Death -why are we afraid of it?
Call him a wimp, but Vanguard Online's Mike Williams aint too keen on death. It's not really his thing. But why are we so afraid of something that we've never even experienced?


Humans find themselves struggling. They are born with one overriding fear. That of death. Why are humans scared of dying? Or maybe the question we should ask is, why are some humans not afraid to die?

To most people, dying means as well as other things losing everything they have. A person not afraid of dying is a person not afraid of losing everything they have.

Everything we have? The question should be asked: what is this 'everything we have'? As well as how do we get to have and why do we 'have'?

When we think about everything we have we think about this. We think about everything about us and ourselves in relation to this 'everything about us'.

The question 'how do we get to have' is answered simply. Once as a person you are aware of yourselves, your environment and the relationship between the two you get to have.

The question, why do we think about 'everything we have', is more interesting. True, the relationship between yourself and your environment may exist but why the need or the necessity to give or receive a positive or negative feeling from this relationship?

Any relationship which gives a positive is a relationship which the person wishes to retain and does not want to lose. Any relationship which gives a negative is a relationship which the person want to lose, he does not want to retain it.

And what of relationships which on the face of it elicit a feeling of indifference? The correct term is not indifference, the correct term is calmness or peace. I may think of my relationship with a blade of grass in a garden in Peru. My relationship with that blade of grass gives me a feeling of calmness. It is a positive feeling.

There is no grey area. Relationships elicit a positive response and if they do not do that then they elicit a negative response.

To most people living and dying are opposites. Living is not dying and dying is not living. As living is not dying and living is entirely the feeling we get from our relationships, dying is the feelings we no longer get from absence or loss of these relationships.

We can only feel one of two ways about dying and this is the opposite to how we feel about living. Those who feel negative about living will feel positive about dying. This of course does not mean that they will go out and commit suicide. It just means that their relationship with dying gives them a sense of calmness, a positive feel. Those who feel positive about life will feel negative about death.

However some (and not many) people do not associate the opposite of life as being the moment at which their bodies or themselves cease to exist, or 'death'. To some people 'death' does not exist. To some there is only life.






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