Death

[El Guepardo]

Is anyone else terrified of death? I'm scared of the concept of just ceasing to be. The idea that I will never be anything again, and just slip away in to darkness.

Whilst I'm aware that my consciousness will stop being, it's still a horrible thought which I can't completely come to terms with accepting. I can't help but think that every day that I live and breathe is one day less before I reach the end of my line in life.

I have some faith in religion but not to the extent that I can switch this fear off. My faith stems from the eco system that surrounds us. The world is both complex, and still somehow simple, to the point that I feel as if the World was created by some being. What was the purpose behind the creation of the World, who knows? Perhaps we are just like bacteria in the Petri dish of this higher power. Perhaps, alternatively, we are being nurtured for something better, who can know?

Anyway, I'm hopeful that this opening post can spark debate, rather than just a tirade of belittling comments but let's see. And in the course of writing this post, I'm another 5 minutes nearer the black void.

 

[Superted]

I've often had the same thoughts but I wouldn't say fears. It's the one thing guaranteed we'll all experience (or not experience if you know what I mean).

How does something one minute have life just become matter. What is the difference between someone alive and someone dead?

Could man ever recreate life in the form of an adult, not via test tubes or the usual means?

 

[El Guepardo]

I imagine that we've all thought about death. As you've said, we will all die, and so it's natural to contemplate the next step.

Perhaps this is particularly true if a close relative dies. Thankfully, I've not lost an immediate family member and so have not had to live through coming to terms with their passing. When that does happen, I'm not sure that I will take it well.

The difference between life and death is an interesting point to contemplate. The scientific answer is, of course, one way to look at it. Our bodies operate as the result of the combination of our body parts working successfully. The body is like an electronic circuit in that respect, providing all parts of the circuit are in tact, the battery (heart) is in place and all connections are clean, then the circuit board remains operational. It's only when one part of the circuit terminally fails, that the whole circuit stood working.

Could heart transplants prove that we can bring life? What would happen if someone died, there heart was saved, repaired and then reinserted in to the body?

That thought brings me on to other connected thoughts that I've had on the subject.

How much of our conscious thoughts are dictated by our brains? Are all thought processes operated from there? Or is there another way?

As children, we are educated to know the difference between what is right, and what is wrong. Is that the only guidance that we rely upon? What about instincts? Are they part of developed experience? We become more aware of what will be likely to happen, and recognise patterns subconsciously, so shaping our decisions around those patterns?

 

[Superted]

I think the key is our brains. Without the brain, there is no life. And as far as I know, science can't do brain transplants or recreate a new brain from nothing.

But what if they could? Science is just trying to find how **** works. If this, then this. If you could gather the tools and materials to make a brain and had a technique to know how to put it together, could you create a consciousness? I don't think so - which makes me believe there is something else.

 

[clownfoot]

All a bit existentialist in here. Go read some Sartre and cheer up

 

[PochettinoPochettinoPochettino]

I'm scared of death but when it comes it comes I just hope it's quick and I don't know about it.

We end up as ourselves on another planet in another galaxy anyway so I wouldn't worry.

 

[Seedy Ron]

Cheery subject for a Friday El Guep. I save my thoughts on the futility of mortality for Mondays

 

[Raoul Duke]

The idea of death is scary in itself, but for me the most scary thought is the road to dying, like the long (I imagine) constant anxiety (and pain) in dying from for example cancer. Therefore, I want to die suddenly.

 

[johnola]

Fearing death is pretty healthy EG, as is retaining blind optimism that it will not come soon.

We were all dead once before and that turned out all right.

 

[DHSF]

Wow this is another timely thread.

Its morbid I know but dor some very strange reason I have a really bad feeling for whats to come in 214. I have never really had this bad feeling before - im usually more optimistic and all set out to achieve my ambitions etc but this year im just worried ****.

I am fearful of death but actually its more about how will we die rather than dying. Im also more fearful about others close to me dying than me myself.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I echo the sentiments of everybody on here, we all want to go quickly and peacefully.

I'll admit it's little scary to think when you die that that's it, there's nothing else. Having said that, none of us knows what happens when we head to croaksville, there could be some form of afterlife, we simply don't know. And I say that as a sketpic and an atheist.

 

[Bonsaiboy]

You are going to die, there is nothing you can do about that. But what you can do something about is living, and making a difference in the world, leaving it a better place than it was before you came.

Ikiru.

 

[elltrev]

Mate, when I was a kid (between 8 and 12 years old or something) I feared and thought about death obsessively in exactly the way that you describe. It used to freak me out like crazy. I would alternate between two different fears - a) that I might die soon, and b) that I will die eventually. In relation to the former, at night I used to line all my teddies up on my bed as a barrier between me and my bedroom door, in case a burglar came in at night and shot a gun at me... And in terms of the latter, I hated getting older as I saw it as being another year closer to death... ****ed up thoughts for an 8 year old!

These thoughts then led to me thinking not just about my own death, but about existence itself - what the **** it is, and how horrible it would be if nothing existed at all - no universe, no matter, no time, no nothing. And that freaked me out even more.

But for no particular reason I eventually stopped thinking about this kind of stuff, and though the thought of not existing still freaks me out it doesn't bother me as I never dwell on it.

 

[elltrev]

I echo the sentiments of everybody on here, we all want to go quickly and peacefully.

I'll admit it's little scary to think when you die that that's it, there's nothing else. Having said that, none of us knows what happens when we head to croaksville, there could be some form of afterlife, we simply don't know. And I say that as a sketpic and an atheist.

Imagine if there actually is some sort of afterlife... how incredible and crazy beyond words will that moment be when you 'wake up' after your death!

 

[johnola]

Imagine if there actually is some sort of afterlife... how incredible and crazy beyond words will that moment be when you 'wake up' after your death!

An inescapable eternity in this reality doesn't appeal. There would have to be...more. Maybe a pool of higher consciousness to share all that ever was will or could be, from all angles simultaneously.

 

[Alaric]

Vladimir Nabokov on the subject, "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour)."

 

[thfcsteff]

Occasionally I ponder the relative meaninglessness of my life in the big picture. it means nothing in that big frame. It means only what it is to me and those around me/whom I come in contact with during my life.

And thus on that tip, I choose not to think about something which will happen but about which I know little. Instead, I make sure to enjoy the time I spend daily as best I can. Thats the key. Small steps, not big thoughts. Those are the ones which can send someone crazy…accept what you can accept, control only what you can control, let go of the rest of it (except for that minute or two on the ****ter when you've already finished the paper and such deep thoughts dare to enter your sphere again)...

 

[braineclipse]

I think the key is our brains. Without the brain, there is no life. And as far as I know, science can't do brain transplants or recreate a new brain from nothing.

But what if they could? Science is just trying to find how **** works. If this, then this. If you could gather the tools and materials to make a brain and had a technique to know how to put it together, could you create a consciousness? I don't think so - which makes me believe there is something else.

Everything we know about the brain aligns with consciousness being a product of the brain. We don't live in our bodies, we are our bodies and our brain is a part of it.

Brain transplants are unlikely to do us any good. There is a theory of a potentially uploading our consciousness into computers at some point in the future. At this point it's very speculative though, so many problems that go beyond the pure engineering problems with this. Is the uploaded consciousness actually "you" or just a copy of you etc.

Wow this is another timely thread.

Its morbid I know but dor some very strange reason I have a really bad feeling for whats to come in 214. I have never really had this bad feeling before - im usually more optimistic and all set out to achieve my ambitions etc but this year im just worried ****.

I am fearful of death but actually its more about how will we die rather than dying. Im also more fearful about others close to me dying than me myself.

I think it can be really helpful to think about how one wishes to die. I remember seeing a study about life prolonging treatments at the point where a return to full health is near impossible. Most laypeople would say that they "would like any treatment available, would like to try anything". Doctors and other medical professionals that have actually seen the treatments in action were more likely to look at it from a quality of life perspective and were considering refusing treatment. Potentially preferring quality of life over life span. It's a very interesting discussion and one it can be worth reading up on and look for well reasoned thoughts on, particularly if you have a fear of the process of dying.

 

[braineclipse]

Vladimir Nabokov on the subject, "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for (at some forty-five hundred heartbeats an hour)."

Nice quote. To me there's no real point in being afraid of being dead, I wasn't in existence for the first 13.7 billion years the universe was around and it didn't hurt me at all.

I think coming to some acceptance that the window will close at some point can lead to a happier life or at least one with fewer regrets.

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If anyone's interested in the secular non-religious viewpoint on this I would recommend Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, it's a collection of articles and essays he wrote in his last year of life. I thought there were a lot of interesting viewpoints in it, a short read too. I enjoyed it a lot anyway, but I enjoyed most of his work so I'm biased.

Personally I find a fair bit of comfort in the majesty and scale of the universe, the utter unlikeliness of our and my existence in it and the absolute privilege it is to exist even for a relatively short time and (as steff put it) without any grand big picture meaning. That the forces of nature have assembled in human beings brains capable of thinking, speaking, learning. There might not for everyone be a satisfactory scientific answer to "why do we exist?", but the sheer fact that we can ask the question is awesome in he truest sense of the word.

 

[Superted]

My mums said this to us, and I feel the same way. As soon as I am so old and unwell that I am a burden on the family, do me quickly.

I can't believe that euthanasia is such a polarising topic. For one, it should be nobody else's business whether you choose to go of your own volition.