Shelly Kagen was helpful to me in being more accepting of death.

I grew up Evangelical Christian and I'm often fascinated by what I view as a case of something like death denial in the LW/cryonics/transhumanism crowd. It reminds me of the people I knew who embraced religion as a death transcendence mechanism.

should accept death as a neutral or positive thing

There is gratuitous pain that often accompanies the dying process. Plus, loved ones will miss you—that sucks. But "death" is just a transition to non-existence. If you stop existing—and are unaware of your non-existence—that seems utterly neutral by any measure. (The only counterargument I remember is some sort opportunity cost plea whereby staying alive allows you to accumulate more utilons and fuzzies...therefore death = bad.)

Further, from a evolutionary standpoint, it seems we should be aware that the bias against death is likely extremely strong, since any species without a strong "anti-death" drive likely died out. It's part of the reason it irked me about LW that some argued so vehemently that death is rationally bad.