Ok, people. Time for some heady shit.
Throughout the annals of time, man has attempted to create for himself an eternal life. He has used religion, philosophy and medicine to create everlasting existence. Man does not wish to die. Doing so is his greatest fear.
Why do we fear death? Some of it is probably due to the actual act. Dying would have to suck. There's that pain factor involved. Except for dying in your sleep at a very old age, most methods of snuffing it probably involve some amount of pain. But I doubt that this is really the underlying concern.
I think people fear death because it's an inconceivable state of existence. Dying is something we all must do, but nobody can sit around and really explain what it's like. Before the day of your birth, you can't possibly know, from a first-hand account, what life on this planet was like. Sure, you can read about it and even watch movies and listen to music made before your birth, but you have no real recollection of what it was like to exist back then. Death will probably end up the same way. The problem is that we can't seem to reconcile with that idea. We just can't wrap our heads around the fact that, after we die, things will continue on without us.
I have had much time to ponder over death while driving down the road. I have broken it down in its sections so that I can imagine, (1) what it's like to die, the actual act of crossing over; and (2) also what may or may not be on the other side.
First off, let's talk about the act of dying. Most people probably have at least one near-death experience. I'm not talking about the kind you hear about on the talk shows with seeing a light and all that horse shit. I'm talking about a time when you were in a situation that, if certain factors had been slightly fluctuated, you would not have survived. Perhaps you once nearly drowned in your pool. Maybe a gun you were handling accidentally went off and it was pointed away from you. Even a car accident where you walked away unscathed. If a few of the factors were adjusted, you could be dead right now.
I often try to tune myself in to what it would feel like to die. There are usually two scenarios I run through based upon things I've experienced: vehicular accident and gunshot.
I've been in a few accidents in my life. The first one was when I was six and I still wear the scars from it to this day. I broke both of my clavicles and had 79 stitches put into my face. A pickup truck T-boned the Volkswagen Bug my mother was driving and my door was the impact point. Now, even though I can't remember much of what happened that day, I can recreate a similar scenario in my truck. I often imagine hitting a bridge abutment, since taking on a car is unlikely to result in my death. I try to imagine seeing the abutment coming toward me and try to think of how it would feel as my truck smashed into it. I think of how the concrete smashing into my face and body would be excruciating and the breath would instantly be gone, irrecoverable. Would I hear the bang of the impact? Probably not. Would there be a few seconds to ponder or would it just be "lights out"? Would my neck or my head or my shoulders hurt? I don't know. I try to play out all the scenarios.
Now, the gunshot thing is a little different. It's not a complete destruction of the body like the accident. I usually think of getting one to the head. I don't know why, but it's always the most vivid to me. I have been shot at before, so I have a pretty good idea the impact a bullet has when it strikes an object. I don't believe that a gunshot to the head hurts very much, if at all. Scientists are pretty sure that the brain has no nerve endings and can't feel pain. Of course, the entrance and exit wounds might hurt a bit, but by the time you could register any pain, you're probably already dead. This one often becomes so real in my mind that I can actually feel a tingling in the center of my forehead while I'm trying to imagine what the impact of the bullet would feel like. Again, though, is it just a quick thing or do we linger?
Ok, enough with the morbidity. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad or sick; I'm just trying to set the stage. So, after the deed is done, then what?
If you're religious, you probably have been taught about some type of afterlife. Many believe in a heaven and a hell; each one has its own treats. Some believe that you "sleep" in your grave until some reanimated deity comes for you. Then there are those who just believe that death is the end, nothingness.
I'm normally on the side of those who think that death is just a fade-to-black ending; all suffering of life over; nothing; nada. However, something made me think that maybe it's not.
Alright, let's begin with a question: What is consciousness? I don't mean the literal dictionary term. Not that consciousness is a state of being awake and alert. But what makes consciousness possible? Is it a number of factors that come together to spark alert life? What if consciousness lies in a single molecule, or even an atom, that man has not yet discovered? We certainly know very little about the brain and how it operates.
The other day there was a story about how Chinese scientists disconnected a chimp's arm from its brain and then ran wires from the nerves in the arm to a computer. The brain was then hooked up to the same computer via similar wiring and, suddenly, the chimp could move its arm. They disconnected the wires from the brain and hooked them to a different part of the brain and the arm still fucking moved. How in the hell could that be? Nobody knows. The brain is still an ultimate mystery to science.
That said, what if there is a single atom within our bodies that allows us consciousness? What if it exits our bodies when we die and then seeks out another being that's waiting for that conscious spark? Maybe it rides on our last breath and floats around looking for a female who is becoming pregnant. Maybe it sits in our brains and waits for thousands of years before it can be swept up after a long decomposition and then looks for a new host. And what about those poor souls who suffered at the hands of an eager mind that decided to encase your last breath in a jar, to be used at a later time. It was once an old wives' tale that a person's soul left them in their last breath; holding a jar over a person's mouth at the moment of their demise could capture a soul.
Even the most ardent atheist cannot deny that, scientifically, we all live forever. The same atoms that make up your body have existed since the dawn of time. The air you breathe was probably inhaled and expelled by Roman soldiers or dinosaurs at some point. When we die and turn to dust, those same atoms will one day be used by the earth to support life. The carbon that makes up your nose might be part of a frog's leg; your eyes, a blade of grass. Life must go on and no more of the ingredients can be made. No matter how you form the Play-dough, you only get so much in the can.
So, does our consciousness live forever? Will you ever get the chance to find out? I doubt it. I think it's pretty evident that, even if my theory is true, the atomic particle can't carry memories with it. In a way, it really is the end, I guess. But just think for a moment; some day you might be you, but looking through different eyes. Your consciousness: alive once again. You are shed of the memories of your former life, but your consciousness lives inside another host. I guess that would make us not even human. Perhaps we are only parasites that feed off of the bodies of living things. Perhaps "consciousness" is just another tapeworm that feeds off others to exist.
Well, now I freaked myself out with that last paragraph. Think it over, just don't forget to live in the meantime.
Throughout the annals of time, man has attempted to create for himself an eternal life. He has used religion, philosophy and medicine to create everlasting existence. Man does not wish to die. Doing so is his greatest fear.
Why do we fear death? Some of it is probably due to the actual act. Dying would have to suck. There's that pain factor involved. Except for dying in your sleep at a very old age, most methods of snuffing it probably involve some amount of pain. But I doubt that this is really the underlying concern.
I think people fear death because it's an inconceivable state of existence. Dying is something we all must do, but nobody can sit around and really explain what it's like. Before the day of your birth, you can't possibly know, from a first-hand account, what life on this planet was like. Sure, you can read about it and even watch movies and listen to music made before your birth, but you have no real recollection of what it was like to exist back then. Death will probably end up the same way. The problem is that we can't seem to reconcile with that idea. We just can't wrap our heads around the fact that, after we die, things will continue on without us.
I have had much time to ponder over death while driving down the road. I have broken it down in its sections so that I can imagine, (1) what it's like to die, the actual act of crossing over; and (2) also what may or may not be on the other side.
First off, let's talk about the act of dying. Most people probably have at least one near-death experience. I'm not talking about the kind you hear about on the talk shows with seeing a light and all that horse shit. I'm talking about a time when you were in a situation that, if certain factors had been slightly fluctuated, you would not have survived. Perhaps you once nearly drowned in your pool. Maybe a gun you were handling accidentally went off and it was pointed away from you. Even a car accident where you walked away unscathed. If a few of the factors were adjusted, you could be dead right now.
I often try to tune myself in to what it would feel like to die. There are usually two scenarios I run through based upon things I've experienced: vehicular accident and gunshot.
I've been in a few accidents in my life. The first one was when I was six and I still wear the scars from it to this day. I broke both of my clavicles and had 79 stitches put into my face. A pickup truck T-boned the Volkswagen Bug my mother was driving and my door was the impact point. Now, even though I can't remember much of what happened that day, I can recreate a similar scenario in my truck. I often imagine hitting a bridge abutment, since taking on a car is unlikely to result in my death. I try to imagine seeing the abutment coming toward me and try to think of how it would feel as my truck smashed into it. I think of how the concrete smashing into my face and body would be excruciating and the breath would instantly be gone, irrecoverable. Would I hear the bang of the impact? Probably not. Would there be a few seconds to ponder or would it just be "lights out"? Would my neck or my head or my shoulders hurt? I don't know. I try to play out all the scenarios.
Now, the gunshot thing is a little different. It's not a complete destruction of the body like the accident. I usually think of getting one to the head. I don't know why, but it's always the most vivid to me. I have been shot at before, so I have a pretty good idea the impact a bullet has when it strikes an object. I don't believe that a gunshot to the head hurts very much, if at all. Scientists are pretty sure that the brain has no nerve endings and can't feel pain. Of course, the entrance and exit wounds might hurt a bit, but by the time you could register any pain, you're probably already dead. This one often becomes so real in my mind that I can actually feel a tingling in the center of my forehead while I'm trying to imagine what the impact of the bullet would feel like. Again, though, is it just a quick thing or do we linger?
Ok, enough with the morbidity. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad or sick; I'm just trying to set the stage. So, after the deed is done, then what?
If you're religious, you probably have been taught about some type of afterlife. Many believe in a heaven and a hell; each one has its own treats. Some believe that you "sleep" in your grave until some reanimated deity comes for you. Then there are those who just believe that death is the end, nothingness.
I'm normally on the side of those who think that death is just a fade-to-black ending; all suffering of life over; nothing; nada. However, something made me think that maybe it's not.
Alright, let's begin with a question: What is consciousness? I don't mean the literal dictionary term. Not that consciousness is a state of being awake and alert. But what makes consciousness possible? Is it a number of factors that come together to spark alert life? What if consciousness lies in a single molecule, or even an atom, that man has not yet discovered? We certainly know very little about the brain and how it operates.
The other day there was a story about how Chinese scientists disconnected a chimp's arm from its brain and then ran wires from the nerves in the arm to a computer. The brain was then hooked up to the same computer via similar wiring and, suddenly, the chimp could move its arm. They disconnected the wires from the brain and hooked them to a different part of the brain and the arm still fucking moved. How in the hell could that be? Nobody knows. The brain is still an ultimate mystery to science.
That said, what if there is a single atom within our bodies that allows us consciousness? What if it exits our bodies when we die and then seeks out another being that's waiting for that conscious spark? Maybe it rides on our last breath and floats around looking for a female who is becoming pregnant. Maybe it sits in our brains and waits for thousands of years before it can be swept up after a long decomposition and then looks for a new host. And what about those poor souls who suffered at the hands of an eager mind that decided to encase your last breath in a jar, to be used at a later time. It was once an old wives' tale that a person's soul left them in their last breath; holding a jar over a person's mouth at the moment of their demise could capture a soul.
Even the most ardent atheist cannot deny that, scientifically, we all live forever. The same atoms that make up your body have existed since the dawn of time. The air you breathe was probably inhaled and expelled by Roman soldiers or dinosaurs at some point. When we die and turn to dust, those same atoms will one day be used by the earth to support life. The carbon that makes up your nose might be part of a frog's leg; your eyes, a blade of grass. Life must go on and no more of the ingredients can be made. No matter how you form the Play-dough, you only get so much in the can.
So, does our consciousness live forever? Will you ever get the chance to find out? I doubt it. I think it's pretty evident that, even if my theory is true, the atomic particle can't carry memories with it. In a way, it really is the end, I guess. But just think for a moment; some day you might be you, but looking through different eyes. Your consciousness: alive once again. You are shed of the memories of your former life, but your consciousness lives inside another host. I guess that would make us not even human. Perhaps we are only parasites that feed off of the bodies of living things. Perhaps "consciousness" is just another tapeworm that feeds off others to exist.
Well, now I freaked myself out with that last paragraph. Think it over, just don't forget to live in the meantime.
1 comment:
Hmmm...good post honey, but you already know I don't like hearing you talk about death.
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