Your Time Is Up. (Confirming Your Death Date.)

[Asa]

This topic really upsets me, but I keep falling into conversations where this is discussed. Some people view the possibility of knowing one's death date as positive, and others are repulsed by it.

A recent medical research team claims that it found 14 biomarkers that can accurately predict death within 5–10 years.
Similarly, Vedic astrology claims to be able to predict a person's death date.
A few of my friends have also had ominous dreams or moments just after waking up that seem real where a voice told them their day of death. One of them had this happen when he experienced Exploding Head Syndrome/ Episodic Cranial Sensory Shock, which sounds fake, but is real. (Temporary paralysis accompanies by loud noises that occur just after waking up.)

Would you want to know?

If you do want to know, what are the benefits and how do those benefits outweigh the mystery?

Possible benefits may be prioritizing things in your life and making sure you put what is most important first, which ww should be doing anyway.
Medical professionals think it may help people change their unhealthy lifestyles.

If you do not want to know, why?

Personally, I don't want to know. My friend who brought the topic up had a strong reaction against finding out, too, and claimed that it could be a full-fulfilling prophecy. If you know, you will lead yourself to that end.

The ritual of visualization works similarly: by focusing on aspects of your possible future life you make those things happen. This is usually used for positive changes and goals, but fixating on something negative can cause negative things to happen in one's life because that is the direction the person is focused on.

For me, it would ruin my life. I'd be preoccupied by the ending and forget to live.

What happens if the test, astrology chart, or booming voice is wrong? How would you react?

Do you think people's answers change depending on their age? On their accomplishments? (I do.)


Can being mindful of how temporary we are change how we (you) live? Or are we doomed to ignore this technicality?

 

[Deleted member 16771]

Interesting question, Asa.

Funnily enough, when I was younger (and maybe a little bit even now) I always had the feeling that I would die in some heroic folly - I could feel a certain kind of inevitability pulling me towards a particular fate. At the time I thought this might be when I joined the army, or a clash with criminals, or something else. I felt like I was the 'ideal candidate' to make a sacrifice like this as I felt that I wouldn't be particularly missed - that my bonds to people were so tenuous that I must be obligated towards society more generally. I understand how ridiculous this all sounds.

In this sense, I lived with something like the knowledge of my impending death in the next decade - a fatalism borne of 'heroic' duty (though 'heroic' isn't exactly the right word), which sucked the fear out of everything I did. I'm not saying that it was a thought I lived by front-and-centre, but there was always the low-level understanding that 'I will die when I need to'.

Now, though, I would not want to know my death date. More and more I've been clinging to the value of my life, and future hopes, such that if I died I would feel like I had unfinished business - for love, for leaving a mark on the world, &c.

 

[java]

I don't think I'd give much credence to this knowledge, especially not from astrology.
I suspect the biomarkers technique is similar to genetic analysis, which can tell you odds of having x and y issues, some more or less predictable by looking at your parents or relatives.

Would knowing really ruin our lives? Maybe if the date range given is below average.
But in a way, I think most people already assume they're going to die in their 80s, and they don't obsess over it, at least not in the first half of life. Maybe those past 40 think otherwise...

We might be surprised. I don't know the details, but some say the first human to reach 150 years old is already born.
Imagine that, all depressed on your 75th birthday, thinking your life is over, but you're just halfway through.
Probably involves anti-aging technology though, so that 75 years old of tommorow might be more like a 40 years old in health.

 

[David54]

It doesn't matter. Live every day until you don't. . then cross over and whatever happens next will happen. Since I have no control, I give it no thought

 

[Asa]

Interesting question, Asa.

Funnily enough, when I was younger (and maybe a little bit even now) I always had the feeling that I would die in some heroic folly - I could feel a certain kind of inevitability pulling me towards a particular fate. At the time I thought this might be when I joined the army, or a clash with criminals, or something else. I felt like I was the 'ideal candidate' to make a sacrifice like this as I felt that I wouldn't be particularly missed - that my bonds to people were so tenuous that I must be obligated towards society more generally. I understand how ridiculous this all sounds.

In this sense, I lived with something like the knowledge of my impending death in the next decade - a fatalism borne of 'heroic' duty (though 'heroic' isn't exactly the right word), which sucked the fear out of everything I did. I'm not saying that it was a thought I lived by front-and-centre, but there was always the low-level understanding that 'I will die when I need to'.

Now, though, I would not want to know my death date. More and more I've been clinging to the value of my life, and future hopes, such that if I died I would feel like I had unfinished business - for love, for leaving a mark on the world, &c.

This is the kind of answer I was wondering about: if you knew how would it affect you.
I can imagine a younger version of you having this heroic folly idea, and I'm happy you value life and believe you have unfinished business here.

I also see the youthful bravado about life and death in your answer.

I appreciate people who have an, "I'll go when I go," attitude and live life bravely, like you and @Aneirin seem to do.

I don't think I'd give much credence to this knowledge, especially not from astrology.

It isn't about how much I believe in these systems, but how much the person receiving the info believes, and how it affects them. how would it alter their states of mind? How they live, etc?
Personally, if I were offered such information I'd decline, even though I do not believe in Vedic astrology.
Both of my friends who've had voices tell them when they'll die were completely freaked out by it and said the experience felt very real. I've never experienced Episodic Cranial Sensory Shock, but it sounds scary.


The medical test shows your chances of dying within the next 5-10 years based on your health, I think. Again, it was more about the concept of knowing and how that would affect how you live. If you had a set date would you goof off less, go on the adventure you keep putting off, focus on accomplishing that life goal? Would you keep your affairs in order?

In a few months I'm turning the age when my mom died and this is a really big deal for me. Everything beyond that is unchartered territory. I've always lived with a sort of attitude of getting things done by X age. I'm falling short, but I think I can get things done by 50.
This is a common attitude for people who lost a parent young. It isn't like a death date, but it is a mile marker. My grandfather died young and I remember when my father passed that age (decades ago) and how weird it was for him, too.
In general, what it has done is caused me to take goals and accomplishments more seriously and made me less apt to put up with any part of life that makes me unhappy that I have the ability to change.

We might be surprised. I don't know the details, but some say the first human to reach 150 years old is already born.

Yes, this is fascinating. Someday 80 will be young, just a we look back in history and think it is strange and sad that an average lifespan was 40.

Imagine that, all depressed on your 75th birthday, thinking your life is over, but you're just halfway through.
Probably involves anti-aging technology though, so that 75 years old of tommorow might be more like a 40 years old in health.

I hope so. I think people look 'younger' at the same age than they did decades ago, even with the limited technology we have right now.
The older I get, and the more 70+ people I know, 75 does not seem old.

It doesn't matter. Live every day until you don't. . then cross over and whatever happens next will happen. Since I have no control, I give it no thought

<3 It is the only way one can be. I was just wondering how people's lives would be changed if they "knew" the date.

 

[Daustus]

Interesting question. I'm torn atm on whether I'd want to know or not. If I could get a general idea like "you'll die young" or "you'll die an old man" I'd be more inclined to know. I think the biggest impact it would have on me now would be what I'd need to leave behind for them in case I would die before they grew into men. I'll have to have a planning session on that. I'm doing some 2020 goal planning this week. I'll throw some parenting stuff in there too.

*edit* Didn't really answer the question. I think I wouldn't want to know really. I wouldn't want the self fulfilling prophecy.

 

[sassafras]

It wouldn't terrify me to know. It would calm me, I think.

Death is inevitable. We're all going to face it one day. And so much of life is delayed because we think we have time. Life is more pregnant with meaning when there's an expiry date. When we know that its gonna be over one day, we soak up so much more of the hours, the days.

Which begs the question. Why is that it's so easy to forget that our time is limited? Why do we let ourselves waste so much of our lives? Sometimes when we forget to be scared of uncertainty by leaning into hope, we take hope for granted.

 

[flower]

I wouldn't want to know, it would ruin my life. For my mental health it would be better to not know.

 

[Asa]

Interesting question. I'm torn atm on whether I'd want to know or not. If I could get a general idea like "you'll die young" or "you'll die an old man" I'd be more inclined to know. I think the biggest impact it would have on me now would be what I'd need to leave behind for them in case I would die before they grew into men. I'll have to have a planning session on that. I'm doing some 2020 goal planning this week. I'll throw some parenting stuff in there too.

*edit* Didn't really answer the question. I think I wouldn't want to know really. I wouldn't want the self fulfilling prophecy.

You did answer the question.
Also, I immediately thought of your role as a parent and your children and it was interesting how fluid the 'conversation' was when you addressed your children as "them". We all knew who you meant.

Which begs the question. Why is that it's so easy to forget that our time is limited? Why do we let ourselves waste so much of our lives? Sometimes when we forget to be scared of uncertainty by leaning into hope, we take hope for granted.

I'm more like @flower about this, but I understand your point of view completely.
My only answer for why we have this habit of forgetting is that life is often most meaningful and joyous when we're caught up in the stuff that seems unimportant. Play is important, so is rest, and we often learn the most when we're exploring paths we weren't intending to take.

I wouldn't want to know, it would ruin my life. For my mental health it would be better to not know.

I'm with you on this. <hugs> My friend was freaking out over this yesterday (the one with the voice that told her when) and a few weeks ago I heard someone into astrology accept the knowledge with positivity, so I started a thread.