Mortality Anxiety

File: 1452397922116.jpg (21KB, 324x313px) Image search: [Google]

21KB, 324x313px

>>17267109
When I die I wish to be reincarnated as Meghan Trainor

>>17267109

I think I have the same mind as you do
And after more thinking over the years, I pretty much felt that consciousness is simply an illusion.
Our minds are simply a more complex version of most animals' mind, which is more complex than insects, which is more complex than some single cell organism.. Etc
If consciousness or some higher "being" exist, where do u draw the line? Does bacteria has consciousness too?
Our mind is simply a product of our very complex sensory organs.

It is a depressing thought, and the way I get by is basically not think abt it
Ignorant is truly a bliss


By the way, u care and are scared of the "void" because u still exist at this moment.
Once ur mind cease to exist, you will no longer care, because there won't be a "you" to care about it.... If u understand what I mean

>they don't even seem to care. Why do so few others seem scared?

Everybody deep down is actually terrified. Most people just hide it or numb themselves to it.

You ever see those Christians proselytizing here? They're scared as hell, fervently wishing that their belief in heaven and God is real. They cover their ears so that they don't have to hear anything contradictory. Their whole life depends on this belief because they know that without it, life is meaningless. They don't care about what's real to keep their fantasies going.

This is what people are doing left and right. We put off the thought of dying by engaging in distractions. Most people live their whole lives distracted, asleep.

At least for you, in dawned on you that you're gonna day and that you really don't know what it's all for. That's a good thing. At least your facing the reality of your situation. You're closer to the truth than most people.

You can only have peace of mind once you understand what the reality of your situation is and once you accept it. That's it. That's all. You're only agitated because you haven't accepted what's going to happen to you.

But in order to understand, you need to start really inquiring into what your life is all about. Who are you? What are you? What is that "I" you refer to as yourself that you feel is looking from behind your eyes? What is your own consciousness? Really dig deep into this question because it's the only place you'll find a real answer.

You can't trust the objective world because for all you know, there is no objective world. You keep looking outside for answers when you don't even know who it is that's asking the question. Ask yourself. Who are you. Find out. Then settle it until you have no more questions to ask.

this past week I've been thinking about death and the afterlife quite alot.

there is only one thing I truly fear and tupac said it best.

"My only fear of death is reincarnation"

>>17267109
I have this. It leads to crippling hypochondria and some pretty bad panic attacks. Lately, I've been trying to ignore it, but it's always there, running in the background.

For the most part, I hope to reach the singularity and live in practical immortality, or that quantum suicide hypothesis is true and nobody actually dies. I'm young, so I think I shouldn't worry unless I'm extremely unlucky or do something stupid, even though I always read about premature deaths and in maxes me so sad.

I don't let it control me, but it drives me off risky situations and makes me extra careful. At least it's better than solipsism.

These same thoughts have plagued me since childhood, they always come at night. I remember laying in bed at a very young age and realizing that, inevitably, I will die one day and its not something I'll ever wake up from. I think the first few times it happened, it upset me so much that I cried and told my grandma that I didn't want to die and of course she tried to comfort me with the lies of heaven. When these thoughts creep into my mind now (25 years old) I feel overwhelming fear, dread, and sadness. Its terrifying to think that when I cease to exist, the entire world will continue on without me, Everything I've ever experienced or thought or felt is pointless. And I don't which is scarier, to die suddenly without warning or to know you're going to die beforehand.

>>17267109
I'm the same way. My biggest fear is the cessation of my own existence. The thought gives me the worst feeling I've ever experienced in my life.

One of my friends says that it's just my ego, that I'm too egotistical, since reality is an illusion and we are all one with the universe. Maybe that knowledge will help you. It hasn't helped me yet.

I wish you the best.

>>17267353
Not OP, but not knowing how the universe is or looks like beyond by mind scares me. Basically the universe scares me no matter what it is.

>>17267109
I personally believe that we will exist again at some point. Scientists say that we shouldn't exist because the odds are so small for everything to go right, but here we are. Don't be scared, OP.

>>17267284
Answers like this are EXACTLY why I seek help outside the self, though. Different perspectives. Different methods of finding the Truth. I feel like everybody has a piece of the puzzle, and maybe if I learn from enough people, I'll glean enough to put together my own picture.

>>17267348
Same. Been bothered by this as a child.

This is wild. I've always had anxiety of the unknown since i was little to the point where i would not be able to sleep at night. These past two day's i've been having bad derealization and... it's like you've put my exact thoughts into words.
What is happening.

>>17267430
my therapist had actually told me this week to look into spirituality and that it helps ease those thoughts but.. I don't know i'll come around to researching but I haven't yet.

>>17267132
Youre going to be reincarnated as a fish in the abyssal zone, I can feel it and god told me to tell you

File: mr pb quote.jpg (151KB, 1024x576px) Image search: [Google]

151KB, 1024x576px

>>17267109
Have you considered volunteering to do hospice care? It's basically hanging out with an old or sick person that's about to die so they don't feel as lonely. It's a very generous thing to do, some people find it highly rewarding, and there's a demand for people willing to do it. Lots of those old people have had a long time to think this shit over, and have been through all the stages of grief, past the fear stage you seem to be in, until they've reached acceptance. They love talking about it and finding an eager ear to listen.

>>17267255
Imo cells might be conscious. They have a nucleus that responds and adapts to environmental changes and tells the cell what to do. The cell can sense its environment, and react and respond. The chemicals inside of it are all "working" together to create a really tiny complex molecular computer. This incredibly small and complex machine has been evolving for billions of years, and learning about physics and the laws of reality, and adapting to changing environmental conditions. It does all this, and then passes down what it has learned to its descendants who continue the process.

Somehow this has managed to create sentient conscious beings that have over 37 trillion of these things all working together to create thoughts and feelings and a vehicle that can continue existing long after every individual cell has replicated and died many times over the course of your life. Each cell divides and continues renewing your life, for some purpose that not many people really seem to understand.

>>17267464
Not a bad idea, Anon. Thanks.

File: quote-death-is-nothing-to-us-since-when-we-are-death-has-not-come-and-when-death-has-come-we-are-not-epicurus-282798.jpg (38KB, 850x356px) Image search: [Google]

38KB, 850x356px

>>17267109

>>17267109
Why is that scary? Every tree and snail and even mountain will be gone and forgotten one day. Whole galaxies die out without ever being explored. Ending is a natural part of being. Everything begins, exists, and ends. There's nothing scary about it.

Ok try to think of it another way. From the first man to start a fire to Cleopatra to Da Vinci to the Wright brothers have all done it. As have farmers, slaves, geniuses, idiots, weak and powerful. Everyone not here right now has died. And since we have no defined way to check for an afterlife there's no real need to worry about it. One day you'll bang your toe into something. Are you going to sit and freak out about that? No. Because you can't predict when or do much to avoid it.

It's ok. Truly. We all have to die sometime. Try to enjoy the stuff now while you can.

>>17267109
>the immutable fact
The what now?

(The fairy Queen.)

>>17267527
This.

Also, for me, whenever this fear turns up, it's because I'm not keeping myself busy by pursuing the things in life that are truly important to me. People who are afraid of dying are really just people who are too scared or lazy to really live, in a way. If you do it right, you'll fill however many years you've got left with the important shit, and the Epicurus quote rings true.

Death is inevitable. Embrace the comfort of ultimate oblivion. You didn't exist for billions of years before today, and someday you won't exist again. Really, living is the anomaly here. Living is the break in the norm, the thing that doesn't "belong". Enjoy it for the temporary quirk that it is and don't waste it by fearing a return to what is actually your (and my) usual state: inert matter.

Another way to think about it: we do live on, in several ways. The matter that makes up our bodies will be broken up, used in the creation of future organisms and the like. Fragments of our consciousness will survive in the things we create, in the people we influence. Cicero wrote a really excellent essay called "On Friendship", wherein he describes the dead as living on in the breast of the survivor. It's phenomenal, I recommend you read it.

We're all made up of the same matter and the universe will continue rearranging us, putting us into different configurations, whatever. Don't sweat it.

>>17267109
Something does happen after you die.
I was very science minded as well, and I still think mathematics and science are interesting. Truly GOD is there for you. These words probably bring up all the associated thoughts of organized churches and people related to them, but that is not what GOD wants us to be like. There are many misconceptions as well, for example, evolution is true, and we are not what we think.
Read this and think about what it means, days are periods:
Gen 1:
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

I was a little faithful throughout my life, but I wasn't really that faithful until somewhat recently when HE came into my life, well HE was always there, I was just ignorant, and now everything is clear.

Matthew 6:
5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

File: russia.jpg (214KB, 926x853px) Image search: [Google]

214KB, 926x853px

You live now, worry about being dead.

You die later, worry about nothing.

You see mistake, comrade?

This happens to almost everyone when they're young, as you mature you'll come to terms with your mortality and sometimes welcome oblivion

>>17267109
work out what you would say at your funeral if you died tonight, make it realistic, who is there, where you are, how you died, etc. dont worry about explaining how youre able to give a speech when your body is in a casket or urn. make sure to go into details about what happened in your life before you died.


you wont have to worry about not existing once its over, you wont be able to worry. yeah, its scary, but for me, when i remember that not existing wont be giving me any problems then it stops being a problem while im alive.

>>17267255

youre absolutely right. there is another thought that can come after that,if you would agree with it. its kinda like, with your statement about consciousness and bacteria, where do you draw the line at the moment? im guessing it doesnt extend to atoms or dirt, and it often includes humans, but not always. the line exists in your mind, as does the idea of consciousness and illusion. you can imagine we have a supernatural spirit, or that its just an organic illusion, people do, and they change their mind. if you are the one trying to understand the nature of consciousness from an organic/biological basis, by understanding one position or the other youre using something similar to consciousness, so by being able to understand that it is an illusion, you are also proving that it exists. the notion of it being an illusion depends on how you think of it. if you dont understand illusions or biology, then you cant comprehend consciousness as an illusion, and at that point, it is impossible for it to be just an illusion. (which is why it is so hard for most people to understand)

>>17267284
they are terrified sometimes, but most of the time they dont think about it, and it doesnt bother them

I've got something quite opposite- I'm afraid of eventual immortality. The idea of existing for eternity has always scared the fuck out of me. I'm weird maybe.

>>17268853

You'd only be acutely aware of immortality if you had infinite memory capacity, which is by definition impossible. You could be living one of infinite lives right now, and have infinite more ahead of you, you wouldn't, don't and won't know.

Think back to the time when you did not exist. Did you feel pain then? Why would you feel pain when you return?

I believe we are here for a reason. Even if that reason is absurd. Form and pattern imply an intention. But correlation is not causation.

I place my bets on my best guess.

>>17268853
Me too. It means there's no end. Yet we could never know until upon attaining knowledge of the godhead, and even then we would forget.

Both tragic and comical simultaneously.

Every indication points to this as the state of things.

>>17268789
Take your nonsensical Christian religion elsewhere, why must you shitpost in every thread? We don't want it here, go away.

>>17267331
>Fear of death
>Ruining your time alive

Good one

File: 1453354018145.jpg (119KB, 625x416px) Image search: [Google]

119KB, 625x416px

>>17267370
>I personally believe that we will exist again at some point

>Arrogantly anesthetizing your fears with lies from the internet, and by extension, limiting your desire to fulfill your life because you think you'll get another chance at it

Fag