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Have You Ever Wondered How You'll Die?

The Sum of Awe

Brought to you by the moment that spacetime began.
Staff member
Premium Member
I am getting recurring thoughts of disturbing deaths of myself. It's not that I try to think about it, they just come randomly and I don't thnk them up they just show up.

Anyways, it's usually been about disturbing ways of death scenarios lately.

My grandma a few years back was hit by a car and my aunts and uncles had to make the decision to pull the plug.

One of my thoughts is sort of based on that. I almost was hit walking my dog not too long ago. Then I keep imagining an actual being hit and faling scenario. The split second of being bumped hard, and falling, before smashing my head. Though it's only a second, it's a very disturbing second and it truly seems terrible regardless of how quick the light goes out.

Another thought is of a car wreck. Where I'd be driving unnecessarily fast, lose control, and imagining the last moments I see, from the driver's seat, me flying off the road, feel the weightlessness, seeing my car and me flying straight into the impact device. Not necessarily quick.

others are falling, drowning, collapsing things, and just a plain old heart attack.


It makes me wonder, what will it be? Now that I'm alive, I inevitably will face death. Death itself isn't what scares me, it is the process of dying.

We've all had near death experiences of some sort, cases where we barely survived, sometimes should've died but didn't. The relief of it stopping... but just think there will be a time when it doesn't stop, out of luck.



Perhaps the reason we haven't died in those scenarios is because something about ourselves does not accept death and creates the illusion of continued life. You may die hundreds of times, but what if there are parallel universes, multiple 'you's that have the same 'you' animating them. Each time you die in one universe, you jump to another, your mind will back track and erase all memories back to the point you last had a chance to survive, and in that universe the chance is taken. Never to die. Never to notice immortality either.

You may ask, "What about old age?" Well, perhaps you will find yourself alive at age 400 in some universe your self still resides. But it doesn't mean you'd notice immortality - I think the first rational explanation for it would have something to do with simply being known as "very lucky to still be alive! the oldest living perfect how do they do it???" reads the newspapers, and it would be accepted as that - luck, simply being the oldest on earth. Miraculous to some, scientific to others.


Just thoughts i had
 

Laika

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Yes, I think at least once a day it will cross my mind. I think it is better to discuss these things, even in the very limited sense by talking about them online, as it helps ease the anxieties and overcomes the guilt of having these thoughts. Death remains a taboo in our society as it challanges our meaning, purpose and of our individual significance. I think the realisation of "that" moment when we are aware we are going to die is more frightening than death itself. the thought of death isn't something that we should be bothered by because of the complexity of the questions it raises, it's only when we've reached a point where we are so indifferent to life that we feel sucicidal that the alarm bells should ring- mainly to help people help themselves let go of their demons. the desire to live is innate because we are animals governed by our instinctual desire to live and thrive; the desire to destroy oneself to preserve the idealised self from a frightening and hostile world is a perversion of our sense of self. [I've been there so if you need a talk, PM me.]
 

BSM1

What? Me worry?
Yes, I think at least once a day it will cross my mind. I think it is better to discuss these things, even in the very limited sense by talking about them online, as it helps ease the anxieties and overcomes the guilt of having these thoughts. Death remains a taboo in our society as it challanges our meaning, purpose and of our individual significance. I think the realisation of "that" moment when we are aware we are going to die is more frightening than death itself. the thought of death isn't something that we should be bothered by because of the complexity of the questions it raises, it's only when we've reached a point where we are so indifferent to life that we feel sucicidal that the alarm bells should ring- mainly to help people help themselves let go of their demons. the desire to live is innate because we are animals governed by our instinctual desire to live and thrive; the desire to destroy oneself to preserve the idealised self from a frightening and hostile world is a perversion of our sense of self. [I've been there so if you need a talk, PM me.]

By definition man does not have instincts, only intuitions. (Sorry for butting in.)
 

Laika

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
By definition man does not have instincts, only intuitions. (Sorry for butting in.)

no probs. That's a fair point. what I mean is that we have certain innate psychological needs which have to be satisifed and represent the 'animal' part of our nature. In that sense it is instinctual, but your right as we've evolved higher functions which mean the way these needs are satisfied is not automatic so there is an inter-play over how and how far they are satisfied. I would still argue the 'animal' side takes precedence, but thats more down to a philosophical bias than anything more substantive.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
I imagine it will be something along of the lines of me stopping to live.

Are there any other options I could look into?
 

jonathan180iq

Well-Known Member
Death doesn't really concern me, since death is totally normal for anything alive.

I am worried about losing my mind, though. Being lost inside a broken mind is something that I think about often.
 

Wirey

Fartist
Being from the South I feel my demise will be prefaced by, "Hey, watch this."

I swear, my cousin Billy died right after he got a moped, built a ramp over a drainage ditch, and told his sister "Watch this". Cleared the ditch and got on the highway at exactly the same time as a semi hauling Pepsi.
 

Marisa

Well-Known Member
I don't really think about how I'll die. My mom died of lung cancer, gasping for breath and in great pain and aware of it. My father suffered a massive heart attack and though he lie on the kitchen floor not breathing for at least 15 minutes, he was revived multiple times in the ambulance and at the hospital (ironically at the hospital, it was his name that appeared on everyone's paychecks) but he never regained consciousness. I had to *fight* with my stepmother over where my atheist father would really appreciate her leaving him plugged in while she waited on miracle from god to save him. I don't want any of that to happen to me, which is part of the reason why I'm open with my atheism and explicit about what's to happen to me after I die, or if a doctor looks my family in the eye and says "no hope".
 

Wirey

Fartist
I don't really think about how I'll die. My mom died of lung cancer, gasping for breath and in great pain and aware of it. My father suffered a massive heart attack and though he lie on the kitchen floor not breathing for at least 15 minutes, he was revived multiple times in the ambulance and at the hospital (ironically at the hospital, it was his name that appeared on everyone's paychecks) but he never regained consciousness. I had to *fight* with my stepmother over where my atheist father would really appreciate her leaving him plugged in while she waited on miracle from god to save him. I don't want any of that to happen to me, which is part of the reason why I'm open with my atheism and explicit about what's to happen to me after I die, or if a doctor looks my family in the eye and says "no hope".

Until then, how you doin'?
 

Penumbra

Veteran Member
Premium Member
My lifestyle is not prone to cardiovascular problems, diabetes, or smoking-related problems.

So I assume cancer, car accident, or general old age death. Possibly stroke. Unlikely but possibly murder. Who knows.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Sometimes I think of "thock" like a bullet impacting my head and then black.

Weither it's actually going to be something like that or not, it's just present mental imagery concerning about how you will die occurs.

I just acknowledge the thought, and let it pass by.

I figure my actual last moments will follow the same manner by which the body continually dies, right even as I type this right now. Be it quick or slow.

Settles the demons a bit as it were.
 

Wirey

Fartist
No, I've never wondered how I'll die. It's not something I consider worth dwelling upon.

Try. You live in Edmonton, right? Maybe I'll get stuck behind you on the Yellowhead by the airport and run you off the road in a fit of rage.

Why yes, that was me in the grey Ford.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Try. You live in Edmonton, right? Maybe I'll get stuck behind you on the Yellowhead by the airport and run you off the road in a fit of rage.

Why yes, that was me in the grey Ford.
That would be amusing. I don't own a car.

Seriously, you can knock yourself silly about "what ifs," but all they are is "what ifs," not real. Here and now, that's what's real. Respect what you got, and lend none to what you don't.
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
That would be amusing. I don't own a car.

Seriously, you can knock yourself silly about "what ifs," but all they are is "what ifs," not real. Here and now, that's what's real. Respect what you got, and lend none to what you don't.
Pretty much my thoughts. I have a fairly elaborate theory for what happens after the moment in time when my collective consciousness hits the windshield of reality, but no, I don't really care how it happens. My guess it will be falling face down in a flower bed when I am 125. I can live with that.
 

Wirey

Fartist
Pretty much my thoughts. I have a fairly elaborate theory for what happens after the moment in time when my collective consciousness hits the windshield of reality, but no, I don't really care how it happens. My guess it will be falling face down in a flower bed when I am 125. I can live with that.

I'm seeing you clubbed to death with croquet mallets by an infuriated Volunteer Fire Brigade Women's Auxiliary. Seems more plausible.
 
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