AFRAID OF DYING

It's three in the morning, and the thought has come back again.

One day you will not be here, and you have no idea what that means.

Maybe you have carried that fear since you were a child. Maybe it arrived with a frightening diagnosis, a parent's slow decline, or a faith that no longer comforts you the way it once did. Maybe you still believe and feel quietly ashamed that your belief hasn't made you braver. Whatever brought you here, you have probably discovered that almost nobody wants to talk about it.

This book does.

Drawing on decades of research in psychology and neuroscience, and on the stories of ordinary people facing the end of life, Afraid of Dying explains why the human brain fears its own ending. Then it shows you, gently and practically, how to loosen that fear's grip, whether you believe, doubt, or simply don't know.

Inside, you'll discover:

• Why the fear of death so often hides behind health anxiety, panic attacks, avoidance and sleepless nights
• The hidden ways your mind defends itself against mortality, and what a single reminder of death can do to your choices
• What happens to fear when faith fades, and why some believers are more afraid than they let on
• How to tell a healthy conscience from a childhood fear of hell or judgment
• What brain scans of people in deep prayer and meditation reveal, and what the latest research on psilocybin found in patients facing terminal illness
• What near-death experiences can and cannot tell us, explained honestly from both sides
• Ancient wisdom from Epicurus and the Stoics that still works today, and modern exposure techniques that help you face the fear in small, manageable steps
• How to stop rehearsing the loss of the people you love, talk to children about death, sit beside a dying parent, and put your affairs in order without falling apart

Warm, honest and grounded in science, with simple diagrams and exercises you can use the same day, this book won't tell you what happens after you die. It will help you live fully without needing to know.

Scroll up and start making peace with the question that keeps you awake.