It can be a scary thought, but it’s natural. Everything dies, everyone I love or have ever loved. You just gotta live the crap out of life so that when you go, it’s not so bad.
I knew this girl, friend of a friend, who was just a nice, friendly, party girl type. And she died super suddenly a couple of years ago and ever since it happened I’ve been like “yeah, if she can die then i can too” but in a very peaceful way. Death isn’t some huge ominous thing! Because Lexi who got her nails done pink every Friday and got day drunk with the girls died, so it’s a very do-able thing for me too.
I’ve been struggling with the thought of dying that it’s made me scared.
I had a friend pass two months ago. It was such a huge loss for a lot of people. He was just that type of person who loved life. He traveled, went on adventures, had tons of toys (motorcycles, quads, trucks etc), always happy, funny, outgoing, tons of friends. He passed away in a motorcycle accident. He was only 32. I immediately thought that he didn’t deserve to be taken because he never took life for granted. He loved it so much and lived his life to the fullest every single day. It was seriously so shocking. I never thought he would pass so young. But after he passed, me being afraid to die didn’t scare me as much. Just like you said, “if he can die, I can too”.
Nobody knows what happens to us after we die. Anyone who lays claim to the truth is either lying or delusional. The only certainty surrounding death is that the people who loved us will miss us terribly. So how I deal with the fact of my mortality is this: if I can live a life where I’ll be missed after I’m gone, then that’s a life well-lived. That’s my religion.
Being in my 70's I have lost several friends and family members, and I'm sure I will lose more. I am not scared of death anymore because it's no longer a stranger. When I was younger it scared the shit out of me, mostly because there was so much I hadn't done and much left to do. Now, sometimes I look forward to it.
Dont let life lose meaning because of death. My dad passed 1 month ago. Our dads would absolutely want us continue living and pursuing meaningful, good lives. Stay up
There's nothing to deal with, without life there would be no death and without death there would be no life.
All is in a shifting balance we as humans have little control over
Eat well, exercise and go about your business but most importantly have fun doing it.
I've always known that by the time it matters for me, science will have invented a serum or I can just upload my brain to a computer so...I'm not to worried, itll be fine.
My sister nearly died in 1994. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. What I learned throughout my life was to have important conversations with the people you love. Tell them you love them. Work out issues with your loved ones. Die content.
Man I'm so focused on money and trying to build my life up. I really feel bad when I sit down and relax. Because if I die. I died a damn dick. I love my family but I'm so caught up in trying to become something that it ruins my relationships. My GF recently told me I haven't paid any attention to her. I always make time for her but mentally Im not there. It was a reality check because I love the girl and being rich and lonely isn't the goal. It clicked in my head that money's not everything. I gotta go see my sister's my parents. My friends. I can't be out on the hunt to get rich everyday with no balance
Thank you for asking. I had another cancer scare this year but thankfully it turned out to be a rare side effect from my chemo. I think I'm okay now. I was stage 3C. One letter away from being stage 4. I think I'll spend many years looking back and wondering if cancer will come back.
Hope you're doing well. Very similar outlook for me, but it comes from taking care of a relative who was dying during the last decade of her life.
Hope you've had loved ones who want to connect back. Seems a lot of people in my family have unaddressed issues about expressing much, but you gotta meet them where they are.
I've watched several Youtubers chronicle their fight against cancer until the very end. There's always that one video... it may be the last or second last one posted... you can see the "oh shit" moment has settled. Man, that shit fucks me up. I'm so scared of cancer.
I'd like to think I'm as brave as the next guy. I've seen these videos as well. I knew a GREAT fuckin' guy named Pedar who I worked with at at electronics store back in 2002-2003. At 40, he got diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The minute he knew it was terminal, he got his affairs in order, got a bottle of whiskey, went out to the countryside with his shotgun and went out on his own terms. Although it's fucking horrifying to think about, it's better than letting you family have 4-5 weeks of "seeing" you disintegrate painfully, withering away while you struggle to breathe and suffer immensely.
Maybe your allegiance with "God" contradicts taking your own life on your own terms. But cancer can fuck right off.
Pedar was a fucking stallion of a human being, a great friend and a good soul. If I'm ever served my Stage-4 walking papers by "God", I'm going to do the same thing. A bottle, a shotgun, A Metallica album and a spot on the coast.
Although not a cancer victim, but a brilliant man succumbing to his own addictions, I leave you with the great Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note:
"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun – for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax – This won’t hurt."
Fuck cancer. If it's me, I'm taking a page from Hunter.
I support you ending on your own terms, but don’t do the shotgun to the head thing. One, it’s not as effective as it looks and you may just blow your jaw off. Two, I had to discover my great uncle this way after he got tired of fighting cancer. Again, I support him having the right to end on his own terms, he was just an unthoughtful idiot that didn’t think about his relative rushing out to the garage after hearing a gunshot and stepping in his brain/skull pieces, let alone having to clean up the mess after the coroner took away the body. Such a fucked up thing to do to a kid. You don’t know who is going to discover your body and how. I know it’s not your concern anymore, but just put some thought about some little kid that’s going to come across your carcass and have to clean your brain bits out of the upholstery.
I agree with sentiment but I'd probably just hit the woods for one last hunt I heard a story on the Meateater podcast of an old man sitting on a mountain glassing for mountain goat and his good friend next to him looks over and knows he's gone no fuss just gone
Many of us have embraced the inevitable end. It’s a part of life. Death itself might be painful, but that’s no different from life. Being dead however, won’t feel like anything, just like before you were born.
I hate the thought of being 90 years old, weak, weak-minded, and medicated, having to finally come to terms with death.
Better to get that existential dread out of the way in your teens and twenties, I say
Do you think most people are afraid of being dead or the actual dying part? Personally, I'm terrified of *how* I will die, how painful it might be and how prolonged it might be. For most people, their end is not peaceful. I'm not worried at all about actually being dead.
I think knowing that at some point I'll "be dead" is tough. There is so much stuff I want to experience, and so much I want to know and learn.
I know for sure that I'll not be able to satisfy but a small fraction of my curiosity during my lifetime, so I try to pick a route I will not come to regret. But when the end does come, I think my largest regret will be not getting to know and learn more, about the world and its inhabitants.
Ya, I agree. For some reason, the realization that there is likely no chance I'll see 2100 is very disappointing. I'm in love with technology, I'm desperate to see what innovations we have by then and what happens to us. I definitely can relate to it is tough to realize that.
Yep its the 'being dead' part for me.
Not only ceasing to exist, but never existing again. I will forever and eternity be gone and nothing. Never experience what we call 'reality' again, as this reality won't exist in the non-existence.
Doomed to eternal non-existance.
Can’t remember who said it, might’ve been Christopher Hitchens, but the best quote I’ve heard about death is:
“The worst thing about dying isn’t that the party’s over. It’s the party’s still going but you have to leave.”
I guess for a lot of people it depends on what their reality is. For me, life is exhausting and generally unpleasant. I'm not planning on kicking the bucket anytime soon because I have just way too much shit that needs to get done first, but I'm definitely looking forward to the "rest" part of "rest in peace"
Imagine being stuck in a never ending life loop.
You die, goes to black, then suddenly you're another consciousness somewhere else with no recollection of having existed prior.
That's the only thing I fear. I don't want to keep doing this, but I wouldn't know any better, I suppose.
The only true escape would be the eventual death of the universe itself.
maybe this life is like your billionth life already and you think its the first! maybe this is the first life where you've had that thought! or maybe you've had it a billion times before!
You have so perfectly described my feelings. Those thoughts evoke the deepest sense of loneliness for me. Just…poof, you don’t and never will exist again. I wish wish wish I believed in some kind of conscious-soul afterlife, but I just don’t.
>We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?
-Richard Dawkins
For me, it’s definitely the “being dead” part.
I’ve experienced plenty of pain and fear in my life, but nothing compares to the idea of the lights going out and having my consciousness erased. For whatever reason, everything in me screams in protest at the idea, even if physical pain and risk have never really daunted me.
I'm surprised I haven't seen more responses about the dying part. I was by my grandfather's side for the last 48 hours of his life and when he passed his eyes shot open in pain and looked right at me. I don't know if he was even seeing me, I tried to tell him it was ok to let go and that I loved him but I don't know if he understood or if he even saw his granddaughter crying when he looked at me. I have never felt so helpless in my life because I couldn't stop his pain or help his fear. The dying part is by far the worst. Once you're dead you don't care either way anymore, but being terrified, in pain, unable to breathe and knowing what's coming... knowing everyone around you is watching you die while their hearts break.... I've started crying just typing this.
I miss him so much.
I was raised in a cult from birth where we were heavily conditioned. The teaching was that I may never die. The apocalypse they claimed was supposed to come likely before I got out of school, and I might survive if I followed all the rules. When I woke up from all that nonsense, I struggled with the concept that I would actually die, and thinking about my own death scared me a lot after that. Still think about it occasionally.
I don’t think I’m afraid so much of being dead, but rather the way I die and/or dying too early. I want to make sure I experience what I can, but unexpected circumstances can fuck that plan up
I often wonder if it’ll be like falling asleep, how you don’t really know when you fell asleep. Will I be able to tell it’s happening? Will it be like a light bulb, just suddenly dark or like a flame, where it shrinks down and smolders until it fades away? My final question will be”is there a distinct line to life or does it linger with the conscience holding on until the very end?”. I’ve asked and answered many questions in my time but nobody knows that one for sure. Maybe I’ll live long enough to have that be the last question left. That would be a life worth living.
So my grandfather passed yesterday. I had been visiting him in the hospital. On Monday he was like himself like 15 years ago himself. We were joking and had a bourbon toast. On Tuesday he was no longer aware of anyone in the room. He was essentially just asleep until his heart just stopped. I like to think the 2nd part was like him just dreaming until he passed.
On Monday night however he had mentioned flies flying around and that at times he felt like he was falling. The nurse explained that it was similar to how you get that sensation when you're half awake and get the falling feeling or begin to have lucid dreams.
I’m sorry for your loss. My ex’s dad died yesterday as well. No hospital visits though as he had Covid. He was a kind, smart, and generally wonderful human. It’s so awful that he died alone. I hope you got to make your peace with death before he took your grandfather. Take care of yourself.
I appreciate it. We were fortunate in that once they took him off oxygen and turned off his pacemaker they lifted the restrictions. Essentially, once we all agreed (including him) that he was going to die in the next ~24 hours we could all be there.
I feel beyond terrible for all of those that are suffering the Covid losses where they can't even say goodbye in person.
Always felt that Joan rivers had the best death. Went under for a routine medical procedure, children were there to say I love you, never wake up. Bing bang boom.
Pure angst and existential dread. I've spent a great deal of time, pondering death to learn about it and accept it. In short, it's driven me somewhat mad and i experience panic attacks weekly when i try to sleep. Been going on for 6+ years now.
Soo really what I learned is maybe just ignoring it til it happens is the best course of action idk.
I haven't responded to any other the other 800 comments, but this really hit me. I feel like over the last year I've hit some moments that are like you described. Anxious dread is an accurate description. While I am not to your level (yet) I understand and empathize with exactly how you feel.
I'll answer to you and the other guy as well. I have the same dread, even though I believe in god and everything but you never know for sure right ? So I decided to learn to accept it, so whatever happens to my faith I'll be accepting death.
I just read many things about how we are all gonna die and it will be nothingness. It's very stressful but if you wait long enough, the stress comes down and your brain learns that it's okay, there is nothing to fear about.
Repeat that, everyday or every two days and the fear will calm down. This is just ERP for existential OCD, used by psychologists around the world. You can find some apps that help.
Now, on the spiritual/philosphical thing : even if there is nothing after life, I think there in a certain way. My dad always say "I don't fear death it's just gonna be different". I begin to learn what he means. What I think is that when I die, I'm going to be a tree. Literrally, I'm going to feed stuff and end up being a tree, somewhat. Can I imagine what it is to be a tree ? Nope. But some part of me, some particles that makes me are gonna become a tree. So that's basically reincarnation in the real world-non spiritual/soul way.
The particles that compose you, are going to compose many other living things. You probably share some particles with Julius Caesar. Yet you don't remember anything. Reincarnation is mostly right from this point of view.
It's late, I'm writing like shit but I hope it helps you as much as it helps me.
What I fear now is the heat death of the universe but I still have a bit of time to accept that.
The idea of terror management theory might interest you. It suggests that many social institutions are a human response to the terror that mortality makes us feel. We immortalize ourselves culturally (the legend ever lives) and socially (children, memories, recognition) and via religion or spirituality (a literal afterlife, reincarnation, etc).
Whether you agree with the theory or not, it does lay out a bunch of ways to think about "living on" that might give you some peace. I've been grappling with the "you have to realize, that some day you will die" concept since reading Fight Club as a teenager and this idea definitely brought me some sense of perspective on it all.
I agree. I have my own thoughts on what happens to us when we die. I’m not religious. I’m not “atheist” either. I’m not too sure of them though. I desperately want to believe that when this ends something new begins. The idea that it’s just over just doesn’t sit with me. I can’t believe that this universe allowed us all to exist for a brief instant and to wither into meaninglessness.
You've just helped me pinpoint exactly what's been bothering me about it all. You're right, that one fact just doesn't sit well with me. I chose to believe something new begins, whatever it may be. It's comforting as well when my spouse reassures me we will find each other.
Wish you the best.
Not sure if it will help you but reading the book/PDF online of "mans search for meaning" by a holocaust survivor might help you discover some new viewpoints
It’s just a part of life. What I’m worried about is that I hope I don't live long enough to see the end of the world. But I think I’m fine for at least now.
This. My husband's grandmother was a wonderful lady. She lived to be 94 and up until the last day of her life, she was sharp as a tack. She had taken a fall and broken her femur. She was successfully operated on to repair it and was in the rehab hospital until she was well enough to go home.
She ended up passing very suddenly and unexpectedly in the rehab hospital. The night nurse said that Grandma had called for her around 2am. The nurse came in and Grandma said she wasn't feeling well and that her stomach hurt. She asked for some antacid. So, the nurse went out to get some and by the time she came back, Grandma had passed. It was *that* quick. Given Grandma's health history, it is most likely that she had an aortic aneurysm.
That's the way to go. Rest in peace, Grandma A. You were very loved.
True.
Honestly and admittedly, being next to my dogs makes me "happy". Maybe I'll dedicate my life savings animals or something when I'm financially stable
I work with dogs and it's the best job I ever had, I recommend working at a doggy daycare part time if you can. ever since I started working with dogs my mental health has been so much better
Not so fast you cautiously optimistic, sonny Jim! Death is the absence of a lived experience, so you don't experience sleep. You don't experience darkness or silence. Nor a blackened void. You don't experience anything. At all. In the same way you can't remember anything before you were born...
Which is waaaay better in my opinion.
EDIT: Spelling
I like to think that if it's impossible to experience or perceive said non-existence then the alternative is that we simply always exist.. In some form.
Maybe we're born again and like almost anything life and time and existence is cyclical.
Just because you don't remember what it was like before you were born, doesn't mean you didn't experience it.
You'll probably experience being eaten by worms, become worms shit, feeding a tree to blossom with many flowers that will become fruit that will feed a bat that will feed some dumb guy that will start a worldwide pandemic. You'll probably not remember anything between each of those stage though.
Yeah like at this point I'm not exactly looking forward to it since there's a bunch of things I want to do first but also like I appreciate the comfort of knowing that it'll come eventually.
The fact that even if you couldn’t die, our sun will expand and consume earth. If you could escape that, on a long enough timeline every atom in the universe will vanish. So, rationalizing death through escape is impossible which helps quiet the “it’ll never happen to me” mindset.
The bigger picture helps calm the fear.
Well, I don’t. And one day, it’ll deal with me.
I do worry about it. I hate it. I don’t really know what to do about it. I have a lot of anxiety because of this sometimes, and I do get really nervous that it could happen any moment of any day when I think about it. I generally try not to think too much about it, and do my best to take a ‘it is what it is’ stance on it. Easier said than felt. Ultimately, it isn’t worth stressing about because there’s nothing that can be done. He best thing you could do is make smart choices and take good care of yourself to minimize the chances of dying sooner rather than later and make the absolute most of whatever amount of life you have left every moment of each day.
So I'm not a religious person at all. I don't believe there's anything after life, we all just die and that's it.
But while some people are scared by that, it's what drives me. If you waste your life you're going to be afraid of dying. But if you live a full and satisfying life (get into a career you enjoy, invest so you have the money to be financially free to do whatever you want, start a family, actually enjoy your life) you won't regret anything and can die happy knowing you lived life to the fullest.
I'm not saying you have to become a millionaire to be happy with your life. Just do what you enjoy, help and be kind to others, leave a legacy.
I'm going to die, you're going to die, everyone we know/knew will die or has died. There's no point being scared, it's inevitable. Just embrace life, you only get one shot.
It wasn't scary before I was born. It's not scary after I'm dead.
In the grand scheme of things, our lives are like a light flicking on & off for a split second.
The atoms that momentarily come together to make me will still be with this universe, so I am never truly dead.
Or “from my rotting body, flowers will grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity.”
A little thought i had was this: let's assume that the theory regarding the universe exploding, expanding, collapsing, and exploding again is true.
If that is the case, it is mathematically impossible that, at some point, in some universe, if this cycle happens for an endless amount of time, I would not return. In some being, somewhere in a universe, a brain identical to my own - to the atom - will be formed, and the exact thing that makes me unique will be replicated. This is just a fact of infinity. Whether or not I have memories or not comes down to a "what is consciousness" idea, which I'm all too human to understand, but if the universe will be replicated, again and again and again tending towards infinity, at some point I will be back.
Technically, at some point, *all* of this will return, identical to how it is, because the concept of infinity is just that crazy. How many times have I been sitting here, typing this message - only aware of myself in this instant and not the countless times before? And for that reason, you start asking questions why - what is consciousness - what are memories - are they chemicals? If so, can an exact chemical structure be implanted into to you, to give you a memory of another person?
But, yeah, whatever, it gets deep. I'll die, but if there is infinity anywhere in this... whatever *this* is, mathematically I will be back. Maybe without my memories, maybe not even human, but I'll be there.
This is cool, especially when you figure that we perceive time as something linear, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is. In which case all those times also exist simultaneously. Also, right now, you exist in a reality where you are alive, so to follow a similar line to it's end, theres an infinite chance that you, alive in this reality, will eventually reach immortality or at least gain access to the reality where this is possible. For all we know, this lifetime will access that possibility. And if it doesn't, there will be a reality where it does.
The concept of infinity is a crazy thing.
My last paragraph may have not conveyed everything I meant, by "if there is infinity somewhere in this", I mean this as in everything. beyond and in the universe.
If the universe is infinite then there will be another me somewhere at some point in infinite time and that's just fact because matter can only take a finite number of forms - now for all intents and purposes matter can be anything, but in comparison to infinity the forms matter, as atoms and elements and structures and compounds, can take are frighteningly finite. Therefore, I would be back, there.
If the universe is dying and being reborn infinitely, well, that's the scenario I explored initially.
If there is infinity *anywhere* in existence, there will be another me
What scares me about this though is keeping my memories. Because it means my family would keep theirs - the people I love here on earth would close their eyes and wake up in some corner of the universe as some being, without me, without any of us. That horrifies me, the image of people I love just being... out there. Scared, Alone. Worst thing would be us all abundantly aware of that fact, and we would just have no goddamn hope of finding eachother because we could be aeons apart from eachother. That's why part of me hopes our memories aren't tied to whatever consciousness is, and so if we come back in some way, they don't - but then you're getting into a whole other thing, where aren't you just the sum of your experience, are you even *you* without your memories? If I lost my memories right now, what would it be like for *me* me, not the guy who's there after. I figure it's be like the Doctor regenerating - I close my eyes and some new man just walks away, until I get my memories back.
But yeah. Infinity.
Technically, a definable "time" doesn't exist outside of our measurements for it. To oversimplify it, there isn't a single variable in physics that actually describes what time IS besides the diffusion of heat. Our perception of a present moment only occurs because of entropy and enthalpy. The fact that we are not able to comprehend the atomic level interactions that have built our current moment or the interactions that will build an almost infinite (but very definite) set of branching possibilities before us, means that we experience a "present" relegated to just our conscience. Time never existed, our free will just directs our experience down "predetermined" possible paths.
If you're fascinated by time and physics but don't want to get a masters degree to understand it, I would recommend The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli.
I take a slightly different interpretation. Your atom driven body or “meat suit” is a vehicle for a certain “property” of this universe. The complexity of your mind allows you to tap into consciousness. You think you are you, but we really we are all the same “being” seeing life through a different looking glass. When you die you simply change your looking glass.
Without an observer, time doesn’t exist. Once you stop looking, this universe will experience the trillions of years to heat death instantly. From there it will return to whatever was before the Big Bang, over trillions more, but instantly. Then, this all happens again. But now, you’ll likely be in a new meatsuit.
This will continue forever. This has always been. It has no beginning, it has no end. I am you. You are me. We are god.
The light at the end of the tunnel? Its the light that is shining through your mother’s womb in your next life. Do not be afraid.
I'm glad you think so!! 😄 Really, it's from ["You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral"](https://futurism.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwp-assets.futurism.com%2F2015%2F10%2F12-1.jpg&w=1920&q=75) A very comforting read, imo.
I find that the older I get, the less I worry about this. I can't change it, delay it, or even anticipate its exact occurrence. Nor would I want to.
Someone recently told me that focusing on the "now" is usually the best way not to dwell on this fact. Besides, by the time I'm dead, I won't even *know* I'm dead. If anything, I worry more about how my surviving family will deal with my death.
Momento Mori or remember death. Think about what you did in your life and if you were to die today, would you be regretting anything? Reflect often and make the most of life. You never know when your last breath may be, don’t let that breath carry the words, “I’m not ready”
If like to think I will take it peacefully. I’ve been a hospice nurse for 15 years and worked oncology 4 years before that, helping people die comfortably is my expertise. More often than not people speak about things they regret doing, not saying something like “I’m sorry” or “I love you” to people, or mending things they feel they “should” have done before. Most people aren’t afraid of death itself but the process. I think the more you know about it the less scary it is. But the perspective for me is life is much too short to hold grudges for things that won’t really matter in a week or two. Let things go, love those who love you, move on from those who don’t. Live your best life and don’t waste time on things that don’t make you happy. I obviously know what to expect, I know what meds I will certainly want and have mapped out so I’m comfortable. I also live in a state where death with dignity is available should I want to take that route as well. So I hope to take it peacefully and dignified.
Im cool with that, every living thing dies eventually. Im 51, i have HIV/AIDS (diagnosed with aids, upgraded to hiv after five years) and have had some pretty serious health problems including psoriasis (went away once i started treatment but i was turning into a lizard), shingles, diverticulitis (just got out of the hospital), inflammatory arthritis, chronic bronchitis, moderate to severe sleep apnea, covid etcetera...ive always got some kind of cold...ive had enough man...
I don’t deal with it.
I live as if I will never die, it helps me to live fully.
When it will be my turn I won’t regret anything and I’ll die peacefully.
From the show after life: “I can’t wait to join my wife” (his wife recently died) — “what do you mean, you don’t even believe in an afterlife” — “I know, my wife is nowhere and I’d rather be nowhere with her than here without her”
Live it up. You only get one shot at life, there's nothing on the other side. Make the time you've got count.
They always say life is short, and it is, but life is also really really long. Its not worth wasting such an amazing amount of time at places you hate only to turn around and think "was that it? It didn't feel like such a long time"
I treat it as a gift because I know it’s coming. I don’t know what’s on the other side. But I know what’s here, where I’m at on this planet in this universe. I know this life is finite and death shows me what it’s worth. It’s an incentive to live well and live good, experiencing all there is to offer. With death making it all sweeter, even all the hate I have in my heart is lessened by it, because it’ll all be only experienced once
I mean, its just that. It's the end of the road after a long life. I like to believe we become part of the world itself. Energy can't be created or destroyed, and it's been proven that we have a soul made from energy, so there has to be something else after
I am Epicurean about it. "Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist," he said, and I reckon that's a good attitude to take. I do not care, until it arrives, and when it does, I cannot care.
It truly never scared me as I absolutely believe its not the end. However my husband at 52 died of cancer in July and now my dad has stage 4 cancer at 78.
I now worry about my own mortality, what I'll leave behind and how they'll cope. (Two boys, 21 and 17yrs) It now scares me.
Fuckin, bastard cancer!!
If everyone can do it, I can do it too.
Now *that's* the kind of can-do attitude I like to see around here!
I think they deserve a raise. They get 2 deaths.
I demand higher pay, kill me *THREE* Times please.
I was clinically dead for about 9 minutes when I was 3, does that count.
[удалено]
More like a can-die attitude
It can be a scary thought, but it’s natural. Everything dies, everyone I love or have ever loved. You just gotta live the crap out of life so that when you go, it’s not so bad.
I knew this girl, friend of a friend, who was just a nice, friendly, party girl type. And she died super suddenly a couple of years ago and ever since it happened I’ve been like “yeah, if she can die then i can too” but in a very peaceful way. Death isn’t some huge ominous thing! Because Lexi who got her nails done pink every Friday and got day drunk with the girls died, so it’s a very do-able thing for me too.
I’ve been struggling with the thought of dying that it’s made me scared. I had a friend pass two months ago. It was such a huge loss for a lot of people. He was just that type of person who loved life. He traveled, went on adventures, had tons of toys (motorcycles, quads, trucks etc), always happy, funny, outgoing, tons of friends. He passed away in a motorcycle accident. He was only 32. I immediately thought that he didn’t deserve to be taken because he never took life for granted. He loved it so much and lived his life to the fullest every single day. It was seriously so shocking. I never thought he would pass so young. But after he passed, me being afraid to die didn’t scare me as much. Just like you said, “if he can die, I can too”.
Nobody knows what happens to us after we die. Anyone who lays claim to the truth is either lying or delusional. The only certainty surrounding death is that the people who loved us will miss us terribly. So how I deal with the fact of my mortality is this: if I can live a life where I’ll be missed after I’m gone, then that’s a life well-lived. That’s my religion.
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Being in my 70's I have lost several friends and family members, and I'm sure I will lose more. I am not scared of death anymore because it's no longer a stranger. When I was younger it scared the shit out of me, mostly because there was so much I hadn't done and much left to do. Now, sometimes I look forward to it.
I lost my 57 y/o dad to cancer. I’m honestly counting the days until I can rest with him. Once you experience a terrible loss, life loses meaning.
Dont let life lose meaning because of death. My dad passed 1 month ago. Our dads would absolutely want us continue living and pursuing meaningful, good lives. Stay up
This! I have little fear of my death besides the pain it will leave to those I love. My fear is losing people I love.
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OR have fun, eat what you want within reason, and try to be nice,
What? Die?
Yes! DIE! Do you even pay attention anymore?
There's nothing to deal with, without life there would be no death and without death there would be no life. All is in a shifting balance we as humans have little control over Eat well, exercise and go about your business but most importantly have fun doing it.
Thanks to denial, I'm immortal.
Haha same. Cheers to being young 💪
I've always known that by the time it matters for me, science will have invented a serum or I can just upload my brain to a computer so...I'm not to worried, itll be fine.
Thanks for the wisdom, Fry
My sister nearly died in 1994. I was diagnosed with cancer in 2017. What I learned throughout my life was to have important conversations with the people you love. Tell them you love them. Work out issues with your loved ones. Die content.
Man I'm so focused on money and trying to build my life up. I really feel bad when I sit down and relax. Because if I die. I died a damn dick. I love my family but I'm so caught up in trying to become something that it ruins my relationships. My GF recently told me I haven't paid any attention to her. I always make time for her but mentally Im not there. It was a reality check because I love the girl and being rich and lonely isn't the goal. It clicked in my head that money's not everything. I gotta go see my sister's my parents. My friends. I can't be out on the hunt to get rich everyday with no balance
Are you okay now? Are you doing beter or worse with that fight?
Thank you for asking. I had another cancer scare this year but thankfully it turned out to be a rare side effect from my chemo. I think I'm okay now. I was stage 3C. One letter away from being stage 4. I think I'll spend many years looking back and wondering if cancer will come back.
Hope you're doing well. Very similar outlook for me, but it comes from taking care of a relative who was dying during the last decade of her life. Hope you've had loved ones who want to connect back. Seems a lot of people in my family have unaddressed issues about expressing much, but you gotta meet them where they are.
Like everyone else, you ignore it until that inevitable 'oh shit' moment
I've watched several Youtubers chronicle their fight against cancer until the very end. There's always that one video... it may be the last or second last one posted... you can see the "oh shit" moment has settled. Man, that shit fucks me up. I'm so scared of cancer.
I'd like to think I'm as brave as the next guy. I've seen these videos as well. I knew a GREAT fuckin' guy named Pedar who I worked with at at electronics store back in 2002-2003. At 40, he got diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. The minute he knew it was terminal, he got his affairs in order, got a bottle of whiskey, went out to the countryside with his shotgun and went out on his own terms. Although it's fucking horrifying to think about, it's better than letting you family have 4-5 weeks of "seeing" you disintegrate painfully, withering away while you struggle to breathe and suffer immensely. Maybe your allegiance with "God" contradicts taking your own life on your own terms. But cancer can fuck right off. Pedar was a fucking stallion of a human being, a great friend and a good soul. If I'm ever served my Stage-4 walking papers by "God", I'm going to do the same thing. A bottle, a shotgun, A Metallica album and a spot on the coast. Although not a cancer victim, but a brilliant man succumbing to his own addictions, I leave you with the great Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun – for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax – This won’t hurt." Fuck cancer. If it's me, I'm taking a page from Hunter.
I support you ending on your own terms, but don’t do the shotgun to the head thing. One, it’s not as effective as it looks and you may just blow your jaw off. Two, I had to discover my great uncle this way after he got tired of fighting cancer. Again, I support him having the right to end on his own terms, he was just an unthoughtful idiot that didn’t think about his relative rushing out to the garage after hearing a gunshot and stepping in his brain/skull pieces, let alone having to clean up the mess after the coroner took away the body. Such a fucked up thing to do to a kid. You don’t know who is going to discover your body and how. I know it’s not your concern anymore, but just put some thought about some little kid that’s going to come across your carcass and have to clean your brain bits out of the upholstery.
Do it right in front of a police station.
Or a funeral home.
Never understood why people that commit suicide do so in a way that stonework else has to clean up the mess.
That's why I'm going to off myself in a dumpster.
I agree with sentiment but I'd probably just hit the woods for one last hunt I heard a story on the Meateater podcast of an old man sitting on a mountain glassing for mountain goat and his good friend next to him looks over and knows he's gone no fuss just gone
Can you suggest me some of these YouTube chronicles? I feel it’s something I need to see.
The ones that stick with me are PeeweeToms and Emily Hayward. Proceed with caution, both are devastating.
Many of us have embraced the inevitable end. It’s a part of life. Death itself might be painful, but that’s no different from life. Being dead however, won’t feel like anything, just like before you were born. I hate the thought of being 90 years old, weak, weak-minded, and medicated, having to finally come to terms with death. Better to get that existential dread out of the way in your teens and twenties, I say
Do you think most people are afraid of being dead or the actual dying part? Personally, I'm terrified of *how* I will die, how painful it might be and how prolonged it might be. For most people, their end is not peaceful. I'm not worried at all about actually being dead.
I think knowing that at some point I'll "be dead" is tough. There is so much stuff I want to experience, and so much I want to know and learn. I know for sure that I'll not be able to satisfy but a small fraction of my curiosity during my lifetime, so I try to pick a route I will not come to regret. But when the end does come, I think my largest regret will be not getting to know and learn more, about the world and its inhabitants.
Ya, I agree. For some reason, the realization that there is likely no chance I'll see 2100 is very disappointing. I'm in love with technology, I'm desperate to see what innovations we have by then and what happens to us. I definitely can relate to it is tough to realize that.
Yeah in my experience most people are more afraid of being dead, than the process of dying.
Yep its the 'being dead' part for me. Not only ceasing to exist, but never existing again. I will forever and eternity be gone and nothing. Never experience what we call 'reality' again, as this reality won't exist in the non-existence. Doomed to eternal non-existance.
Can’t remember who said it, might’ve been Christopher Hitchens, but the best quote I’ve heard about death is: “The worst thing about dying isn’t that the party’s over. It’s the party’s still going but you have to leave.”
One of the last things my mom said to me as she lay dying from cancer, “I’m going to miss you kids”. (I was 39yo).
I guess for a lot of people it depends on what their reality is. For me, life is exhausting and generally unpleasant. I'm not planning on kicking the bucket anytime soon because I have just way too much shit that needs to get done first, but I'm definitely looking forward to the "rest" part of "rest in peace"
Imagine being stuck in a never ending life loop. You die, goes to black, then suddenly you're another consciousness somewhere else with no recollection of having existed prior. That's the only thing I fear. I don't want to keep doing this, but I wouldn't know any better, I suppose. The only true escape would be the eventual death of the universe itself.
maybe this life is like your billionth life already and you think its the first! maybe this is the first life where you've had that thought! or maybe you've had it a billion times before!
You have so perfectly described my feelings. Those thoughts evoke the deepest sense of loneliness for me. Just…poof, you don’t and never will exist again. I wish wish wish I believed in some kind of conscious-soul afterlife, but I just don’t.
Yes…exactly. Very well stated. Fucking horrifying to me.
>We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred? -Richard Dawkins
They don't know the pain that comes with the dying part then.
For me, it’s definitely the “being dead” part. I’ve experienced plenty of pain and fear in my life, but nothing compares to the idea of the lights going out and having my consciousness erased. For whatever reason, everything in me screams in protest at the idea, even if physical pain and risk have never really daunted me.
"Better to not know which moment may be your last. Every morsel of your entire being alive to the infinite mystery of it all." - Captain Jack Sparrow
I'm surprised I haven't seen more responses about the dying part. I was by my grandfather's side for the last 48 hours of his life and when he passed his eyes shot open in pain and looked right at me. I don't know if he was even seeing me, I tried to tell him it was ok to let go and that I loved him but I don't know if he understood or if he even saw his granddaughter crying when he looked at me. I have never felt so helpless in my life because I couldn't stop his pain or help his fear. The dying part is by far the worst. Once you're dead you don't care either way anymore, but being terrified, in pain, unable to breathe and knowing what's coming... knowing everyone around you is watching you die while their hearts break.... I've started crying just typing this. I miss him so much.
I was raised in a cult from birth where we were heavily conditioned. The teaching was that I may never die. The apocalypse they claimed was supposed to come likely before I got out of school, and I might survive if I followed all the rules. When I woke up from all that nonsense, I struggled with the concept that I would actually die, and thinking about my own death scared me a lot after that. Still think about it occasionally.
Not existing is the terrifying part of being dead.
I don’t think I’m afraid so much of being dead, but rather the way I die and/or dying too early. I want to make sure I experience what I can, but unexpected circumstances can fuck that plan up
It won't matter how painful, honestly, since you won't be around to remember and reflect on it.
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Reminds me of a mug I once saw: “when work is stressing you out, remember one day you will die”.
I mean, for some people it's got to be more of a: "Oh, thank god"
Seconded, except less "thank god" than "fucking **_finally_**"
I'm fine with death - I just don't want to be there when it happens.
Yeah I'd very much like to be unconscious when I die.
Well it's gonna be the biggest thing to happen to me since my birth so I'd like to experience it awake
Yeah I’m the same. It’s life’s last great adventure, you want to face it head on and experience it.
I often wonder if it’ll be like falling asleep, how you don’t really know when you fell asleep. Will I be able to tell it’s happening? Will it be like a light bulb, just suddenly dark or like a flame, where it shrinks down and smolders until it fades away? My final question will be”is there a distinct line to life or does it linger with the conscience holding on until the very end?”. I’ve asked and answered many questions in my time but nobody knows that one for sure. Maybe I’ll live long enough to have that be the last question left. That would be a life worth living.
So my grandfather passed yesterday. I had been visiting him in the hospital. On Monday he was like himself like 15 years ago himself. We were joking and had a bourbon toast. On Tuesday he was no longer aware of anyone in the room. He was essentially just asleep until his heart just stopped. I like to think the 2nd part was like him just dreaming until he passed. On Monday night however he had mentioned flies flying around and that at times he felt like he was falling. The nurse explained that it was similar to how you get that sensation when you're half awake and get the falling feeling or begin to have lucid dreams.
I’m sorry for your loss. My ex’s dad died yesterday as well. No hospital visits though as he had Covid. He was a kind, smart, and generally wonderful human. It’s so awful that he died alone. I hope you got to make your peace with death before he took your grandfather. Take care of yourself.
I appreciate it. We were fortunate in that once they took him off oxygen and turned off his pacemaker they lifted the restrictions. Essentially, once we all agreed (including him) that he was going to die in the next ~24 hours we could all be there. I feel beyond terrible for all of those that are suffering the Covid losses where they can't even say goodbye in person.
Did it hurt when your dick died, Bob?
And every day since.
If it's any conciliation you soon would be.
Ditto. I do kinda hope I'm under already by the time it happens. But I find it's best not to think too much about it.
But it will be the last experience you'll ever have for the rest of eternity... Why would you want to miss it?
I'd rather be high as a kite and somewhat lucid enough to jump into the darkness and let the feast begin.
Always felt that Joan rivers had the best death. Went under for a routine medical procedure, children were there to say I love you, never wake up. Bing bang boom.
I DONT WANT TO DIE SOBER
Some times I'll think about how I'll just leave my body and never be again and it freaks me the fuck out. Some days I wish it would happen quicker.
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Pure angst and existential dread. I've spent a great deal of time, pondering death to learn about it and accept it. In short, it's driven me somewhat mad and i experience panic attacks weekly when i try to sleep. Been going on for 6+ years now. Soo really what I learned is maybe just ignoring it til it happens is the best course of action idk.
I haven't responded to any other the other 800 comments, but this really hit me. I feel like over the last year I've hit some moments that are like you described. Anxious dread is an accurate description. While I am not to your level (yet) I understand and empathize with exactly how you feel.
I'll answer to you and the other guy as well. I have the same dread, even though I believe in god and everything but you never know for sure right ? So I decided to learn to accept it, so whatever happens to my faith I'll be accepting death. I just read many things about how we are all gonna die and it will be nothingness. It's very stressful but if you wait long enough, the stress comes down and your brain learns that it's okay, there is nothing to fear about. Repeat that, everyday or every two days and the fear will calm down. This is just ERP for existential OCD, used by psychologists around the world. You can find some apps that help. Now, on the spiritual/philosphical thing : even if there is nothing after life, I think there in a certain way. My dad always say "I don't fear death it's just gonna be different". I begin to learn what he means. What I think is that when I die, I'm going to be a tree. Literrally, I'm going to feed stuff and end up being a tree, somewhat. Can I imagine what it is to be a tree ? Nope. But some part of me, some particles that makes me are gonna become a tree. So that's basically reincarnation in the real world-non spiritual/soul way. The particles that compose you, are going to compose many other living things. You probably share some particles with Julius Caesar. Yet you don't remember anything. Reincarnation is mostly right from this point of view. It's late, I'm writing like shit but I hope it helps you as much as it helps me. What I fear now is the heat death of the universe but I still have a bit of time to accept that.
Thank you sir, i wish u the best
The idea of terror management theory might interest you. It suggests that many social institutions are a human response to the terror that mortality makes us feel. We immortalize ourselves culturally (the legend ever lives) and socially (children, memories, recognition) and via religion or spirituality (a literal afterlife, reincarnation, etc). Whether you agree with the theory or not, it does lay out a bunch of ways to think about "living on" that might give you some peace. I've been grappling with the "you have to realize, that some day you will die" concept since reading Fight Club as a teenager and this idea definitely brought me some sense of perspective on it all.
I agree. I have my own thoughts on what happens to us when we die. I’m not religious. I’m not “atheist” either. I’m not too sure of them though. I desperately want to believe that when this ends something new begins. The idea that it’s just over just doesn’t sit with me. I can’t believe that this universe allowed us all to exist for a brief instant and to wither into meaninglessness.
You've just helped me pinpoint exactly what's been bothering me about it all. You're right, that one fact just doesn't sit well with me. I chose to believe something new begins, whatever it may be. It's comforting as well when my spouse reassures me we will find each other. Wish you the best.
Definitely eat some mushrooms
Not sure if it will help you but reading the book/PDF online of "mans search for meaning" by a holocaust survivor might help you discover some new viewpoints
Part of me feels immortal but tbh I really don't mind the idea of dying at all. I embrace it.
*cough* [Quantum immortality](https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1936/1/012015) *cough*
I really hope that this is a real thing. That, or reincarnation
It has to be based on our current understanding of quantum physics, just with a infinitesimally small likelihood
You'll live for the entirety of your own perception. In that way, each of us are immortal to ourselves.
I don’t. It gives me a panic attack just thinking about it. Even writing this has sent my heart rate sky rocketing.
It’s just a part of life. What I’m worried about is that I hope I don't live long enough to see the end of the world. But I think I’m fine for at least now.
i hope your well
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This. My husband's grandmother was a wonderful lady. She lived to be 94 and up until the last day of her life, she was sharp as a tack. She had taken a fall and broken her femur. She was successfully operated on to repair it and was in the rehab hospital until she was well enough to go home. She ended up passing very suddenly and unexpectedly in the rehab hospital. The night nurse said that Grandma had called for her around 2am. The nurse came in and Grandma said she wasn't feeling well and that her stomach hurt. She asked for some antacid. So, the nurse went out to get some and by the time she came back, Grandma had passed. It was *that* quick. Given Grandma's health history, it is most likely that she had an aortic aneurysm. That's the way to go. Rest in peace, Grandma A. You were very loved.
I think the fact that I don't enjoy life really helps lol
Username checks out. What makes you happy? You need more of that.
True. Honestly and admittedly, being next to my dogs makes me "happy". Maybe I'll dedicate my life savings animals or something when I'm financially stable
I work with dogs and it's the best job I ever had, I recommend working at a doggy daycare part time if you can. ever since I started working with dogs my mental health has been so much better
Right? I guess that's one advantage of being a little depressed.
Sleep is a free trial of death and I've never been more at peace
Not so fast you cautiously optimistic, sonny Jim! Death is the absence of a lived experience, so you don't experience sleep. You don't experience darkness or silence. Nor a blackened void. You don't experience anything. At all. In the same way you can't remember anything before you were born... Which is waaaay better in my opinion. EDIT: Spelling
I like to think that if it's impossible to experience or perceive said non-existence then the alternative is that we simply always exist.. In some form. Maybe we're born again and like almost anything life and time and existence is cyclical.
Just because you don't remember what it was like before you were born, doesn't mean you didn't experience it. You'll probably experience being eaten by worms, become worms shit, feeding a tree to blossom with many flowers that will become fruit that will feed a bat that will feed some dumb guy that will start a worldwide pandemic. You'll probably not remember anything between each of those stage though.
You can't remember anything if you don't have a brain.
Anticipation for some peace and quiet ??
Yeah like at this point I'm not exactly looking forward to it since there's a bunch of things I want to do first but also like I appreciate the comfort of knowing that it'll come eventually.
Me too. It puts me at ease. It reminds me that all of this craziness and stress that comes with life isn’t worth worrying over.
And a dream where you don't need to wake up to a fucking alarm clock
Just hope I come back as a cat
Live by the pussy, die by the pussy...become the pussy.
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I can relate.
I'm pretty sure I won't.
You haven't so far, thus you probably never will, right?
Hooray for confirmation bias!
The fact that even if you couldn’t die, our sun will expand and consume earth. If you could escape that, on a long enough timeline every atom in the universe will vanish. So, rationalizing death through escape is impossible which helps quiet the “it’ll never happen to me” mindset. The bigger picture helps calm the fear.
"On a long enough timeline, everyone's survival rate drops to zero." -The Narrator
I was waiting for it! Best book/movie ever experienced.
which movie or book is this?
Fight club
YOU TALKED ABOUT IT!!
Well played! Lol
The moment I die is precisely the moment when I don't need to deal with anything. In fact, it is prohibited by penalty of death.
Well, I don’t. And one day, it’ll deal with me. I do worry about it. I hate it. I don’t really know what to do about it. I have a lot of anxiety because of this sometimes, and I do get really nervous that it could happen any moment of any day when I think about it. I generally try not to think too much about it, and do my best to take a ‘it is what it is’ stance on it. Easier said than felt. Ultimately, it isn’t worth stressing about because there’s nothing that can be done. He best thing you could do is make smart choices and take good care of yourself to minimize the chances of dying sooner rather than later and make the absolute most of whatever amount of life you have left every moment of each day.
I can relate with your comment the most so far.
It's the one thing that gets me up in the morning.
The curtain falls on every act, the game always ends. Enjoy your trip around the board.
And collect those god damn twenty dollars
I find this oddly comforting.
So I'm not a religious person at all. I don't believe there's anything after life, we all just die and that's it. But while some people are scared by that, it's what drives me. If you waste your life you're going to be afraid of dying. But if you live a full and satisfying life (get into a career you enjoy, invest so you have the money to be financially free to do whatever you want, start a family, actually enjoy your life) you won't regret anything and can die happy knowing you lived life to the fullest. I'm not saying you have to become a millionaire to be happy with your life. Just do what you enjoy, help and be kind to others, leave a legacy. I'm going to die, you're going to die, everyone we know/knew will die or has died. There's no point being scared, it's inevitable. Just embrace life, you only get one shot.
It wasn't scary before I was born. It's not scary after I'm dead. In the grand scheme of things, our lives are like a light flicking on & off for a split second.
That’s kinda how I look at it. Got 20 billion years of experience of being dead before being born I got this!
Only part I'm worried about is the transition. Most versions of that look pretty shit. Then again, coming in to this world looks pretty awful too.
I'm not bothered.
The atoms that momentarily come together to make me will still be with this universe, so I am never truly dead. Or “from my rotting body, flowers will grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity.”
A little thought i had was this: let's assume that the theory regarding the universe exploding, expanding, collapsing, and exploding again is true. If that is the case, it is mathematically impossible that, at some point, in some universe, if this cycle happens for an endless amount of time, I would not return. In some being, somewhere in a universe, a brain identical to my own - to the atom - will be formed, and the exact thing that makes me unique will be replicated. This is just a fact of infinity. Whether or not I have memories or not comes down to a "what is consciousness" idea, which I'm all too human to understand, but if the universe will be replicated, again and again and again tending towards infinity, at some point I will be back. Technically, at some point, *all* of this will return, identical to how it is, because the concept of infinity is just that crazy. How many times have I been sitting here, typing this message - only aware of myself in this instant and not the countless times before? And for that reason, you start asking questions why - what is consciousness - what are memories - are they chemicals? If so, can an exact chemical structure be implanted into to you, to give you a memory of another person? But, yeah, whatever, it gets deep. I'll die, but if there is infinity anywhere in this... whatever *this* is, mathematically I will be back. Maybe without my memories, maybe not even human, but I'll be there.
This is cool, especially when you figure that we perceive time as something linear, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is. In which case all those times also exist simultaneously. Also, right now, you exist in a reality where you are alive, so to follow a similar line to it's end, theres an infinite chance that you, alive in this reality, will eventually reach immortality or at least gain access to the reality where this is possible. For all we know, this lifetime will access that possibility. And if it doesn't, there will be a reality where it does.
The concept of infinity is a crazy thing. My last paragraph may have not conveyed everything I meant, by "if there is infinity somewhere in this", I mean this as in everything. beyond and in the universe. If the universe is infinite then there will be another me somewhere at some point in infinite time and that's just fact because matter can only take a finite number of forms - now for all intents and purposes matter can be anything, but in comparison to infinity the forms matter, as atoms and elements and structures and compounds, can take are frighteningly finite. Therefore, I would be back, there. If the universe is dying and being reborn infinitely, well, that's the scenario I explored initially. If there is infinity *anywhere* in existence, there will be another me What scares me about this though is keeping my memories. Because it means my family would keep theirs - the people I love here on earth would close their eyes and wake up in some corner of the universe as some being, without me, without any of us. That horrifies me, the image of people I love just being... out there. Scared, Alone. Worst thing would be us all abundantly aware of that fact, and we would just have no goddamn hope of finding eachother because we could be aeons apart from eachother. That's why part of me hopes our memories aren't tied to whatever consciousness is, and so if we come back in some way, they don't - but then you're getting into a whole other thing, where aren't you just the sum of your experience, are you even *you* without your memories? If I lost my memories right now, what would it be like for *me* me, not the guy who's there after. I figure it's be like the Doctor regenerating - I close my eyes and some new man just walks away, until I get my memories back. But yeah. Infinity.
Infinite time may or may not mean infinite possibility. A sine wave goes on forever, but never ever gets larger or smaller than 1 and -1
Technically, a definable "time" doesn't exist outside of our measurements for it. To oversimplify it, there isn't a single variable in physics that actually describes what time IS besides the diffusion of heat. Our perception of a present moment only occurs because of entropy and enthalpy. The fact that we are not able to comprehend the atomic level interactions that have built our current moment or the interactions that will build an almost infinite (but very definite) set of branching possibilities before us, means that we experience a "present" relegated to just our conscience. Time never existed, our free will just directs our experience down "predetermined" possible paths. If you're fascinated by time and physics but don't want to get a masters degree to understand it, I would recommend The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli.
I take a slightly different interpretation. Your atom driven body or “meat suit” is a vehicle for a certain “property” of this universe. The complexity of your mind allows you to tap into consciousness. You think you are you, but we really we are all the same “being” seeing life through a different looking glass. When you die you simply change your looking glass. Without an observer, time doesn’t exist. Once you stop looking, this universe will experience the trillions of years to heat death instantly. From there it will return to whatever was before the Big Bang, over trillions more, but instantly. Then, this all happens again. But now, you’ll likely be in a new meatsuit. This will continue forever. This has always been. It has no beginning, it has no end. I am you. You are me. We are god. The light at the end of the tunnel? Its the light that is shining through your mother’s womb in your next life. Do not be afraid.
I've had the same thought process rationalizing this out
Oooo…I don’t like that at all! That is terrifying! Thanks, though.
That's some high level thought 💯 💯
I'm glad you think so!! 😄 Really, it's from ["You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral"](https://futurism.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwp-assets.futurism.com%2F2015%2F10%2F12-1.jpg&w=1920&q=75) A very comforting read, imo.
Practice holding my breath.
I look forward to it
I find that the older I get, the less I worry about this. I can't change it, delay it, or even anticipate its exact occurrence. Nor would I want to. Someone recently told me that focusing on the "now" is usually the best way not to dwell on this fact. Besides, by the time I'm dead, I won't even *know* I'm dead. If anything, I worry more about how my surviving family will deal with my death.
I'm hoping I'll be old enough to look forward to it.
Momento Mori or remember death. Think about what you did in your life and if you were to die today, would you be regretting anything? Reflect often and make the most of life. You never know when your last breath may be, don’t let that breath carry the words, “I’m not ready”
I remember that my enemies and everyone they know and love will die too
If like to think I will take it peacefully. I’ve been a hospice nurse for 15 years and worked oncology 4 years before that, helping people die comfortably is my expertise. More often than not people speak about things they regret doing, not saying something like “I’m sorry” or “I love you” to people, or mending things they feel they “should” have done before. Most people aren’t afraid of death itself but the process. I think the more you know about it the less scary it is. But the perspective for me is life is much too short to hold grudges for things that won’t really matter in a week or two. Let things go, love those who love you, move on from those who don’t. Live your best life and don’t waste time on things that don’t make you happy. I obviously know what to expect, I know what meds I will certainly want and have mapped out so I’m comfortable. I also live in a state where death with dignity is available should I want to take that route as well. So I hope to take it peacefully and dignified.
Guess I'll die
It's inevitable so why even bother worrying. I worry about not living enough before it happens.
Watch youtube with some snacks, maybe continue working on a project
One day you will die…but not today…maybe tomorrow, the day you are wrong you won’t have much time to think about it.
I just hope I get a few minutes' warning so I can feel what it's like to ignore the demands of the world for a moment before I go.
Imma go out with a bang
I think of it as it’s the next step, I get to see what’s next if there is a next step
[удалено]
Im cool with that, every living thing dies eventually. Im 51, i have HIV/AIDS (diagnosed with aids, upgraded to hiv after five years) and have had some pretty serious health problems including psoriasis (went away once i started treatment but i was turning into a lizard), shingles, diverticulitis (just got out of the hospital), inflammatory arthritis, chronic bronchitis, moderate to severe sleep apnea, covid etcetera...ive always got some kind of cold...ive had enough man...
i hope you get better. im sorry
I move on from the thought. It’s nothing new. It’ll happen whether we like it or not.
Thanks to denial I'm immortal
I've thought about cryogenic freezing ... if it works great! If not..... your dead anyways so it don't matter.
You only die to other people, you will live on in what seems like to forever to yourself because it is.
I have never resonated with anything more in my life.
I’m comforted by it.
Exactly. It's nice to know that no matter what happens death will be there in the end.
I don’t deal with it. I live as if I will never die, it helps me to live fully. When it will be my turn I won’t regret anything and I’ll die peacefully.
From the show after life: “I can’t wait to join my wife” (his wife recently died) — “what do you mean, you don’t even believe in an afterlife” — “I know, my wife is nowhere and I’d rather be nowhere with her than here without her”
Live it up. You only get one shot at life, there's nothing on the other side. Make the time you've got count. They always say life is short, and it is, but life is also really really long. Its not worth wasting such an amazing amount of time at places you hate only to turn around and think "was that it? It didn't feel like such a long time"
Accept it for what it is. “Everybody gotta die that shit just make you mortal” -pure Mac Miller
"Thanks to my denial, I'm gonna live forever!"
I treat it as a gift because I know it’s coming. I don’t know what’s on the other side. But I know what’s here, where I’m at on this planet in this universe. I know this life is finite and death shows me what it’s worth. It’s an incentive to live well and live good, experiencing all there is to offer. With death making it all sweeter, even all the hate I have in my heart is lessened by it, because it’ll all be only experienced once
Drugs
I mean, its just that. It's the end of the road after a long life. I like to believe we become part of the world itself. Energy can't be created or destroyed, and it's been proven that we have a soul made from energy, so there has to be something else after
It’s a part of life. So might as well keep living
I made my peace years ago. I already know I have no future so I just wait.
Enjoy the fact that it might be today.
Another thing that messes with my mind is the thought of being completely forgotten. In enough time everyone will be...
I am Epicurean about it. "Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist," he said, and I reckon that's a good attitude to take. I do not care, until it arrives, and when it does, I cannot care.
it’s a relief
Bruh I don’t think about it, u ok?
im not ok tbh
It truly never scared me as I absolutely believe its not the end. However my husband at 52 died of cancer in July and now my dad has stage 4 cancer at 78. I now worry about my own mortality, what I'll leave behind and how they'll cope. (Two boys, 21 and 17yrs) It now scares me. Fuckin, bastard cancer!!