I'm sorry for butting into a discussion, but this is a topic that has really been on my mind lately. Reading a lot and thinking about it constantly. I keep wondering why, if death is not the end of everything for us, do we so intuitively avoid it for as long as possible (at least most of us)? Is our intuition wrong? I'm really sorry if this seems stupid/simplistic, but this question keeps pestering me.
[MENTION=14664]dang[/MENTION] is essentially correct.... as a human we are afraid to die....largely through our conditioning as taught by society to shape and mold us to fit in to prevailing paradigms.....such as we are born with original sin and if we don't repent when we die we'll burn forever in hell... that sort of paradigm.
There are other reasons as well and includes but is not limited to.... the reason why you're incarnate here on Earth in the first place.
Let's suppose we do not snuff out our existence when the body dies. Let's suppose our essence...our consciousness...continues and goes on to exist in another "form" based upon a different vibrational frequency than can be experienced here on upon this planet.
IF that's true...then you should ask your self...then WHY am I here now?
Once you look at that question then everything going on in one's life takes on a whole 'nother meaning. :tongue:
One of the reasons we might be afraid to die is because we
intended to come here...in this human body...to have certain experiences...and we may or may not have done all of the experiences we came here to do.
Believe it or not...but we set up a Bucket List before we took on a human form this time....and until the list is ticked off as completed... we will not wish to die.
The above could be viewed as spiritual reasons for being afraid to die.
Then there's the basic animal instinct present within the human body to stay alive at all costs. Many have called it the reptilian brain...which is overlaid by the mammalian brain...which is overlaid by Thinking brain (prefrontal cortex). Dr. Dan Siegel taught me a great deal about the complex brains that come together to create a human mind.
http://www.drdansiegel.com/about/mindsight/
Anyway....from my own personal experience of interacting with and seeing a man who had died the previous day manifest in my bedroom (in full form) the next evening....I have no doubt we continue on in to the next frequency dimension even though the human body dies. Yet I still have my own fears of death creeping up into my consciousness from time to time. There is still basic preservation impulses...probably stemming from the parasympathetic nervous system (i think that's the correct term...correct me if i'm wrong).
So to me Fear of Dying seems to be an essential component of being a human in a body on this planet.