books or movies to overcome fear of death

[endoftheroad22]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any book or movie recommendations for things that helped you overcome your fear of death and SI? I am thinking of things like philosophy about letting go of the ego or documentaries about accepting death or dying peacefully.

 

[cat7802]

Listen to Abraham Hicks on Youtube - search her discussions on suicide. She talks about how every death is essentially a suicide and that release from death is the same as love.

 

[endoftheroad22]

Listen to Abraham Hicks on Youtube - search her discussions on suicide. She talks about how every death is essentially a suicide and that release from death is the same as love.

Thanks! Definitely going to check it out :)

 

[esse_est_percipi]

Plato's Apology, which depicts the trial of Socrates against the city of Athens (he was found guilty of corrupting the youth and teaching atheism, and later forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock).

There are passages in which he talks about death, where he says that it is not rational to fear death.
Socrates' reasoning is that death is either annihilation, so not to be feared, or it is a transition to a higher plane of existence, where he will be able to commune with the Greek heroes like Hesiod, Achilles, Homer etc, so in this case not to be feared either.

 

[endoftheroad22]

Plato's Apology, which depicts the trial of Socrates against the city of Athens (he was found guilty of corrupting the youth and teaching atheism, and later forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock).

There are passages in which he talks about death, where he says that it is not rational to fear death.
Socrates' reasoning is that death is either annihilation, so not to be feared, or it is a transition to a higher plane of existence, where he will be able to commune with the Greek heroes like Hesiod, Achilles, Homer etc, so in this case not to be feared either.

I remember reading that in college, but I bet I would see these passages through totally new eyes now.

 

[Nymph]

The OA

 

[endoftheroad22]

The OA

Holy moly, I love that show! Season 1 was epic, season 2 not as much.

 

[esse_est_percipi]

Also Lucretius and his long philosophical poem de rerum natura.

Argues for the annihilation of the person forever after death, based on Democritus' atomism, that everything in existence can reduced to atoms and there is no 'immaterial' soul.

Uses the symmetry argument to show that death is no more to be feared than existence before birth, i.e.:

Look back again—how the endless ages of time comes to pass
Before our birth are nothing to us. This is a looking glass
Nature holds up for us in which we see the time to come
After we finally die. What is there that looks so fearsome?
What's so tragic? Isn't it more peaceful than any sleep?

 

[Jellyfish42]

Ive watched a lot of liveleak and videos from /r/watchpeopledie. Im pretty much desensitized to death. However now I have trouble displaying sympathy for people who tell me they lost a relative or family member.

 

[RedDEE]

The movie Vanilla Sky.

 

[H2H2]

Im only worried about the process of dying nowadays. One book and one movie :

- The death of Ivan Ilych ( Tolstoy )

- Amour ( Haneke, 2012 )

 

[endoftheroad22]

Im only worried about the process of dying nowadays. One book and one movie :

- The death of Ivan Ilych ( Tolstoy )

- Amour ( Haneke, 2012 )

Awesome, thanks! I feel like Russians know a thing or two about death, for sure.

 

[esse_est_percipi]

Richard Sorabji: Self: Ancient and Modern insights about individuality, life and death.

this is pure philosophy though

 

[endoftheroad22]

Ive watched a lot of liveleak and videos from /r/watchpeopledie. Im pretty much desensitized to death. However now I have trouble displaying sympathy for people who tell me they lost a relative or family member.

Hmm, maybe I'll consider this plan B if the other recommendations don't help.

 

[TAW122]

Ive watched a lot of liveleak and videos from /r/watchpeopledie. Im pretty much desensitized to death. However now I have trouble displaying sympathy for people who tell me they lost a relative or family member.

I have done that as well in the past, and in addition to this, my own personal philosophy and understanding of death has helped me fight against my SI and also become less bothered, fearful of death.

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

The Discovery (2017 movie)

 

[endoftheroad22]

Richard Sorabji: Self: Ancient and Modern insights about individuality, life and death.

this is pure philosophy though

This seems like one of the more obscure recommendations! How did you hear about this book? What did you think of it?

 

[esse_est_percipi]

This seems like one of the more obscure recommendations! How did you hear about this book? What did you think of it?

Read it a long time ago.
Interesting discussions about personal identity, nature of consciousness, possibility of persistence of self after death, from different perspectives, i.e. buddhism, ancient greek philosophy.

Definitely gives you a sense that whatever the truth is, there is really nothing to fear about death.

 

[Pan]

Thanx for the Sorabji recommendation. I am definately going to check that out.

 

[whitefeather]

 

[TooConscious]

Fight Club was a good start for me. (And please no, 'you broke the rule' jokes)

Also sunset limited.