RE: Does Death Exist? New Theory Says ‘No’
March 13, 2013 at 6:47 am
(This post was last modified: March 13, 2013 at 6:49 am by EGross.)
Chopra - ugh. Thanks for pointing that one out.
Personally, I have, in the past done a null meditation, meaning, trying to imaging myself 1 second before death, and what that would feel like. I find it very mercurial, and as I would get close, the mind runs away. It's a fight with the mind to get to the point where it's end is resisted. Sometimes, I experience dread, and sometimes (and rarely) a quiet. But it is the one thing in the universe that everyone will have to experience in the end. The fact that we may fear it, resist it, or want an alternative (a friend of mine in the USA, some years ago paid to have his head frozen after death. Whenever I see that on Futurama, I always think of him! He still lives, BTW).
The fanciful idea of a supernatural place where everyone speaks English, has all of their limbs, their alzheimer's is cured, and they no longer need Viagra, is a nice fantasy. Or as Ned Flanders said when he went to Hell, "I spent all of that money on harp lessons for nothing!"
In Judaism, the older belief (one echoed by David in Psalm 6:5 "For in death there is no rememberance of you", or better yet, the anonymous author in Ecclesiates 9:5 where it says "For the dead know nothing at all"), is that at the end of it all, the switch is turned off, and you are nullified in a "well of souls" (shoel), so to speak, who know nothing.
The idea of the "resurrection of the dead" was a much later Rabbinical add on, which means, when it is all over, you will rise up into a new world and start all over. It wasn't a heaven, but "Hey, don't worry, when you die, it all goes black, but in what will seem like an instant later, that switch is turned back on and you get to start over.
Christianity comes and has their Heaven, and Judaism changes as well to compete, so by the 4th century CE the souls are always awake and aware, but they can't participate, and you have other places for them to hang out (Gan Eden), waiting for the ressurection at the end of days. And this belief in this new ending is that "One who declares that there is no resurrection of the dead, has no share in the world to come". And one who does not believe that the "world to come" is in the Torah is called an Apikoris. The religious people dare not speak against it, and believe in some hopeful metaphysical future.
In other words, the story goes from very bleak, to something hopeful. It evolves and changes, because the end is scary. And selling hope is much of what religion is all about. And if you cannot find it, then make it up. And as Stephen Frye would say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i65d5oALHJ4
Personally, I have, in the past done a null meditation, meaning, trying to imaging myself 1 second before death, and what that would feel like. I find it very mercurial, and as I would get close, the mind runs away. It's a fight with the mind to get to the point where it's end is resisted. Sometimes, I experience dread, and sometimes (and rarely) a quiet. But it is the one thing in the universe that everyone will have to experience in the end. The fact that we may fear it, resist it, or want an alternative (a friend of mine in the USA, some years ago paid to have his head frozen after death. Whenever I see that on Futurama, I always think of him! He still lives, BTW).
The fanciful idea of a supernatural place where everyone speaks English, has all of their limbs, their alzheimer's is cured, and they no longer need Viagra, is a nice fantasy. Or as Ned Flanders said when he went to Hell, "I spent all of that money on harp lessons for nothing!"
In Judaism, the older belief (one echoed by David in Psalm 6:5 "For in death there is no rememberance of you", or better yet, the anonymous author in Ecclesiates 9:5 where it says "For the dead know nothing at all"), is that at the end of it all, the switch is turned off, and you are nullified in a "well of souls" (shoel), so to speak, who know nothing.
The idea of the "resurrection of the dead" was a much later Rabbinical add on, which means, when it is all over, you will rise up into a new world and start all over. It wasn't a heaven, but "Hey, don't worry, when you die, it all goes black, but in what will seem like an instant later, that switch is turned back on and you get to start over.
Christianity comes and has their Heaven, and Judaism changes as well to compete, so by the 4th century CE the souls are always awake and aware, but they can't participate, and you have other places for them to hang out (Gan Eden), waiting for the ressurection at the end of days. And this belief in this new ending is that "One who declares that there is no resurrection of the dead, has no share in the world to come". And one who does not believe that the "world to come" is in the Torah is called an Apikoris. The religious people dare not speak against it, and believe in some hopeful metaphysical future.
In other words, the story goes from very bleak, to something hopeful. It evolves and changes, because the end is scary. And selling hope is much of what religion is all about. And if you cannot find it, then make it up. And as Stephen Frye would say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i65d5oALHJ4
“I've done everything the Bible says — even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"— Ned Flanders
