the will to live if they had a terrible disease. Others cope.
It's just different people dealing with it differently.
_J_, how about I come around to your house and sabotage your car in a random manner every single morning and then see how you feel about your drive to work.
_J_, how about I come around to your house and sabotage your car in a random manner every single morning and then see how you feel about your drive to work.
Some people are afraid of death. Some people live with it close and some people live in complete denial of it. Some people aren't afraid of death, and when situations arise in which they could die they just go about their business and if they die then, well, they're dead so it doesn't really matter anymore.
I think you'll find most people aren't not afraid of death, they're actually terrified and are dealing with it in arguably the best way - by doing what they know is the sensible thing to do. As you did, as numerous pilots have done when plane engine's go out, etc.
Some people are afraid of dogs. Others are not. Some people are afraid of death. Others are not.
People just deal with things differently. Some people would freak out if the brakes went out, others do not. Some people would lose the will to live if they had a terrible disease. Others cope.
It's just different people dealing with it differently.
I can't help but think that you're more proud of this experience and your reaction then not afraid of death in anyway. I mean, maybe you're not, but it's not a claim I'd be willing to make ever.
_J_, how about I come around to your house and sabotage your car in a random manner every single morning and then see how you feel about your drive to work.
If I die I don't have to go to work anymore.
Then kill yourself tonight. You'll get tomorrow off.
I can't help but think that you're more proud of this experience and your reaction then not afraid of death in anyway. I mean, maybe you're not, but it's not a claim I'd be willing to make ever.
I'm not proud. It was just a good example. But you can think whatever you want.
_J_, how about I come around to your house and sabotage your car in a random manner every single morning and then see how you feel about your drive to work.
If I die I don't have to go to work anymore.
Then kill yourself tonight. You'll get tomorrow off.
It's just different people dealing with it differently.
I can't help but think that you're more proud of this experience and your reaction then not afraid of death in anyway. I mean, maybe you're not, but it's not a claim I'd be willing to make ever.
And how much were his reactions altered by the adrenalin rush caused by his fear of (or subconcious wish to avoid) death?
_J_, how about I come around to your house and sabotage your car in a random manner every single morning and then see how you feel about your drive to work.
If I die I don't have to go to work anymore.
Then kill yourself tonight. You'll get tomorrow off.
I'll get more than tomorrow off, buddy.
The sooner you kill yourself, the more time you get off. What are you waiting for?
"Nothing matters," "you don't exist," "you won't feel pain, pleasure, fright," these are not good things. These are terrifying.
I'm not saying I will be horrified then. I'm saying that it is horrifying now, the idea that I will inevitably cease to exist.
People who are not horrified by the idea of oblivion either push it aside or don't really understand it. Or they're consigned to horrible pain for the rest of their lives and would rather cease to exist than continue living.
Why is not existing scary?
And say something other than, "because it is!".
I don't even know why you'd ask the question. That's like asking "why are you happy when you're happy?"
Not existing is scary because existing is good. I don't want to stop existing. I don't want my consciousness to end. Don't you like being? Would you not like to continue being? It's not even "scary." That's not the right word. It's more like crushing dread. The inevitability of the end of my mind is quite a horrible concept. I don't want it to happen. I don't know why anybody would not find it an unpleasant prospect.
I find that a lot of people can't grasp the enormity of oblivion and it's not really something you can express in words.
Posts
I don't think that's possible, and at the very least it's completely unverifiable.
I love how people immediately jump to "that's impossible" simply because they can't imagine it being true.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
If it isn't then I'll just accept that I was mistaken.
We can and it would probably behoove us to do so. Heidegger thought that as Dasein (human beings being in the world in our everyday sense) our "knowledge" of our own death is one of the things that made us authentic and resolute. Human beings are their most authentic when confronting their own death and living with the knowledge of their own mortality.
People who live their lives under the delusion that they will live forever, or who don't think about their inevitable death live inauthentically and fill their lives with worthless and inauthentic things.
So, yeah, best to acknowledge your own mortality and live with the knowledge that you will one day die.
Why would anyone fear not existing? If you don't exist nothing matters. There's no reason to fear a state of non-being, because once you reach that state of non-being you won't exist anymore.
Problem solved.
I just assumed it was just some goofy thing my brain made up for years - even after seeing The Miracle of Life, I didn't put two and two together. It was only after learning that I'd been born by Cesarean section that it clicked for me.
And I'm sorry that I got kind of snarky. I don't describe this to people often, but once in a while I do and I get somebody telling me that it's impossible, that I must have been described the C-section process when I was very, very young and it was that description that caused the dream. That doesn't make sense to me - if I was neurologically incapable of forming a vague memory of the first intense experience of my life and retaining it long enough (even in some fuzzy capacity) to dream about it later, how was I neurologically capable at the age of two or three of hearing an abstract description of a medical procedure and imaging that abstract description as a first-person-viewpoint experience with sensory detail? Being told by people, "Your experience is impossible" on more than one occasion tends to make one slightly irritable about it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Hooraydiation didn't say that, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with the skeptical position. I would argue it's actually a very reasonable and safe place to be, much of the time.
Non-existence is horrifying
As a subjective being, when I die, the universe ends. If something doesn't happen in my lifetime, it will never happen at all.
It is like going into dreamless sleep and never waking up, and that is absolutely the most terrifying idea ever.
There's so much that I want to do while I'm alive, and there's no way I'll have enough time to do it all.
If I could wish for one thing, it would be to be able to modify my body's physical age at will. Live my current life until the age of 65-70, pretend to die, then escape and return my body to that of a teenager and start all over again.
Obviously, that's not really possible, but I do spend a lot of time hoping nanotechnology will progress enough in my lifetime to extend my lifespan significantly. Maybe that's not a healthy philosophy, but meh.
I don't think you understand.
If you never wake up it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. You don't exist anymore. What is there to fear? You won't feel pain, pleasure, fright, anything. You cease to exist.
There is no "you" to be afraid. So how can it be scary?
I don't think you understand
"Nothing matters," "you don't exist," "you won't feel pain, pleasure, fright," these are not good things. These are terrifying.
I'm not saying I will be horrified then. I'm saying that it is horrifying now, the idea that I will inevitably cease to exist.
People who are not horrified by the idea of oblivion either push it aside or don't really understand it. Or they're consigned to horrible pain for the rest of their lives and would rather cease to exist than continue living.
Why is not existing scary?
And say something other than, "because it is!".
I'm not going to tell you it's impossible. I'm going to tell you it's unverifiable, and also that there are more likely explanations.
Or they don't share your particular mindset.
From the point of view of a subjective being, I can see how non-existence would be horrifying, but is this really our main way of being in the world? It seems to me that, as rational thinkers, we perform self-abstractions all the time. We frequently do conceive of a world of which we ourselves aren't a part. It's only thus that we could ever learn to consider ourselves as objects present in the world alongside other objects; that is, by examining what the world would be like if we didn't exist, and inferring from this what our role in the world actually is.
To get back to an idea in my original post, I find it interesting that in Western philosophy and religion, what's closest at hand is nearly always what's least holy. Divinity typically stands at a distance, across an unreachable divide, or relegated to the end of time. As such, what's most real for us, in the sense of being most clearly verifiable, is actually what's least real, in the sense of being at a lesser grade of reality. Our material existence is devalued as either a stepping stone to our real existence, or an illusory veil blinding us to the truth. But if this is all we have, then in the final analysis, it seems that all apparent mysteries are actually contingent on the point of view of pissing and shitting organisms in the here and now. Does this make existence somehow less noble, or does it actually elevate our material existence in a way that we wouldn't normally conceive? It seems to me that if our lived experience is all we have, then our lived experience is actually quite a wonderful thing, since it's in life, not death, that God and heaven have their greatest reality.
I have a chronic disease (Crohns Disease), and it's nearly killed me a couple of times, but through a combination of great doctors & surgery, lifestyle control and dumb luck, I've survived 16 years with a very serious illness. Basically, I had my mid-life crisis when I was 20.
The thing about this disease is that I'm not too bad now, but things can change extremely fast - I've gone from 'absolutely fine, on my way to work' to 'ICU and heart monitors' in two hours.
When I first got really sick, I ended up living as if each day was my last, and that sucks. No plans, no motivation, just fear. I got better, and then sick again over the next few years, still living with that mindset, causing problems (like running up debt and not bothering to pay it off, since I was just waiting to die).
After another bad scare I changed my life drastically - started doing things I wanted to do now. One specific example is I'd never travelled, so I went and lived in Japan, where I've settled now (and still travel quite a bit).
Over the years, my mindset has become 'Live each day as if it could be your last. But it might not be.' And this has improved my life in so many ways. I've done things I would never have dreamed of before. Life, even despite being sick, is great. I'm married, hoping for kids. I have a positivity that no-one around me can match. I feel that I am living on extended time - that it's all gravy now, since I'm bloody lucky to be here.
But if I get really sick again, I know I'll be scared and pathetic. That's what I mean by 'we can't face our mortality completely'. I live with my mortality very close to the surface. It influences my choices every day. But I still don't really face it, and when it comes very close, I get scared.
tl;dr - You can semi-face death, and it can have a good or bad effect on your life, depending on how you deal with it. But people don't really face it. When you get right up close to it, it's always scary.
...why?
Because you can't truly appreciate it until it's happened?
or the rest of his post.
Because people still flip-out and do death bed conversions and I'm betting a certain amount of money that there's a decent possibility this is what my father will do. It's going to be incredibly disappointing.
People can understand things without experiencing them.
Hence the second line of my post. I didn't experience what he did but I understand what he's saying because of the rest of his post.
Because it's been my experience. I've lived with it for a long time, and I'm happy with my attitude towards it. People tell me I seem like someone who's really well-adjusted about life and death.
But then when I'm alone in a hospital bed things are different. All on my own, in the privacy of my own head, I fall apart.
I think there are levels, degrees of coping, ways of approaching the fear indirectly. But I think this kind of fear is not subject to the rationalising I've seen you doing in this thread, and sorry to say, I don't think you would maintain your equanimity in a really dangerous situation. Maybe your external composure, but not your internal mindset.
To some people.
The brakes went out on my car on Monday while I was driving. I slammed on the brakes to not hit a squirrel and they went out. Apparently there was a leak in the brake line and when I slammed on the breaks it caused the leak to actually brake and the fluid all poured out. So I was driving, on a road, in traffic, unable to stop. I took my foot off the gas, made my way off the main road, and then got into a parking lot and used the emergency brake to stop.
And I didn't freak out because I didn't give a shit. I almost died, but I didn't, which just meant that I had to get my car fixed and go to work instead of not exist anymore.
Some people are afraid of death. Some people live with it close and some people live in complete denial of it. Some people aren't afraid of death, and when situations arise in which they could die they just go about their business and if they die then, well, they're dead so it doesn't really matter anymore.
You shared your story about your situation, and that was nice and brave. And I don't think you're a weakling or anything. You're strong to have made it this far.
But not everyone is afraid of death. And that doesn't mean anything, it's not that they are stronger or worth more or anything. It's just a way of being in the world. Not everyone freaks out about it.
So I'm trying to voice my thoughts on the matter without attacking you personally or making it sound as if I am. Because I'm not.
Some people are afraid of dogs. Others are not. Some people are afraid of death. Others are not.
People just deal with things differently. Some people would freak out if the brakes went out, others do not. Some people would lose the will to live if they had a terrible disease. Others cope.
It's just different people dealing with it differently.
If I die I don't have to go to work anymore.
I can't help but think that you're more proud of this experience and your reaction then not afraid of death in anyway. I mean, maybe you're not, but it's not a claim I'd be willing to make ever.
Then kill yourself tonight. You'll get tomorrow off.
I'm not proud. It was just a good example. But you can think whatever you want.
I'll get more than tomorrow off, buddy.
And how much were his reactions altered by the adrenalin rush caused by his fear of (or subconcious wish to avoid) death?
The sooner you kill yourself, the more time you get off. What are you waiting for?
Good question. I've no idea.
Oooo. We're playing the subconscious card now? That's always beneficial.
I don't even know why you'd ask the question. That's like asking "why are you happy when you're happy?"
Not existing is scary because existing is good. I don't want to stop existing. I don't want my consciousness to end. Don't you like being? Would you not like to continue being? It's not even "scary." That's not the right word. It's more like crushing dread. The inevitability of the end of my mind is quite a horrible concept. I don't want it to happen. I don't know why anybody would not find it an unpleasant prospect.
I find that a lot of people can't grasp the enormity of oblivion and it's not really something you can express in words.