Fear of Death

I've been having dreams that I'm dying. Usually it's cancer or something that is taking its time in killing me. In the dreams, I'm terrified to go to sleep because I may not wake up.

The thought of going to sleep and never waking up scares the shit out of me. I've spent the day feeling depressed and jumpy.

What are your feelings on death? Scared? Secure in the knowledge that you'll go to heaven? Indifferent?

I'm indifferent about my own death. I think going to sleep and not waking up would be an awesome way to go out. I don't even care what happens with my body. Why should I?

They can leave it to the vultures or worms. I don't believe in heaven or hell. I think we just get recycled into the environment. Our biological components become food for microorganisms. And our chemical components are reused by the biosphere to create new life forms.

Thinking about friends or family members dying bothers me a lot more. I know it's gonna happen. Could happen tomorrow. Something could happen right now as I'm typing this. That's what has me on edge.

Why the 'GFY'?

I have nightmares that I'm a single failed alcoholic author in my late 40s living In a rent controlled shitbox apartment that's been reduced to writing about vaping and whining like a bitch about wordforge over in troll kingdom

Oh to go to sleep and not wake up would be wonderful. Not that I want to die tomorrow, but I like sleeping and dreaming and if that is the way I go it beats staring my mortality in the face and dying slowly and painfully watching my health slip away and knowing I will not only never do the things I love again, but that they will be replaced with pain and suffering until my body finally quits and I get relief. Of course I have lived through a year and some of terrible nerve pain that has me screaming and crying daily, and a lifetime of gender dysphoria of always feeling I am in the wrong body and trapped there. So perhaps my view on the end of body functions is a bit different than yours.

Oh, and not to mention I already have my tickets reserved in the Pryor car to hell. I hear the cocaine is perfect and you get to ride on seats made from powerful white guys who did horrors to black people.

If it makes you feel any better at least you wouldn't be a dumbass Arkansas gym teacher with one foot, or worse yet a forty year old drag queen who likes little girl cartoons.

Damn.

wow, cool topic and a cool thread! The only thing about death that upsets me is not having the time to get my financial/administrative shit together. Having cancer would suck, but at least it gives you a little "wiggle room" as opposed to getting hit in a head-on collision. That's just me I guess, I hate surprises.

As for heaven, I don't see the point of it, or hell. This would be because I don't think that humans are any more special than any other animal. I don't think humans are the be all/end all and that the sun rises & sets in our pants. The bible says humans have dominion over the animal kingdom - bull mother fucking shit.
That Adam was created & then all the animals walked past him & he named them. Really? He named millions of species of mammals, birds, fish, insects, etc. that have been in existence long before he was born? Oh wait, that's right - everything was created within a few days. And by everything I mean whatever species was around when the bible was written. Hence why Noah's Ark was swallowed hook, line & sinker. Because thousands of years ago nobody had a fucking clue about the entire earth. They only knew about what was in their area. So a few dozen species of animals sure, they could fit on a big ass boat.

If all the biodiversity in our planet was on Noah's Ark then spread out from there throughout the globe, logic would dictate that the mountains of Ararat (general area of Turkey) would be the most biologically diverse area on our planet. Spoiler alert - it isn't!

So here is my point - if you want to buy into heaven & hell (as the bible entails) then you have to buy into all the other parts of the bible that are obviously not true.
So maybe your first day in heaven will be Jesus/God saying "dude.....thanks for believing in all the bullshit in the bible. It takes true faith to cast aside all mathematics and science and critical thinking available in the modern age and accept bronze age fables!"

Anyway no I am not afraid of death - I have the basic instinct to stay alive (the legacy of evolution) the ability to kick it into high gear when the shit hits the fan via adrenalin (thanks evolution) and reproduce because I will not live forever (thanks again evolution) and this is no different than any other species of mammal that ever fucking lived. Just sayin'

My feelings about dying? Anxiety because it may involve pain or loss of dignity, worried that my passing will sadden and burden those close to me.

My feelings about death? The ultimate non-experience. Remember what you were a million years ago? That exact same thing.

My feelings about not living any more? Forever? Horrified, angry.

I tell my wife that I'd like to die suddenly just as I'm climaxing during sex. She... doesn't like that idea.

My beliefs on the subject are mixed. I believe we all have a soul that probably moves on afterward, and has been in existence for a long time before. Reincarnation is definitely something I like the idea of. There may or may not be a place like limbo or purgatory - a waiting room, like in Steambath - where we can maybe visit with the souls of dead loved ones (unless they've been reincarnated, of course) between lives.

I like the dramatic idea that souls meet and remeet over the ages - like, the soul that inhabits your spouse in this life, may have been in your best friend in your past lives, or that killer gorilla that's eying you in the zoo has the soul of your mortal enemy from the War of the Roses.
I can wait to find out.

In my dream I kept asking my wife, "should I pray? Should I pray?"

I had a heart attack a few years back. I take every day now as a bonus. When it comes it comes. No fear.

Tell her, "It's okay, Honey. I wasn't talking about dying while having sex with you. "

I merely see a possibility only because there might be something more. I do not look at life as having to exist at all, so I don't see any reason an afterlife has to be there or isn't there. The only thing I will say is we do not seem to have any communication with something more. Why shod we when our body is the vessel to which our consciousness interacts with the physical world. Without one we do not have any means to interact with this physical plane. I just cannot fully fathom where consciousness or perhaps the essence of a thing or individual exists.

For instance if I cut off my arm and it goes away my consciousness does it change. Only my ability to perceive and interact in this world does. If my brain gets damaged in certain ways I will perceive the world differently than I do now, but the world does not alter even though I may see it differently. This may change my sense of self and identity, how could it not, but it does not necessarily change whether or not the sense of self is there. It only seems to change how I can interact with and perceive physical things. So I see a possibility that identity will continue on without a body and perhaps do different things, but I do not have any idea if it will or what those things are. Perhaps without the physical world to interact with there is no purpose for an identity anymore. Perhaps there is something else we can move onto when we are no longer imprisoned within a physical body and limited to it's perceptions and needs.

Whatever is or isn't there we are all going to find out anyway. Unless there is a reason to be impatient like this present existence sucking I do not see any reason to rush or deny experience in this world. Still, I can see a person deciding whatever is next this existence is something they no longer want and word like to cease. I do not think living in pain or terrible circumstance has any nobility or reason so kick off if you want to. On the other hand if opportunity is there for some happiness, joy, or experience and knowledge then you have some reason to keep on going. No reason to rush the end if it is just time you do not like because the end will come.

I'm not worried about dying, I placed my chakra in a fellow WF'r (though he doesn't know it yet) and I'm confident that my friends will steal a starship and find me on a planet capable of resurrecting me, but I will technically be raped by an older woman, but it's cool because I probably either won't remember it or never acknowledge it, ever.

Who has my chakra you ask?

If he says that to her, it won't be during sex that he dies.

I believe that when I die, that’s it. There will be no heavenly destination, no afterlife of any kind. Everything that is and was me will be gone. It is not a prospect I look forward to, but I believe it is the reality of the situation. I do fear death, I live on the edge of it every day, and it is not a pleasant specter to gaze upon.

Threeish years ago I found a malignant melanoma on my leg. It scared me, but I got it cut out. No metastasization. It's all good.

The leg or the melanoma?

When I was little I had a dream of being on a beach hiding behind giant metal jacks. And death is far too simple, so I'm sure my unending rage will manifest again in the future.

Pretty much this, though I don't think I want to live literally forever. But being left without a choice is degrading and unworthy of humans. Death should be a conscious, serious choice when a person decides their time is full. And I firmly believe we will get there.

I once asked a friend "Would you want to be immortal?"

And he responded "Only if there was an out."

I totally agree.

I'm fairly confident a heaping spoonful of liquid anti-hydrogen (anti-matter hydrogen) will flash incinerate anything.

Vampires, werewolves, Highlanders, Anne Rice mummies, Anne Rice genies, concentrated anti-hydrogen will break the rules of any immortality mythology.

Not if you have a healing factor on par with Dr. Manhattan.

In the dream I know I’m going to die if I go to sleep. And this thought is followed by a giant wave of fatigue. Suddenly I’m incorporeal and moving toward a giant light.

PLEASE DELETE. REASON: ACIDDENTALLY LOGGED INTO M. BISON ACCOUNT

Dr. Manhattan, always forget Dr. Manhattan.
And Q.

Hey, speaking of....do you suppose "Bewitched", witches are part of the Q continuum?

"Hiya, John-Lukesy. It's your old pal, Uncle Arthur, dropping in to see you!"

Worm food.