~
We know who DEATH is. He is that dark, hooded figure who carries that foreboding sickle. He searches those out whose time it is to die! He is cold and aloof and above all he is to be feared. Certainly, he is to be both feared and revered because he snatches us up, anywhere-anytime, and removes us from our earthly existence, from all that is familiar to us, our family and friends and everything that we have grown close to.
I
am reminded of an old B&W movie I saw as a child. The name eludes
me, but it was about "DEATH" who, in the form of a man, was tricked to
climb a magic tree by a child. The child knew that if Death climbed this
tree he would be stuck there and unable to carry out his "missions".
The child was motivated to do this because DEATH had come to take his
father who was very ill. Sure enough the child had tricked DEATH and he
refused to let him down, knowing that his Dad would live forever - and
so would everyone else! The child was happy at first, but gradually
began to learn that his father, and others who were struck with various
terminal illnesses, were suffering intense pain. They would not die,
they could not die because DEATH was stuck up this tree. After much soul
searching and having witnessed the pain that others were now enduring
the child came to realize that perhaps there were some things that were
even worse then dying, and he eventually released DEATH from his
tree-prison.
Death is scarey to most of us. It ranks way up there in that list of our fears of the unknown. I'm not actually terribly fearful of death as much as I am fearful of dying! Life transitions have always been difficult for me. That first day of school - that first day on the job - moving to a new location. They all conjure up feelings of trepidation. Dying is a process, a transition also, perhaps the most difficult transition we ALL have to make at some point. The worst of this transition, the saddest is the realization that we will leave those who we love the most.
BURIED ALIVE!
Fear of premature burial was widespread in 18th and 19th century Europe, leading to the invention of the safety coffin. Over thirty different designs were patented in Germany in the second half of the 19th century. The common element was a mechanism for allowing the 'dead' to communicate with people above ground. Many designs included ropes which, when pulled, would ring the church bell, or a purpose-mounted bell. Others replaced the bell with a raiseable flag, a powerful fire cracker or a pyrotechnic rocket. Some included a shovel, a ladder and a supply of food and water. An essential element, which was overlooked in some designs, was a breathing tube to provide air and occasionally even sustenance.
In 1822, Dr Adolf Gutsmuth of Seehausen, Altmark, demonstrated his design by having himself buried alive, whereupon he "stayed underground for several hours and had a meal of soup, beer, and sausages served through the coffin's feeding tube" Although several designs were built and sold, there is no indication that any dead person was ever buried in a safety coffin. Most models had sufficient design flaws to suggest that they would have been unlikely to have worked properly if they had actually been used. For example the models that required ropes to be tied directly to the arms and legs, so that the alarm was raised upon any sign of movement of the deceased, would all have been triggered by the natural movements of the limbs that occur as the body putrefies and bloats. Safety coffins are still available today. As recently as 1995 an Italian Fabrizio Caselli invented a model that includes an emergency alarm, two-way microphone/speaker, a torch, oxygen tank, heartbeat sensor and heart stimulator. |
Improved Burial Case. Patent No. 81,437 Franz Vester, Newark, New Jersey. August 25, 1868.
USA Patents Office The security coffin designed by Dr Johann Gottfried Taberger in 1829 alerted a cemetery night watchman by a bell which was activated by a rope connected to strings attached to the hands, feet and head of the 'corpse'. The bell housing prevented the alarm from sounding by wind or birds landing on it. The design of the tube prevented rain water from wetting the 'corpse', and contained mesh to stop nuisance insects. On the event of the bell sounding, a second tube was to be inserted at the foot of the coffin and air pumped through with a bellows. In 19th cemtury England, a "guardian" was hired to babysit the dead! It was his duty to free those buried alive when he would hear the safety bell attached to the limbs of those within the coffins. It is believed that this is how the terms were originated ("Dead Ringer" & Saved by the bell". The patent for another safety coffin the 'Vester Burial Case' states "The nature of this invention consists of placing on the lid of the coffin, and directly over the face of the body laid therein, a square tube, which extends from the coffin up through and over the surface of the grave, said tube containing a ladder and a cord, one end of said cord being placed in the hand of the person laid in the coffin, and the other being attached to a bell on the top of the square tube, so that, should a person be interred ere life is extinct, he can, on recovery to consciousness, ascend from the grave and the coffin by the ladder; or, if not able to ascend by said ladder, ring the bell, thereby giving an alarm, and thus save himself from premature burial and death; and, if on inspection, life is extinct, the tube is withdrawn, the sliding door closed, and the tube used for a similar purpose." |
By: Andy Weir
You were on your way home when you died.
It was a car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me. And that’s when you met me. “What… what happened?” You asked. “Where am I?” “You died,” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words. “There was a… a truck and it was skidding…” “Yup,” I said. “I… I died?” “Yup. But don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies,” I said. You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?” “More or less,” I said. “Are you god?” You asked. “Yup,” I replied. “I’m God.” “My kids… my wife,” you said. “What about them?” “Will they be all right?” “That’s what I like to see,” I said. “You just died and your main concern is for your family. That’s good stuff right there.” You looked at me with fascination. To you, I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man. Or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty. “Don’t worry,” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but will be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.” “Oh,” you said. “So what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?” “Neither,” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.” “Ah,” you said. “So the Hindus were right,” “All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “Walk with me.” You followed along as we strode through the void. “Where are we going?” |
“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”
“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.” “Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all your past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.” I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. “Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had. “You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.” “How many times have I been reincarnated, then?” “Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.” “Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?” “Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your universe. Things are different where I come from.” “Where you come from?” You said. “Oh sure,” I explained “I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.” “Oh,” you said, a little let down. “But wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.” “Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.” “So what’s the point of it all?” “Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?” “Well it’s a reasonable question,” you persisted. I looked you in the eye. “The meaning of life, the reason I made this whole universe, is for you to mature.” “You mean mankind? You want us to mature?” |
“No, just you. I made this whole universe for you. With each new life you grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”
“Just me? What about everyone else?” “There is no one else,” I said. “In this universe, there’s just you and me.” You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on earth…” “All you. Different incarnations of you.” “Wait. I’m everyone!?” “Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back. “I’m every human being who ever lived?” “Or who will ever live, yes.” “I’m Abraham Lincoln?” “And you’re John Wilkes Booth, too,” I added. “I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled. “And you’re the millions he killed.” “I’m Jesus?” “And you’re everyone who followed him.” You fell silent. “Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “you were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by you.” You thought for a long time. “Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?” “Because someday, you will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.” “Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?” “No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.” “So the whole universe,” you said, “it’s just…” “An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.” And I sent you on your way. |
(CBS News) Are we living life the second time around - or even the third or fourth, or more? A number of Americans believe they ARE . . . and while religion is a matter of faith, they're getting some support for their belief from surprising sources. Our Sunday Morning Cover Story is reported now by Susan Spencer of "48 Hours":
"Be there, back there, before your birth ..."
Call them "Come as you were" events - reincarnation conventions, no longer considered completely off-the-wall, and growing in popularity.
"You can remember everything ..."
One woman said she had an experience on the Titanic. Another subject "regressed back to, I want to say, the mid-1800s, in England." Another woman said, "I recognized that I was about to see Jesus deliver his Sermon on the Mount." For Dr. Brian Weiss, a firm believer in reincarnation, such stories are all in a day's work ... hardly what you'd expect from a graduate of Yale's prestigious medical school. But today he travels the globe, hypnotizing crowds of ordinary people to help them recall extraordinary things.
He says hypnosis induces a relaxed state and enhances concentration, making it easier for people to remember their past lives.
How does she define reincarnation? "I define it as when we die physically, a part of us goes on," he told Spencer, "and that we have lessons to learn here. And that if you haven't learned all of these lessons, then that soul, that consciousness, that spirit comes back into a baby's body." The concept of reincarnation goes back some 3,000 years to India and Greece. Although it's been largely rejected by Jewish and Christian traditions, Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero says it's alive and well in pop culture today - with Americans fascinated by the idea they've lived before.
"The skeptical part of me about the past life thing is that, just statistically, the odds are that in my past life, I was a Chinese peasant, right?" said Prothero. "But hardly anybody ever is a Chinese peasant. You know, everybody is Cleopatra or Mark Antony or Jesus, you know?"
A poll conducted for Sunday Morning shows about one in five Americans believes in reincarnation, and roughly one in ten remembers a past life. Professor Prothero thinks they're reacting in part to the positive spin the West puts on it: "In the Indian tradition, classically reincarnation was undesirable. It wasn't something you wanted. I mean, the goal was to get out of this life. But in America we see reincarnation as this sort of great second opportunity. We say, 'I'm gonna be, you know, an accountant. In the next life I can be an astronaut!'" Michael Shermer, the founder of the Skeptics' Society and publisher of Skeptic Magazine, is - no surprise - skeptical about reincarnation: "I don't think there's any chance that this is true. "I think it's a complete construction of our brains - projecting ourselves into a future state that doesn't exist. It's a way of dealing with the anxiety of losing loved ones, and losing our own lives, and coming to grips with our own mortality." But for psychiatrist Brian Weiss, reincarnation is more than a comforting thought. He studied Freud's theory that recovering childhood memories helps resolve present-day problems. Then, 30 years ago, he says he discovered that the same is true of memories even further back, from a past life.
It all started with a patient deathly afraid of water ...
"I told her when she was in this deep hypnotic state, go back to the time where your symptoms began, thinking she'd go back to early childhood," Dr. Weiss said. "But she went back nearly 4,000 years into an ancient Near Eastern lifetime - different body, different face, different hair, drowning in a flood or tidal wave, her baby being torn from her arms by the force of the water. And her symptoms started getting better from that moment on."
Since then, he's used what he calls "Past Life Regression Therapy" on some 4,000 people.
"If you have a fear of heights and you were thrown off a castle wall in the 12th century, and your fear disappears in one time or two times, this is a fabulous thing, because your life is changing," he said. It's not the sort of change psychiatrist Jim Tucker of the University of Virginia can believe in. "I do not trust hypnosis as a tool for any memories because it's so unreliable," Dr. Tucker said. "Sometimes, it's accurate, sometimes, it's wildly inaccurate. They're not intending to create fantasy, but that's what the mind can do under hypnosis." But that's not to say that he doesn't believe in past lives. In fact, that's his specialty. Dr. Tucker focuses on children - young children - who, he says, have volunteered information about past lives, no hypnosis involved.
Why focus on kids? "Well, because they're the ones that have the memories," he said.
Take the Colorado toddler who claimed to be his dead grandfather - a man he never knew. Dr. Tucker says the child recalled obscure details of his grandfather's life, even picked him out of class picture, saying, "That's me."
If that's not spooky enough for you, try this:
"Many of the children describe lives that ended violently or ended early," Dr. Tucker said. "Drownings, murders, motor vehicle accidents, suicides, snake bites." What's more, he says that university researchers verified their stories. In fact, he showed us photos where children have birth marks supposedly corresponding to fatal wounds from their past lives. "I think some people might be surprised in a way, you know, the University of Virginia, a very sort of conventional place, very well thought of, not the kind of place where you would expect this to be going on," said Spencer. "Well, there are an awful lot of us who also wonder if there is something more," said Dr. Tucker. "That either spirituality or consciousness or whatever terms people use, but that there might be more to life than just the physical."
Not skeptic Michael Shermer, who says he doubts there's anything to be re-born, and he insists that science is on his side.
"The evidence is pretty sound that I'm right," Shermer said. "Because of these examples of damage to the brain, strokes, and especially Alzheimer's and dementia. When the brain tissue disintegrates and dies, the personality, the person, the memory, dies with it. We know this for a fact." But here's another fact: Dr. Brian Weiss continues to draw huge crowds ... Dr. Jim Tucker keeps moving ahead with his research ... and neither one plans to stop working anytime soon.
At least, not in this lifetime.
"We're not going to be able to extract a blood sample and get DNA and say, 'Oh, I see you were alive in the 11th century.' No," said Dr. Weiss. "It's people remembering it, so it's clinical proof."
"Will any of this ever be proved to a scientific certainty?" Spencer asked.
"No, I don't think our work will lead to scientific certainty," said Dr. Tucker. "But I also don't think there's a scientific certainty that nothing carries on after we die - that hasn't been proven, either."
An Illinois man who left the snow-filled streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick email. Unfortunately, when typing her address, he missed one letter, and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher's wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
P.S. Sure is hot down here.
Nurse Reveals the Top 5 Regrets People Make on Their Deathbed For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone’s capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them. When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five: 1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it. 2. I wish I didn’t work so hard. This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle. 3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings. Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result. We cannot control the reactions of others. However, although people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win. 4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends. Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships. 5. I wish that I had let myself be happier. This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again. When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying. Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly. Choose happiness. Source: “Regrets of the Dying,” from inspirationandchai.com, by Bronnie Ware |
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A man and his dog were walking along a road.
The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead. He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.
After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble... At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. When he was standing before it he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother-of-pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold. He and the dog walked toward the gate, and as he got closer, he saw a man at a desk to one side. When he was close enough, he called out, 'Excuse me, where are we?'
'This is Heaven, sir,' the man answered. 'Wow! Would you happen to have some water?' the man asked. Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up. 'The man gestured, and the gate began to open. 'Can my friend,' gesturing toward his dog, 'come in, too?' the traveler asked.
'I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets.'
The man thought a moment and then turned back toward the road and continued the way he had been going with his dog. After another long walk, and at the top of another long hill, he came to a dirt road leading through a farm gate that looked as if it had never been closed. There was no fence. As he approached the gate, he saw a man inside, leaning against a tree and reading a book.
'Excuse me!' he called to the man. 'Do you have any water?' 'Yeah, sure, there's a pump over there, come on in.' 'How about my friend here?' the traveler gestured to the dog. 'There should be a bowl by the pump.'
They went through the gate, and sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a bowl beside it. The traveler filled the water bowl and took a long drink himself, then he gave some to the dog. When they were full, he and the dog walked back toward the man who was standing by the tree.
'What do you call this place?' the traveler asked.
'This is Heaven,' he answered.
'Well, that's confusing,' the traveler said. 'The man down the road said that was Heaven, too.'
'Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates? Nope. That's hell.'
'Doesn't it make you mad for them to use your name like that?'
'No, we're just happy that they screen out the folks who would leave their best friends behind.'
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has retired from public life due to
worsening lymphatic cancer. Recently, he sent this farewell letter.
If for a moment God were to forget that I am a rag doll and granted me a piece of life, I probably wouldn't say everything that I think; rather, I would think about everything that I say. I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep less, dream more, understanding that for each minute we close our eyes, we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep, I would listen when others talk.
And how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream!
If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul.
My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I'd offer to the moon.
I would water roses with my tears, to feel the pain of their thorns and the red kiss of their petals... My God, if I had a piece of life... I wouldn't let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them.
I would convince each woman and each man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love.
I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old, not knowing that they grow old when they cease to be in love!
To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to fly on his own. I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgetting.
So much have I learned from you, oh men ... I have learned that everyone wants to live at the top of the mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled.
I have learned that when a newborn child first squeezes his father's finger in his tiny fist, he has him trapped forever.
I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet.
From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won't be of much use, for when I keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying.
--- Gabriel Garcia Marquez - December, 2000