Scientific experiments have proven that if you read the following story, you will likely be changed. Your ideas about religion, politics -- yes, even your appreciation of art and beauty will be changed... at least temporarily. So if you like the way you feel about life right now, maybe you should skip this article.

I'm going to tell you something that you already know. It's something obvious. But it's also so horrific and terrible that it must quickly be forgotten or it could literally drive you insane. Just the reminder of this fact will be enough to change your behavior, your outlook on the world and the look on your face

This idea is so important that it deserves to be explored. It's a new-old idea called Terror Management Theory.

Terror Management Theory (TMT) states that all human behavior is motivated by the fear of our own mortality. The fact that you and I will eventually die and be "no more" is a fact known and understood only by humans. Although animals have an avoidance of death, they live in the present. They don't comprehend their destiny. Only humans have the capacity to project reality in time and imagine the future. Only humans realize the significance of being "no more".

The theory originated with anthropologist Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer Prize-winning work of nonfiction, The Denial of Death, in which Becker argues all human action is taken to ignore or avoid the anxiety generated by the inevitability of death.

According to Becker, people spend their entire lives trying to make sense of these conflicting thoughts. We are so afraid of death that we create alternate realities -- realities where we won't cease to be. We take comfort in the fact that others share this alternate reality. Often symbols are used to reinforce our confidence in what psychologists call our worldview.