Fearing Death with BJ Miller
Our podcast is hosted on Spotify and Anchor.
Mortal fear is the mother of all fears and in a class by itself because its source is inside us. It’s not easy to pin down and deal with in the same way you would a phobia of some external threat like snakes or heights. And unlike snakes or heights, the object of this fear is inevitable. In this session we will explore how the fear of death shows up and discuss ways of addressing it so that you can thrive with reality and not be crushed by it.
Show Notes:
0:00 Introduction
2:21 Defining "mortal fear”, the fear of dying
6:40 Regret at end of life
8:45 How to think about denial, especially as a coping mechanism
10:38 Understanding anticipatory grief
15:03 Differentiating between fear of dying and fear of death
17:43 “Treatment” for mortal fear
21:25 Fear of death being related to a fear of missing out
27:03 The “wellness" movement as being at odds with the idea of death, wellness as an idea of working with what we have
30:48 How to minimize regret when in the moment we don’t feel like we’re maximizing our time
37:39 Thinking of the dead not really being gone when we hold them in our minds. The helpfulness of ritual
39:10 Beyond Biocentrism: exploration of quantum physics as relates to feeling alive and the idea of death
43:55 Tension between wanting to live life fully, while being engaged in life, but also dealing with life’s to-do’s
52:16 How can you encourage people to get emotionally involved with people you know are dying?
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