Have You Accepted Death? Share Your Experience and Age

[WraithM]

Hi,

I am 18, and I have not accepted death. I don't like the word "accept." It implies complacency in my mind. I would fight death despite my sort of nihilistic perspective on life. I personally think that life has no intrinsic meaning or purpose, and as per existentialism/objectivism, one needs to define one's own meaning, etc. I think that there is a reason why I fear death or am discomforted by the idea of dying. Nature doesn't want me to die for whatever reason even if the reason doesn't have an ultimate purpose. I don't mean to imply that the natural world has a will, but rather that I have instincts and my brain telling me to survive and propogate, so I'm going to do that.

To sum that mess up, I think that it's a good thing to fear death. Though I have thought about my death and fully realized that I will die one day, I just don't like the idea of letting go or getting rid of stress, anguish, anxiety about death. Those emotions give me a drive to live fully and fight to my dying breath.

Lol, I probably sound crazy there. It's 5 am.

 

[Haibara Ai]

I'm rather young, and I haven't accepted death. Yet I don't fear death.

To fear death is to limit life, and every day is a good day to die. No day is a good day to throw your life away.

Granted, I've almost died 7 times...but still If i get hit with death, I want no regrets in the times before I die. Live in the moment type of thing I got going on..no risk no rewards..

I figure right before I'm about to die I'll reach a new plane of consciousness and be able to understand more than I've ever dreamed of understanding..Something will just like "click" for the long seconds/minutes before I die.

But maybe It'll end so fast I won't get to experience that... who knows?

Everytime I thought I was going to die, I've had a realization in which I was blind to before it. I solved a problem that was bothering me for the longest time once hahaha...

Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

I agree, I don't fear death, and I've nearly died before. Living and dying is the two nessesary things in your life. We've all experienced Living now, so when the time is right, why not just smile and say "I've already experienced Living, now it's time to experience the mysterious death"

 

[leopard]

You don't experience death.

 

[DaveC426913]

You don't experience death.

Thta depends on whther you're talking about the state of death (which lasts forever) or the event of death (which lasts a moment).

I would argue you experience the event of death (even if you're not around to remember it.)

 

[leopard]

You experience the event of death, but there's nothing mysterious about that.

 

[Topher925]

This is a great thread. I find it very intriguing that everyone seems to have so many different points of view and I have not seen a single post that uses religion to explain what death is or define how someone should feel about it (this is a good thing IMO).

I was faced with death earlier this year in March. For still some unknown reason I started to lose my ability to speak, stand, and could not longer see. Long story short, as I laid in a hospital bed convulsing, unable to see or speak and feeling an intense amount of pain throughout my body, I was convinced that I was going to die. I assumed I had some undetected brain tumor or some other illness that would ultimately bring me to my end. However, I didn't really have any feelings or emotions about it and I remember being rather apathetic about the situation. I remember thinking about the things that I wanted to do and all that I wanted to accomplish but in the end, none of that really mattered. I was just another part of the improbable phenomenon in this world that we called life and if I lived or died was not significant. Just another spec of mold on an orange whirling through space.

While I didn't enjoy the experience, I am glad I had it. It changed how my perspective on many things in this world. But if I was to die right now, I would be upset which I suppose is because of my natural instinct to live. And unlike some of you in this thread, I would like to live forever.

 

[WaveJumper]

And unlike some of you in this thread, I would like to live forever.

At what age?


Life is cycle - you are born, you grow up, go to a kindergarten, school, university, marriage, children, work, grandchildren, retirement, death.

How many cycles would it take till you are really really fed up? Would it really be forever? Would the cycle of life seem that incredible the second time, or the 3rd time, or the...

 

[Topher925]

I would around the age I'm at now (23) would be pretty good. But I doubt I will actually be following your "life cycle" as you mentioned. Why couldn't I live forever being something such as an international assassin or a drifter?

 

[WaveJumper]

I would around the age I'm at now (23) would be pretty good. But I doubt I will actually be following your "life cycle" as you mentioned. Why couldn't I live forever being something such as an international assassin or a drifter?

But being an international assassin is not the best recipe for eternal life on Earth in my book. Unless you are a killer of the Terminator type.

 

[Renge Ishyo]

But being an international assassin is not the best recipe for eternal life on Earth in my book. Unless you are a killer of the Terminator type.

Sort of reminds me of a Galaxy Express 999 sort of scenario. If you are not familiar with it, that story was about a young boy who gets promised by an attractive woman that if he goes on a journey with her across the galaxy that she will make it so that he can live forever. At the end of the journey he finds out that he is going to be transformed into a robot and worked forever. That was epic late 70's sci-fi (ahh...the glory days of sci-fi...).

 

[leopard]

This is a great thread. I find it very intriguing that everyone seems to have so many different points of view and I have not seen a single post that uses religion to explain what death is or define how someone should feel about it (this is a good thing IMO).

That's because it isn't allowed to discuss religion on this forum.

 

[leopard]

unlike some of you in this thread, I would like to live forever.

Then you don't understand infinity.

 

[fabelhaft]

I'm 21 and have been recently dwelling (probably excessively) on this very topic. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I truly comprehended that this existence I'm so comfortable with is only temporary. Following that, I spent a few very dark and hopeless days wondering what the use was in anything, given its perceived futility. I'm not accusing anyone here of being disingenuous in their courage, but I often think our minds prevent us from truly grasping that WE will die. It's no abstraction. We are a part of nature... we were born from it, given this one brief chance to appreciate it, but gracefully or not, we must render this precious opportunity to our successors. This is natural, and so are the associated anxieties... I think we should never feel embarrassment if we experience some terror when realizing that every day draws us closer to our last... and after that, the permanent dissolution of a lifetime of experience, until even the largest ripples we left in others will too dissipate in time.

I suppose that's the price to have lived.

 

[moe darklight]

The idea of not existing boggles my mind... I have a hard time believing anyone who says they understand it.
I understand that it'll happen, but at the same time my mind tries to convince itself that it cannot... to me the world is only as I've seen it, and I've only seen it through my own eyes, so the idea of the world outside my personal perception is very strange to me.

OK. That sounds like I'm self centered; let me rephrase: I'm not saying "how could the world go on without me?" I understand it will and has before me, but my personal experience of the world is very self centered, as is anyone's, because we only know the world through our own eyes. So it's very hard for me to imagine not being, or the concept of not being.

Does that make any sense? this is giving me a headache

 

[baywax]

Here's my definition of 'Accepting Death': To accept death is to be ready to die, free from stress, anguish, or personal emotion. Personal emotion is limited to self inflicted emotion. A counter example to personal emotion would be emotion that one has because of someone else's emotion, i.e. crying because someone else is crying; I'm saying that you can have non-personal emotion even after accepting death.

I'm curious as to who actually has accepted death so far in their life. Please post if you have or not and your current age.

I'm 16, and I have to say that I have for myself. The way I see it, if I die today, one, I wouldn't care once I'm dead anyways because care is an emotion and you need a brain to execute emotion, two, I know that everything I once loved, loves me back, and three, I wouldn't care about the time I wasn't able to spend on earth, because see example one.

Edit: Post your age, and how long you have felt that way, and why.

I'm 189 and I've been at death's door a couple of times. It only takes one time to be close to death to accept that its a state that isn't going away and will eventually overcome the state of life you enjoy now.

So accepting it is easier for me. The RCMP declared me dead at the scene of a car accident. That declaration was scanned by the local radio station and there was no waiting to notify the next of kin. It was announced all over the place. So, when I survived after a lovely stay in the small town hospital I was in and came back to High School... everyone said I was dead. And that didn't bother me as much as experiencing the cold clammy hands of death wrapping around my heart. So I just laughed them off... and pretended to be a Zombie.

Zombies have accepted death. And you thought you were smarter than a Zombie!

 

[Ivan Seeking]

No out of body experience?

 

[baywax]

No out of body experience?

Zipparino.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Zipparino.

I'm scared.

 

[baywax]

I'm scared.

If you are close to the doorstep of death and the ambulance guys get you inside to take you to the hospital, try to tell them "no oxygen". They automatically start slapping oxygen on your face and when they do, you drift into someplace you're likely to never return from. I was successful in keeping them at bay and lived.

I was not so successful in chatting up the nurses and other women in the ER. That may have had to do with all the blood in my hair, making it stick up like a ZOMBIE's

So add to your list of things you must have when you leave home.
Clean undies and a hair brush.

But, what kept me alive?

One, deny death with all the strength of what's left of your body.

Two, let the shock make you think things are important (it keeps you going). I was overly concerned about where my air mattress went. I never let up. I lived to find my air mattress.

Three, fool death by thinking the other people are worse off than you! (I was the worse-off victim)

Four, be happy you're alive enough to think at all.

 

[drankin]

The idea of not existing boggles my mind... I have a hard time believing anyone who says they understand it.
I understand that it'll happen, but at the same time my mind tries to convince itself that it cannot... to me the world is only as I've seen it, and I've only seen it through my own eyes, so the idea of the world outside my personal perception is very strange to me.

OK. That sounds like I'm self centered; let me rephrase: I'm not saying "how could the world go on without me?" I understand it will and has before me, but my personal experience of the world is very self centered, as is anyone's, because we only know the world through our own eyes. So it's very hard for me to imagine not being, or the concept of not being.

Does that make any sense? this is giving me a headache

I determined this myself when I was about 12 yrs old. In my own mind I find it impossible to simply not exist. Even after my body is gone. I believe others have come to this conclusion early in human history and it led to the belief in the after-life, reincarnation, among other theologies. Personally, I've come to the conclusion that we are, in fact, eternal. Just not in the physical realm.

 

[baywax]

I determined this myself when I was about 12 yrs old. In my own mind I find it impossible to simply not exist. Even after my body is gone. I believe others have come to this conclusion early in human history and it led to the belief in the after-life, reincarnation, among other theologies. Personally, I've come to the conclusion that we are, in fact, eternal. Just not in the physical realm.

I'd have to dispute that claim and say that we may live on as electromagnetic impulses in the physical universe until that too comes to an end or goes through such a change as to become something completely transformed. Of course there's the matter of our matter and of course that will romantically become a star or cosmic dust at some point as well.

 

[Ms Music]

I'd have to dispute that claim and say that we may live on as electromagnetic impulses

I would love to go into that, but it would be O/T...

And for the record, I had a near death experience at age 12 (the typical tunnel vision, etc) and also watched my dad pass away. I do not fear death (haven't since 12) but I also do not wish to die any time soon. I fear more for what my family and most specifically, my child would go through at my death. If I were to be diagnosed with cancer today, I would not want to go through treatment after watching my dad endure 5 years of treatment (and many other people) but I guess I would choose treatment if my daughter wanted it.

I am not intimidated by death, but I hope I don't die until at least 80s. (unless something happens health wise)

 

[gmax137]

Hmmm When I think about this it can get kind of scary. But then, to make myself feel better, I try to think about what it was like before I was born. Somehow that doesn't seem so scary. Is that just denial on my part?

In my imagination there is a universe stretching infinite in time & space in all directions, and at the center of this is a little bubble - my life. It is in the center because I see it as "my reference frame" - so limited compared to the entire picture.

 

[tim_lou]

Ha... the age old question... death?

No, and I highly doubt anyone who haven't gotten close to death yet actually completely accepts death. Though, I understand death. I understand that when I die, my mind ceases to exist, all thought/emotions/knowledge die with me. And when my pet, my family member, or anything else for that matter, dies, their thoughts/memories/knowledge die with them. However, I am not even close to be able to face it with calmness, or accept that one day I will die.

I believe this is simply human instinct... I will just continue to live for now. To keep death around one's head simply isn't healthy. I don't believe I will ever accept death truly until when I am actually approaching it.

 

[Gokul43201]

A description by a neuroscientist of a near-death experience:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Make of it what you will.

 

[DaveC426913]

A description by a neuroscientist of a near-death experience:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

Make of it what you will.

She started losing me at "energy beings".

 

[Gokul43201]

She started losing me at "energy beings".

Me too, but I persevered.

 

[The Dagda]

NDE's are an interesting subject but I think that the evidence there is is non-scientific, anecdotal and sketchy at best. The far out claims made on top of the experience itself are just wishful thinking IMO. Does the sould leave the body? I don't know, have you measured it doing so?

It's fringe science bordering on the crackpot mostly.

That said no I have not accepted death, he needs to revamp his image.

 

[Sorry!]

i'm 20 (BDAY WAS ON MONDAY WOOT :D :D) and I've accepted death. I've accepted it a pretty long time ago actually. It is something that in my point of view is just going to happen regardless of what we want. To say we don't want to die because we have stuff we want to do is kind of selfish if its your time to go, then its your time to go you can't fight it it will just happen. I would mostly worry about leaving people who care about me in emotional turmoil though i wouldn't want that. I'd rather they know that i was comfortable with accepting my death and they should be too.

 

[DaveC426913]

i'm 20 (BDAY WAS ON MONDAY WOOT :D :D) and I've accepted death. I've accepted it a pretty long time ago actually. It is something that in my point of view is just going to happen regardless of what we want. To say we don't want to die because we have stuff we want to do is kind of selfish if its your time to go, then its your time to go you can't fight it it will just happen. I would mostly worry about leaving people who care about me in emotional turmoil though i wouldn't want that. I'd rather they know that i was comfortable with accepting my death and they should be too.

What does it really mean to accept death though? I don't imagine any but a very few can do any more than pay lip service. Merely saying it has no consequences. Surely, only action (or inaction) with consequences is the only reliable test of acceptance.

 

[The Dagda]

Not only that few people even know what it's like to stare into the cold rictus of death anyway. It's hard to fear something that is a long way of, and that you have no real experience of. It's kind of like saying I bet I could kill given the situation. How would you really know until given the situation?

 

[baywax]

We can be certain death will accept us.

 

[Sorry!]

What does it really mean to accept death though? I don't imagine any but a very few can do any more than pay lip service. Merely saying it has no consequences. Surely, only action (or inaction) with consequences is the only reliable test of acceptance.

well obviously I'm not saying i WANT to die, just that I'm not afraid. I'm not going to go commit suicide to prove that point.

Just because I've accepted the fact that i will die and don't live in fear of it happening doesn't mean i want it to happen any faster than it should lol.

 

[Leah]

I'm 47 years old and have had several possible death experiences. Some of them suicide attempts. I've always thought of death as something I need to do or something that is going to happen soon. When I was 5 years old I jumped into the deepend of a pool, thinking I could swim to the other end, but I couldn't and my cousin saved me. When I was 14 I tried to slit my wrists and take meds from my mother's cabinet. I started drinking when I was 13 and doing drugs when I was 16. In my 20's I'd go to bars and pick up strangers...some scary events! Every action I took was to end in death. I still am trying to end my life by drinking and smoking cigs and not eating right and not exercising. I just want to die and not have to deal with anything. My luck I'll live til old age which I am not looking forward to. I don't want to have to pee my pants and have someone else clean me up. I don't want to be old.

 

[baywax]

I'm 47 years old and have had several possible death experiences. Some of them suicide attempts. I've always thought of death as something I need to do or something that is going to happen soon. When I was 5 years old I jumped into the deepend of a pool, thinking I could swim to the other end, but I couldn't and my cousin saved me. When I was 14 I tried to slit my wrists and take meds from my mother's cabinet. I started drinking when I was 13 and doing drugs when I was 16. In my 20's I'd go to bars and pick up strangers...some scary events! Every action I took was to end in death. I still am trying to end my life by drinking and smoking cigs and not eating right and not exercising. I just want to die and not have to deal with anything. My luck I'll live til old age which I am not looking forward to. I don't want to have to pee my pants and have someone else clean me up. I don't want to be old.

Sometimes we have to accept life first.

 

[baywax]

I"m only saying this (accepting life first) because death is a part of life. So, theoretically, if one is unable to accept life with all its pitfalls and pratfalls... one is likely doomed to be an undead, unliving zombie... wanting to escape life with no consequence due to the fact that one has to live in order to die. Just ask a rock.

 

[The Dagda]

Sometimes we have to accept life first.

I'm going to file that under platitude. Or maybe trite sayings?

 

[baywax]

I'm going to file that under platitude. Or maybe trite sayings?

 

[DaveC426913]

I'm going to file that under platitude. Or maybe trite sayings?

Actually, considering Leah's miserable-life diatribe that it was in response to, I would say it was quite poignant. It is exactly what Leah needs to do.

 

[DaveC426913]

Here is a link to my thread about what possibly happens after death (if you want to know more about my reincarnation theory):

Theories are based on evidence, not on plausibilities. What evidence do you have that reincarnation happens at all? How does this theory explain what we see in the world better than the mere cessation of life upon death? Occam's Razor.

It'd be nice if reincarnation existed.
It'd be nice if God existed too.
But wanting it doesn't make it so.
And as a scientifically-minded person, you should know this.

 

[The Dagda]

Actually, considering Leah's miserable-life diatribe that it was in response to, I would say it was quite poignant. It is exactly what Leah needs to do.

It wouldn't be a platitude if it wasn't sincere.

 

[baywax]

It wouldn't be a platitude if it wasn't sincere.

My reply to Leah was in all sincerity. I know this because reading her history of attempts to destroy her life made me think that Leah's life had never been accepted. Now, I can't speak for an 8 month old child who dies or about whether the child was able to die because they'd accepted life or not.

But, in general, I believe death to be part of life... because life would not reach any stage of development without the resources produced by its death and decomposition. This sort of law may apply to the acceptance of life and death and it may not. Its a bit of a fuzzy area that is tangled up in metaphor and metaphysical speculation.

The OP needed to clarify their definition of "acceptance". Its a bit one sided in this case because, as I said earlier, death will accept you regardless. And, although the conditions to life accepting you are many, it appears that 6 billion people have passed the test.

 

[baywax]

This calls for a joke you may have already read:

Historians were digging up Beethoven's tomb (for some reason) and finally found him. There he was with a giant eraser, rubbing out his famous manuscripts. They exclaimed... "Beethoven, Beethoven what are you doing?!??! Beethoven replied, "decomposing".

 

[The Dagda]

My reply to Leah was in all sincerity. I know this because reading her history of attempts to destroy her life made me think that Leah's life had never been accepted. Now, I can't speak for an 8 month old child who dies or about whether the child was able to die because they'd accepted life or not.

But, in general, I believe death to be part of life... because life would not reach any stage of development without the resources produced by its death and decomposition. This sort of law may apply to the acceptance of life and death and it may not. Its a bit of a fuzzy area that is tangled up in metaphor and metaphysical speculation.

The OP needed to clarify their definition of "acceptance". Its a bit one sided in this case because, as I said earlier, death will accept you regardless. And, although the conditions to life accepting you are many, it appears that 6 billion people have passed the test.

Oh don't worry I'm of course being light hearted and I don't mean to suggest it wasn't done with good motivation, it's just well it made me cringe a little, you know like the end of it's a wonderful life, it just slipped past the edge of being too sacharrin.

This calls for a joke you may have already read:

Historians were digging up Beethoven's tomb (for some reason) and finally found him. There he was with a giant eraser, rubbing out his famous manuscripts. They exclaimed... "Beethoven, Beethoven what are you doing?!??! Beethoven replied, "decomposing".

OOOOOok then.

 

[baywax]

Oh don't worry I'm of course being light hearted and I don't mean to suggest it wasn't done with good motivation, it's just well it made me cringe a little, you know like the end of it's a wonderful life, it just slipped past the edge of being too sacharrin.

Somethings some people can't accept. Sooner or later they have to. When you see a law like the symbiosis of life and death, it can be described in too succinct a manner or, it can be described in a billion word essay. I prefer to economize my time when it comes to (bay)waxing philosophically.

 

[Gear300]

I'm 47 years old and have had several possible death experiences. Some of them suicide attempts. I've always thought of death as something I need to do or something that is going to happen soon. When I was 5 years old I jumped into the deepend of a pool, thinking I could swim to the other end, but I couldn't and my cousin saved me. When I was 14 I tried to slit my wrists and take meds from my mother's cabinet. I started drinking when I was 13 and doing drugs when I was 16. In my 20's I'd go to bars and pick up strangers...some scary events! Every action I took was to end in death. I still am trying to end my life by drinking and smoking cigs and not eating right and not exercising. I just want to die and not have to deal with anything. My luck I'll live til old age which I am not looking forward to. I don't want to have to pee my pants and have someone else clean me up. I don't want to be old.

If life is meaningless, so seems death.

 

[planck]

I was going to start another thread that was somewhat related to the topic of this one. But to answer the Original post. No, I guess I haven't accepted death because I don't know what will happen to me after I am dead. And also, I have a strong desire to want to live. In fact, most human beings want to live.

This was the reason why I wanted to start the other thread. I recently saw some global suicide statistics and it is estimated that around a million people die of suicide each year. And between 10-25 million people attempt (non-fatally) suicide in the world each year. As a percentage of the total human population of 6.6 billion, that is rather tiny.

So obviously, the vast vast majority of humans want to survive and have not accepted death. I'm going to start that other thread and find out why that is.

Almost everyone is capable of committing suicide or putting themselves in a situation where they could end their life. But what is it that prevents people from going through with.

I'm assuming that it is the fear of not knowing what is on the other side of life.

 

[baywax]

Almost everyone is capable of committing suicide or putting themselves in a situation where they could end their life. But what is it that prevents people from going through with.

I'm assuming that it is the fear of not knowing what is on the other side of life.

Its going to be one or the other... fear of the unknown or love of life that keeps someone from actually carrying through with suicide. Many try and fail and this could be their subconscious wish to live prevailing.

Many don't try to commit suicide but die in domestic situations, accidents and in war... this could be their subconscious death wish prevailing.

An analogy, which might be appropriate, in this instance, would have you look at how many people are afraid to jump into a lake where the water is an unknown as far as how cold it is. Only a few brave people actually jump into the unknown (waters) regardless of temperature and weather conditions.

 

[petm1]

I'm still alive, I think, so no I'm not dead yet.

 

[Brilliant!]

I've accepted death as inevitable, but I definitely have an incredibly strong desire to prolong life as long as possible. I seem to worry about this much more than most people, which may have something to do with the fact that I don't believe in an afterlife, and I most certainly don't believe in a Heaven. I'm probably in the majority her, at these forums, but most people that I tend to meet are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu. I assume living with the belief that you are going to Heaven when you die would add some amount of padding to the idea of death. I imagine a person who truly thinks this is the only time he gets and he will never be allowed another type of existence would have the opportunity to appreciate life more than anyone else.