I am looking to generate useful discussion on preparing for dying - my friends and I. Below are some random thoughts on End of Life on Earth. Any contributions to this discussion are welcome.
Why is dying made out to be such an undesirable thing?
It seems to me that there is a much higher probability of death being a good thing for the person who is dying. If you believe in Heaven then life after death is a definite positive; if you believe that death is the end, then nothing is probably better than suffering. It strikes me that the only persons for whom death is a negative are those that believe in Hell and are expecting to be punished after death. For these people, the only benefit of prolonging life is if it gives them a chance to redeem themselves while alive to prevent suffering after death.
The people who might suffer mostly after their loved ones die are those that hurt in their absence. This hurt would surely diminish in the knowledge that their loved one is in a much happier place.
Maybe most of the undesirability of death is due to fear of the unknown. If so, perhaps we should put more effort into allaying that fear.
We prepare for work by going to school and maybe university. we prepare to be new parents by going to ante natal classes; we prepare for married life by maybe going to pre-marriage counselling; we prepare for retirement by going to appropriate seminars.
Why aren’t pre dying seminars all the rage? Everyone has to deal with death in their lifetime.
Why should we not be bombarded by ads for “getting to know dying” rather than gambling?
Is there a law against discussing dying in public?
Can you be arrested/sued for providing misleading information about life after death? If so, how can it be proved that the information is misleading?
Often these days there is debate about health funding. How can we debate the merits of diverting funds to helping premature babies, or to mental health issues, or giving quality of life to middle aged persons or prolonging the life of incurably ill patients or finding cures for diseases or to researching prevention of cancer/other diseases?
The merits of each of these topics can be argued depending on where you are coming from and on what life has given you to date. I cannot think of any other situation that is universal other than death.
Why do we go to such effort to keep our loved ones with us as long as possible when it seems that they are in pain and death is inevitable?
Why don’t we help them seek death sooner with the knowledge that they are heading for a better place?
Why does the government not spend more resources preparing people for death and less on prolonging life for those with terminal illness once they get to an age that indicates they have lived a life?
Hi Bob, good discussion topic.
ReplyDeleteI feel that dying is such an undesirable thing because it seems that most people do not believe in a benevolent God who loves us and provides for our eternal progression in love. Interestingly, I find that even people who attend church and believe in God struggle with the end of the physical existence and the beginning of the spiritual journey. When I talk to people in their final stages of death about what might lie ahead I can see and feel a calm come over them. Knowledge is power. When we know what to expect and when we trust this knowledge our passing becomes effortless. If this is not the case then we know that we are still governed by fear.
Death is feared because we don't understand what it is about or what to expect. We generally don't understand that the soul is the real me and that the soul is potentially eternal, thus allowing for the continuation of life after the death of the physical body. Few understand that we are actually created with a soul, a spirit body and a physical body.
While God is the creator of our soul - that part of us which contains all of our memories, emotions, desires, passions, longings, personality and so on - it is our earth parents who provide the spirit and physical bodies which house the soul in this physical existence. We need the experience in these bodies, however short, to activate our souls and stimulate our perceptions and emotions so we can discover who we truly are - if we actually want to know.
Fear governs much of the decisions that we make about life and death.
The medical profession focuses on prolonging life at all costs because they don't understand the power of the soul or life after death. And their point of view is supported by our own fear so it continues. Too often the medical profession's views are driven by a need for power and control and they can't control death - it is inevitable.
There is plenty of evidence that life continues beyond the death of the physical body but we have not been taught to trust our feelings so we too readily discount the messages which come to us from the other side as feelings, especially when we don't understand these feelings or intuitions. We lack faith.
You are absolutely right when you say that we should be discussing death more openly but, again, fear prevents this. If we truly understood the processes that God has designed we would not feel sad when a loved one passes, rather, we would wish them well on the next stage of their journey knowing that if our desire to remain connected is pure we will see them again on the other side.
I am hoping to be leading a discussion on death at U3A Southport in the second half of the year if there is enough interest (two people is all that would be needed for the discussion to be worthwhile) but that is up to U3A.
Thanks Linda, i really appreciate how well you can put things these days. I look forward to details of the U3A discussions if it becomes a goer.
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