Are you scared of dying? Or are you comfortable with the idea of dying?

I used to be terrified of dying. From the time I was really young I had this horrible fear of being buried. I would think, "What if I'm not really dead or can still feel after I'm dead?"

I think the fear comes partly from a natural fear that most people have on some level and a movie I watched called "Buried Alive" when I was super young. Eventually, I became less fearful of death. But certainly the fear was still in the back of my mind and would be something I'd think about from time to time - just not obsess over.

June of 2008 I became very ill. Without going into details, I was on almost 30 IVs and my family was told to make funeral arrangements and the family that wasn't already there was phoned and advised to come to the hospital quickly if they would like to say their good byes. I technically died for over a minute twice and less than a minute once.

I seen no bright lights and no angels came or anything dramatic like that. I'm not saying those things don't happen - just that it didn't happen to me. Instead I had what I think is a hallucination.

I thought I was floating in the air and my breathing was this light blue pillow. I would float up above it and be well out of reach of it and then back down to it where I felt I could either grab it and hold it (allowing me to breathe) or I could just leave it be. Sometimes I would grab it and hold onto it for a little while.

Other times I just couldn't be bothered. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? What I took away from that experience is the serenity and the peacefulness that goes along with death.

I was physically in pain (intense 3 day labor with epidurals that didn't work on me) yet I wasn't really feeling it on some mental level after the second day. I was awake the majority of the time. I knew the situation and was in my right frame of mind, but physically I wasn't in the pain I should have been in...towards the end of my criticalness I felt absolutely no pain.

Oddly enough, I could feel someone touch me. I could touch the blanket or any object and feel it with great detail. I think your mind makes a break with your body so that the pain doesn't affect you.

For this, I'm grateful on two levels. The physical level; of course, but also because I believe that the body knows when death is near and gives you a peacefulness to make it something that isn't scary or even difficult. Death is easy, calm and peaceful.

I'm no longer scared of it on any level. BUT I don't want to leave my family - I don't want them to be without me or me to be without them. And it also still bothers me that there will be things that I will miss such as special events that will take place after I'm gone, the changing seasons; along with the advances made in medical science and technology I'll not get to experience.

But the fact of the matter is, that bothers the living me. They dying me was far too at peace that day to care about any of that.

Honestly, it's too far off for me to really be worried about it. I'm sure when my life comes to a close, I'll be at peace with it, though. I don't think I'll really regret anything, I've already done so much amazing stuff.

:).

No, I see no point in fearing the inevitable. I'd be more afraid to live forever than to die. I do however fear my children dying.

No, I am not scared of dying. As a Christian, I believe that I am going to go to heaven when I die. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:8 "We are willing rather, that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."

That means when I die I believe I will be with God. It could be today or tomorrow or 90 years from now. We never know when we are going to die, and we are not promised tomorrow.So I will hold on to the hope that I have in Christ, and not worry about tomorrow, and whether or not it will come.

I guess there is no reason to be truly scared of dying or to become depressed over the idea of an eventual death, since every living creature on this Earth will eventually die of some cause or another. I understand this fact and I accept that I will not be around forever. As humans (or other living creatures) our bodies were simply not made to function and exist forever.

Thinking of the various ways that I could potentially die, does creep me out and makes me uneasy, to be honest. But like many things in life, death is oftentimes outside of individual control. Nobody knows for sure when, where, and how they will die and I think not knowing is what makes life interesting and worth living for.

Imagine finding out the precise date, time, location, and cause of your death years in advance. Would you truly be able to lead the same type of life (happy, fulfilling, exciting, outgoing, exploring, etc. ) knowing, as you would/could not knowing? Therefore, I think it is the “not knowing” part that prevents me of being scared of dying.

I realize that there are numerous factors around us every day that could prove hazardous to our health or even lives (either immediately or in the long term), such as second-hand smoke, driving a car on the freeway, lack of sleep, eating undercooked foods, acquiring a dangerous flu strain, etc. But I also realize that if I constantly worried about the things that might/could happen to me each day, I would first of all drive myself insane, second, no longer have a life, and third, not be able to leave my home anymore or engage in most of the things I enjoy doing, since just about all of them are associated in some way or another with a potential risk factor. I guess, all we can truly do is hope that when our time comes, we will go quick and easy, without much suffering.

Yes for now because I'm too young and my kids are too young to be left yet. That is why I always pray that God will let me live very long (like 90-100y.o. ) so I can assure my kids are okay when I'm gone.

I want to live an old age, be there for my kids and fondle my grandchildren.

I am certainly not afraid to die, but I am not looking forward to it. In fact it's not that I fear dying, it's that I fear dying too young. There is so much that I want to do, and I am afraid that I will never get the chance.

Well I have already died twice when I was in the hospital for a serious operation. No tunnels of light or anything. I was actually dead long enough for them to hook up all the tabs for an EKG and get a defibbulator.

I woke up right before they hit me with the paddles. So I am not scared at all it's not like you look back and go oh I died. I just would not want to go in a fire or some pain like that.

If I were in pain and worthless why be a burden, it's time.

I think everyone is probably a little concerned of going through something that is unknown. It's only human to fear the unknown. I'm a little fearful sure but my main concern would be leaving my family.

To quote Woody Allen: "It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens. " I think most people are a little afraid of having to go through the experience. Everybody I know wants to die peacefully in their sleep, and why not?

I have an unusual view of death, I think. I look at it as our reward for living our whole lives in this messed up world. This world was never meant to be like this, I don't even believe we were meant to die at all.So our reward, at the end of a life endured in a messed up world, we get our pass into the next world.

Our reward is getting out of here.

I don't want to die anytime soon but I consider it my responsibility to prepare myself psychologically for my inevitable death. I also believe that it is extremely important for me to contemplate that I could die at any moment. That might sound morbid to some people but Americans have been sheilded from death.So as an American, if I am to get comfortable with death, it must be an intentional effort.

I am afraid of dying but I feel comfortable with the idea of dying. I was thinking about it the other day after reading an article. What if no one ever died?

That would not be good. We'd be all on top of each other. We probably wouldn't be allowed to have children anymore and we'd lose sight of the things that matter in life.

Isn't it the fear of death/growing old that leads us to make so many important decisions in life?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.