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Originally Posted by LonerWolf
I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this topic in, but in a way it relates to death and the afterlife.
More in the sense that I'm curious as to what happens to the person after the body finally gives in and ceases to function.
I expect no one to give me a straight-forward answer, but thanks for your opinion, it means a lot to me.
Why does dementia and alzheimer's happen?
What are the causes?
Is the person someone once knew forever lost? Or is it simply a temporary loss of function because the body's brain is no longer capable of conveying rational thought or memory?
What are your opinions on the disease?
Thanks for replying if you chose to do so.
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We do not use our mind as we should; in fact, most people let their mind control them instead of them controlling their mind. I have been quieting my mind and doing silent meditation for more than 40-years, and when I first began I did not trust it because I felt we needed to think to live and do things but later came to learn that you can eat, dress yourself, and do other things while absolutely quiet inside.
Most people live by their head; they think they need their memory to live a fulfilling life but when you anchor your self in your own silent deeper presence there are no thoughts, no memories, or desires. Alzheimer’s to me is just another state of consciousness. Just like when a person blacks out, that is but another state of consciousness. We humans think of consciousness as the ability to think, remember, and desire, but those are but human expressions of consciousness and there is more to consciousness than human expressions.
The biggest thing in Alzheimer’s is the loss of memory, but as I have said, we can function without memory if we have conditioned ourselves to do so, as I have in quiet meditation. Memory is about the past while desires are about the future; when living in the moment memories and desires are diminished. When centered and still inside memory and desires can be nonexistent. Again, memory is important when it comes to recognizing loved ones and knowing how to do certain things. However, if a person learns how to exist in inner silence without memory or desire, they may be able to anchor themselves in something deeper within them and be guided by that. Alzheimer's just may be another form of detachment, as practiced by many Buddhists who do not have Alzheimer's.
Memory is pervasive; it is not only something that happens in our head; the way we live our lives, sit, stand, eat, mannerisms, and other things, conditions our physical body with a sort of memory where over time we do things with our physical body without even thinking about it. Memory is not merely something that is in our mind, regardless, most people do not know their own mind, observe their own mind, or gain a modicum of mental mastery. We are all told to think the same way and if you have a different opinion others will want to criticize you for not following the status quo.
We have to learn how to stay awake regardless whether we have Alzheimer’s or not, even if we black out we have to be able to look around in that blackness and stay fully awake. This can usually only be accomplished by training; quiet meditation was the training which has worked for me. We know so little about the human mind but it is possible for us to learn about our own mind and not just go along with the majority view or what others are saying about our mind. No one should know you better than you know your self.