Freaked People Share The Most Horrific Things They've Woken Up To
[rebelmouse-image 18349880 is_animated_gif=Waking up is a struggle. Being forced into a new day from a restless Nirvana can be daunting enough let alone waking up from a restless slumber or a horrifying nightmare to some sort of living torture. Imagine that lawnmower, construction or a one night stand who's name you can't recall.
Redditor _dibella55 asked strangers to divulge... _what is the most horrific thing you ever woke up to?
SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE SENORA!
I was a little kid and had a dream that I was in an earth quake. When I woke up, my room was shaking. Like bed moving across the floor shaking. I ran into my parents' room and woke my mom up. She told me it was just a dream and to go back to bed. I was scared to go back to my room bc if they hadn't felt it, why was my bed bumping across my bedroom floor? It wasn't against the wall when I went back in where it should've been. It was maybe 9" away. I thought I was going insane or there were ghosts. I barely slept.
Next morning Mom apologized bc there had been an earthquake.
NO METH FOR ME!
[rebelmouse-image 18349881 is_animated_gif=My roommate was selling meth, without my knowledge. I woke up to screams of "POLICE SEARCH WARRANT." They threw me off my bed, and then ripped my room apart, but found nothing, because I didn't have anything.
MEOW AWAY...
[rebelmouse-image 18349882 is_animated_gif=A kitten gnawing at my nipple trying to get milk out, while staying at my girlfriend's parents.
Clearly hadn't been away from its mother long enough.
LIFE CAN SUCK...
[rebelmouse-image 18346863 is_animated_gif=Woke up to my family panicking because my dad didn't come home from work the night before. About an hour later a cop came to the door and told us he had died in a car accident. My dad sometimes went out after work with his friends and came home late, so we didn't think anything him being late.
SEE NO EVIL...
[rebelmouse-image 18349883 is_animated_gif=~8 years old: Not being able to open my eyes. Had an infection or something and a bunch of gunk glued my eyelashes together. I thought I was blind.
19 years old: An empty apartment I'd never been to before. Got super drunk for NYE and got a ride to a different party with people I'd met that night. Woke up while they were out eating and remembered nothing. Looked at the pictures hanging around and recognized nobody in them.
HAPPY NEW YEAR...
[rebelmouse-image 18978136 is_animated_gif=The sound of EMS/firefighters running down the hall to rescusitate my stepdad.
I was having a sleepover with two friends, when one of them tapped me awake. I sat up to see down the hall several firefighters. My two friends and I were huddled on my bed, wondering what was going on (we were 13) and they came down with a stretcher with my stepdad on it. My mom was dressed in her rather revealing nightie and no bathrobe. She was so stressed and frightened that she didn't even realize this.
My friends were totally freaked out. Until that moment they did not realize my stepdad was dying of a terminal illness because we didn't talk about it outside the family. Two weeks later, my mom and stepdad were killed in a car accident, day after Xmas.
Sad times, man, sad times.
DON'T HIT!
[rebelmouse-image 18360757 is_animated_gif=I slept wrong on my arm and my hand went to sleep. My t-shirt had scrunched up exposing a lot of skin. I rolled over and a mysterious hand slapped my bare belly. I may have screamed.
IS THIS REAL?
[rebelmouse-image 18978137 is_animated_gif=The stupid emergency alert sound on the radio.
TAKE COVER!!
[rebelmouse-image 18977258 is_animated_gif=Two things: 1. Ambulance lights outside of our house in the middle of the night & my mom waking me up saying, "Hey, we're leaving to the hospital. Your father had a heart attack."
- During a particular hurricane a while back, I was asleep (must've been 3am or so) when my phone's emergency weather alert (super loud) went off with large text saying "Warning! Tornado sighting in your area. Take cover now!"
BE IN THE MOMENT...
[rebelmouse-image 18978138 is_animated_gif=My husband busted through the bedroom door screaming hysterically that his mom was killed at work. I was thoroughly confused and then went into a kind of shock. Drove 80mph half asleep to the site where she was killed and she was STILL THERE. we didn't know. The coroner was just putting her in their vehicle.
We get around the side of the truck to get her things out and I see this HUGE puddle of blood on the ground. I don't think I've ever been so heartbroken. Worst way to wake up by far
She worked at a paving company and one of the things she had to do was dump the trucks at a dump site. The truck she was driving is not a dump truck but similar. The back lifts up and the door swings open and rocks and such fall out. Well, her truck was broken. The latch didn't work correctly and her boss and coworkers knew. She said she didn't want to use the truck and her boss said she had to. Earlier in the day they had to use another piece of equipment to close the door on her truck.
So now to the accident part. She dumps her rocks and gets out of the truck to make sure she's empty and such. Walked around the truck and peaked inside right when the door latch broke. The door latch breaking cause the door to slam down and smash her head between the door and truck. She was killed instantly.
Without going into much more detail, OSHA was involved, the company paid for her entire funeral and burial plot, and now we're suing them.
KEEP RUNNING....
[rebelmouse-image 18346254 is_animated_gif=I was 17 or 18? It was 2am my mom came in my room and turned the light on. I had no idea what was going on. She said to pack a few things we're leaving. I was really confused so I asked her what's going on? Before she could say anything I heard the front door slam upstairs. I heard very heavy footsteps and a very loud crashing sound and then i heard my step dad yell my moms name in the loudest shreik of anger. I looked ar my mom and saw the fear and honestly I felt the same thing. I was frozen and my mom stepped just outside my door. I heard booming footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs. My mom sounded scared and like she was crying and he was saying some awful things I cant remember anymore. I was scared. I just got my school bag and filled it with clothes and left the school stuff. (I was planning on going to school the next day.) The yelling got crazy and i got my stuff. They argued upstairs and i got with my brother who was also scared. My step dad yelled he's driving away and me and mom begged him not to drive (he was drunk af.) He left and i asked where we going? He came back and lashed out that we let him drive drunk. Me and my brother stayed in my room scared. Then mom came said go to bed and it was quiet after that. I got on the net talked with friends and sobbed. Ive never been so scared before that.
COUNT TO 10... OOOPS.. CAN'T!
[rebelmouse-image 18347764 is_animated_gif=One time my mom woke me up to tell me that she was going to the hospital because she cut her finger off. (Lawnmower accident)
Thanks for the reminder!
LIFE LESSONS...
[rebelmouse-image 18346341 is_animated_gif=Waking up in a pool of period blood.I was 8 and I thought I was dying.
YOU GOT ME IN STITCHES...
[rebelmouse-image 18978139 is_animated_gif=Dog bleeding all over the bed. She pulled her outer and inner stiches the day after being fixed.
After emergency surgery, new stitches, Staples, and the cone of shame, she ended up doing great.
BE WOKE!! LITERALLY!!
[rebelmouse-image 18978140 is_animated_gif=Back when I was in college I had a habit of sleeping odd hours because of the weird times I would do my homework in. I would go in around 7 in the morning and then come back around 1/3/5 and promptly pass out on the couch/my bed to take a nap. I got a lot of grief from my mother from napping too much (and I still don't car, so there's that).
At the time of the story I had been feeling under the weather since I went to class, so the nap was well-deserved. I opened the window a crack for fresh air and tucked myself in; my head where I usually put my feet right next to the window, what I did when I was sick.
I remember being in the depths of sleep when there came a tickling at my lips. Unconsciously, I rubbed at it with the back of my hand. Looking back that was easily the WORST mistake I've ever made.
In seconds my mouth was FILLED with the most INHUMANELY NOXIOUS TASTE imaginable. I spit, and GAGGED, jerking out of my blankets and wiping my face off. In the throes of my blind panic I see a tiny shape in the corner of my vision crawling along my blanket. My stomach dropped with horror and recognition. A CHINESE STINKBUG had made its way into my room via my window, and had sprayed INTO MY MOUTH when I touched it as it inched along my lips.
I CONSUMED mouthwash that day like I was a sorority girl doing Spring Break shots in Miami Beach. I scrubbed my teeth and tongue with my toothbrush so hard you would've thought I was trying to clean up a bloody crime scene. The aftertaste lasted for hours and my tongue was practically numb.
To this day I have a hard time blocking out the memory of the taste whenever I see one. People complain about the shitty smell, but the taste is something to be feared...
KILL THE THING!!
[rebelmouse-image 18978141 is_animated_gif=A cockroach on my hand. i almost died of a heart attack that morning.
SOMETIMES IT WORKS OUT...
[rebelmouse-image 18978142 is_animated_gif=My mom waking me up at 3 AM when I was 10 and saying "dad got in a car crash."
My heart sunk.
Luckily he was ok. He was driving home at 1AM when a most likely drunk driver hit him at 90MPH and drove him off the road.
MEOW? OH NO!
[rebelmouse-image 18978143 is_animated_gif=The retching sound of a cat puking near me will always haunt my dreams.
JURASSIC SHADOWS...
[rebelmouse-image 18978144 is_animated_gif=When I was a kid I woke up to the trees and sunrise aligning perfectly to make a perfect shadow of a T Rex on my wall. I don't think I could ever be so scared ever again.
HOLD ON TIGHT DOROTHY!!
[rebelmouse-image 18978145 is_animated_gif=A feeling of a cool draft and my room being unusually cold. I woke up and began thinking why is the house so cold. I screamed in shock as I found the front door to the house blown wide open due to wind from a really bad t-storm that was happening outside. I ran across the cold and wet floor to close it while frantically trying to keep my breaths under control.
It turns out the mechanism that keeps my front door secure was loose due to being improperly screwed and prone to not keeping the door locked when my mom and I thought the opposite.
Being an emergency responder is a high-stress job.
It's a career with long, laborious hours.
There is always a hint of danger. And death is always around the corner.
So we as a society could try to help these people out and not put ourselves in unnecessary danger.
Redditor Diligent-Log6805wanted the rescue workers out there to tell us about the times they rescued people. They asked:
"Emergency responders of reddit, what are some dumb things that have lead to an emergency situation?"
These workers and the world already has enough trouble without my stupid.
"So... was she impressed?"
"Kid driving his new truck down a residential street, wet from a recent rain, lost control and hit a parked car, overcorrected and rolled it once back onto its wheels up onto a lawn. He told the fire chief he had gunned it to impress his girlfriend and the chief just looked at him and asked 'So... was she impressed?'"
AntiMacro
Ricky
"I had a client once who was basically Ricky from Trailer Park Boys, loud, obnoxious, hilarious and every second word was some Maritime slang or a derivative of 'f**k.' He has been on daily eye drops for decades for dry eyes, sure ok cool. I hear screaming down the hall and run in and he's wedged against the wall and the bed just screaming 'I f**ked up boys, I dunno what the f**k is f**king happening but It's f**ked."
"Turns out he mistakenly put Jublia which is an antifungal ointment for toenails in his eye thinking it was his eye drops. The strangest part was the bottle has this miniature sponge at the end so you soak the sponge then paint it on like a gel...he painted this antifungal ointment onto his eye which immediately went red and angry then proceeded to do the other one."
"So he's at the eyewash station and I'm talking to poison control and they are pretty stunned because they have zero data on what happens to a human eyeball when it's painted in antifungal. I can hear the staff at the other end kind of snickering under her breath and she asks can you compare and contrast the eyes? Well... he put it in both eyes. The line goes silent because I can tell she is howling. Guy was totally fine but it was a standout for sure."
krzysztoflee
Will they show?
"Responded to a call of two minors being kidnapped and their parents being beaten in front of them and then taken someplace else. One was around three years and the other one was six. They were held captive in an apartment out of hundreds of residential apartments which not easy to locate, upon reaching there we found out that the boy six was just playin' with us to see if we would actually respond. Their parents were so embarrassed by all of that and vowed to not give them mobile until they are adults."
erectilereptilelol
Bowled Over
"When I was an EMT in NYC years ago we had a call for a man 'unresponsive.' We entered an upscale apartment that was a hoard: floor to ceiling newspapers and magazines, just a mess. The woman who called said her brother was in his bedroom sick."
"We entered his room and it was pretty obvious that he had already passed away. She had placed a bowl under his mouth because he had hemorrhaged which had coagulated the day before it was crazy. We asked her why she hadn’t called sooner and she said thought he’d get better?!"
"The joke around the house was 'if you have to put a bowl under a relative who is bleeding from the mouth, call 911. Don’t wait.' Never thought we’d have to advise anyone to do that. But there ya go. Also, it was Thanksgiving. Didn’t eat any cranberry sauce that year."
Sufficient-Swim-9843
God Only Knows
"Had a guy call because he had the cure to Covid and needed a ride to the local education hospital so he could share it. Dude was so high on meth He ended up having 4 or 5 binders worth of scientific looking notes. God only knows what was actually in them."
Flame5135
Wow, people really need to get a grip. Of their minds.
"Sparky"
"One of my old bosses once built a new shed in his back yard, to replace his old, worn-out one. He moved everything from the old one to the new one, then decided that the best way to remove the old one was by burning it down. He ended up with no sheds and the nickname 'Sparky.'"
Wadsworth_McStumpy
Dead in the living room...
"Paramedic here. We responded to this 54 year old having chest pain. Man was having a heart attack. Dude didn't want to go to the hospital because it too early in the day. That's it. We tried to convince him to go. Got the ER doc to talk to him and he wouldn't budge. He signed a Refusal. Later that same night, his family found him. Dead in the living room. We got to him and started CPR, meds, everything. Dude didn't make it. When we advise you to go to the hospital, go."
Chaprito
Bad Ideas
"Got called to a shooting. A guy says he received a text message from an anonymous number saying his brother has been shot. He checks all the hospitals with no luck. He goes to his brother's apartment but gets no response at his door but sees his car and can hear the TV on. We get there, attempt to get an answer at the door."
"Eventually we kick the door in to make sure he wasn't dying in his apartment. We boot the door, announce police, and find him asleep in his bed. The guy tells us that he got a new phone number and decided to mess with his brother by texting him he had been shot. He then fell asleep and forgot about the text and was woken up by us. So many wasted resources on his idiotic prank."
TheDOC816
The Swimmer
"Got called to a priority job. The caller was kayaking in a lake and said that there was an unresponsive male in the water. So off we went, lights and sirens. We requested paramedics and fire to attend as well for the rescue operation. There were about 6 emergency vehicles attending including a rescue boat. We got there within minutes and met the caller who showed us where the guy was."
"He was just swimming, minding his own business. The caller said he was unresponsive, but really he was just ignoring her. Had a chat with the guy, he seemed alright, said he swims here every day and likes the quiet. No issues. Would have been nice if the caller told the operator that he was still conscious and swimming rather than 'unresponsive.'"
amazingbecauseitis
Chew Slowly
"Well, I was taking a lady home from dialysis and she decided to eat a snickers in the back of the ambulance, and she started choking. Had to do the heimlich, and tell her to finish her food at home."
HotSoupInYourA**
If it's not a true emergency dial 311. Please.
I hated science classes.
As soon as I could I ran.
But it follows me.
Because science can be downright disturbing.
That's why I blocked out so many of the details.
Redditor Flimsy_Finger4291wanted to compare notes on all the frightening facts that are a definitive. They asked:
"What's the scariest thing that science has proven real?"
As if knowledge isn't scary enough, let's her more...
Hello Terry
"Some tumors have teeth, hair and even eyes."
Twat_Waffle_Stomp
"My sister had one minus the eyes! It was cantaloupe sized on one of her ovaries before it was found. She named it Terry the Teratoma."
Karina_is_my_cat
Hungry Bacteria
"Brain-eating amoebas."
dark_n_lovely_qu33n
"My best friend and bunk mate from summer camp died from one of those when I was in 7th grade. Happened so quickly, we were a week into camp and he got really sick. They gave us all heavy meningitis shots because they didn’t know what it was and within a few days he was dead. Turned out to be a brain eating amoeba."
"Edit: strangely enough on the same day he started getting sick one of the lifeguards that was sitting out in a boat waiting for the next group of kids for what we called Trojans Vs. Spartans day had a seizure, fell off the boat and drowned. Only deaths they’d ever had in the 50+ years the camp had been open."
Csharp27
Far Far Away
"The size of our galaxy, how many other galaxies there are and how far away they are. When you can actually see something that incomprehensible.."
Jfonzy
"The nearest star to us would take the Voyager 70,000 years to reach. The nearest galaxy to ours would take the Voyager 749,000,000 years. If we some how managed to take on the monstrous task of speed of light travel it would still take 25,000 years to reach the nearest galaxy. And it's even further apart after you read this. Wild stuff!"
ConqueredCorn
Head Changes
"How the brain is literally rewired and chemically altered by childhood neglect and abuse."
petalumaisreal
"It's genuinely kinda freaky, playing a puzzle game, and noticing how quickly you're getting better at it. The kind of puzzles that were a real blocker in the beginning become baby-easy after like an hour of playing puzzles like it."
LtLabcoat
"My sister faced horrible abuse at the hands of our father, and she has been working through it with multiple therapists over the last 10 years and she is only now starting to get her life back. I feel like she was robbed at a fair chance at life because of our a**hole father."
Pehdazur
Awake
"Prions, horrific and totally unpredictable."
geordiesteve520
"Fatal familial insomnia is a prions disease where you can't sleep anymore, you just stay awake until your brain deteriorates and you die."
DrinknEspresso
Now I can never UNKNOW about prions. Perfect.
Days gone by...
"Ageing. I'm content with death but the idea of my body growing old, frail and eventually falling apart before the end game gives me goosebumps."
EvidenceOfInnocence
Bursts
"Gamma ray bursts. No warning, no escape, no defense, no survivors."
Swampwolf42
"If you're talking about supernovas if the star isn't too close the gamma burst would probably only destroy some part of our ozone layer. And gamma radiation is actually the least lethal out of all types of waves."
Broccoli_sauce24
Sizzle
"Entropy. Time shall consume all things. Inevitable heat death of the universe."
Revolutionary_Elk420
"I personally want the 'Big Crunch' to be true. That instead of fizzling out it all gets sucked back into an infinitely small/dense particle and then another Big Bang happens. It’s my explanation for the multiverse. It’s all one timeline. Just infinitely long."
ChoppyWAL99
They're Watching
"More like a theory, the 'orangutan paradox,' when we film a documentary on orangutans, they can’t realize that we are observing them, yet they are the most intelligent species of their category, so aliens might be watching us and we are as oblivious as an orangutan."
Time_Succotash
Fade 2 Silent
"That hearing is the last sense to leave, when dying."
User Deleted
Well that is the antithesis of comfort. Life is so fun.
Ever since Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope opened on May 25, 1977, a devoted fanbase developed.
And that fanbase has opinions.
Lots and lots of opinions.
Redditor Ebo8000 wanted to know:
"What is your most controversial take on Star Wars?"
Doors
"LASERS LOCK DOORS. LASERS OPEN DOORS. LASERS KNOW WHAT YOU WANT THE DOOR TO DO."
- SlamVanDamn
"But if you get past the door and close it behind you and you don’t want anyone to follow you through it…"
"…you shoot the bloody door panel!"
- treeonwheels
"Also, f*cking hell, we're in the future (or in the past), whatever, and people have better technology."
"Why put the door control RIGHT NEXT to the door? Put the door control system in a breaker box."
"Build every door so in case of malfunction they all shut closed (after all, they're in space and you don't want to lose air in decompression, do you?)"
"Shoot the breaker box, now the whole floor is closed until someone can figure out what happened."
"Almost look like those doors just exist as dramatic elements..."
- smegma_yogurt
The Past
"I’d like a film about when the Republic was at its height. 1,000 generations is 25,000 years and we’ve had 9 movies about the last 60."
- Musickat18
The Future
"Not sure if controversial but they need to take the franchise and yeet it 200 years in the future."
"I'm tired of the Empire era where they need to justify why more than 2 Jedi and 2 Sith exist at one moment alongside knowing everything is pointless until Luke leaves the farm."
- Alandrus_sun
Design Fail? No!
"The Death Stars weren't badly designed they were just badly managed."
"Yes, designing them assuming large scale assaults was stupid given the political state of the galaxy but the second Death Star wasn't even finished so that doesn't count, it's all Palpatine's fault. As for the first one that was finished, the Alliance made three runs on the exhaust port."
"The first was called off before they made it to the trench, the second failed and the third was carried out by space Jesus which isn't exactly fair."
"All in all it sounds like a fairly effective defence when you consider the design philosophy."
- Engeneus
Cool Factor
"The entire universe has a cool factor that outweighs the atrocious storytelling."
- Ozty
"Bro imagine the following movies, but if they were in Star Wars universe."
"Magnificent 7 - A Jedi, Bounty Hunter, Ex-Imperial, Pilot, Wookie, a Droid, and Lawman team up to defend a town against pirates"
"Dredd - Two Jedi climb up an apartment block to confront a new dark side user who has mental control of the entire apartment block"
"Supernatural (T.V. Show) - A Jedi and their apprentice go around and solve and defeat Dark Side Force spots—where the Force consolidates from emotions and creates foul creatures to fight"
"Top Gun - But it's you know, Wedge or something"
"Ford versus Ferrari - But it's podracing or swoop racing"
- BoutsofInsanity
Ships
"Something about the ships in the original series always felt more like real ships than in any of the later movies, despite the objectively better effects of the later films."
"Some of this is probably the use of models (i.e. actual three dimensional objects), but I think there is some critical difference in the design that makes them feel more real (probably because they were designed to be things that would actually work as models)."
"Whatever it is, I LOVED the ships in the original series and never really liked any of the new ones."
- UnspecificGravity
"The original trilogy changed the world by showing a universe in space that was dirty and lived in. The special effects from the later movies did not recognize this."
Boba who?
"Boba Fett is an oddly overrated background character, and even after watching The Book of Boba Fett, I don’t really care about him."
- imidoesonlyfans
"He was never a character. He was a cool helmet."
- JimPlaysGames
"He was a cool jetpack too."
- RipperFromYT
Time for the weather...
"Han is actually older than Obi-Wan due to Time Dilation."
- Snowbofreak
"Time dilation in a universe where every planet and moon has the same gravity and atmosphere?"
- suman_issei
"And just 1 biome."
- DogShampoop
"That way they only need one Weather Channel per planet."
- The_Most_Superb
"And over to Klaatu for the Tatooine weather report. Klaatu?"
"It's still sunny."
- Budsygus
These are the droids we're looking for.
"Star Wars is actually the life story of C-3PO—think about it."
- jonguy77
"I disagree. I think its R2-D2's story. He had a much greater presence in Episode 1, 2 and 3, and got the same amount of screen time as C-3PO in 4, 5 and 6."
‐ MacGregor_Rose
Fan is short for fanatic.
"Fans ruined the whole franchise."
- SeaworthinessNo5209
Ouch...
So, did your controversial Star Wars opinion make the list?
Death is a subject many people shy away from because what they don't know beyond our realm of existence can be intimidating.
Hollywood hasn't helped, as movies and TV have typically portrayed death as something sinister and violent.
How could anyone be convinced death is a peaceful transition, and that what awaits on the other side is actually an unimaginable utopia?
Curious to hear strangers' thoughts about death, Redditor GoodNess2020 invoked a quote by an iconic literary figure and asked:
"Mark Twain once said, 'I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.' Why do you agree/disagree with his statement?"

People clarified what actually terrified them most about death
The Process
"I don't fear being dead. I fear dying."
– magicbluemonkeydog
"Yeah, that's usually the issue. It's why that quote doesn't mean much, to a lot of people."
"It's not a fear of eventually dying and not existing anymore. It's the act of dying itself. He didn't constantly die for all of time. He just wasn't alive."
– appleparkfive
Concept Of Loss
"To have not existed for billions of years is to have spent billions of years never knowing loss. To die is to know loss."
"If you look into a new bank account and see zero dollars, it’s nothing. If you look into a bank account that once had a million dollars and see there’s nothing in there, you’ll know it’s absence."
– -CrestiaBell
People provided an analogy to articulate what ceasing to exist must feel like.
It's About Time
"Time is only relevant to you when you are alive. He is right. Have you ever been sedated for surgery? You go under, and then instantly wake up and procedure is done.... or you died so no worries."
– 20190419
Consciousness Is Life
"You won’t be feeling anything in death though is the thing. That infinite/instant sensation was a living feeling, you just weren’t conscious for it - your body experienced it anyways. No body, no experience."
– Parradog1
Like Being Under
"That is very true, but for me, that's the closest amalgamation of what it probably feels like."
"No one can tell you what actual death will be like. It's impossible for you to experience nothingness."
"Thinking about death can be paralysing sometimes, and when I remember that the closest thing i can link as an experience I had, being put under, was actually sort of pleasant. I then think maybe death will be like that, and honestly it doesn't seem that bad."
– IamEclipse
When In Deep Sleep
"Yeah in contrast to sleep where you can actually feel like time has passed when you wake up."
– GreyFoxMe
Think Line Between Death And Slumber
"As CGPGrey puts it, your bed might very well be a suicide machine."
"Given our lack of understanding for the fundamental processes of our sentience, it's entirely possible that when you fall asleep, your mind is functionally killed, disassembled, analyzed, sorted, tweaked, and adjusted by your biology, before being reassembled when you wake. Every night."
– Mazon_Del
People opened up about their insecurities around the concept of death.
Fear Of What Comes Next
"I’m just paranoid that something does happen after death and it’s just based on one thing that you didn’t know about."
– PsychoDog_Music
The Circle Of Death
"There’s nothing to fear in oblivion. Unless, of course, your consciousness survives death. If so, it would be reasonable to fear the sensation of consciousness without senses, suspended alone in the cosmos, with no one to hear you, and no way to make yourself known. No reference point for counting time – a count that does not matter anyway in a literal eternity."
"You might wish that you still had a corporeal form, only so that you could make your mouth move to express your terror, to make the universal form of a terrified scream – the form of a letter O."
"But you won’t be able to. You just won’t!"
"This has been the Children’s Fun Fact Science Corner. Brought to you by shame, loneliness, and the letter..."
"O....."
– CecilSpeaksInItalics
When Faith Fails You
"what do you mean I'm going to hell?! I was a good person and attended church regularly!"
"Ah yes, but you failed to put a blue feather in your hat and then turn in circles the times praising God Almighty on the fifth Sunday after your twelfth birthday. To the pit with you!!!"
– phormix
There is an poignant episode from the Twilight Zone that brought me a sense of peace surrounding the concept of death.
Death was embodied by a handsome police officer who had been shot–played by a young Robert Redford–and begs to be let into the home of an elderly woman who had been living in perpetual fear of meeting "Mr. Death."
As the episode continues, she discovers much to her dismay that she welcomed Death into her home, but he warmly reassures her there is nothing to fear.
The episode ends with her finally offering her hand to Death after much protest, and they peacefully walk out together, arm in arm, into the light.
It was sweet and beautifully done. The 1962 episode was titled, "Nothing in the Dark."
That's how I imagine it to be.
A dashing Prince of Darkness telling me it's time to join him in guiding me to the other side.