You’re going to die. It’s the one thing I can say with any certainty. You’re going to die at least three times, almost certainly four, probably more.

The first time you die it’ll probably be Mortal Ego-Death. Loss of one’s constructed sense of identity, capability and fulfilment. I think we probably all die a few ego deaths in our time. At the weekend I went to an indoor obstacle course that required more upper body strength than I evidently have. Admitting that to myself was a bit of an ego-death.

The next kind of death is the kind we all think of when we talk about death: Mortal Death. But we’re survived by our legacy – the memories we helped make, the stories we told, the ideas we shared, the creations and recipes and art that we produced…

Until they’re all forgotten. That’s when we die our next death: Ego-Extinction.

And then ultimately, we’re not even survived by people who are reminiscent of us. The last human dies a Mortal Death, and we all face Extinction.

My theory is that people aren’t motivated to fear death, we fear death because we’re motivated to survive. It’s survival that’s actually at the core of all decision-making: preservation of ego, preservation of legacy, and survival of the person and the species.

And to protect these survival cores, we seek comfort (familiarity, absence of pain), control (autonomy, consciousness, clarity, absence of risk, purpose), and social contact (safety in numbers, reproduction).

That’s Horror Theory in a nutshell – so-called because I first wrote about it in a Halloween-themed blog for work. The original blog can be read on Corporate Culture‘s website.