What fear of death is REALLY about!

Posted on: 12/26/2008 04:45

When I was a teenager I had a dream that I was dying.

As a child, my grandmother always comforted me with the words that what frightened me didn't happen - it was just a dream.

My teenage dream of dying couldn't be comforted by this method. It occurred to me that from the moment we're born we're dying - and it's really happening!!

As I'm 60+ I'm determined to overcome this fear - so that when my time comes I can meet it with dignity and courage.

This is still a work in progress for me - but this is what I've come up with.

With medical science today - and the fact that I'm lucky enough to live in a modern Western country with good medical services - I'm hoping that pain won't be too big an issue.

That leaves me with what the philosophers call existenstial angst, a fear of not existing - and this world continuing without me. Is this what this fear is really about - what other thoughts are out there on this subject that affects us all?

Is this why we need religion? It seems to me that whether you're a fundamentalist Christian or Moslem who believes in an afterlife - or a Budhist who believes in reincarnation - it's connected with a fear of death.

Is there anyone out there who can suggest a way to me that I can accept death calmly?

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Comments

WaterBuoy

Is non-existentialism ...

Posted on: 12/26/2008 09:13

Is non-existentialism ... like encirclement by a non-existential mind ... figment of the brain?

We are told the mind is nothing by so many of the paradigm ... do we ffear nothing?

Then nothing is a funny emotion ... something to start from a primal initiation of sorts! Odd thing that a bit of reasonable non-sense.

Can we make something of nothing? Perhaps an abstract beginning ... then so many don't believe in anything but the absolutes in a rather indefinite infinite! Now that's Light .. or Christ burning in a reflective sky ... like K-night ... or kneutt ... Egib'n Nut?

Does the magic ever end? It seems to be up to us to chose dark or Light ... T'm'shuol! Choice for us ... a grand divine thingy ... like a fork in the way? What can you make of an infinite quamtum ... chance!

Best of the New Year ... I am gone for a time!

Arminius

Hello Pilgrim: We can't get

Posted on: 12/26/2008 17:34

Hello Pilgrim:

We can't get around the death of the biological individual who we think we are, but we can transcend or re-define what we think we are.

We are, at its most basic, energy. And, according to science, energy can neither be created nor destroyed. If we regard the energy which we undoubtely are as our ultimate I, then we are forever.

Through meditation or contemplation, you could try to get away from experiencing yourself as the biological individual that you think you are, and experience yourself as just energy. In religious terms, this is called "mystical experience," but it really is nothing more or less than experiencing that which we ultimately are, and which is forever. Moreover, energy is a singularity. There is only one energy—and we are IT!

IT is we; we are IT.

We can't comprehend IT without experiencing IT,

But we can experience IT without comprehending IT—

For we are IT!

IT reveals everything;

IT explains nothing.

The interpretations

Of ITS revelations

Are our creations.

-Arminius

franota

I used to have the same

Posted on: 12/26/2008 17:22

I used to have the same fears. I would lie in bed at night, and think about leaving this world, leaving my lovely grandchildren, leaving my children and my husband, the many experiences I would never have, and come to tears.

Then, a couple of years ago I had what can only be described as a mystical happening. It was completely outside my frame of reference or experience. The whole thing is too long to post here, and too intimate, but here's the major piece. There was a kind of explosion of light and colour, and I became part of something else. There was no more "I" or "me", not even a sense of collective consciousness - but light and sound and colour, and absolute peace. I was held and upheld, and without fear.

Since then, the fears have mostly gone. Not completely, in all honesty, but mostly. I am determined to fit in all the experiences and knowledge I can in this lifetime; but also looking forward knowing that this isn't all there is.

Arminius

Hi franota: There is nothing

Posted on: 12/26/2008 17:33

Hi franota: There is nothing like a mystical experience to remove one's fear of death, is there?

bygraceiam

Hello pilgrim ........God

Posted on: 12/28/2008 18:02

Hello pilgrim ........God bless you ....

If you believe that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins...we also must remember He also died to end death....death to me does not exist...when I pass from this world to the next it will be in the twinkle of an eye...breakfast here , dinner there....I do not fear death because it does not exist...it is the weapon of the enmey (power of the air) to scare us so we wont believe in God....if you research heaven ...it will help you to know exactly where you are going....heaven is real...that is where I know my loved ones will be.......heaven is a place that is sinless, a place that when we pass here we will be there....and we will be able to spend eternity with our loved ones...healed and happy....amen ....

I do not fear passing, I do feel a sadness when I talk about leaving here..but it is only because I will miss the ones I love so much...but I know in my heart I will see them all again....it will be very hard to say goodbye for the time being...

If you really look into heaven, it will help you defeat the fear of death....

Jesus was the firstborn to rise from the word death...it is not death (void or whatever the enemy has taught us to believe ) it is continuing the journey that God wanted us to have since the foundation of the world....

Our treasures surely will be waiting for us in heaven......amen and amen...

Awesome God we Worship

IJL: Betty-Jean...