Eerie but never dreary

[nammyoho]

I haven't experienced many deaths in my life (thank goodness) but the ones that have occurred all had some strange circumstances surrounding them, i.e. both of my grandmothers died on the same day, years apart.

I'm interested in hearing some of your stories and experiences. Death is a fascinating topic to me and it seems that there are always some eerie questions left unanswered. I assume I'll get my answers when my time comes.

[QT Pie]

When I had my initial awakening - my neighbor was found dead the next morning.


When doors open they open wide I guess.

[Adrienne]

Originally Posted by QT Pie

When I had my initial awakening - my neighbor was found dead the next morning.

When doors open they open wide I guess.

and this was connected ? glad I wasn't your neighbor .............

I am not understanding the next statement about the doors opening wide ?

[linen53]

I've read a lot on death and the afterlife. I think it's mostly in the United States and in European countries that we avoid the subject of death. It's how we are brought up to believe. Fear death.

But the more I have learned about death, how it happens, what the processes are, the less I fear it and instead embrace it when my time comes. I know I will be going home and all the pain and disappointments this life has been full of will all be left behind.

Some consider me morbid because of my fascination with death. But to me, death is a part of life. And we all have to go through it to get to the other side.

The most humbling aspect as we journey towards death is the debilitating experiences of old age. The aches and pains, the illnesses where we were once so healthy when we were younger. We can't do the physical things we used to do.

Also the elderly are throw-aways. No longer a part of our society. Yes, we have our own groups, but as a whole, the younger generations discount us as being old, and old fashioned in our ideas. They know best!

[Tobi]

Yes...why do people of European and US (so-called "Western" cultures) fear the death of the body so much? It's strange. It's the one thing no-one wants to discuss, and if someone does, the subject is considered 'morbid'.
My own father passed without making a will. I think it was because "death" mustn't be thought about, dealt with, or discussed. He avoided it.
All worked out fine for my mother, but it was a lot of admin.

When I was six, I went to 'talk' to a dead cat every day after school. When my mother found out she was really very worried about me. I felt I had done something wrong. It made me cry because it was so gentle being with the cat. It was also very pleasant being with my dead grandmother when I was five. But the adults' reactions when they found out were very frightening and dramatic.

That taboo....I think....(or rather, my response to it) -may have made me shut down on sensitivities I naturally had, and ignore them for the next 50 years.

I have had many bereavements, and some of them difficult passings.

I think in many tribal societies, and in some other belief-systems, 'death' is viewed very differently and in a far more healthy way. And I feel sure that it was so in our own history, if we go back far enough.

[nammyoho]

Originally Posted by Tobi

Yes...why do people of European and US (so-called "Western" cultures) fear the death of the body so much? It's strange. It's the one thing no-one wants to discuss, and if someone does, the subject is considered 'morbid'.
My own father passed without making a will. I think it was because "death" mustn't be thought about, dealt with, or discussed. He avoided it.
All worked out fine for my mother, but it was a lot of admin.

When I was six, I went to 'talk' to a dead cat every day after school. When my mother found out she was really very worried about me. I felt I had done something wrong. It made me cry because it was so gentle being with the cat. It was also very pleasant being with my dead grandmother when I was five. But the adults' reactions when they found out were very frightening and dramatic.

That taboo....I think....(or rather, my response to it) -may have made me shut down on sensitivities I naturally had, and ignore them for the next 50 years.

I have had many bereavements, and some of them difficult passings.

I think in many tribal societies, and in some other belief-systems, 'death' is viewed very differently and in a far more healthy way. And I feel sure that it was so in our own history, if we go back far enough.

I can relate to this a lot. I understood my own mortality from a very young age and accepted the fact that I, too, will some day perish. I remember telling my brother about a church service I had attended in middle school where the pastor spoke about how the afterlife is so peaceful and all-knowing and loving. The way I spoke of it must have struck him as idealizing because he then sat me down to make sure I was okay. And I was. I wasn't suicidal nor am I now but truthfully I do think a lot about that next journey and the light it will supposedly bring.

I do believe that our conscience energy sticks around and finds new homes after our bodies give up, but I'm not so sure it's here on earth if that makes sense? I wonder about the synchronicities surrounding the deaths of my loved ones often. Did they conspire? Was it planned out all along? It kills me (haha) that I might never know.

Other cultures accept death as a part of life and approach it with humility and respect. I see the way elderly people are treated in the US sometimes and it ties my stomach into a zillion little knots. They're degraded for their age, their wisdom. They're written off as senile and senseless. No one gives them time to speak or explain what they've learned.

I hear young children and the elderly are the closest ones to wherever we were before this body in time. Maybe that's why I prefer them to folks my own age;)

[kvsouth1111]

I've got a morbid fascination with death myself (Im just soooo curious about what happens in the next world, or how many more world are there, etc.). I discovered Swedenborg, who was a genius and had very unorthodox visions during his time, but he actually explains a lot of things that I somehow knew without ever being told or explaining why. To me,this suggested that we all innately know something about where we came from. Look him up. At the very least-it;s all VERY interesting and inspiring. Offthe Left Eye on youtube has a show every monday where they talk about something that Swedenborg wrote about. Actually, it's quite changed my life.