Let's talk about dying - Peter Saul

We can't control if we'll die, but we can "occupy death," in the words of Dr. Peter Saul. He calls on us to make clear our preferences for end of life care -- and suggests two questions for starting the conversation. (Filmed at TEDxNewy.)

Talk by Peter Saul.

[michaelrauch]

I’ve been having panic attacks around dying lately I’m only 24

[shanx]

I just turned 19 and I have been experiencing panic attacks lately. I am scared of the inevitability of death.

[ShadowsHeat]

I don't think its so much that death pisses me off, its more like it pisses me off that the world will keep going without me.

Selfish I know.

[laurababarovic]

Terrified of death.. Just thinking about it makes me sad, because I can't imagine nothing. There is always tought, feeling, desire for something while alive..

[Ocasek]

People should talk/ponder about Death more often...

[leahdigiallonardo]

very very important to face and figure out this while you still can. believe me, I have been sick for 17 years.

[SilverMiraii]

Many years ago I was depressed because I feared death, I was trying to imagine what's nothingness, and that scared me in an unimaginable way, and made me severely depressed, after days and days, maybe weeks (I don't know how much that lasted, I lost the notion of time), of thinking about this from waking up to falling asleep, basically constantly only thinking about this for days and days.
A thought comforted me and made me feel at peace and be able to live my life as before, happily, and that thought was that, I'm alive now, I'm conscious now, I don't know what consciousness is, i don't know why my consciousness is in this particular body, this particular brain, or basically not knowing anything, but I know that I exist, that I think, and before I was alive, conscious, I didn't existed, or maybe I was, but eventually i died and re-emerged, but after I will die in this life, I will not exist again, so there will be the same conditions before I was born, and since the universe also came out of nothing seemingly, and time as well, even after the universe might die, there could be many universes, and many that might just come to exist, so basically if the same conditions will be met before I was born, and I don't think there's something that keeps track of what consciousness emerged and died (you see what I'm getting at), what would prevent my consciousness from re-emerging eventually ?
However recently probably because of this pandemic and isolation, I guess I forgot that chain of thought and started to be depressed again, I had a fear of death, it wasn't not even 2% as crippling or bad as before, but still the thought is there again, I was trying to imagine that, anything I do in this life won't matter and maybe I won't re-emerge, and that not existing again that thought is terrifying.


Now I feel in sort of limbo, not super depressed but not my normal mood where I can just be happy and not think about it, I'd say 95% of the day I think about day to day and am able to be happy, and 5% or less are thoughts of my mortality.

The problem is that all of it makes sense to me, that the conditions will be the same before my consciousness emerged so there's nothing that holds my consciousness back to re-emerge, basically live again in another form, and not to mention that everything that exists will always exist, in other forms, there's also the idea that energy cannot be created or destroyed, matter can, there's matter and antimatter, when they collide, they stop being matter, but it doesn't disappear, it becomes energy, so in a sense, the universe is just this energy that will always exist in one way or the other and there might be other universes, basically this energy is some sort of "god", even that name means nothing to me, I can only convince myself to believe something if I see it, experience it.
So for now it's a terrifying thought, it makes sense that I will live again in some form or way, from but since I never experienced it, it's still an unknown to me and it is scary, and I can only assume it will become more scary as I grow older. I hope that my mind will become less sharp and I will forget these thoughts.

One thing is certain, there is nothing I can do about it, if I fear it, it will not change anything, so the choice is between, live in fear, unhappy, or live happily and not think about it, but lately I did start to think about it again.

This is the reason I didn't want to have kids but now maybe I wanna, I was thinking they will be doomed to death, but maybe it's a conscious that existed before and I will re-emerge them, or maybe there's just one consciousness (you/me), and "we' live parallel to each other, everyone's lives, which is basically just one consciousness interacting with itself, but without knowing, in parallel. So I would give life to myself, I'd re-emerge another life for myself.

I don't have strong conclusions tbh, I have an intuition that we will live over and over but I never experienced it, or maybe i have and I don't know. Everything about existence is hard for me to understand, I should say, it's impossible for me to understand, there are some concepts that are just out of reach to my mind and I know I will and we will never be able to understand them.

[SerinaRosalea]

This is such an important message! I definitely don't want to die in a hospital of old age but at home surrounded by family anf familiar comforts

[exsimdr]

I have learned that I have lung cancer but I don't want to go through the treatments since I am old sixty five years old and, I have no friends or family members and I am homless now so I am going to let God take me home 🏠 and then be there with my mom and dad ☮️🙏🌎

[raysroom]

i like how he's chuckling as well as the audience its nice to see people bond like this over the idea of death

[snykea]

I am struggling with obsessive toughts about death and started to watch tv show about hospitals where death is always one of the principal caracters. Like the last sentences of this video, it brings acceptance of the fact that the death exists but it also gives me the feeling that every life matters and our death doesn`t men that all is in vain

[leonardomorales]

Man... This life truly trippes me out!

[keatonvoordeckers]

it’s amazing how the audience laughs when they realize how dreadful the conversations is getting which shows how we can still enjoy mortality

[killat]

2 words that scare me the most, Nothing, and Forever. Combine them both and it's my biggest fear.

[ErlendNukke]

I love life more after watching this

[ghst_dnce]

"Longevity means more old age, not more youth."

[simplybuyer]

I hope I die peacefully in sleep and soon. I am fear of my family dying around me. I am not sure why I fear death, maybe is the existence that I will miss

[serum]

“People wanna go to heaven.” But people don’t wanna die”

[floridaman]

I’m just 16 and I can’t sleep at night because the thought of death terrifies me. I hate fearing it and I hate knowing that it’s gonna happen.

[Fred-RIKA]

I see what you mean, and it's comforting words. I would like to always think like that. but since the single outcome of it all is death, you start to questioning the value of it all. This is as I said earlier a very sensitive subject, and I guess everyone have to find their own peace with it, and accept it. I have a hard time accepting it though.