Why Are We So Scared to Die? How Do We Get Less Scared?

Soul Gum

by Victoria Hutchins

Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.9 • 560 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Let’s talk about death, baby. Today we’re asking: Why are we so afraid to die? Are we 21st century humans any different than Gilgamesh (remember Gilgamesh)? Who’s the most afraid of death: baby boomers, millennials or Gen-Z? Should you freeze your brain in case future humans figure out how not to die? What’s death meditation? Can Victoria talk about her spiritual breakthrough without sounding unbearably woo woo? How do we get less afraid to die???

JUMP AROUND:

I. disclaimers 0:37

II. what is death anxiety? 5:19

III. the paradox of being human (ernest becker) 8:09

IV. trying not to die across history (from gilgamesh to cryonics) 12:50

V. afterlife beliefs: then and now 17:13

ad break (are you proud of me or annoyed or both??)

VI. demographic differences in fear of death 20:03

a. nationality 20:49

b. religion 24:15

c. age 26:27

VII. my experiences with death anxiety 30:37

a. fear of being buried alive 33:53

b. false memories related to death 37:22

c. fear of oblivion 39:02

d. spiritual crisis 41:51

ad break

VIII. my experiences with death meditation 43:38

IX. my ego nap 51:44

SOURCES:

definition of death anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/death-anxiety

Collett-Lester Fear Of Death Scale (CL-FODS): Cuniah M, Bréchon G, Bailly N. Validation of the Revised Collett-Lester Fear of Death Scale in a French Population. https://tinyurl.com/4sp6rh5k

re: the paradox of being human: The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker

re: trying not to die across history: The Epic of Gilgamesh; cryonics (https://tinyurl.com/yckp6jsf); monkey testicle transplant (https://tinyurl.com/3w3svbtm)

re: gen Z attitudes towards death: https://tinyurl.com/bdf2u9yx

re: nationality and religious divides in attitudes towards death https://tinyurl.com/m6f9mepx; the Multidimensional Fear of Death Scale (MFODS; Hoelter, 1979; Neimeyer & Moore, 1994), DePaola, Griffin, Young, and Neimeyer (2003); Duff and Hong (1995); Alvarado, Templer, Bresler, & Thomson-Dobson, 1995)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, welcome back to Soulgum. Thank you for being here. How are you doing? I am doing well. I missed you. I know I released two episodes and then I went quiet. I would explain myself, but I feel like you don't really care, probably, right? So today,
0:23.5	we are going to be talking about death anxiety. Why are we so afraid to die, basically? And then
0:29.8	we're also going to talk about how do we get less afraid to die? Or what has that looked like
0:35.2	for me? What tools have been helpful for me?
0:38.5	Because that's definitely not a one-size-fits-all thing.
0:41.4	So obviously these are intense topics, right?
0:43.8	This episode will not be for everyone.
0:47.0	So I have some content warnings and disclaimers before we dive in here.
0:53.0	Number one, obviously we're going to be talking about
0:56.4	death extensively in this episode. I don't want to say don't listen if talking and thinking about
1:02.7	death is upsetting to you because, well, number one, I think it's upsetting to almost everyone to some
1:07.4	extent. And number two, I think this episode might be the most interesting to those
1:12.9	of you who are particularly anxious about death, or at least some of you. But if talking and thinking
1:19.4	about death is distressing to you, this episode is going to be distressing to you. So I will be here.
1:26.2	I promise I won't wait so long before I put out another episode
1:29.1	or I don't promise, but I'll try my best and just absolutely no offense taken if this is not the
1:34.5	episode for you, do what's best for you. Next, we're going to be talking about anxiety and mental
1:40.1	health here and I think this is abundantly obvious when I open my mouth, but I want to say it
1:45.9	anyway. I am not a doctor. I am not a mental health professional. I am the opposite of a mental
1:52.5	health professional. Okay. So anything I say in this episode, this is not advice to the extent it doesn't
2:00.0	resonate with you.
2:01.6	This is like a friend chat, you know, picture you and me, we're driving in the car, we're hanging out, we're talking about how we cope.
	...

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