Why are people afraid of dying?
- Thread starter geekzilla
- Start date
I would still wish to go on. Fear of not being alive is my issue.
Hello Misty, and welcome to the discussion. While logically we can observe that everyone dies, we are examining why many people have a fear of death, since it seems unavoidable.
It is not logical to fear the inevitable and so we are examining this phenomenon from all angles.
Certainly you are not alone in having this particular issue and I remember one New Year's Eve discussion long into the night at a table evenly divided over 'pull the plug if I am on life support' and 'keep me pumping. Where there is life, there remains hope.'
Interesting that you do not claim to be afraid of 'death', rather you fear 'not being alive'.
Your choice of phrase intrigues me.
The experience of 'being alive' is unique unto each of us, and the concept of death may also mean different things to each of us.
I don't think the survival instinct has anything to do with a fear of dying. The fear of death itself is more likely a learned, fear. Fear of injury and even pain are also learned. But fear of death may be more of a cultural thing.
Age can have something to do with this. It brought to mind two situations.
When I was about 22 and married, a neighbor, drunk, came to my door at night. When I answered the door he was pointing a 38 at my chest. My wife was in a chair right next to the door. I put my hand out palm on his chest and walked out the door closing it behind me. Then told him pull the trigger or go home. He went home. I was not affraid during or after the incident, but I was 22. My only thought at the time was to put more distance and the wall of the house between the gun and my wife.
The second occurred when my mother died and my sister and I were informing family members and her friends around the country. She was 91 and went easily... I had called her half sister who was I think 95 at the time and in another state. She from the sound of my voice probably could tell it was difficult for me to be making the call. She said, and I paraphrase, "OnlyMe" (and no that is not my real name), when you get to your mother's and my age these things are not the same as for you. It is not always a bad thing."
The fear of death is I believe something we learn. When we are young we don't generally think of such things. We are after all immortal. When we get old, perhaps we just remember our youth or perhaps we or some of us are just ready.
If you are cowering in a corner that is likely true. If you are facing the tiger perhaps not. They prefer the ambush rather than a fight.
This also reminded me of a scene from the book, "The Old Way: A Story Of The First People", an account of a first encounter with the San Bushmen of the Kalahari in the early fifties. One evening, the author then in her teens was drawn to the entry of her tent by the sound of one of the San men talking, somewhere outside. What she saw was a Bushman perhaps all of 100 lbs. facing three lionesses each at least 150 lbs. and telling them to leave, that they did not belong there and that he did not want to hurt them but would if they came closer. He had no weapon in hand and the rest of his group were around their camp as if paying no attention. The lions left.
I think that sometimes we confuse a fight or flight response which is a survival mechanism with fear, where fear is likely to involve some of the same physiological conditions and yet have no immediate release.
Still generally I believe the fear of death is something we learn. Personally I don't think I fear death as much as I sometimes might fear injury and pain. And that seems unreasonable because I have a very high tolerance for pain and I almost always take injury as just another event, after the fact.
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Thats why you look the tiger in the eye like "I will fucking kill you."
The experiencing of injury and pain teaches us to be fearful of these occurrences, hence they are learned responses.
As personally we have not experienced death, it does make sense that our fear is acquired by the response of others to their observation of death, or our own observation of the death experience in others.
Death of self is an unknown, and will remain unknown until experienced. Most of us learn to regard the unknown with mixed emotions during the course of our lives as some unknowns bring pleasure, while others bring pain.
Death.....the final frontier.....at least from our current perspective.
That might be easier said than done. I remember being at the Tucson, AZ zoo a few years ago standing in front of the panther cage. There wasn't anyone else around and that black panther had his full attention focused on me with the end of his tail twitching like cats do when they are stalking dinner. I absolutely knew he couldn't get out of the cage, but I still felt a twinge of fear that I couldn't shake. I stared hard into that cats eyes and knew that if not for the cage I was dead meat. I have to say I don't believe their is any human alive that could have backed that cat down.
It's a much different experience when you are alone with the cat. If your up for it get to the zoo and be first in line when it opens in the morning and make your way to the cat cage before anyone else gets there and you should have a few minutes alone there.
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Hell yea man. All you have to do is know your top of the food chain. The beast is probably more physical, but the human has the ability to out think. Thinking works best when calm. Analyze the situation and be ready to use your surroundings. Pick up a rock and put that pussy down with a shot to the dome.
How I see it is the cat can kill me weather im afraid or not, so there is no need for the nerves. My chances of survival go through the roof if I stay calm and out think the animal. Remember the beast goes off pure instinct. Instinct 1. Survive. Instinct 2. Eat. Instinct 3. Reproduce. Hopefully number 3 doesn't happen. If you can show you are the dominant being the animal will instinctually flee unless it is retarded.
Durring your stare down with the animal notice its weakness'. Off the top of my head im thinking the panther has short limbs so do what you can to grab its front legs when it jumps towards you and hold it off you. Don't let it scratch you, that will hurt like a bitch. Try to get it on its back. Its best sense has to be its smell, so get a rock and hit in the nose. It will back down. I can't out run the animal, I can't out climb it. So I have to options, 1. jump in a river.. 2. Kill it/make it flee.
Don't go jump in the panther cage, I have no idea what im talking about im just going off my instincts.
If you find your self up against a grizzly bear I hope you have your 12 gage, or you have made your peace with G.O.D.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
I think that is a very dangerous strategy. If the tiger is already agitated and ready to pounce I don't think it will discourage it very much.
By staring it down you are basically challenging it to fight you. If the tiger isn't being aggressive you might succeed, but otherwise..
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Good luck out running a tiger. If im one on one with a tiger I don't see it being agitated unless its children are around. And again, stay calm and access the situation. Use your surroundings.
That black panther is the only carnivore I've ever spent some alone time with and I have to tell you no other carnivores ever affected me like that. It was hungry and I was there alone with it. Believe me when I say it stared me down and I was just food (nothing personal). There was no convincing it I was a dominant being. At least with a bear a little pepper spray will save your life. I would not want to bet my life that it would also work with the cat.
I'd do my best to make sure there were other people between me and the tigar.
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Instinct 2. Eat. If you can't show that you are the dominant being.. then...
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Haha now a person is easy to take down. Easily scared into a fetal position, and most are un knowledgable on survival techniques due living in a soft environment.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
Well, good luck to you too. Remember the circumstances we're discussing.
You are in a room...
Are you going to take your chances, relying on your staring abilities, being alone in a room with an agitated tiger?KilljoyKlown said:
Also, about using your surroundings, tigers can climb trees.
The best thing is to back off slowly, appear to be as nonthreatening as humanly possible, not look it in the eye, and hope for the best.
But if it's already out to get you and you don't have any weapons to defend yourself with you're most likely going to end up as lunch.
The following account is just to show that you don't mess with a tiger:
I once saw a documentary in which a tiger was shot in the belly by a tiger-hunter. It managed to get away and a deer-hunter came across it some time later. The tiger attacked out of pure fury (the experts in the documentary thought the tiger recognized the image of a man with a rifle as a 'baddie', so it was really just protecting itself the best way it knew how). The deer-hunter managed to shoot the tiger in the head a couple of times, while it was still some distance away, before fleeing into a tree. The tiger didn't even appear to notice that it was shot in the head. I think he got a few shots in from the tree but the tiger still managed to wound him. Eventually the tiger collapsed from blood-loss.
It could easily have turned out badly for the deer-hunter though and he had a rifle against an already weakened tiger.
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Enmos
Valued Senior Member
kx000
Valued Senior Member
Oh. Yea. You don't have to out run the tiger, just the fat guy.
I have not seen any science based answers on this topic so I figured I give it a try. Human evolution is all about surviving long enough to reproduce and then live long enough to insure the survival of our children so that they can reproduce and so on. If humans were not genetically predisposed to be afraid of death we would not live our lives in a way that was conducive to survival. Of course life is not so simple as to simply favor those who are most careful. There are competing evolutionary characteristics that provide other improved reproduction chances. Agression, problem solving skills, attachment to ones partner, etc., all are needed to more or less degrees to provide the greatest chance of passing on ones genetic code to another generation.
The bottom line is that we are probably afraid of death because our ancestors that did not have this fear were less likely to pass on their genetic code to another generation. We rationalize this fear, because making up answers to questions is another evolutionary trait (humans seem to have an inherent desire to find solutions even if they don't really have the information necessary to find correct solutions). I am as afraid of death as the next guy, but logically I realize that death is both inevitable and essentially meaningless. When I die I will cease to exist so I obviously won't care one way or another. It is also true that people are genetically predisposed to avoid pain, since pain is our bodies warning system that we are doing something harmful to our chances of survival (humans who disregard this warning oftened died prior to ensuring the survival of their ofspring). Sometimes we mistake fear of pain with fear of death, but I suspect that both are distinct, and both are important for humans. For some creatures that do much less thinking than humans, fear of pain may be sufficient for survival.
The bottom line is that we are probably afraid of death because our ancestors that did not have this fear were less likely to pass on their genetic code to another generation. We rationalize this fear, because making up answers to questions is another evolutionary trait (humans seem to have an inherent desire to find solutions even if they don't really have the information necessary to find correct solutions). I am as afraid of death as the next guy, but logically I realize that death is both inevitable and essentially meaningless. When I die I will cease to exist so I obviously won't care one way or another. It is also true that people are genetically predisposed to avoid pain, since pain is our bodies warning system that we are doing something harmful to our chances of survival (humans who disregard this warning oftened died prior to ensuring the survival of their ofspring). Sometimes we mistake fear of pain with fear of death, but I suspect that both are distinct, and both are important for humans. For some creatures that do much less thinking than humans, fear of pain may be sufficient for survival.