Posting in this thread indicates that you have read and understood the terms and conditions included in the link below, and consent to participate in this research.
By participating you also acknowledge that you are above the age of 18.

Hi people,
My name is Douglas Teoh, an undergrad student majoring in Psychology from HELP University College, Malaysia. I’m currently conducting a research on death, titled Conceptualizing Death: A Qualitative Research using Online Forums. I would like to know more about what you guys think about death, and from your input, I hope to come up with a conceptual framework of death.

Before I post the questions, though, I need to tell you guys a little bit about participating in my research first (you can read more about it in the attached document). You may comment, argue and discuss freely about the topic.
You can choose to drop out at anytime, by refusing to comment further. I have also told the admin that he/she can choose to close the thread at anytime, so if you think the discussion is spiraling out of control or that the thread’s doing no good or causing more negative problems than good, you can drop your admin a message, or talk to me about it. If you want to know more about the research, you can ask me about it here, or mail me at teoh_douglas@yahoo.com. I strongly encourage you to read the letter to participant as well as the informed consent I have included in the following link because it gives you more information on the study and a better understanding of what informed consent in this research entails.

Links:
Letter to Participants: http://www.mediafire.com/?cakzgkgqxzfgqp3
Informed Consent: http://www.mediafire.com/?xn7ss90d745spyn

Now that that’s done with, I would like to kick-start the discussion by asking you guys:

What does death mean to you?
Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?

*For the fourth question - it doesn't necessarily have to be near death experiences for yourself - it can be significant events that you relate to death that you think plays a part in your life. For example, the death of a relative, a pet. Or even seeing someone almost killed, or seeing an aging person - anything significant that you think contributes to your own idea of death at all is relevant.

I’d also like to ask you guys to leave here one aspect of yourself that you are comfortable disclosing and identify with e.g. age, gender, race, religion, hometown, etc.
If you have anything else regarding the topic you wish to comment or ask questions about, please feel free to do so =)

This post has been edited by mktu12629: Jan 12 2011, 10:22 PM

What does death mean to you?
Nothing
Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
Nowhere / science
What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
None, had enough of life?
Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
We came not by choice and we shall go anytime.

Age: 42
gender: Male
race: Chinese
religion: None
hometown: Not relevant, I settled in KL 33 years ago.

What is there to conceptualize about death? Religious people may want an answer and cause of suicide is more of the social concern than what death means.

Hi 3dassets, thanks for responding. Firstly, I'd just like to clarify my purpose of doing this research (you can also read my letter to participant, I think you might be able to understand more if you do so). I hope to bridge the gap between existential philosophy as well as psychology by proposing a framework as to how people conceptualize death. This is very important because in existential psychotherapy - a therapy method focusing on existential concerns as a way to deal with people's psychological problems, has no solid research-based framework/theory that it's based upon. Through research, however, this is possible.

Dealing with your question "What is there to conceptualize about death?" My premise that death is of utmost importance is because death plays a role in life - a very crucial one. This area (death) is covered by many philosophers, such as Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, and Albert Camus, A very well known psychiatrist - Irvin Yalom (one of the founders of existential psychotherapy) also states this: "Life and death are interdependent, they exist simultaneously, not consecutively; death whirs continuously beneath the membrane of life and exerts a vast influence upon experience and conduct". His premise, not surprisingly, states that death is at the root of almost all human psychology - behavior, emotions and thoughts. Following this, I am conducting a research to come up with a grounded theory that can hopefully be useful to the field of psychology (especially therapy).

Sorry if that's a bit long, just wanted to clarify to you; if you find that you don't understand or disagree, I still welcome your opinions, it's good to hear from people regarding my research xD

Now that that's over... I'd like you to clarify a few things xD
Firstly, you said that your idea of death came from nowhere/science; can you explain that bit?
Secondly, can you also elaborate on the idea that "we came not by choice and we shall go anytime"?

I don't know that this interpretation will be accurate, but I see that you generally have a negative perception/feeling towards death here, even though you mentioned that you feel nothing about death (Had enough of life?). While you claim that death has no impact on you, the idea of finitude - which in essence is the limited human lifespan (because of death) affects you (also "we shall go anytime").

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I really hope to shed some insight from you as well as try to make this discussion a worthwhile one =)

What does death mean to you?
Nothing, death is dead and the ultimate end to me so it means full stop, hence nothing.
Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
Nowhere / science, My understanding of living things as a whole is based on science and the theory of evolution, we are an animal body and it has a life span, when there is a beginning, there is an end.
What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
None, had enough of life? Only mean something when we thought of leaving behind the people we know and when these people die, memories of us no longer relevant, unless we are able to leave contribution for the next generation that are prominent enough to be recorded in history, otherwise we cease to exist.
Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
We came not by choice and we shall go anytime, that is the reality exclude the complicated emotion. Sad? Its your own emotion towards the meaning of life, not mine because it is influenced by the question of purpose, many people want to think we are here for a purpose while others don't.

According to your study, my interpretation of death is negative, what is the characteristic of positive? My understanding of psychology/ therapy is there are no right or wrong like math only patterns, hence your own life experience and studies is everything you've got. In other words, your age, gender, living circle and education background to where and which era you are brought up is all you have to make judgments. In this case, I am older and have done the things that are beyond your knowledge and experience, particularly things that are not documented because it is ever improving.

If you are not married nor had sex, you are not qualify in the subject even if you read and watched video about it, I also don't think that suicide is wrong, it is just a social standards, not everybody wants to be somebody or the same thing and most that I know don't want answers to the meaning of life. I accepted the facts and know who & what I am. Ok, analyze me.

Okie, thanks for your input. Firstly, I apologize, because I didn't mean to interpret nor analyze what you are. I'm only trying to understand your ideas better, which were vague in the first post. Secondly, I wasn't trying to push my idea of death onto you either, I apologize again if you got that impression. I wasn't saying that your idea of death was a sad idea - i'm merely saying that you seem to have a negative viewpoint of death. This is in comparison with for example, people who think that death is a transition to a better stage in the afterlife. I didn't mean to say that you are a sad person for thinking such a thing, nor it was my intention to do so. And you were right in saying that there is no right or wrong in psychology, and I am working towards a more scholarly understanding - while taking into consideration life experiences - such as yours, which is why I chose to do a qualitative research. I agree that there is more to knowledge than to reading textbooks, and this is why my pursuit of the topic at hand is one that gives people an opportunity to talk about what they want to tell in a open-ended way. I believe that everybody has their story to tell, and this makes the study of psychology more human, and more experiential, rather than theoretical ideas based on nothing but statistical probabilities.

And thank you again for making the effort to elaborate on your previous post - I see your points a lot clearer now, and again I apologize if I made you feel like I was insulting you or analyzing you based on whatever limited knowledge I had, which was not my intention from the beginning. I misunderstood your answers to the questions as 1. Death meant nothing to you, 2. You felt nothing about death and 3. Your idea of death came from nowhere/science. I saw them literally as they are, which was completely wrong, and I only understood what you meant after you explained it in your second post.

This post has been edited by mktu12629: Jan 12 2011, 01:15 AM

No apology needed, I like to know what is positive perception towards death since I have the negative part in your context of understanding, was it because I excluded emotional interpretation? Was it imaginative after life and reincarnation sort of things? Human don't need to know what we are to live until today, we only care about who we today and who we will be in the future and perhaps will think about what is install after death at old age.

Then thanks for understanding =) I would say that not exactly. It is as you put it, some people think that there's a purpose to life and some don't. Perhaps optimistic/pessimistic would be better words? Some people view death as an entry-way to heaven - and that gives death a positive connotation. To you, death is an end, full stop; and that we came not by choice - I was thinking that this is perhaps a more pessimistic view than the death is an entry-way to heaven view? But I think I see your point now, just because someone thinks that after death, you cease to exist, doesn't mean that the view of death is necessarily negative, because it is personal? Indeed, some people I know think of Heaven as a place that is equivalent to Hell, and that they think that eternity = suffering, death = a relief. In that case... I see your point. Thanks xD If not... please point out what's inaccurate again.

Is there anything else you'd like to add to what's been said so far or for me to clarify?

Again thanks for responding =)

This post has been edited by mktu12629: Jan 12 2011, 09:40 AM

Ah... you should indicate eternity, heaven and hell in your question then. Because death is full stop, my opinion isn't what your sought and there is no emotion.

You might wanna put your letters in spoiler since most are unwilling to download them.
And so, back to your questions

What does death mean to you?
Death, is death. We sin and we die.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
The Bible

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
I don't think about death, because there are no reasons to why should I think so. We were borned to live, so live life to the fullest, no?

Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
Have not met any. But I ain't sure if it counts, a car hit me from the back and surprisingly only the bumper came off. God's blessing, since we were actually kinda speeding.

Age: 19
Gender: Male
Race: Chinese
Religion: Christian
Hometown: Cheras

Ah, on the contrary, I'm very interested in any ideas about death. I'm interested in personal ideas of death - and your opinion reflects that - death is full stop, no emotion. That's an idea. So you did answer my question (and I've actually got many responses from another forum that reflects your idea). I'm hoping to get a generalizable framework - that can apply to most, if not all people. Eternity, afterlife may be themes in studying about death, but the lack of it is also a theme worth looking into as well.

Hi xHj09, thanks for responding. Regarding spoiler... I'm thinking about it, thanks for mentioning. Ah, okie. So your idea of death is as a consequence of sin, is that correct? Ahh.. and I think I need to clarify - personal experiences that you connect with death might be any significant event - like death of a relative, even the death of a pet. It doesn't have to be near death experiences only. I'll modify that in the first post... Sorry if I wasn't clear enough on that xD

hi, i'm also a HELP psych student =)
age: 20
gender: female
race: chinese
religion: buddhist (according to IC) / personal view - Agnostic (where the existence of God is still questionable)
hometown: kuala lumpur

1. Death is the end.
2. the idea of death starts with the first existence of human beings.
3. Fear, numbness, melancholy
4. the death of anyone, even of strangers. It makes me think more about the frailty of life itself. It leads me to question our existence and the meaning of life.

just one question for you, will i be credited at least 1/2 hour for participating in youer survey?? haha...(just kidding ) hope my answers help!

by the way, if u're interested in 2nd hand books for leisure, plz visit http://adf.ly/DL6d i can conveniently COD to u =)

This post has been edited by GothicLolita: Jan 15 2011, 06:30 PM

[

What does death mean to you?
It is when a life ceases.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
It is like asking where the meaning of dirt came from. Dirt is dirt to any person of any ethnicity, or most animals. Death is tangible in many ways - living beings die, but their corpses remain. All beings with visual ability, sentient or otherwise, would be able to recognise (though not always comprehend) death, a fact of life, a cyclical, inevitable physical process, not a theological debate. Death is not an idea.

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
Sadness. Mortality. Vulnerability. Fear. Anguish. Depression.


[/quote]

Haha, no worries
My grandpa died when I was 12. From what I remembered, he smiled when I looked at the coffin. So I'm thinking death could also means that you have put down all the lifely issues.

What does death mean to you?
The idea of death doesn't scare me more than it used to be before. Previously I was afraid of death because our consciousness will simply gone, erased from history and we have no idea what happens to the world after that. I think some philosophers called this angst, the anxiousness of death since death reconsiders attitude towards life, how insignificant it is. When I was young, I believed that since life is insignificant - it is therefore an utmost important cause to leave a mark in history, because history is the only way that reaffirms your existence. Think of all the lives before this, the poor and the unfortunate, they never had a chance to tell their story - I mean who hears from them anymore?

Therefore death played a big part in organizing my world view, that our perception towards the world is insignificant. Death made me think that life is like a stage or a movie, and we're our own main actor and how significant the play is depends on your actions. Why I said that death doesn't scare me anymore is the fact that like a movie; it doesn't really matter if it is short or long - what really matters is the significance of the movie. You direct your own movie, whether it is a comedy, drama, tragedy or even action is up to you. Since nobody likes a boring movie, I always tried my best in all the actions in my life, especially education and career to make it significant and interesting. If it is a short movie, then I'll be comfortable thinking that I did my best; just like the feeling you convinced yourself you did your best in an exam. If it is a long movie, I hope in the long time frame I have achieved sometime significant or memorable, so that the movie is remembered in history.

Death has also led me to think that money is not an ultimate answer for everything. It is good to have money, it is not good to base your life on it. I mean what do you really get from money? You will never bring materiality to your grave. If you did let your kids inherit your wealth, it won't last few generations. Therefore I despise people that think money is everything, people that keep thinking how much salary they will get or how much profit they will gain.

On contrary however, there is the other side of my world view. It is a rather selfish world view, I think. Because in the end in a movie the only important thing is what the main actor do, not other actors. Therefore I have this mindset that I don't pay much care or attention on what other people did, because it doesn't really matter. And I also will stubbornly refuse to learn anything that I think is useless or a waste of my time, cooking for example. I already figured this out since I'm young, and I was pretty sure that my world view that life is a movie is quite original. But in essence, death played a major part in formulating this world view of mine.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
From a secular point of view, that there is really nothing left when we are dead. From history too, because dead people in the past are not even remembered in history, what is the point of life? This thinking sometimes lead me to a point of view that herostradic fame is quite rational, if you never heard: Herostratus burned down Temple of Artemis (one of Seven Ancient Wonders) to become famous. He is punished to death, but at least his name is recorded in history, will your name be even recorded in history?

I read a lot on philosophy too, and become very interested in existentialism. Like Kierkegard said, we are responsible for finding meaning to our own life. Therefore I think that passion for your career is very important, if not you will be doing something you don't like for the rest of your life. In the end your life becomes meaningless and boring. And remember, nobody likes boring movies.

The most important influence I guess is my appropriation that life is a movie. It makes me think that how long or short your life is, doesn't matter. Somehow the same idea is also reflected back by Shakespeare and de Barca's ideas that life is a stage.

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
To be honest, now I don't fear death. I doesn't matter to me when it comes. Maybe the only feeling is that I'm satisfied that I have done my best in life, well like what you feel in exams. Some people find my attitude towards death scary, they ask what about your family? Well, for me your relationship towards your family is as best as you want them to regard you after death. Like for me I try to fill good memories and less bad ones with family members because I want them to remember the good ones after my death. But not mourning for forever, just remember me is enough. How about your future marriage, your future grandchildren? Well, it comes to me that my meaning in life is not to bring over my genes or bearing children. Therefore that is not as important, at least what I think.

Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
I have seen my relatives passed away, not literally though. And the idea that they are now nothing reinforces what should I do about life. Also, I try to remember good memories with them, since memory is now the only thing that stores their existence. Also I think that they would not want me to mourn them for too long, and that's how it is going to be too when I die.

As all of us have, I also learned that death is an everyday thing, accidents in real life or news stories still affirm that we don't decide when we die. Not even if you live healthily. Death comes whenever it wants to come, so it I feel assured that I already thought a great deal about them. The other day I read that a working father died defending his home and family from robbers. Some said they would rather give all the money so the robbers won't kill them, but I am comfortable thinking that I died defending from robbery. So yeah, now I don't fear death as much as other people do.


Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Chinese
Religion: Agnostic

What does death mean to you?
Death means the end of existent in this life. The idea of death is that your consciousness will cease to exist and perhaps no transition. From something to nothingness.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
Social experiences, books, movies, introspective rumination LOL I have very little understanding about death from the religion perspective other than after life, reincarnation, heaven and hell, nirvana.

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
Anxiety and fear, relief maybe? The fear is comes from the idea that we would not be able to perceive and feel anymore but no one can really tell us beyond the journey to the grave.

Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
Seeing how people react post a death of a relative is not an easy sign. I often heard people say things after a death of a person and I think the only thing that would ease my anxiety towards death would be that someone remembers us and we were once significant in someone else's life.

age:22
gender: male
religion: buddhist on paper
hometown: KL

Thanks for responding! Wasn't expecting so many xD So to address, ask more questions and clarify further:

[quote=GothicLolita,Jan 15 2011, 06:29 PM]
hi, i'm also a HELP psych student =)
age: 20
gender: female
race: chinese
religion: buddhist (according to IC) / personal view - Agnostic (where the existence of God is still questionable)
hometown: kuala lumpur

1. Death is the end.
2. the idea of death starts with the first existence of human beings.
3. Fear, numbness, melancholy
4. the death of anyone, even of strangers. It makes me think more about the frailty of life itself. It leads me to question our existence and the meaning of life.

just one question for you, will i be credited at least 1/2 hour for participating in youer survey?? haha...(just kidding ) hope my answers help!

by the way, if u're interested in 2nd hand books for leisure, plz visit http://adf.ly/DL6d i can conveniently COD to u =)

[/quote]

Hi Lola xD I'd give you all four hours of participation if I could (but the keywords are if I could la), so sorry la tak boleh xD And thanks very much for responding. Hmm... I realize that there's a general confusion with the question where'd your idea of death come from. It's supposed to be your own personal idea - so where did you get that idea that death is the end?


[quote=LightningFist,Jan 16 2011, 04:33 AM]
[

What does death mean to you?
It is when a life ceases.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
It is like asking where the meaning of dirt came from. Dirt is dirt to any person of any ethnicity, or most animals. Death is tangible in many ways - living beings die, but their corpses remain. All beings with visual ability, sentient or otherwise, would be able to recognise (though not always comprehend) death, a fact of life, a cyclical, inevitable physical process, not a theological debate. Death is not an idea.

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
Sadness. Mortality. Vulnerability. Fear. Anguish. Depression.


[/quote]

[/quote]

Lightning Fist, thanks for responding, I get what you mean, and will take your comment into account =)

[quote=yangsquare,Jan 21 2011, 01:22 AM]
What does death mean to you?
The idea of death doesn't scare me more than it used to be before. Previously I was afraid of death because our consciousness will simply gone, erased from history and we have no idea what happens to the world after that. I think some philosophers called this angst, the anxiousness of death since death reconsiders attitude towards life, how insignificant it is. When I was young, I believed that since life is insignificant - it is therefore an utmost important cause to leave a mark in history, because history is the only way that reaffirms your existence. Think of all the lives before this, the poor and the unfortunate, they never had a chance to tell their story - I mean who hears from them anymore?

Therefore death played a big part in organizing my world view, that our perception towards the world is insignificant. Death made me think that life is like a stage or a movie, and we're our own main actor and how significant the play is depends on your actions. Why I said that death doesn't scare me anymore is the fact that like a movie; it doesn't really matter if it is short or long - what really matters is the significance of the movie. You direct your own movie, whether it is a comedy, drama, tragedy or even action is up to you. Since nobody likes a boring movie, I always tried my best in all the actions in my life, especially education and career to make it significant and interesting. If it is a short movie, then I'll be comfortable thinking that I did my best; just like the feeling you convinced yourself you did your best in an exam. If it is a long movie, I hope in the long time frame I have achieved sometime significant or memorable, so that the movie is remembered in history.

Death has also led me to think that money is not an ultimate answer for everything. It is good to have money, it is not good to base your life on it. I mean what do you really get from money? You will never bring materiality to your grave. If you did let your kids inherit your wealth, it won't last few generations. Therefore I despise people that think money is everything, people that keep thinking how much salary they will get or how much profit they will gain.

On contrary however, there is the other side of my world view. It is a rather selfish world view, I think. Because in the end in a movie the only important thing is what the main actor do, not other actors. Therefore I have this mindset that I don't pay much care or attention on what other people did, because it doesn't really matter. And I also will stubbornly refuse to learn anything that I think is useless or a waste of my time, cooking for example. I already figured this out since I'm young, and I was pretty sure that my world view that life is a movie is quite original. But in essence, death played a major part in formulating this world view of mine.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
From a secular point of view, that there is really nothing left when we are dead. From history too, because dead people in the past are not even remembered in history, what is the point of life? This thinking sometimes lead me to a point of view that herostradic fame is quite rational, if you never heard: Herostratus burned down Temple of Artemis (one of Seven Ancient Wonders) to become famous. He is punished to death, but at least his name is recorded in history, will your name be even recorded in history?

I read a lot on philosophy too, and become very interested in existentialism. Like Kierkegard said, we are responsible for finding meaning to our own life. Therefore I think that passion for your career is very important, if not you will be doing something you don't like for the rest of your life. In the end your life becomes meaningless and boring. And remember, nobody likes boring movies.

The most important influence I guess is my appropriation that life is a movie. It makes me think that how long or short your life is, doesn't matter. Somehow the same idea is also reflected back by Shakespeare and de Barca's ideas that life is a stage.

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
To be honest, now I don't fear death. I doesn't matter to me when it comes. Maybe the only feeling is that I'm satisfied that I have done my best in life, well like what you feel in exams. Some people find my attitude towards death scary, they ask what about your family? Well, for me your relationship towards your family is as best as you want them to regard you after death. Like for me I try to fill good memories and less bad ones with family members because I want them to remember the good ones after my death. But not mourning for forever, just remember me is enough. How about your future marriage, your future grandchildren? Well, it comes to me that my meaning in life is not to bring over my genes or bearing children. Therefore that is not as important, at least what I think.

Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
I have seen my relatives passed away, not literally though. And the idea that they are now nothing reinforces what should I do about life. Also, I try to remember good memories with them, since memory is now the only thing that stores their existence. Also I think that they would not want me to mourn them for too long, and that's how it is going to be too when I die.

As all of us have, I also learned that death is an everyday thing, accidents in real life or news stories still affirm that we don't decide when we die. Not even if you live healthily. Death comes whenever it wants to come, so it I feel assured that I already thought a great deal about them. The other day I read that a working father died defending his home and family from robbers. Some said they would rather give all the money so the robbers won't kill them, but I am comfortable thinking that I died defending from robbery. So yeah, now I don't fear death as much as other people do.
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Race: Chinese
Religion: Agnostic

[/quote]

Thanks for the long response Yangsquare. Firstly, I really need to say that, damn, I'm glad that someone else actually reads up on philosophy (particularly on existentialism - it doesn't get enough exposure in Malaysia) around here xD No questions for elaboration, you've done a lot of it already anyway xD But I'd like to suggest you to read Irvin Yalom and Albert Camus' books if you haven't already done so (and if you're still interested in existentialism).

[quote=zeronz,Jan 27 2011, 09:39 PM]
What does death mean to you?
Death means the end of existent in this life. The idea of death is that your consciousness will cease to exist and perhaps no transition. From something to nothingness.

Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?
Social experiences, books, movies, introspective rumination LOL I have very little understanding about death from the religion perspective other than after life, reincarnation, heaven and hell, nirvana.

What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?
Anxiety and fear, relief maybe? The fear is comes from the idea that we would not be able to perceive and feel anymore but no one can really tell us beyond the journey to the grave.

Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
Seeing how people react post a death of a relative is not an easy sign. I often heard people say things after a death of a person and I think the only thing that would ease my anxiety towards death would be that someone remembers us and we were once significant in someone else's life.

age:22
gender: male
religion: buddhist on paper
hometown: KL

[/quote]

Hey Zeronz, thanks for responding. =) Would like to ask you the kind of books and movies that you get your meaning of death from. I also find it interesting that you say that apart from anxiety and fear when you think about death - there seems also to be a possibility of relief - maybe you'd like to elaborate on that part?

"What does death mean to you?"
Death in my scientific understanding is when the biology of the body cease to function. At the same time, since my family background is slightly religious, at least during my upbringing, i have also the idea that death is when you will no longer be able to serve your purpose in life as dictated by my religion. (I have the opinion that for any one who have adopt a less mechanical notion on life and death, they must have a purpose which is dictated by, if not religion, by moral philosophy.)
To sum it up, death contains both certainty and uncertainty.

"Where do you think your meaning/idea of death originated from?"
In my case, since I'm a Malay Muslim, my idea hence must be largely be influenced by the Quran and the accompanying Hadith. However, as i learn and read from various scholarly books such as psychology, philosophy, comparative religion et cetera i have lift some fear of death common within the Malay-muslim culture (maybe my vanity is talking here, but i think it might be useful for you to do profiling).

"What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about death?"
Since death contains both certainty and uncertainty in my idea, i rather feel neutral on what death is about, and feel that it is better to focus on life (rather than worrying or wondering about whether to have optimistic or pessimistic attitude toward death).

Can you share any personal experiences that you connect with death?
I have not seen death occurs near me, or within my family. The closest experience relating to death I have is visiting people who are in their "nazak" state (i do not know how to translate to english, "near death" doesn't seem to accurately translate it). However, while visiting, it puzzles me that, apparently, i'm desensitized toward the idea death. The only explanation i think i have is due to my scientific understanding (mechanical view) on death.

"I’d also like to ask you guys to leave here one aspect of yourself that you are comfortable disclosing and identify with e.g. age, gender, race, religion, hometown, etc."

Can i leave a lot of aspects? (Gediknya aku... )

Gender: Male
Year of birth: 1986
Parentage: One of my parent is pure melanau, brought up in what i perceived to be inside a traditional melanau-muslim family.
The other is a malay-chinese mix that have traditional sarawak-malay culture. Both of my parents seems to have a slight informal religious education.

My upbringing (i put this in because i think childhood has the strongest influence in establishing mentality and world-view):
I'd say my environment during upbringing is not exactly a typical malay environment. The kids i used to play with were all chinese except two malay and one english expat. My father was quite liberal in instilling cultural value, but my mother have somewhat strong cultural prejudice and values.
When it comes to religion, my father seems to be more focused on instilling the practice (prayer, fasting, reading quran) rather than its philosophy (view of life and death, the afterlife, God's will etc).
My schooling were SRB Agama and SMK Agama which during the latter i stayed in the dormitory.

I continued my study in Matriculation, which is the only part of my formal education that i have studied alongside non-bumis. Then I attended and finished my study in a university that is predominantly consists of Malay and bumi students.

Religion: Islam. In reality a non-practicing, but I want to be a practicing Muslim.
Hometown: Kuching, sarawak.

I also would like to share from some unofficial personality tests i took, i consistently get INTP result from various Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests.
One unofficial personality disorder i took indicates that i'm a schizoidal, and i believe it because the description is somewhat accurate but i think i don't worry about it.

Hi Lola xD I'd give you all four hours of participation if I could (but the keywords are if I could la), so sorry la tak boleh xD And thanks very much for responding. Hmm... I realize that there's a general confusion with the question where'd your idea of death come from. It's supposed to be your own personal idea - so where did you get that idea that death is the end?


LOL!! don't worry about it, i was just kidding =D
my personal idea about death...at this point of time, i still believe that death is the end..although i've read quite a lot about this topic, about death, they're all contradicting each other. so, i'm back to the beginning. remember the time when we were toddlers? the first time we were exposed to death -eg, seeing someone or something died, typically we see the end of that particular something. this is because it'll never move or change again, no matter what we do.i think the idea is by default in our head, till maybe some ideas came along, like the life after death in buddhism and hinduism, or death = sleeping in abrahamic religions..right now, i'm not ready to accept or commit to any religion and philosophical point of view as i'm still in my experimental stage.

thus, personally i hold on to this view, at least temporarily while finding more about it

Conceptualizing Death!

Wah..this topic...very argumentative lo...but i do think reserch about it...hard to explain at here..

sometime i also think about...what is space...space teori...some time i dream i lock in recycletable space without everyone...infinity space ...i believe when i "gone", some space will create for u to start your new career/learning... in term of unexplain form...

Why ppl fear to death...cos they lonely...

your topic got alot space for imagination...undefine of answer, unlimit of truth. this happen due to our "brain" or our "spirit" or our "curioscity"...

infinity....good luck if u can find your answer

Thanks for responding =) You're the first Muslim to respond, so I'd like to ask you. Based on your understanding, what does the Quran say about death? And you mentioned "some fear of death common within the Malay-muslim culture". Would you mind telling me more about that? And yes, you can leave as many aspects as you want so long you're comfortable with it xD

Okie thanks for clarifying xD

Hi peace230, thanks for responding =) Yep, this topic's scope is very wide, and there are many answers. Hmmm, would you mind sharing your thoughts (I know it's hard, but if you would like to, please do xD), and I'd just like to ask you to elaborate on this - people fear death because they're lonely... What makes you say that?

"I'd just like to ask you to elaborate on this - people fear death because they're lonely... What makes you say that?"

In chinese: Born to this world without nothing, leave this world also without nothing. 生不带来，死不带去.

Y u want to become richman? cos u need money to show off, to show your ability in leadership, finacial ability, intelligence, agility & etc. To make ppl admire u, make u feel great.

Then for those lack of ability: they run away from reality, so many ppl suicide, cos cannot/dare to face the reality.

& then y many ppl sacrifice their live to fight for their honor,& country.??

All this becos feeling, feel. U feel great event u die in war, u r honor,( at the same time, many ppl also die with u). Then for those ppl who suicide, cos his think his is useless, & no one admire/recognise him especially in term of life.

& so on for the rich one. some ppl said...穷的只剩下钱了, nothing more except money. y??? cos lonely.

Simply explain only. if u interest in anime regard the life, " what we come to this world?" & "why i believe in you, but u betrayed me" & "am i born to fullfill other ppl desire?" or "should i live in single or in community".

this anime call "neo genesis evangelion" 1-26 end.

Pls note that what i wrote here r regard" I'd just like to ask you to elaborate on this - people fear death because they're lonely... What makes you say that?"

& not " after u death, where u go"

Sorry for my bad english. " some ppl born to be help other, then the "other"
ppl born to get help from other (who born to help)???


Regard the death: 轮回, if u believe in recyclable space: 永无止境的轮回空间.

& simply talk abit, do u c inception movie. great. when i have bad dream (2 layer, 梦中梦) chasing by ghost, & i reality that, force yourself wakeup imediately, then u still in the dream, bcos the environment got little fake, then u force again uourself to wakeup. aFTER that your head damn pain. this is my dream 2 layer. 1 layer- u dream a toilet, then u want piss off, but u will realise that r dream, so u force yourself wakeup, & go to real toilet. right???/

next: importantce issue that inception not mentioa, but i have experince:

u dream a ppl & a place..then talking alot...after that..u wake up..just some normal dream...but after a year, in the same place where u never go before, same ppl u talk...suddenly u realise that all this scene happen in your dream a year ago...how to explain....

Un explaintable in my mind, cos this happen between the space of dream & reality. Fake vs reality. but, until i saw a movie:

i got explain ( not science form) when i saw a movie. it's simply & can be acceptable. the movie call: 无限复活

Thank alot. & sorry for my bad english.

The Quran simply says that once we are dead, our soul will leave the body. There are a few things that will happen:
1. Between our death (once the body is buried) and the day of judgment.
2 angels will come to us and start questioning us about our deeds during our lifetime. Even during this period, the angels starts to torture if we were bad or let us be if we were good. If i'm not mistaken, some of our sin will be paid here already and hence discounted when the day of judgment comes (someone please verify this).

2. During the day of judgment.
Before we are brought to a 'court', we will have to 'queue' to wait for our judgment. The waiting time is said to be long and, for the most people, harrowing. How quickly you are brought to the 'court' depends on whether you got the priority or not i.e. certain good deeds will give you priority over other people. Once we are brought to the 'court', all 'evidence' of your good and bad deeds will be brought forward. There on, your eternal fate will be decided. There are still chances to get mercy (in our term 'syafa'at') before we are really brought to hell, though. But again it depends a lot on the type of good deeds you have done. (To analogize it in simple term, the 'court' counts the quantity, the blessing checks for quality.)

3. After the judgment.
For muslim, people who did sin and wasn't forgiven for it will be 'cleansed' in hell first before they get to enter heaven. Those who enters heaven however will be assured they will not be questioned again i.e they will never go to hell ever.

On the attributes of death itself, the Quran has no say whatsoever. The implied meaning i can conceive is that death is merely a transitional event without deeper meaning of itself. The only thing I can perceive is it is simply a 'dateline'. The best attitude toward death then is to be optimistic and hardworking, just like finishing a project before its dateline.

There are 2 'characteristics' of death in Islam. 1. It will never be known in its exact time when it will happen to a particular person until it happens. 2. The time it will happen is fixed even before our birth to life; it will not delay, it will not be made early. It will be dead on time.
This means that you can do nothing about death. There's no point in complaining about or mulling over it, there's no point in avoiding it, you can only be prepared for what will come after death. So again, the best attitude would be to be optimistic and hardworking.

Common fear of death among malay-muslim culture is the association of death with supernatural beings such as ghost and poltergeist (which nowhere in the Quran says anything about those).
Also, malay parents tend to scare they kids about what happens after death (the questioning and the tortures) while i think it is inappropriate because death by itself should not be feared; the thing that should be feared is our own actions that will lead to retribution.
They also like to associate 'untimely' death as a form of a retribution (or in some cases a blessing) which is wrong with respect to Quran. The time of death is predetermined before we are even born, hence it is illogical to say that 'untimely' death is a punishment (or a blessing).

I don't know if that answers your question. If it doesn't please feel free to ask for clarification.