The terror management theory is unique to human beings and says that we have a desire to live and thrive and this is shadowed only by our realization that death is inevitable. I believe Stephen Cave put it best when he said, “We each live in the shadow of a personal apocalypse.” (Cave, 2013). Cave has also found that society has created four stories that help us cope by making us in some way immortal. His four immortality stories are elixir, resurrection, soul, and legacy. We often times find one or more of these to be the plot of ancient myths and modern stories of death.
Elixir- The idea of avoiding death all together by taking some sort of elixir of life that will keep us going. In the book of Genesis, God discusses the tree of life and how man must not eat from it or they will not only hone the knowledge of God (from the eating of the apple from the tree of knowledge) but also his immortality. “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever,’” (Genesis 3:22)
Cave discusses how in modern day we no longer rely on finding the “Fountain of Youth” but rather on creating one through science. We utilize modern technology to develop hormone treatments, stem cell research, etc. that will increase our vitality, functionality, and length of time on Earth.
Resurrection- We can rise up and live again as someone or even something different, therefore not really dying but rather evolving or transitioning into a different life. Many Egyptians believed that death was simple a transition period in life and that their ka left the body at the point of death. This is why they mummified their dead and buried them with their riches, so that when their ka returned it would have a body to return to. They also believed in Osiris, the god of the afterlife, regeneration, and rebirth.
Soul- A majority of people believe that we all have a soul (except for gingers…only kidding) and that death only occurs to the body. Our soul leaves our dead body but lives on to watch over our loved ones. The ka that I referred to previously is what Egyptians believe is their soul. It lives on before they are resurrected in body.
Legacy- This isn’t a physiological part of you living on, much like what takes place in the three previous stories. This is more of the legend that you leave behind. Something you did that was so phenomenal that it will live on forever, or damn near close to it. Your legacy may be so small that it only survives by your family and friends or it may have made such a significant impact that it lives on throughout the entirety of the world, like Steve Job’s legacy of technology.
In truth, no one can really know for sure what we have to look forward to after death. Our legacy is almost the only thing we can guarantee with certainty and that is why “the only thing that matters is that you make [your life] a good story.” (Cave, 2013)
P.S. Would living in Never-Land be considered an elixir? =D
Hum 115: World Mythology 
I really liked your post! I think that never-land would be a soul story as a sort of heaven for the lost boys and the fairy dust as the elixir that keeps him young forever. I really liked Cave’s statement at the end about legacies and the only sure way of “living” forever is making your story a good one.
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I just thought that Tinker’s dust allowed them to fly. Being in Neverland is what freezes you in time. Maybe it’s the 5th death story, “The Blackhole.”
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Neverland is an interesting case: if you take time out of the equation, then you remove death as well, since death is the inevitable result of time and the entropy it brings. Since we see time created in origin myths, Neverland would seem to be almost Edenic, a realm before the fall, with no time, sex, or decline.
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I can’t stop laughing at the ginger bit! I also thought that the “personal apocalypse” part of Cave’s Ted Talk was an interesting way to look at it. (A pretty good band name also) When you look back on Mr. Cave’s 4 tropes you truly can categorize them as such. When it comes to Peter Pan I look at it more as resurrection. You are literally ascending to the heavens and away from the world. Does that mean that Neverland is purgatory or heaven? Did the Darling children die in a terrible tragedy? Oh no, I can’t get out of this rabbit hole! “Second star to the right, and straight on till morning,” indeed! Does the morning mean head to the light? AHH!, I can’t stop!
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Happy to provide the laugh, people take life too seriously. I’d definitely go see a band called Personal Apocalypse. The Darling kids don’t die and as long as they are in Neverland they will live forever, so it’s almost as if they are living within the elixir this is what makes it confusing to me.
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Oh, I’m getting flashbacks to Lewis’s The Last Battle now. Children’s literature can be amazingly creepy if you think about it too much.
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I liked how you talked about Steve Jobs lasting effect on our world. He might be one of the most influential people ever to walk the Earth in all honesty
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I like your thoughts here, you made some really good connections. One thing that I don’t necessarily disagree with, but I think is more frightening than we want to acknowledge sometimes is that even though our legacy is what most of us strive for, it really can’t be guaranteed. A legacy implies that when we go, something or someone will continue to carry the legacy along. But that means that after we are dead we are at the mercy of our legacy withstanding the tests of time. If I start a huge technology empire like Steve Jobs, when I die I have no way to ensure that my kids or my replacement CEO don’t run my legacy into the ground. I’d rather have an elixir and keep myself alive forever than to leave a legacy that gets destroyed by things out of my control! But maybe thats just me being gloomy.
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