Conquering your fear of death

[Tiger1962]

no i would fear hight not death , because im scared of heights lol

Ah-HA ! I got ya on this one!

If you truly don't fear death, then you should NOT fear heights because "height" is just a "location". Death is a "state" - it's final - an ending, no coming back; adios; sayonara.

Height is not terminal. Unless, of course, you fall from a high place.

eh? eh?

I'm right aren't I ?

[Traymond]

Why fear something that you cannot stop? Fear only what you dont understand, to conquer it, try to better understand it.

To fear death is to limit your life.

Live it to the fullest, if your afraid of death your not as open or as free as you should be. No matter what you have to die, whats the differance between today or tomorow?

[Tiger1962]

Why fear something that you cannot stop? Fear only what you dont understand, to conquer it, try to better understand it.

To fear death is to limit your life.

Live it to the fullest, if your afraid of death your not as open or as free as you should be. No matter what you have to die, whats the differance between today or tomorow?

I for one, am in no hurry to get there...

[Traymond]

But do you fear it? I am in no hurry to get their either, but why fear something that no matter what will happen.

[Tiger1962]

I'll be honest, yes I am afraid. Afraid because it means I won't see the people I love anymore. Afraid because there is so much I still want to do and experience in life. I saw a parent suffer and die because of an illness. I am not ashamed to admit that yes I am afraid of it. I don't think that makes me weak. It just makes me human.

[tallgeese]

Fear and respect are two different things.

Each has it's place. I'd say most of us probibly know that it's the ultimate end, and each of us would probibly like a good long run before we get there. That being said, we don't go sittting around in fear of doing anything just because that might be the outcome. You just have to respect those activities that you do that might bring it around quicker.

I for one don't buy into the pre fated thing. That may or may not be the case, but I'm sure gonna fight like heck to try and prove some one wrong.

Respect means that you manage the risk associated with your activites well. It does not mean that you don't do anything and mope about death.

Fear itself isn't a bad thing either. It's an instictive mechanism built up over our development that alerts us to danger and preps us to fight. fear, when controlled and utilized properly is an assest to us. It's panic that kills us, not fear.

[JohnC]

I'd offer that those that fear death in many cases see it as an ending rather than a beginning. An interesting take given that most of them also say that there is an afterlife which is presumed to be vastly better than this one.

[Okami]

Well let's see I've been blown up three times by terrorist, left holding a bomb in a parking lot while 5 Army chaplins gave me the last rights. I was kidnapped once and escapped, been in one nice Mexican standoff with guns, and I had to drop a bull moose at my feet with a pistol, only killed one bad guy with my bare hands, slept with a bobcat for 5 days and these are the things I ain't doing.

1. Jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

2. Wrestle a tiger, my instructor did it but I'm not.

3. Get married for the 3rd time.

You bet one thing I was scared all those times, but im still here.

[sensei8]

Once I die; I won't think about death any more!

[tonydee]

I think it's all been said, but to summarise...

People are scared of death because:

- dying may be physically painful and/or undignified

- "wired" to be afraid of death: a self-preservation instinct

- things they want to do before they die

- death may upset loved ones

- death may leave loved ones without emotional/financial/etc support

- actions that may result in death could instead cause various levels of injury: being crippled, feeling a prisoner in one's own body, a burden on one's loved ones, unable to have children, brain damaged, unable to continue training in martial arts.... Some of these may be - to some people - less palatable than a "clean" death.

- uncertainty about any afterlife, or a pessimistic expectation

Death is inevitable, and so it makes sense for everyone to make peace with it eventually. But "premature death", by misadventure rather than natural processes, is another matter altogether, as it defies expectation and may exacerbate some of the negatives above.

If a person believes in an afterlife, then they may be afraid of death if they don't feel their potential standing in that afterlife is as good as it might be made to be at some late point in time. Bill's assumption that everyone assumes they're already en-route to heaven is not one that everyone would be comfortable making. Not arguing with the conclusion per se (each to their own beliefs), but as a logical reasoning process Bill's argument that an afterlife implies a just god is not independently solid, but an all-or-nothing argument about some specific religious doctrine (presumably Christian). It's also possible that everyone dies and goes to some eternal limbo, bored beyond measure, or in some manner of pain. The "afterlife" is an unknown, and can only be reduced to the point-list Bill presents by using a specific religion and a presumption of being judged positively by a just god as a premise.

Cheers,

Tony