Do you fear the physical means of your death, or the unknown part?

[Socra Maat]

I fear of how it will happen and the physical aspects of it, the after is perfectly fine to me.

My friend noted that he's iffy on the latter, but highlights the physical aspect. The painful, gruesome, or struggle (drowning, etc) part, he wants to experience in full stride and sensation. Sounded romantic almost, I couldn't relate.

What about you?

 

[Hadoblado]

I fear the means, but not the end.

 

[Jennywocky]

I guess if you know you're going to die, then it's not as bad as if you have a chance to live and so you fight it, or you are terrified of surviving but maimed.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

Am I the atoms of which I consist or the specific pattern in which they're are arranged? Both constantly change. Aren't we constantly dying and being born anew? Why should the final death be addressed with any more concern than the innumerable gradual ones that precede it.

I don't really consider myself alive the same way that most people do. We're bits of matter arranged in an anomalous fashion. Pain and fear a mere physical process and they serve specific purposes. While a certain amount of instinctual fear is unavoidable when faced with bodily injury; there is no reason for fear in the anticipation of death or pain.

 

[Socra Maat]

I guess if you know you're going to die, then it's not as bad as if you have a chance to live and so you fight it, or you are terrified of surviving but maimed.

I agree, that's a crappy scenario. Not sure what I'd do. *Mind's blank, Vitamin E vasodilation kicking in*

 

[Socra Maat]

Am I the atoms of which I consist or the specific pattern in which they're are arranged? Both constantly change. Aren't we constantly dying and being born anew? Why should the final death be addressed with any more concern than the innumerable gradual ones that precede it.

I don't really consider myself alive the same way that most people do. We're bits of matter arranged in an anomalous fashion. Pain and fear a mere physical process and they serve specific purposes. While a certain amount of instinctual fear is unavoidable when faced with bodily injury; there is no reason for fear in the anticipation of death or pain.

I see what you're saying, and I feel/have felt similar in some of those sentiments.

Yet frankly, I still hate external physical pain. More so than I love physical pleasure. The *final* death may (or may not) consist of more pain than I have ever encountered, and so I feel great unease and ultimately fear.
I'm far more inclined to kill myself, by my own means and time, than to leave it to whatever.

The perspective I'm feeling:
When a samurai dies, I do not see the blood nourishing the earth and giving rise to cherry blossoms (As portrayed in Bushido poems). I see a metallic weapon piercing/ripping apart flesh, connections severed, fluids rampant, and extreme pain.

Of course I can appreciate the former, outside of the thread discussion. This is just my position to the thread topic.

 

[shoeless]

i would fear the sensation of drowning, or falling from a great height to my death, because i imagine the terror and adrenaline going through my veins more than the actual pain of the situation.
i would also fear dying of a terminal illness, particularly one that is very slow and painful. lung cancer comes to mind, and for me is probably the most likely one. but i imagine i would welcome death by the time it came; it's just the process i fear.

but the thought of an afterlife doesn't scare me. it used to when i was still going to church, but when you have years to separate yourself from a pastor (and/or your own father) screaming in your ear about hell and eternity, it starts to seem like it should be nothing more than a nice dream. because how could hell be real?

 

[The Void]

Don't know.
I can know when I will reach near death.
Right now I don't feel fear.

 

[Helvete]

I plan to freeze myself and avoid death.

 

[RaBind]

Well there's also another aspect to death, which is what will you be leaving behind when you die? what will be the state of whatever you've left behind? That's the responsibility side of aversion to death.

Obviously I'd have to have been satisfied with my life too before I felt comfortable with death.

Between the two mentioned in the op, I'd say I hate the unknown aspect more, if I was to have a natural death. So really the means of death is relative to any phobias a person might have, as well as the way in which the person dies.

 

[Socra Maat]

Well there's also another aspect to death, which is what will you be leaving behind when you die? what will be the state of whatever you've left behind? That's the responsibility side of aversion to death.

Obviously I'd have to have been satisfied with my life too before I felt comfortable with death.

Between the two mentioned in the op, I'd say I hate the unknown aspect more, if I was to have a natural death. So really the means of death is relative to any phobias a person might have, as well as the way in which the person dies.

At a young age I found ease in the unknown aspect by realizing this:

Only two general results exist:

1. Some form of sentience exists after life.
2. No form of sentience exists, and therefore there is nothing to worry about, as worry will not exist. You cannot overthink something literally devoid of all thinking, it will drive you mad because those actions have no true relation.

~ In this, the only fear I needed to quell was the concept of infinity possible in #1. I soon did, and this brought me great comfort. Infinity immersion is a whole different topic on its own.

 

[QuickTwist]

Thinking about death is something I do from time to time. I don't think too much about the fear of it, I mostly wonder about it: A thing once existed and now does not. I think "how does that happen that one thing was once alive and now it has no sense of being?"

Talk is cheap. I have felt I was going to die before and there was a change that came over me after it happened. I stopped being detail oriented about the little things and began thinking about what was really important to me in a big picture sort of way. All of the sudden my interests became more interesting. I also went through a process of pruning my interests so that I could focus more on things that had more value to me.

If I knew I was going to die soon I would be worried about other things. I imagine I would let go of the little things quite quickly and focus my attention towards more important matters. I would care less about certain goals and they would be replaced with new ones.

I can't say when I think about death I become afraid but I do start to wonder about what it means to die.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

The perspective I'm feeling:
When a samurai dies, I do not see the blood nourishing the earth and giving rise to cherry blossoms (As portrayed in Bushido poems). I see a metallic weapon piercing/ripping apart flesh, connections severed, fluids rampant, and extreme pain.

Of course I can appreciate the former, outside of the thread discussion. This is just my position to the thread topic.

There is no reason to be afraid of this physical aspect that is pain.
When it comes it will take its toll, it may make you beg for mercy or behave like an animal, there is no helping when it happens you will be saved from the pain or not.

I also think it is logical to care about what you do in your life in any case.

If you were to die and never be aware again, then you have lived a life in a way you have wanted to.

If you were to reincarnate or somehow continue your existence, then the state of affairs you leave behind is as important.

 

[Polaris]

I did the CSI thing in my father's flat after he died last year...I had to find answers. The paramedics hadn't cleaned up properly, or at all. Mum said I was crazy, but I stayed alone there for 9 days.

Then my close friend fought a slow and agonising battle with cancer. It took her a year to die. She spent day after day alone in the bathroom, vomiting and defecating because her body was so sick from the drugs they pumped her full of.

Death has become very real. It still stays with me; the reality of death and dying...every day, every night.

So yes, I do fear the physical means of death more.

The arrival of death will be a release from suffering.

I hope it happens unexpectedly and quickly.

 

[The Gopher]

I guess if you know you're going to die, then it's not as bad as if you have a chance to live and so you fight it, or you are terrified of surviving but maimed.

I would be more worried about surviving maimed, but only if it was paralysis or similar.