People who want to maintain awareness.

That's their point though. They wont have any.

The person said "who cares?". This is an issue about people who are still alive and their attitude towards death. What you're saying doesn't apply.

Are people who are drawn to the spotlight more likely to care about what people think of them when they are not around/dead.

Yeah, what an ego-maniacal self-centered jerk this guy is not wanting to die.

They like their life and want a future.

Many people see birth and death as a clearly defined ultimate boundary: the final infinite wall; a big blank room forever; the bookends of existence.

but our origin can be traced backwards forever: present day; yesterday; childhood; exiting the womb; formation in the womb; initial conception; individual cells split between two people; grandparents; formation of the elements of the solar system; beginning of the universe; etc.

Presently and onward we are also experiencing death: cells are dying and creating anew; elements breakdown and reform; etc.

In this way we can see life and death are convenience abstractions for speech, but neither are real. This is an endless process of transfiguration and change.

So what shakes me is the possibility that nonexistence and existence are an illusion, and this is just eternity

You are One with the swirling oceanic vortex that Is.

You don't fear it because it's an abstract thing to you. If you'll have an moment of facing impeding doom your primal instincts will rear it's head no doubt.

Unless you're sick and in pain, in which case you'll be wishing for it.

I also don't fear not existing. But I do fear the possibility of an afterlife.

The survival instinct is the most basic drive in any living thing. If the idea of ceasing to exist truly doesn't make you uncomfortable then it might be worth talking to a professional...

There is a difference between survival instinct (would I swim up, jump to avoid getting hit by a car or duck if something is thrown at me) with fear of death.

I don't fear death, I fear the process of dying, I wouldn't want it to be painful or slow, but not existing, that I do not fear.

Agreed, and we’ll said

Many religions are all about not fearing death as a goal. If your immediate reaction to hearing someone doesn't fear death is talk to a professional you have an interesting take on what professionals are for.

Those belief systems also tend to have things in store for the individual after death, though. Why should one fear death itself if it's actually the means to travel to a place where 72 virgins are waiting for them? Not disagreeing with your second sentence.

The "ego in heaven" stuff is in the washed down religion for mass appeal, the actual mystical practices, whether islam christian or hindu/buddhist are overcoming attachment to your identity on earth, to identify your 'self' with the infinite unfolding of the universe so you know that 'you' never die, you just stop looking out this window.

I'm attached to this window. This idea from religion has always bothered me.

Yes, the cosmos remains intact even as the ego dies. But it seems dismissive to say the ego is less precious and can be calmly dismissed because the eternal universe which gave rise to it persists intact. It gives me no comfort at all to know that the eternal fire will always burn, and everything that constituted my fleeting ego will always exist as well. My self-awareness will be gone forever. That is a real and impending loss, although i'll be blissfully oblivious to that loss soon enough.

Ah yes, the mentality that anyone that doesn't fear what I fear must be mentally ill in some way.

I admire and want to learn from people who do not fear "not existing".

But I'm always turned off by the complete lack of empathy that such folks (including you) show those of us who DO fear it. Most of folks like you don't just act like you don't fear not existing, but you actively don't understand how OTHERS can fear it.

Which makes me think one of two things: 1) The type of person who can be comfortable and this pragmatic about it is the kind of cold unfeeling unempathetic person that I simply could never be, or 2) Your cold detached pragmatic attitude is ITSELF a coping strategy for dealing with mortality. I dwell in the fear of not existing. You deal with it by pretending it's not even something worth burning an ounce of energy on.

If I'm wrong, then I'm sorry. I'd love to see you explain that you understand the fear, and then explain why you personally believe it's something you can make peace with. But every explanation I've heard so far I just haven't been able to follow.

My consciousness and awareness is all I have. When that ends, so will every dream, fantasy, feeling, emotion, hope, aspiration, joy, fear, sadness, idea, invention, and creative outlet I've ever had. And I won't have any more after that. That is objectively terrifying.

Just because it's inescapable doesn't make it any less disturbing.

At some point, you get to fundamentals. "Why live?" is not, IMO answerable logically or by reference to other things.

That said, wanting not to die is fairly compatible with all our other beliefs and judgements. Murder is bad, for example. That's pretty compatible with not wanting to die.

Right. I wasn't scared of the time before I existed, so why would I be scared of the time after.

Counterpoint: I am extremely scared of the fact that I don't exist on Antarctica and in the center of the Andromeda galaxy. And 10 meters below where I am. I'm just as dead on my roof right now. I'm dead in most of the universe RIGHT NOW and this is terrifying.

Update: I've just discovered I am not alone. Turns out Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln's V.P., is just as dead/not in existence on my roof. This is very disconcerting and I hope there are no more ghosts like this in my vicinity.

Because you've become rather fond of existing and would like to keep it that way?

it's not being scared of that time after you've died, it's being scared of no longer being able to exist.