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Death, The Final Frontier

Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes - Benjamin Franklin - 1789 correspondence with French scientist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy

And we all shine on, like the Moon, and the Stars, and the Sun - John Lennon - Instant Karma

Index

Death

The Death of Others

Why Any Of It Matters

The Meaning of Life

Evidence

Death

We know that one day we will die, and in the face of that knowledge each of us has to fend off existential angst in whatever manner best suits our individual circumstances. From observation, I would say that our ability to do so varies considerably once our sell-by-date becomes imminent; the previously gung-ho often become apprehensive, becase it takes a tremendous bravery, belief, or enlightenment, to face down ones own demise; no one wants to die, except from desperation, and I deny the arguments for suicide from the likes of Camus as themselves absurd.

The Death of Others

It is not only our own end that concerns us. Throughout life, at various times, we have to contend with the deaths of loved ones. Perhaps less frightening [than the prospect of our own passing], but frequently more emotionally traumatic; whenever we lose someone close everybody hurts, and it is not just loss to death; over and again our relationships are torn asunder, and each time that happens we lose touch with the reality of what has become a part of our own self. That loss is an amputation, often taking with it that part of us that grew in the presence of the now absent parent, partner, child, lover, friend, colleague, or simply an acquaintance. Each loss is important to us, whether we realise it or not. When we lose our parents, we also lose our childhood; and however natural it may be, it still takes much coming to terms with. In any marriage, one spouse will go first, if divorce does not intervene; either way loss has to be endured, and it can be hard to carry on, especially with those things that were previously only a part of that special relationship. As for the loss of a child, this is the hardest cross to bear, particularly for mothers, and is maybe even more difficult in modern times, in the developed world, when it is so unexpected. For all these reasons, we are forced to examine what death means, and by extension what life means.

Why Any Of It Matters

This whole website; the whole theory of Virtualism and Iconism; the whole explanation of Existence, life and Everything; is there only for one purpose, really; and that is to give you lot fair warning that what you do here on Earth matters. It matters because here you have the greatest advantage to create, and that is your brain. Once you are dead, in the Afterlife, the biggest difference is that you have no brain - it stays here in the World to be recycled, by worms or fire, or whatever. The consequence of that fact is that it is what you do in life that creates not just a material legacy, but a legacy of spirit - of all the things that you have consciously experienced, and that your memory runs on. Your powers of recall may cease to function with the demise of your brain, but your legacy of spirit remains - it is the only part of you that will remain - it just is, and without a brain to help it, your existence [what is left of it] will become very difficult to alter - the afterlife being so much quieter than the amplified life of the brain.

You may be asking yourself 'Why does he say the brain is loud and the afterlife is quiet?' The reason is that while the departed may experience a bright future, by many accounts including more things than we know during life, from the perspective of the living our minds are very noisy, so much so that we find it difficult, if not impossible, to register spirit, and to connect with everything and everyone that we will connect with when we ourselves pass on.

So you see, or at least I hope you see by now, that all the changes you make during life, all the contacts you make, all the bonds you make - all of these are love, and the more you can do while you are here, the more options you will have when you are no longer here. Not only that, but everything that you add to your own spirit, you add to the collective spirit of everything, so all that you create that is spirit, that is love in one of its many forms, all of that helps everything grow.

When you are dead you will haunt yourself.

By that, I mean that at the end of this life your brain will be recycled along with your body, and all that will be left of you are the facts of your conscious experiences. These facts are eternal, and as important are the only means by which you may communicate with others. Having shared shared consciousness with others, i.e. having created love with them, you will have common ground; you will be them, and they will be you, in a very true manner. If you don't want to be stuck in solitary, with only yourself for company, then it matters to you what you do in this life.

We should enquire as much as possible, into what that state of being could possibly be like. What can we deduce from what we know of life?

The first thing is that with what remaining of you being in essence a collection of memories, you can be fairly sure that whatever is important to you will remain important to you - you will still be your own self. As well as memories you will include all the habits that make you the individual you are, which is a good thing, because habits will be more active than memories. What you probably won't be is emotional, except from habit. The emotions are more a thing of the body, which is bourne out by some NDE accounts. There will still be love, because the nature of love is a thing of spirit. Where you have loved it never disappears, but remains as shared being, which includes shared habit.Th counterside is that hate, being an inversion of love also remains, so dealing with hate properly in this life is much better than carrying it with you. Learn forgiveness now and you will be happier later. NB. Happiness is not an emotion, it is a state of being.It is about what you are, not what you are not. What you are notis dealt with by emotions, in the body. But when you have no body, what you are not has to be experienced differently, i.e. with whatever habits you possess. So what are these habits?

In essence your habits, being you, equate to your character. They will determine how you process whatever memories you have, these being in essence your past together with your potential for interaction with other entities such as spirits like yourself. So it must be true that the character you cultivate in life becomes the entity you are in death, however the apple does not fall very far from the tree, so one's birth and birthchart, is a limitation on how far you can progress. The evidence from the few astrological cases of apparent reincarnation, suggest that one's prime of life is the measure of the totality of one's life, and that this is somewhat reflected in what I call the lifechart - the composite for one's birth and death. This then is some part of what can be reflected in one's next incarnation. I doubt this is entirely as straightforward as just the composite, but it seems that the composite plays a role in future lives.

The Meaning of Life

What counts is not just the love you make; it is all the laws you break, all the things you take, all the lies you fake, and every little mistake. All these remain; they are the facts of your life, and each one is a precious jewel, because each one is a miraculous part of Existence. It matters more that something happened, rather than nothing, even when that something is a nothing, as in the words of Philip Larkin: 'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.'

This then is the meaning of life, it is life, and I hope that you have seen how important it is. The method is to make choices, given the limitations of the circumstances of our birth, and the life opportunities that they present. Robert Sapolsky may be largely correct, that we have no free will in making those choices, what with so much of our destiny being pre-determined by facts that we cannot alter. But occasionally in life we will have moments of clarity, moments when two roads diverge, and all other things being equal it is we who must choose, based on our own character.

Evidence

There are plenty of sources of evidence for what happens at death:

Near death experiences - NDEs

Past life regression, via hypnosis, including between life regression

Past life memory, as often occurs with young children

Psychic communication via mediums and clairvoyants

Paranormal experiences, such as witnessing ghosts

Added to which there is both the evidence of astrology, together with the intellectual theory of reasoning, that when all these things are put together create a coherent explanation, one that sits somewhere between philosophy and science.

But the general problem with all of these is that there is no communication between death and life that carries any regular confirmation; we have to make do with snippets here and there. For that we have the benefit of all the things on our toolbox, and all the examples of others who have lived life before us. We can also provide others with the evidence of our own lives, so don't hide your light under any proverbial bushels - the way to avoid that is through Art.