On Monday, December 22, 2014 2:58:03 AM UTC, Brent wrote: On 12/21/2014 3:47 PM, 'Chris de Morsella' via Everything List wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > From: everyth...@googlegroups. com [mailto:everyth...@ googlegroups.com] On > Behalf Of Bruce Kellett > Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2014 3:27 PM > To: everyth...@googlegroups. com > Subject: Re: I signed up to be cryogenically frozen > > John Clark wrote: >> On Sun, Dec 21, 2014 , Bruce Kellett <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >An instinct for self-preservation is unrelated to whether or not >> you have a fear of death, or of oblivion >> >> Unrelated?? Don't be ridiculous! Why the hell do you imagine Evolution >> invented the fear of death in the first place? >>> Evolution did not "invent a fear of death". That is purely cultural, and is >>> not even associated with consciousness -- it comes only with self-awareness >>> and an inner narrative. Evolution gave living things an instinct for >>> self-preservation. But you can have such an instinct operating healthily >>> and still not fear death. Fear of death probably comes from a fear of the >>> unknown, and is linked to the fear of prolonged suffering. But oblivion is >>> oblivion -- it is not something to be feared because no-one has ever >>> experienced it, or can ever experience it. > Fear itself (for species that experience this sensation) can become an > evolutionary dead end... a paralyzing negative force that diminishes rather > than improves an individual organisms chances for survival. The fear of death > is often an example of this kind of paralyzing useless fear, providing no > evolutionary advantage. It is unlike say the -- fear/memory -- of something > hot, the fear being the useful quick shortcut to the executive mind of the > memory of past bad experiences with being burned by hot things. This is a > useful rapid shortcut to the forebrain that is clearly useful in evolutionary > terms. > Fear can either help the individual to act quickly or it can paralyze the > individual; while a healthy fear can deliver a lightening quick (possibly > life-preserving) alert to the conscious mind, paralyzing fear instead, is of > no use for an individual's survival, and can often be a distinct evolutionary > disadvantage. When someone is paralyzed with fear, they are worse than > useless, in a critical life and death situation.
>>I think that's right. I've never felt fear while in a life-threatening >>situation. I felt trepidation before choosing to enter in to the situation. And I've felt weak in the knees afterward. But during I've always felt complete calm. That has been my personal experience as well those times in my life when I have been faced with this scenario. During the period of intensity -- the mind can remain clear, calm and focused.... and afterwards one can feel weak in the knees and even get sick to one's stomach from the emotional aftermath of it all. I have only been in this state of mind a few times over the course of my life, and I have long pondered and been amazed at just how clear and calm, collected and in the present I was during those situations... doing what I needed to do; knowing clearly what it was I needed to do and acting to do it. I have also thought about the quality of the decision making and the actions I took -- with the objective of trying to decide -- post facto -- if what I actually did was the best course of action to take. Looking back I have been unable to find any fault with the -- super-normal clarity and calm decisiveness that drove me to act with urgency and immediacy. In other words, after thinking about it a lot I have concluded that the brain/mind acting in this super-normal processing mode brought about by the immediacy and intensity of the situation produced good decisions as well as rapid ones. -Chris Brent -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
