The Survival Instinct

There has been something that's nagging me lately, and that's whether there really is such a thing as a survival instinct. With that being the urge to stay alive even when one consciously wishes for death. Sure, there's a whole school of thought revolving around the concept, and many people swear that it exists. However, I'm still skeptical whether it's an "instinct" or something people were conditioned to fear. After all, everyone's taught to fear death and most already fear the unknown.

Unfortunately, it really is frightfully hard to put this to the test. I would very much like to personally disprove it, but the only way for me to prove a lack of fear of death is to actually off myself and note what things are like just beyond the point of no return. By definition, that also means I would hardly be in a position to record my findings.

To perform the test, one would have to be dying by inches over a reasonably long period of time such that one can feel oneself dying and be fully able to panic about it. Of course, the absence of such a panic in the face of willful self-destruction would be quite a compelling proof that the survival instinct really isn't.

I guess some things are just really difficult to test, and it would probably be unethical to put others up to it as well. Still, it irks me to no end that people unquestioningly believe in the survival instinct regardless whether it is actually proven. Sure, some may claim that the fact that most people have not killed themselves is definitive proof that there is a survival instinct, but then again it sounds uncomfortably close to imbecilic bravado to have to off oneself just to prove a point. It's very much like a dare, only that the person who has the last laugh is the one who was not silly enough to allow oneself to be drawn into it. I mean hey...bowing to this one dare pretty much precludes one from trying out every other life-threatening dare one may encounter in future. What a waste.