What is a baby trying to say when it is crying? For British psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion, cries are more than a call for food or assistance. They are expressions of an all-consuming fear: of dying. Understanding this fear, and responding to it empathically was, for him, essential to the work of parenting—and analysis. But what does it mean that Bion placed dying at the beginning—not the end—of life? And how does his use of this term relate to both his early work on linking and thinking, as well as his later explorations of mysticism? This lecture will answer these question by exploring what Bion meant by “dying” and why it matters for clinicians and psychoanalytic theorists today.