It is the pernament stage of sleeping. It doesnt terrify me, since I believe in reincarnation. It is going to happen, regardless, because we all get old.
While I don't believe in reincarnation, I have to admit that if there is some metaphysical component to ourselves that 'exists' beyond us, then I can understand the concept of reincarnation. I suppose much of this could be talked about in the thread devoted to souls.
Our understanding of metaphysical concepts tends to be guided by our physical experience and diagnosis of them. For example, no one can truly say that if there is a ‘soul’ left to itself then that it has quality ‘x’, because we have not met anything that is 'just a soul' by which to make any comparison. Every soul is bound to a physical person.
Knowing of birth and death and projecting onto that, the concept of souls inhabiting bodies , that we can deduce that souls inhabiting bodies is something that souls seem to do. Therefore it seems logical (not that metaphysics can ever be logical) that souls need bodies and perhaps by extension that bodies need souls. The idea of a ‘cyclical’ consciousness to me makes sense in that respect.