Despite overwhelming evidence from some of the most trustworthy sources,such as Prophets ,mystics and saints and most recently near-death experiencers, one still can encounter episodes of fearing death in one’s being. It comes up insidiously, like an uneasy feeling accompanied with a thought pattern that sounds something like this:”What is going to happen to me when I leave this earth-bound body?How can I possibly live otherwise”. Given what we should know about the after-life from even a cursory look at the data that is out there,this reaction makes no sense.I have concluded that it is actually some kind of programming in our D.N.A. designed to preserve the specious.Nevertheless,we have to deal with it without freaking out.

In fact,whole schools of psychotherapy, like Yalom’s Existential Therapy, have been developed on the basis of “fear of death”. We can fully understand why.However,their enterprise is futile as it is based on spiritual illiteracy- modernistic tendencies towards atheism and agnosticism. I often told my own patients”You cannot cure the fear of Death with psychotherapy,nor with medication.It is ultimately a spiritual question.Only faith or actual spiritual ,mystical experience can cure it!

If we go back to the evidence for a moment, we will see that a theme that emerges on a regular basis,both from the experience and teachings of mystics and from n.d.ers is that this world is not our real home.We are here,so to speak,on a mission-actually kind of like sub-contractors of God.Like any sub-contractors we are accountable for our actions,our behaviours and our attitudes.Ultimately our purpose is to learn,-about the basic principles of existence and about love,and to accomplish our mission,which we had,in fact, agreed to before coming.The consequences of us doing our job properly is literally cosmic.So this is serious stuff-not to be taken lightly-as entertainment for example.

Given theses realities,what do we do about our intermittent bouts of fear of Death.Here is my suggestion.It comes from two sources.1)Humanistic Psychology which developed the technique of ‘affirmations where we affirm what we already know about ourselves to’ combat our neuroses.Example:”Despite what my parents told me, I am not a complete incompetent(perhaps because I left some film on the glasses I washed lol) but am capable of doing good things with my life”2)The other source is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy where we address dysfunctional beliefs.In this case the dysfunctional belief is: “After death I enter a permanent void of non-existence”.

I once met one of the leading practitioners of CBT in Quebec,someone I had studied with during residency training.After we completed our studies,he had sub-specialized in CBT and had become somewhat of a celebrity on the Quebecois psychology teaching circuit. I confronted him with the limitations of his approach and CBT in general in my own experience .Despite all the hype and the manipulated research surrounding it,it was never as effective, in reality, as the research seemed to imply! His answer was interesting”Forget about all those techniques and use what really works-“Self -Talk”.

So the methodology presented here is a combination of affirmations and self-talk.It goes like this:You say to yourself-in writing or out loud or silently, in whatever situation you find yourself in:”This is not my permanent abode.I am here on a short-lived visit -on contract.I am ready to go back home when my Lord calls me”. ( If you are adverse to religious terminology you can replace the word Lord with Universe lol) This practice can be done anywhere and is more effective the more you do it.It is like the spiritual practice of contemplating death that so many traditions including our own- Sufism- recommend.” Try it out.You may be surprised at the results.Salaams,Ibrahim