Discussion How do you overcome the fear of "nothingness" when we die?

[royM]

I am afraid of the transition I would like to be painless, in the end we are only children of the stars

 

[Dead beat dad]

Hello guys

This is my first thread in this forum. FYI English is not my primary language but I will try my best to avoid misunderstanding in my writing.

I would like to discuss with you all how to overcome the fear of "feeling nothingness" when we die. Of course I cannot discuss this matter with someone who believe in a life after death in any kind shape or form.

If you think my fear is irrational and ridiculous, well what can I say? I know it looks ridiculous, but somehow I just don't know how to overcome this fear. That's why I need your insight on this matter.

I was born from Muslim parents, so I was taught that there is life after death since I was a kid. Life after death in Islamic teaching is similar with Christianity's or Judaism's. In my adult life, I became a skeptical and critically thinking person. So I don't believe in life after death anymore, I don't believe in existence of a soul in human body, I have accepted what scientist has concluded that human consciousness is an output from physical activities in brain. Therefore I shouldn't have worried about my soul will be getting roasted in hell for eternity anymore if I ctb, right?

But somehow it turns out that thinking and imagine what it feels like to live in nothingness is unimaginable for me and it scares me a lot. I know that as human, we all have "experienced" nothingness before we were born. Does it feel painful? Or scary? No, It doesn't. We haven't existed yet, our brains haven't formed yet to be able to experience reality. BUT knowing that the age of the universe is estimated 13,700,000,000 years and for that loooong time I could feel nothing except for the last 37 years (I am 40 years old now and assuming that I began aware of reality or able to memorize for the first time since I was 3 years old). 13.7 billion years is unimaginable long time for reality to exist from the beginning until now and I only able to experience it just for a super tiny little time of it. But I felt like I've been living for very long time, I am 40 years old now.

I mean... I kinda think that "living in nothingness" is useless. Being ceased is useless because let's say, human kind in next 100,000 years have invented technology to resurrect the dead. If I ctb tonight and people in the future decide to resurrect me, then I would feel like I just lost consciousness for 1 second and awake back to life. For that such long time like 100,000 years and I feel like just pass it in only 1 second, I feel like death is useless. And that's what scares me a lot to ctb.

What is your take on this irrational fear of mine, guys? I hope my writing is clear enough for you all :)

Hello brother, nice opening gambit and like the responses you've got. I hope they go some way to helping you explore and make peace with your conundrum.
I'm not sure we're programmed to self terminate as a normal operation.
We need the right combination of internal and external factors to allow us to override that failsafe (abused, debt, ill, bereaved etc).
When the fear, pain and hopelessness of life eclipses that of death then the failsafe is deactivated and fear turns to hope (you might be suffering either way, it's just down to net suffering of being alive and fear and pain in execution of CTB).
We want to CTB by the most prompt but painless means possible (and that in itself is a conundrum just about everyone I've talked to here grapples with), when this is identified we advance to the next level.
Nothingness, parallel dimensions, heaven and hell, whatever are more attractive than the current configuration.
For me processing these steps is helping me make peace with this process and helps me manage my fears of what happens after we CTB.
I genuinely hope you find your peace brother, in what ever form that takes.
DBD

 

[Empty Smile]

Hello brother, nice opening gambit and like the responses you've got. I hope they go some way to helping you explore and make peace with your conundrum.
I'm not sure we're programmed to self terminate as a normal operation.
We need the right combination of internal and external factors to allow us to override that failsafe (abused, debt, ill, bereaved etc).
When the fear, pain and hopelessness of life eclipses that of death then the failsafe is deactivated and fear turns to hope (you might be suffering either way, it's just down to net suffering of being alive and fear and pain in execution of CTB).
We want to CTB by the most prompt but painless means possible (and that in itself is a conundrum just about everyone I've talked to here grapples with), when this is identified we advance to the next level.
Nothingness, parallel dimensions, heaven and hell, whatever are more attractive than the current configuration.
For me processing these steps is helping me make peace with this process and helps me manage my fears of what happens after we CTB.
I genuinely hope you find your peace brother, in what ever form that takes.
DBD

Well put.

 

[Suicideisnirvana]

I don't have this fear. I hate life so thoroughly that my only fear is waking up again.

 

[Dead beat dad]

I don't have this fear. I hate life so thoroughly that my only fear is waking up again.

What was it Yoda said about Anger leads to fear. Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering?
The wisdom of Star Wars.
I'm sorry for your anger and where it has taken you brother.
I hope you can find peace.
DBD

 

[JadedGray]

I don't fear nothingness, when I think about it, it just seems disappointing but it's still better than what my life has been.

 

[Suicideisnirvana]

What was it Yoda said about Anger leads to fear. Fear leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering?
The wisdom of Star Wars.
I'm sorry for your anger and where it has taken you brother.
I hope you can find peace.
DBD

I'm sorry for your narrow-mindedness and how it has led you to spew such presomptuous platitudes in a sanctioned suicide forum.

 

[ztupidity]

Do something for yourself today. I know it'll be hard. Even if it's just hydrating your body.

You right, Sunny. It's so damn hydrating. It's so heavy. Sooo heavy. It's not even at the end of the month, but I feel like I want to give up. Tara Condel was right, she said "hope is a delaying disappointment".

Uhhh I'm so tired for this stupid one last tiny hope of solution

 

[lynn14]

Nothingness would only seem to pose a problem if there was something left to be done or said, or experienced. Of course we have our daily experiences and there is always something new to be seen or done or feel, until one day, suddenly, there isn't anything to be seen, or done, felt, or experienced. Death really means losing everything. Recently a youtuber who was documenting his terminal cancer documented his inability to eat anything besides lollies, since the tumor had caused such an obstruction in his gut. He lamented that he had already eaten his last meal, and that it was upsetting that he couldn't eat anymore. Feeling ready to CTB is knowing that you've already eaten your last meal. There are no more sandwiches. There is nothing else. So while the fear is only natural as others have already described, if you can bring yourself to a place of at least in part embracing that instead of fearing it, you'll be good to go into the sunset.

 

[Righttodie]

Hello guys

This is my first thread in this forum. FYI English is not my primary language but I will try my best to avoid misunderstanding in my writing.

I would like to discuss with you all how to overcome the fear of "feeling nothingness" when we die. Of course I cannot discuss this matter with someone who believe in a life after death in any kind shape or form.

If you think my fear is irrational and ridiculous, well what can I say? I know it looks ridiculous, but somehow I just don't know how to overcome this fear. That's why I need your insight on this matter.

I was born from Muslim parents, so I was taught that there is life after death since I was a kid. Life after death in Islamic teaching is similar with Christianity's or Judaism's. In my adult life, I became a skeptical and critically thinking person. So I don't believe in life after death anymore, I don't believe in existence of a soul in human body, I have accepted what scientist has concluded that human consciousness is an output from physical activities in brain. Therefore I shouldn't have worried about my soul will be getting roasted in hell for eternity anymore if I ctb, right?

But somehow it turns out that thinking and imagine what it feels like to live in nothingness is unimaginable for me and it scares me a lot. I know that as human, we all have "experienced" nothingness before we were born. Does it feel painful? Or scary? No, It doesn't. We haven't existed yet, our brains haven't formed yet to be able to experience reality. BUT knowing that the age of the universe is estimated 13,700,000,000 years and for that loooong time I could feel nothing except for the last 37 years (I am 40 years old now and assuming that I began aware of reality or able to memorize for the first time since I was 3 years old). 13.7 billion years is unimaginable long time for reality to exist from the beginning until now and I only able to experience it just for a super tiny little time of it. But I felt like I've been living for very long time, I am 40 years old now.

I mean... I kinda think that "living in nothingness" is useless. Being ceased is useless because let's say, human kind in next 100,000 years have invented technology to resurrect the dead. If I ctb tonight and people in the future decide to resurrect me, then I would feel like I just lost consciousness for 1 second and awake back to life. For that such long time like 100,000 years and I feel like just pass it in only 1 second, I feel like death is useless. And that's what scares me a lot to ctb.

What is your take on this irrational fear of mine, guys? I hope my writing is clear enough for you all :)

What is after ? No pain that I am facing right now and skipping the next couple decades filled with pain.

That at least I am sure. And that's all I care about. So hanging myself is great, I will skip this desperate charade and spare pain.

Darkness, nothingness, or sleeping through another billion years before being conscious in another life form, whatever it is, is welcome.
Because whatever will come will come anyway, why wait and suffer in the meanwhile and future ? Better for me to end it and skip this demeaning existence

 

[Final Escape]

I don't know how long it takes for a body to completely decompose, but by 10,000,000 years, there would be nothing left of you.

So unless they have some DNA of you stored somewhere, you being resurrected is highly negative.

Lol!

 

[Roberto]

Hello guys

This is my first thread in this forum. FYI English is not my primary language but I will try my best to avoid misunderstanding in my writing.

I would like to discuss with you all how to overcome the fear of "feeling nothingness" when we die. Of course I cannot discuss this matter with someone who believe in a life after death in any kind shape or form.

If you think my fear is irrational and ridiculous, well what can I say? I know it looks ridiculous, but somehow I just don't know how to overcome this fear. That's why I need your insight on this matter.

I was born from Muslim parents, so I was taught that there is life after death since I was a kid. Life after death in Islamic teaching is similar with Christianity's or Judaism's. In my adult life, I became a skeptical and critically thinking person. So I don't believe in life after death anymore, I don't believe in existence of a soul in human body, I have accepted what scientist has concluded that human consciousness is an output from physical activities in brain. Therefore I shouldn't have worried about my soul will be getting roasted in hell for eternity anymore if I ctb, right?

But somehow it turns out that thinking and imagine what it feels like to live in nothingness is unimaginable for me and it scares me a lot. I know that as human, we all have "experienced" nothingness before we were born. Does it feel painful? Or scary? No, It doesn't. We haven't existed yet, our brains haven't formed yet to be able to experience reality. BUT knowing that the age of the universe is estimated 13,700,000,000 years and for that loooong time I could feel nothing except for the last 37 years (I am 40 years old now and assuming that I began aware of reality or able to memorize for the first time since I was 3 years old). 13.7 billion years is unimaginable long time for reality to exist from the beginning until now and I only able to experience it just for a super tiny little time of it. But I felt like I've been living for very long time, I am 40 years old now.

I mean... I kinda think that "living in nothingness" is useless. Being ceased is useless because let's say, human kind in next 100,000 years have invented technology to resurrect the dead. If I ctb tonight and people in the future decide to resurrect me, then I would feel like I just lost consciousness for 1 second and awake back to life. For that such long time like 100,000 years and I feel like just pass it in only 1 second, I feel like death is useless. And that's what scares me a lot to ctb.

What is your take on this irrational fear of mine, guys? I hope my writing is clear enough for you all :)

For me it's a matter of gaining enough stress. It's difficult for me to confront nothingness in cold.

 

[Xaphous]

If there is just nothingness which I strongly don't believe, then there will be nothing to worry of since nothing is not even an experience itself.

 

[stbdchick]

It will go by without you realizing it; that's what death is, same as pre--birth.

Have you ever had anesthesia? I remember when I had my wisdom teeth pulled, breathing the nitrous and counting, and then seeing the doctor come towards me, and thinking, "Not yet, I'm awake!" But I was out before he got to me, next thing, I woke up and asked when we were going to start. It's not like normal sleep, you have an awareness of time passing when you sleep at night. IMO, it's more like a computer being shut off; you just stop until you're rebooted.

Death is that time when there's no reboot.

 

[Jean Améry]

Do you fear going to sleep every night? If not why not? In a way it's also 'nothingness' since your brain works at a much lower capacity and you're no longer conscious of it. In my mind that's pretty much what death is. Only permanent and with zero chance of dreams or nightmares.

If consciousness completely ceases upon death (which would seem the obvious result) you'll no longer be there to worry about anything, including about metaphysical notions as 'nothingness'.

The ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus put it this way: "Where we are death is not and where death is we are not". I believe there's literally nothing to fear at all. Death is a non-event which does not concern us: death = freedom of all experience including pain, worry, stress, doubt, nihilism, any unpleasantness to be experience on earh in any form...

 

[riverstyx]

When you're dead you're dead so I don't expect to be feeling or thinking anything at all.

The problem is the transition, but I know it's unavoidable and just a question of time before it happens to us all.

 

[Codieb1]

Our brain is what gives us the fear of nothingness. Survival instincts don't want to accept that "nothingness" is real. When aiming to CTB you just kinda have to push those thoughts aside and realise that once you're IN the state of nothingness, you won't actually realise that you're there.

 

[joshe]

I don't have that fear to begin with. The nothingness seems comfy to me.

 

[DoneWithThis]

To me. Born from Nothingness. And dying, returning to Nothingness. Returning home. Ti the source of creation. To the Nothingness everything is born from. Going home. Returning to the source, whatever we came from. Scary as in the sense of losing our individual identity, but essentially peaceful.

 

[Ralph334]

I don't remember anything before being born. I didn't feel ANYTHING. It's your ego that's telling you to fear not existing.

 

[not_a_robot]

Fear of nothingness is easy to overcome.
Because it is literally:
"nothing to fear."

 

[Blue Moon]

And that's what I'm afraid of.... I can't feel that "nothing". So let's say if I've been dead for 10,000,000 years and the living things in that time able to resurrect me, I'm so afraid to pass that 10,000,000 years just for 1 or 2 seconds.

Man, I know this is irrational but it bothers me a lot

It's funny, I've had similar thoughts and I'm surprised to see someone else express them. Although mine are slightly different. What worries me is that after you die you are doomed to repeat the same exact life again forever. Either because time is only an illusion and not actually linear or because after some insane amount of time my atoms will have the same chance alignment again. And it would feel literally instantaneous. The thought of living this same life over and over again and making the same mistakes is very scary.

 

[Sweet emotion]

Hello guys

This is my first thread in this forum. FYI English is not my primary language but I will try my best to avoid misunderstanding in my writing.

I would like to discuss with you all how to overcome the fear of "feeling nothingness" when we die. Of course I cannot discuss this matter with someone who believe in a life after death in any kind shape or form.

If you think my fear is irrational and ridiculous, well what can I say? I know it looks ridiculous, but somehow I just don't know how to overcome this fear. That's why I need your insight on this matter.

I was born from Muslim parents, so I was taught that there is life after death since I was a kid. Life after death in Islamic teaching is similar with Christianity's or Judaism's. In my adult life, I became a skeptical and critically thinking person. So I don't believe in life after death anymore, I don't believe in existence of a soul in human body, I have accepted what scientist has concluded that human consciousness is an output from physical activities in brain. Therefore I shouldn't have worried about my soul will be getting roasted in hell for eternity anymore if I ctb, right?

But somehow it turns out that thinking and imagine what it feels like to live in nothingness is unimaginable for me and it scares me a lot. I know that as human, we all have "experienced" nothingness before we were born. Does it feel painful? Or scary? No, It doesn't. We haven't existed yet, our brains haven't formed yet to be able to experience reality. BUT knowing that the age of the universe is estimated 13,700,000,000 years and for that loooong time I could feel nothing except for the last 37 years (I am 40 years old now and assuming that I began aware of reality or able to memorize for the first time since I was 3 years old). 13.7 billion years is unimaginable long time for reality to exist from the beginning until now and I only able to experience it just for a super tiny little time of it. But I felt like I've been living for very long time, I am 40 years old now.

I mean... I kinda think that "living in nothingness" is useless. Being ceased is useless because let's say, human kind in next 100,000 years have invented technology to resurrect the dead. If I ctb tonight and people in the future decide to resurrect me, then I would feel like I just lost consciousness for 1 second and awake back to life. For that such long time like 100,000 years and I feel like just pass it in only 1 second, I feel like death is useless. And that's what scares me a lot to ctb.

What is your take on this irrational fear of mine, guys? I hope my writing is clear enough for you all :)

I'm very afraid of this too. Knowing that we are alive now and will be dead, FOREVER! That breaks the hell out of me. Thousands of years from now no one will know we ever existed. It's just very morbid and freaky thought that I think about way too often and would rather not.

 

[Pan]

Don't fear nothingness—it is an impossibility. Read the bhagavadgita. It teaches that you will forever - AS YOU FOREVER. This time and space are essentially irrelevant. You are you forever. I recommend Dr.Robert Lanza's "biocentrism". You have nothing to fear; you have created this universe. Life begins and ends with you. At death, you are free to choose and compensate for
Errors, regrets and the like. You pay for bad karma in this life; in you new life, you are free. and cleansed, ready to take on your new life===forever and ever.

Pcleansed

 

[Deadbeforenov16th]

I feel like if you're still scared of this, you're definetly not ready to go.

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

Here's how I've come to terms with nothingness after death....

Do you remember long ago, back before you were concieved?

No?

Nothing?

It's the same. You were nothing before you were born, and you'll be nothing after your gone.

By the way, welcome to the board!

This. Nothing left to say. I won't suffer anymore.

 

[Shero]

Nothing, i embrace it.

 

[justwantdeath]

I'm convinced of the afterlife due to NDE accounts, as well as accounts of reincarnation, but lets say there is no afterlife. The universe will likely collapse back into a singularity and another big bang will occur. Say this process repeats every 20 billion years or so and does so indefinitely. You will eventually be born again in another universe with 100% certainty. The same energy that turned into matter and eventually became you will eventually become you again. You'll live many lives as animals or plants, and once in a while, you'll be lucky enough to be born as an intelligent being, hopefully in a better world. So your consciousness will never actually end, it will only change states. Just my two cents.

 

[Bzrluvtriangle]

Do you fear dreamless sleep? I don't. I wish there was a pill that would make me sleep forever.

 

[Pan]

Hello guys

This is my first thread in this forum. FYI English is not my primary language but I will try my best to avoid misunderstanding in my writing.

I would like to discuss with you all how to overcome the fear of "feeling nothingness" when we die. Of course I cannot discuss this matter with someone who believe in a life after death in any kind shape or form.

If you think my fear is irrational and ridiculous, well what can I say? I know it looks ridiculous, but somehow I just don't know how to overcome this fear. That's why I need your insight on this matter.

I was born from Muslim parents, so I was taught that there is life after death since I was a kid. Life after death in Islamic teaching is similar with Christianity's or Judaism's. In my adult life, I became a skeptical and critically thinking person. So I don't believe in life after death anymore, I don't believe in existence of a soul in human body, I have accepted what scientist has concluded that human consciousness is an output from physical activities in brain. Therefore I shouldn't have worried about my soul will be getting roasted in hell for eternity anymore if I ctb, right?

But somehow it turns out that thinking and imagine what it feels like to live in nothingness is unimaginable for me and it scares me a lot. I know that as human, we all have "experienced" nothingness before we were born. Does it feel painful? Or scary? No, It doesn't. We haven't existed yet, our brains haven't formed yet to be able to experience reality. BUT knowing that the age of the universe is estimated 13,700,000,000 years and for that loooong time I could feel nothing except for the last 37 years (I am 40 years old now and assuming that I began aware of reality or able to memorize for the first time since I was 3 years old). 13.7 billion years is unimaginable long time for reality to exist from the beginning until now and I only able to experience it just for a super tiny little time of it. But I felt like I've been living for very long time, I am 40 years old now.

I mean... I kinda think that "living in nothingness" is useless. Being ceased is useless because let's say, human kind in next 100,000 years have invented technology to resurrect the dead. If I ctb tonight and people in the future decide to resurrect me, then I would feel like I just lost consciousness for 1 second and awake back to life. For that such long time like 100,000 years and I feel like just pass it in only 1 second, I feel like death is useless. And that's what scares me a lot to ctb.

What is your take on this irrational fear of mine, guys? I hope my writing is clear enough for you all :)

It make complete sense; I think you are suffering from existential depression; and your ongoing encounter with nothingness relates more to your philosophical tendencies. It is unfortunately one the most treatment resistant depression out there.