Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

An awakening experience is a profound, often sudden event that jolts a person out of their routine existence and forces them to confront fundamental questions about life and death. Yalom describes this as an urgent or irreversible experience that disrupts normal patterns of thinking and living, compelling individuals to examine their mortality and the meaning of their existence. These experiences often involve encounters with death, serious illness, major loss, or other life-threatening situations that cannot be ignored or rationalized away. The awakening experience serves as a catalyst for moving from superficial daily concerns to deeper existential awareness. Rather than being purely negative, these experiences can lead to positive transformation by stripping away illusions and forcing authentic engagement with life’s most important questions.

Covert death anxiety refers to mortality fears that remain hidden beneath the surface of consciousness and manifest through disguised symptoms or displaced concerns. This form of death anxiety often appears in nightmares, excessive worry about seemingly unrelated issues, or disproportionate reactions to life events. Covert death anxiety requires careful investigation to uncover, as individuals may experience intense distress without recognizing that their underlying fear stems from death anxiety. Examples include hypochondriacal worries about illness, extreme parental anxiety about children’s welfare, or panic attacks triggered by aging-related events like milestone birthdays.