I have a few other points to make relating to the fear of death. The first being that we will die before we have accomplished all our dreams we had anticipated as a child or adult. But to most of us this will not really pose a problem because we can think of all the things we have done and feel a sense of satisfaction, such a raising a family etc.

The second fear relating to the dying process involves the actual moment of dying. Many say this will be a terrifying experience because it represents the ultimate loss of control. But we actually have this experience every night when we enter the little death, namely; sleep.

Perhaps the greatest fear is what comes after death. Such as after I die there will be just nothingness Of course then there would be nothing to worry about would there 

But there might be something after we die, but why fear that, since we do not know what will happen to us just one minute from now, that also represents an unknown, just like next week does but we don't fear what will happen tomorrow. We have being living with the unknown from the moment we moved down the birth canal, we coped after that, so why would we not cope with the "something" that might come after we die?

Perhaps we should identify what about death we really fear. Is it that previously mentioned nothingness, if indeed there is nothingness after death there was nothingness "before death" and up to the moment of our birth we resided in that eternal dark nothingness and it gives us no problems when we look back on it?

Death is necessary or people would reproduce like bacteria, Existentialists like Sartre, Camus and others claim that when you face ultimate inevitability of death, life becomes meaningless. I believe this is nonsense and exactly the opposite is true. Accepting death can make life more meaningful, more rewarding, this does not mean that life is not precious, we must live in and saviour each moment of life we have.

Life is not about how many breaths we take, "but how many moments take away our breath"

All of us, without exception are on this strange road we call life, with the possibility of something amazing, beautiful and enduring happening in the very next moment.

Alan

Yeah, the fear of death. Certainly a heavy topic. Everyone is afraid, whether they realize it or not. I still am. That could not have been made more clear than recently when I lived through a really bad bout of the flu, possibly swine flu.

At the worst of it, I felt like I was becoming a prisoner inside of my sick body, and losing the coherentness of my mind, and when you can't think like you normally do, it gets scary. It really makes me wonder what terminally ill people go through before they die. God, it must be so confusing and terrifying. The body is so strong, but at the same time so fragile.

I find it more scary to lose the coherency of your mind while you die. It's like not having any control even of your own brain.

But, I don't worry, anymore, because a good friend of mine told me that when you die, it's like jumping into a pool of very cold water. Right at the moment when it happens, you get a shock, but then, after, you feel just fine. So, perhaps it's more shocking going through the process of the death of the body rather than death itself.

Here is a poem I wrote about death and what comes after

After all the people I have seen after they died,and even the ones I met in broad daylight,I am still afraid to die.Than I read about a man who asked a master about death.the answer was,can a man keep from going to sleep.and can a man keep from waking up.no.George

I have faced death, and before this experience, just like most people, I was afraid of dying.

But you know when the time comes God gives you the strength to die peacefully.

Death in its final stage is much like going under anaesthetic in the operating ward and waking up in the recovery ward.

For the majority of people the afterlife is a much more glorious and love filled place than this earthly existence.

I admit the process of dying can be frightening, but it is usually the observer that is more badly traumatised by the suffering than the dying person in the process of passing over into the afterlife of eternal light

Alan

http://alansmysticalmind.ning.com/