From: eradm@brahms.Berkeley.EDU (Erik Radmall)
Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: Fear of the process of dying.
Date: 5 Oct 92 14:11:07 GMT
Reply-To: eradm@brahms.Berkeley.EDU (Erik Radmall)
Organization: Xerox

In article <1992Oct2.111644.13419@odin.diku.dk>, lunatic@diku.dk (Philip Hoelgaard) writes:
|> You may find this an unappropriate subject to discuss in this newsgroup,
|> and for that I apologize, but I havent been able to find a better one.
|> 
|> I would like to hear the nature of your thoughts and emotions in connection to 
|> the subject of the very PROCESS of dying. How do you expect you will feel when 
|> eventually in the process (apart from bad..) and have you got any idea of what 
|> goes through the mind of those who are dying?   
|> 
|> I do not fear being dead.
|> 
|> But how can a rational human being be anything else than terrified when in
|> the process? Does he/she stop being rational?
|> 
|> Waiting for the last heartbeat, in panic. Drowning.
                                             ^^^^^^^^
You will experience the sensation of "earth sinking into water"

|> I fear that I personally will never stop being rational.
|> Maybe most people die when heavily sedated, but the sedatives are given
|> in slowly increasing doses - and for me the process of being given the
|> sedation and experiencing the effects, is likely to induce the same kind
|> of fear as an execution - there will be no return.
|> 
|> Im sorry to be melodramatic about the thing, but frankly I am scared stiff 
|> when thinking about what the process will be like.

These are truly serious questions, a suggestion would be to read
the "Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (Tibetan Book of the Dead/Bardo Thodol)
with the foreward by Carl Jung (Oxford University Press edition). This is an
ancient Buddhist text with a very pragmatic approach to the entire process of death,
dying, and what one will experience afterward. The psychological implications
of this book are truly profound.

|> 
|> Please tell me how you feel.

My _personal_ beliefs (yeah, I'm letting it all hang out here - no flames please!):

 1. The nature of dying is a very subjective experience with some commonality
    between individuals.
 2. The experiences one has while going through the death process is primarily
    dependent upon the thought content of the dying individual (i.e. if you lived
    an "evil" life, you will suffer great fears of hells, etc.)
 3. The laws of causation (or karma) have a profound effect on the experience.
 4. There is no such thing as a permanent, abiding "soul" concept.
 5. There is no "God" or saviour that will mitigate bad karma. Basically, there are
    no free rides. Your state of being is based entirely upon _personal_ effort.
 6. There IS consciousness after death, and it's experience is the direct result
    of the "fruits of karma" (i.e. the effects of all volitional action).
 7. If you haven't relinquished cravings to "become more and more" (read ego), you are bound
    to be trapped in the cycle of death and rebirth.
 8. There IS A WAY OUT! It's called "enlightment", Nirvana, etc.
 9. This liberation is a direct result of extreme individual effort and desire to
    overcome the "clinging" to the notion of constant "becoming". It is to
    "hop off the wheel of death and rebirth."

 I realize these views are primarily religious, so there will be resistance from the
 "more rational" minds out there. But hey, I haven't ever heard any better explanations.
 Basically, all my beliefs are founded on the premise of a non-dualistic nature of
 things. It was very disconcerting for me to give up the _totally_ "rational" approach
 to life. This is not to say I have discarded rational thinking at all. Rather, for me,
 the purely rational approach chokes on its own notion of supremacy. I believe there is
 a balanced approach that combines both Eastern and Western world views. Enough said.
 

|> 
|> Kind Regards
|> Philip Hoelgaard
|> Dept. of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen.

-- 
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J. Erik Radmall                    | Xerox Corp.
eradm@brahms.wbst845e.xerox.com    | Knowledge-Based Systems Competency Center
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