The fear of death is innate.

There are two main categories relating to the fear of death, i.e.

  1. The conscious fear of the threat of death
  2. The unconscious or subliminal primal fear pulsating within depths of the mind.

1. The conscious fear of the threat of death
As programmed, all humans would fear the threat of death consciously [logically], but for all humans such a conscious fear of death is also inhibited and suppressed most of the time so that humans can function consciously.
Any one who has a constant [abnormal] fear of death at the conscious level would relatively be considered psychologically and mentally sick, which is Thanatophobia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_anxiety_(psychology
Those who has such a sickness should seek psychiatric help.

2. The unconscious or subliminal primal fear pulsating within depths of the mind.
It is no doubt the threat of death generate fears but as in 1 above this fact of life is inhibited and suppressed at the conscious level but not at the subconscious level.

It is also a known fact what is activated at the subconscious [subliminal] level will manifest itself [most of the time] [more compelling] in various forms without the experiencer understanding/knowing its root causes.

This subliminal fear of death in combination with self-consciousness generate a suppressed form of cognitive dissonance and existential crisis brewing at the basement of the mind. This terrible dissonance is often manifest as angst, anxieties, worries, mental pains, lost, helplessness, despairs, psychological tremblings. pangs, etc. at the conscious level. Such terrible feelings are like an itch where one cannot find the exact spot to scratch.
However the majority has naturally veered [driven] toward a psychological balm, i.e. religions to soothe this terrible angst. Believe [god, etc.] and viola the pangs of angst suddenly disappear.

The Eastern religions [Buddhism, Jainism, some Hindu religions, etc.] on the other hand take its bull by the horns and face the issue directly at the rational psychological level to deal with it by tuning the relevant neural circuit to strengthen the necessary modulators to deal with the angst.

Thus the “Fear of Death” [inhibited as a subliminal angst] is THE Primary Motivator of Religions and other human activities.

With the advent of religions to deal with the terrible dilemma, they are exploited and abused by others for various purposes [political [control of the masses], social, economics, romance, love, money, etc.] but these are secondary motivators not the primary motivator.

Interesting post … very interesting if I understand you correctly and your assertions are true.

Your comments ring true … seem logical … feel intuitively true.

The various ‘balms’ … religions … cultural traditions/customs … mythology and so on served a noble purpose. Nonetheless, they remain a ‘band-aid’ solution.

Perhaps humanity is approaching a new threshold in consciousness … bring the subliminal primal fear resident in the subconscious into the light of day … consciousness. This idea dovetails nicely with one of surreptitious’s comments … paraphrasing … each individual must confront his/her own fear of death … ergo … his/her own demons.

Would the ‘100 monkey effect’ facilitate … expedite the process? For example, if those who managed to cross this bridge talked about it … wrote about it and so on … it may become contagious.

Okay, what then is your current “situation”?

How close to actual death are you now? How much actual death have you experienced in your life? Do you have any religious beliefs that allow you to imagine that, yes, immortality and salvation are in your future?

How much do you have to lose if were to die tomorrow? People that you love, people that love you, experiences that you cherish, a life that is bursting at the seams with much that fulfills and satisfies you?

Also, how much pain is there in your life now that death will take away?

In other words, to what extent are you talking about death here generally, “philosophically”? Or of the actual existential death in which you – and “I”? – decompose and return to dust.

Just to add that a-priori information is not the same as observational info. When you realize as a child that you are going to die and get scared, that is not the same as instinctual survival information already built into your brain. If you never told a child they will die and they never experienced seeing it or learned of it, they would not be afraid of it - naturally.

K: first things first, the child struggling to keep his head above water is not afraid of death.
they have no sense of death… the struggle to survive is the innate aspect, not the fear of death…
the two have nothing to do with each other…every single creature born on earth struggles
to survive as that is innate in every single creature on earth

as a former swim teacher of 20 years, I can state that that infants only have three innate
fears, of snakes, of the dark and of falling… that’s it…that is the list of children’s innate fears…
every thing else is learned…

Kropotkin

Give an example. The fear of death is a relative denial of a corresponding time left to live. Let’s say a 75 years old man knowing he has say, 5 years left, tjinks in terms of relative time, hoping that 5 years will spmejow sliw down, as it approaches time zero, counting down, making it last longer then it actually is, by stretching this horizon of space-time toward infinity.
This is a denial of sorts and what happens is exactly opposite but then the quantitative infinity is qualified as a quality of space time in the form of eternity, with no difference between them at the time of its occurance.

What changes most likely has been described in OBE’s-as a change of perspective from an internal to an outside source of perception:
Such RX to allay the fear are very common, but are they merely psychosomatic constructions or, are they something much more?

Good point!

Can we accurately circumscribe the boundaries between a-priori information and observational information?

I think we are often trying to do that [and mostly failing lol], then the difficulty is most simple at root, that consciousness is subjective and info more objective. It gets pushed into our consciousness e.g. with instincts, but when the brain does that its like two systems trying to do the same thing, only in the exchange the physical a-priori info is necessarily changed. - why our instincts are as much a mystery as anything external.

Amorphos … once again you bring our e-exchange to a very interesting place. :slight_smile:
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The notion of monogamy comes to mind. Both genders of the human species are hard wired … a priori … to engage sexually with any member of the opposite sex … or at least almost any member … absolutely necessary for the sole purpose of propagation of the species.

This a priori information comes into conflict with the man made construct of monogamy and morality … the result being a real shit storm … since time immemorial.

How many other instances of conflict are a result of the same phenomenon?

Whatever issues you can raise can be easily verified by empirical evidence if one were to reflect deeply and widely.

It is not easy for most to face the question of mortality on the conscious level. It is only possible by some hard work in re-wiring the relevant inhibitors to be stronger.

But what is critical is for the majority to understand how much their resultant acts are linked to the root causes of the cognitive dissonance and existential dilemma.
For example, theists need not give up theism [better if they can] but they need to understand why they must believe in an illusory god is because they are driven subliminally by that inherent cognitive dissonance pulsating at the basement of their mind. Thus they have no choice at present but to believe in a God as a balm to soothe the terrible existential angst.

If they understand such a psychological mechanics, they are likely to pause rather than act spontaneously into defensive mode [even kill non-believers] every time they mis-perceived any criticism against theism as a critical threat.

Critical point is humanity must find fool proof alternative spiritual methods to deal with that inherent unavoidable psychological and terrible pulse from the basement of the minds of the majority to replace religions [band aids] which will be net negative to the well being of human in the near future.

I have noticed, that in some, the fear of life and living, actually pawns the fear of death.

Both are learned processes.

I would lose absolutely nothing if I were to die tomorrow

That may, in a sense, be a good way to think. But what about the others in your life?
Since I do not know your life in any shape or form, your words may be true.

But if you were to quietly sit in the morning, every morning, sipping your coffee or tea, whatever, listening to Debussy or Chopin or Rachmaninoff, or slow jazz or whatever it is which brings beauty into your mind, in your beautiful solitude ~~ then would you come to feel that you had lost nothing at all?

Anyway, have you ever sat down (or stood lol) with pen and paper or computer and wrote down all of the positives, the blessings, the gifts, the little streams of silver lining, etc. in your life? I’m speaking of those which money cannot buy since to me they are usually more valuable than the others.

Is there not anything, something, in your life, which you haven’t yet achieved and yet you might wish that you still could?

You might wish to have written on your headstone ~ “I have lost nothing through dying”.

It is interesting to point out that the appreciation of natural versus unreal or simulated a (effects) in life have development development. The aesthetic sense grows side by side with the its fundamentals, namely existential concerns of immediacy.
The aesthetic therefore is a product concurrency, being a secondary differentiation, folding in on itself, where ‘It’, represents the breaking away of the reflection of/from a prr-reflexive consciesness, real or supposed

The basic existential preform consists of pure response , and this is what is instinctive or innate in pre conscious beings,.this is why death is not innate but learned, as is with aesthetic sensibility.

Can we fear the loss of an instinctual level of existence? No, because a purely unconscious pre reflexive, non aesthetic life has no conception of death, other thenthe immediate effects of the effects of the causes of death.

Death is a transcendence, between causes and effects, and it entails loss, and through the increasing subtle channelling of effects slowly developing a sense of autonomy through similar gain of control mechanisms

For these reasons I think the fear of death is learned and not innate.

An interesting collection of notions/concepts and associated theories has emerged in this OP:

  1. a priori information … as in information hard wired into our brain

  2. two wildly different systems trying to operate inside one brain

  3. the basement of the mind … as in subconscious

  4. observational information … as in consciousness

  5. the foundation of the mind … as in (insert here)

  6. the inward journey … as in introspection

  7. the outward journey … as in conquest

:sunglasses: the conflict as a result of journeys in diametrically opposite directions

  1. the ‘Cloud’ … as in cloud computing

  2. the Noosphere … as in enveloping both the biosphere and atmosphere.

There are no others since I am a loner and have nothing to do with anyone anymore

Which is just as well as I am probably not going to be here for much longer anyway

There Is a cure, the use of the very bottom line in the sphere of fear: use fear and it’s trappings instead of it abusing you
.make fear your friend.

What a delightful suggestion Meno.

Emotions are personal … ergo: emotions are like family.

Here’s a fictitious conversation with St Francis of Assisi:

St Francis: Hello brother fear … nice of you to visit me again. Stay as long as you want because I know you are here to help me.

Brother Fear: I keep coming back because you hear me but never listen to me.

St Francis: I’ll try harder to listen to you today … tell me why you’ve come today.

Brother Fear: I want to help you make the right choice at the next fork in the road along your journey through life.

St Francis: OK … how will I know which path to take?

Brother Fear: It will be the path you don’t want to take. The path will be strewn with briars that will cause unspeakable pain and suffering.

St Francis: So your saying sister pain and sister suffering want to visit with me too.

Brother Fear: Yup!

And look at what happened to him.