How do you deal with fear of death?

Little pl here: I almost died once. Rolled over in a car on the freeway right in front of a massive tractor trailer. It was surprisingly peaceful. Honestly, despite seeing almost certain death a few feet away from me, I was more calm than I can ever recall feeling since. It only appeared frightening in retrospect. I don't think the process of dying is so bad, and I have faith that something beautiful awaits on the other side.
 
Life is dangerous. I go to work every day knowing that I might not come home. I almost got my killing at work five or six years back. Three years ago a coworker did get his killing on the job. Thankfully the worst that has happened to me so far is that I have a thumb that doesn't work right anymore. The doctor that stitched it back together seemed surprised that it worked at all so I will take that as a win. If I feared death I wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning and lead my life. I'd rather not die so I try to be smart and take precautions to prevent my death. So far that is working out good. My boss man's dad's dog died on the job this morning. I take my dog to work too so today I've been more concerned about his safety than mine.
 
ToroidalBoat said:
lol

I like to believe the afterlife is like that of New Church ("Swedenborgian") theology, rather than oblivion.

(A realm of "externalized inner reality" as David Staume once put it, that's "more real" than the physical.)
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I always thought Swedenborg was kind of cool, even if his uniqueness obviously came from some sort of stroke or psychotic episode. I kinda wish I had more time to study him and William Blake.
 
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I personally fear more seeing my loved ones dying than myself, as I lost one of my friends around a month ago after a hiking accident, and my great-grandma have passed away by natural cause at the start of this year, this put me all in a system shock.

I still think a lot about them, and despite how fragile my health can be (currently under treatment for my liver), I do everything to stay alive as long as possible, I have been through a bunch already in the past to not be afraid of death anymore when it comes to me. Life is never always easy.
 
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ToroidalBoat said:
People have argued the "lol he's crazy" thing before, but it's been counter-argued that the clear thinking and internal consistency of what he wrote challenges that idea.
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And I would love to believe that, but am also pretty sure that he once argued that in heaven, people are not only married and have sex, but are monogamous and happy to live an eternity being so. That raises an eyebrow or two if you're literally interpreting what he says and you know a single thing about basic human nature.
 
NewRetroVagina23 said:
And I would love to believe that, but am also pretty sure that he once argued that in heaven, people are not only married and have sex, but are monogamous and happy to live an eternity being so.
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Swedenborg didn't say that just once, but throughout the writings. I like to believe it's possible, if one prefers marriage over sleeping around and adultery. In New Church theology, one's nature after death is changed so that what disagrees with one's "ruling love" is shed. This could mean any desire for promiscuity or adultery would be lost because it was freely rejected in life.

basic human nature
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Basic human nature isn't that great...
 
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Urotsuki said:
I personally fear more seeing my loved ones dying than myself, as I lost one of my friends around a month ago after a hiking accident, and my great-grandma have passed away by natural cause at the start of this year, this put me all in a system shock.

I still think a lot about them, and despite how fragile my health can be (currently under treatment for my liver), I do everything to stay alive as long as possible, I have been through a bunch already in the past to not be afraid of death anymore when it comes to me. Life is never always easy.
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Beat me to it. My own death doesn't bother me whatsoever, but just the idea that my loved ones will be gone someday gets my stomach in knots. :x
Though I also worry about the effect my passing would have on the people I leave behind.
 
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All I know is that they'll finally find out what's killing me after I'm dead. I just hope my kid gets compensated, but their track record with shit like Agent Orange isn't so hot. And honestly it kinda pisses me off that I won't know what happens, unless the religious/spiritual types are right. It's just unfortunate I wasn't blessed with anything like blind faith.
 
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I pray to it daily and ask it to release me but it ignores my prayers because I'm a fucking coward. If I really wanted it I know how. Everything else is just posturing.

One of these days I'll get lucky.
 
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It really sucks to think about, but I agonize over it every once in a while. I get a moment of clarity when I realize I'm thinking about it because my life sucks, and I'm trying to take my mind off all the things I can't change by focusing it on the biggest one of all. At the end of the day, it is what it is. I can't control when or how it happens. I know other people have accounts of calmness and others who found nothing at all yet were at complete peace with it. Really seems like the thought of it is worse than the actual thing.
 
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Regarding my own death, I don't really have strong feelings about it. I'd probably have more feelings about it if I had more going for me to worry about or people depending on me (close friendships, a girlfriend/wife, kids, etc.) but I don't. I've never really had a mentality of feeling like it's a blessing or something to be alive. Hopefully none of this reads like some goth kid's journal entry. Really I just hope that my death isn't really painful/violent or something. I'd like to go in my sleep, not have my last experience be me out shopping and hearing "ALLAH AKBAR!" followed by a click. They would be a bit annoying.

What does (and has ever since I was a little kid) freak me out is knowing that the few people that I have in my life will die, and that statistically speaking the most important one will probably have between 5-10 years left; watching this person currently being sick (nothing super serious like cancer, fortunately) isn't helping things.
 
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Pocket Dragoon said:
All I know is that they'll finally find out what's killing me after I'm dead. I just hope my kid gets compensated, but their track record with shit like Agent Orange isn't so hot. And honestly it kinda pisses me off that I won't know what happens, unless the religious/spiritual types are right. It's just unfortunate I wasn't blessed with anything like blind faith.
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I know how you feel, dude. I have no hard data to back up what went wrong with my body, only educated guesses. Those will have to do, I guess: I'm tired of begging the bastards to take my symptoms seriously only to be told "lol, ur crazy!" or "Here, take these pills. Maybe they'll help? The Pharmacy Rep. was quite clear they'd help....."
 
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DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, OH FUCK I'M THINKING ABOUT IT DRINK DRINK DRINK. Wake up hungover, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, DON'T THINK ABOUT IT....

That's how I cope more or less.
 
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By having a shit life
I used to get panic attacks that were so bad my body would force me to run - only there is nowhere to run
Now I've had some awful stuff happen to me I don't give an actual fuck about it and kinda always want to die
Maybe it's an age thing too
 
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