It's funny reading this, because the concept of nothingness helped me get over my fear of the unknown/death. Nothingness isn't an experience so it's kind of pointless to ever fear having an experience that can't be had right? :)
It's funny reading this, because the concept of nothingness helped me get over my fear of the unknown/death. Nothingness isn't an experience so it's kind of pointless to ever fear having an experience that can't be had right? :)
Right!
This is funny... For a long time now I've been of the opinion that fear of death is ultimately kinda ridiculous because of a different, but very much related reason. We do fear the unknown, we even fear the "act" of "not knowing", ignorance (although that's very much a fear by conditioning, peer pressure). But, the fact that we die is one of the very few things in life we can all be absolutely sure about...
So, yes: there's no compelling reason to assume there's anything to be experienced after death, just like there's no reason to assume we experienced anything before we were born. Returning to the state of "not being" shouldn't worry us at all.
But still... If I'm totally honest, I don't think any of us really know if we've overcome our natural fear of death (you know, evolution and all) until we're actually there. What I have read on several occasions is that ancient and current traditional cultures use psychedelics, mushrooms, ayahuasca-like substances on the elderly of whom they know are leaving this world; it seems to take away any fear for what will come afterwards.
Fear of death might be irrational, but that's what we are: mostly irrational. There's nothing weird or wrong with fearing death, but it's also liberating to embrace death as a necessary element of all life, because without it life really would essentially be worthless; life is precious because it ends :-)
Thanks for poking my brain some more @clayboyn; I always appreciate that :-)
I actually disagree on knowing whether or not you've overcome your fear of death. When we stop living our lives in fear, I think it's a strong indicator that we've overcome it, at least to a certain extent. What is there to fear honestly? :D
I can only speak for myself ultimately, but I experience the following: everything I ever tried for the first time, brought with it some amount of what we in day-to-day life call "fear". Doesn't matter if it's the first time speaking to the classroom, taking the first dive from the high springboard at the swimming pool or the first time I jumped out of an airplane, even though I knew full well that the parachute on my back would prevent death. But after that first dive, I was always eager to go again. Death isn't repeatable, you can't practice it; there'll only ever be that first time and I'm almost sure it won't be the same kind of apprehension I had when kissing a girl for the first time ;-) Like I said: you're right, there should be nothing to fear, just lake at the swimming pool where I saw scores of kids jump before me without anything scary happening. That doesn't mean, however, I won't be afraid when my time comes; I'll tell you what happened afterwards, okay? ;-)
Lol, I get what you're saying. It feels like to me personally that fear has shifted into something that no longer hinders me. Even if there is momentary apprehension, it usually shifts into exhilaration at doing something new or different now. I previously would never do anything new or take chances because I just always assumed the worst.
This I can totally see :-) And you just made me realize: we can of course "practice" being less afraid for "first experiences" in general! That's exactly what I think you're saying here :-) Hah! I wouldn't know how to get data to support this very plausible proposition, but would it be true that people that do lots of new things in their lives are, on average, less afraid of that ultimate new experience..? Wow, you just gave me a whole new path to check out, that's great! Thanks! :-)