Fear of Death

The fear of death is confused with the fear of pain, which is a reality from day one. That applies to anyone who begins physical perception as an embryo. As a physical body, as a new one, a baby, there is no fear of death because there is no memory of that event. The anticipation of threats has to do with pain not with death.

It concerns unfavorable contact through the skin. This includes the sense of hearing which uses the skin or an eardrum for interpreting vibrations. Any movement which yields sensation has the potential for pain. That presupposes the possibility of pain, which may be interpreted as the precursor of death.

There is also the fear of becoming unconscious where one anticipated that this may result in death or in resumption of awareness. In a new body, one gets the idea that unconsciousness is temporary. There is this instinct that one finds which causes one to become unconscious but which again releases one as a conscious factor.

But that leads to considering if one may at some time, become unconscious and then never reawaken again. This leads to another type of fear of death. That is due to existential uncertainty.