Posted on 02 June 2025, 7:26

As I read the newly released book Original Sin, about the alleged cover-up of then-President Joe Biden’s cognitive and other aging issues, I continually wondered if there is a relationship between a person’s reluctance to recognize or even consider the limitations of aging and his or her unwillingness to give some thought to what happens to consciousness at physical death. That is, if you are in denial about aging, as the book suggests Biden was (and apparently still is), is it likely you’ll also struggle with death?

The book, authored by CNN newscasters Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, makes a strong case for Biden being in denial at age 81, feeling that he was as sharp as ever and fully able to carry on as president of the United States from ages 82 to 86. His advisors saw it differently, observing both cognitive and physical decline, but they struggled in their efforts to finally convince him that it was time to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. He is said to have withdrawn with much anger and resentment, refusing to recognize his age-related limitations.

According to AI, psychologists call it “Affective Forecasting,” which involves overestimating one’s future energy or cognitive sharpness and extends to not preparing for one’s death, such as in not discussing end-of-life care or making a will. One of the most common forms of Affective Forecasting is not recognizing one’s inability to drive safely and thus continuing to drive at an advanced age.

“So, while there's no single term that perfectly encapsulates ‘failing to consider aging in a future-oriented decision,’ errors in affective forecasting, present bias, and optimism bias are the closest psychological explanations,” AI says, going on to explain “that research in in psychology (notably by Daniel Gilbert and Timothy Wilson) has shown that people often misjudge the intensity and duration of their future emotional and physical states. In this case, someone might overestimate their future energy or cognitive sharpness or base decisions too heavily on how they feel now rather than anticipating realistic age-related decline.”

When Biden was president, he continually preached that everyone should “look at the science” concerning climate change. And yet, it seems obvious that he never looked at the science of aging. He was focused on how he felt at the time, at ages 80 and 81, not what science says might be ahead between ages 82 and 86. I don’t have to research it. I know from experience that those years are significantly declining years for everyone. I had a number of friends and former classmates who were doing reasonably well at 80 and 81 but who were no longer around at 86. One needs only look at the actuarial tables to confirm the impact of those years.

At 82, I could still do 40 pushups and walk a few miles every day, but I’m fairly certain that I didn’t have the energy, mental stamina, focus, whatever it might be called, to work a demanding job 8-12 hours a day. From what we could see on television, Biden was no exception. He was continually headed to his Delaware home before the end of the week for rest and recuperation. Had I not known his age, I would have guessed he was then 90 or older. I also wondered about his medication, whether he could be quickly awakened at 3 a.m. in the event of an emergency, but I never saw a word about that. I do remember reading that he had sleep apnea.

Actually, there was one comment in the book that did point to the future. That’s when Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told Biden, “This is not about today. It’s about when you are eighty-six.” Biden apparently nodded in agreement, but he didn’t have an answer on that issue for Blinken.

I have the same concerns about President Trump, who will be 79 in two weeks, especially considering his not overly thin build. In a recent television appearance, he looked as if he had aged three years in three months. I recall someone saying that Obama aged much more than expected during his time in office. It is clearly a demanding job, one for a younger and more fit person. Trump does not appear to be the type of person who will admit to being too old for the job.

Death Anxiety

The fear of death is called Thanatphobia or simply Death Anxiety.  It also falls under the definition of Existential Angst.  According to the Cleveland Clinic website, this is a common disorder among people, although few report it or seek treatment for it. Whether someone suffering from “Affective Forecasting” is likely to suffer from Thanatphobia, Death Anxiety, or Existential Angst, I couldn’t find a clear link but I infer that such is the case from the discussions at various websites.

“The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human mind like nothing else,” wrote anthropologist Ernest Becker in his 1974 Pulitzer prize-winning book, The Denial of Death.  Becker explained that to free oneself of death anxiety, nearly everyone chooses the path of repression.  That is, we bury the idea of death deep in the subconscious and then busy ourselves with our jobs and families, partaking of certain pleasures as much as possible, and otherwise pursuing material wealth, while seeking a mundane security that we expect to continue indefinitely, all the while oblivious to the fact that in the great scheme of things such activities are exceedingly short-term and for the most part meaningless.

Becker referred to this “secure” person as the “automatic cultural man,”  a modern description of existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard’s “Philistine.”  For Kierkegaard, Philistinism was man fully concerned with the trivial without any regard for searching for ultimate meaning.  As he saw it, many people are so tranquilized in the mundane or the trivial that they lack the awareness that they are in despair.  Today, Kierkegaard might see a typical male Philistine as someone focused on “babes, booze, and ballgames,” all the while striving to be One with his Rolex. 

To once again call upon the renowned psychiatrist, Carl Jung:  “A man should be able to say he has done his best to form a conception of life after death, or to create some image of it – even if he must confess his failure. Not to have done so is a vital loss.” My guess is that by taking Jung’s advice, Biden might have avoided his problems with Affective Forecasting. He might have been able to accept that he was in his declining years and not up to such a demanding job if he had looked at the bigger picture, the one that holds that this life is part of a much larger life. 

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I. and No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife. His latest book Consciousness Beyond Death:  New and Old Light on Near-Death Experiences is published by White Crow books.