Fear of Missing What Happens after We Die

Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Denise.

Hi, Denise. Welcome to the show.

Where are you calling from?

I’m calling from Panama City, Florida.

Welcome. What can we do for you?

I’m trying to find a word.

I had seen a word a few months ago, and it came up in a conversation, and I couldn’t remember it. There’s probably a word for that.

It was related to a fear of death, but it was a little bit different.

I was calling my cousin to give my condolences for her recent death of her mother, my wonderful Aunt Evelyn.

And we got into a long conversation about death.

And I mentioned this word I had found, and we tried to find it again.

And it’s the fear of not knowing what happens in the world after you die.

So it’s not so much the fear of what you yourself are, what you’re going to experience with death, but kind of, I guess, your unfinished business and not knowing what happens to the rest of the story.

And kind of hard to define, but I understand when I read about it the first time, it said it’s a universal experience for humans.

And it even made me think about Greek mythology.

You had to drink from the river of forgetfulness before you pass on to death, so you wouldn’t miss the world you were leaving behind.

So do you know what that word is?

Wow.

That’s a great concept.

Yeah, that’s deep.

If there is a word for that, I do want to know it.

Well, when someone’s wonderful dies, you think deep thoughts.

Wow.

Right, you do, right?

There’s a chance for you to reexamine your own beliefs, right?

Reexamine your own expectations for the afterlife.

Yeah.

Yeah, and you have me reaching for all kinds of Greek and Latin roots.

At first I thought you were going to talk about the fear of death, which is thanatophobia.

Yeah, and there’s a lot about that.

And, you know, this was just something I encountered, and I wish I could figure out where I had read it.

But it was one of those light bulbs coming on.

I’m like, oh, my gosh, I totally understand what they’re talking about there.

And I think it’s really cool that there’s a word for that.

And then, of course, I probably forgot the word.

Wow.

I want to say FOMO, but that’s too…

Fear of missing out.

Yeah, FOMO is an acronym for fear of missing out.

But that’s a little too…

Fear of missing out.

Well, yeah, kind of.

Right, that’s too informal.

We want something a little more prestigious or staid.

Yeah, and what an interesting concept of realizing that you’re going to miss the rest of the story.

I’m making up words in my head like extra mundane, you know, from the Latin word for world, mundus.

Yeah.

Extra mundane.

But it’s not really that.

And it’s not really thanatophobia, which we just discussed and is related to words like euthanasia.

Yeah.

Agnostophobia, not knowing.

Oh.

Fear of not knowing.

Fear of not knowing.

Wow.

Surely this has been coined, and I think that Denise probably…

I swear there’s a word, y’all.

I swear.

I just said it.

And it’s not agnosticophobia because I would remember that.

Right.

Okay.

So it’s something, but it’s along those lines.

There’s another word that means fear of bridges, which is sometimes figuratively used to mean the fear of crossing over.

So gephyrophobia, or gephyrophobia, G-E-P-H-Y-R-O-phobia.

But that’s not really right either because it’s still about what’s on the other side.

It’s on the other side and not knowing, yeah, what’s happening.

Denise, you know, we have incredibly well-read listeners and they will come up with this.

Surely someone has this answer, right?

Okay.

And when we find it, we will let you know, all right?

All right. Well, I’m looking forward to it.

Take care. Thanks for calling.

Yeah, thanks for the question.

Bye-bye.

All right. Bye-bye.

Do you know the word for the fear of missing what’s going to happen in the world after you leave it?

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