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9 Dying and Death
At the heart of religion is the understanding that our earthly life is part of
a greater whole, a transient period in the context of eternity. In most
religions death is not regarded as the final closing of consciousness. On
the contrary, spiritual consciousness is seen as an indication of a greater
reality, of which we are part. Some religions have a pattern of reincarna-
tion, some of an eternal hell or paradise awaiting the deceased. Most
envisage some kind of post-death judgement, whether this leads to rebirth
or continued existence in either a favourable or tormented state. This
affects the way religious persons live. An awareness of a moral order
inherent in the universe, or emanating from God can put our lives into a
moral context and so lead the believer to a better life.
For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force.
The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and
study of death.
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Exploration of ancient burial sites all over the world seems to confirm
that ancient peoples regarded death as a transition to another life. The
pyramids in Egypt are the most spectacular examples of this, as the
Pharaohs went to the next life with everything they could wish for, includ-
ing servants. In Chinese temples, fake banknotes, known as ‘hell money’
are burned for the deceased, to ensure wealth in the next life, and fre-
quently paper mansions, cars and all the necessary trappings of a com-
fortable existence as well.
Evidence for life after death comes through belief in what religions
recount; through messages from the deceased, either through mediums or
direct communication or dreams; through Near Death Experiences; death
bed visions; hypnotic regression; instances of people seeming to remember
past lives and purported evidence of reincarnation. Parapsychology stud-
ies such phenomena and continues to bring forward evidence and argu-
ments for and against survival. In the USA Professor Ian Stevenson has
studied children who seem to remember past lives, often with birthmarks
indicating injuries received in one of those previous lives. In Buddhism the
Dying and Death
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tradition of Lamas reincarnating, even leaving messages and clues, is wide-
spread. A young boy able to recognize objects owned by the deceased
lama is accepted as his reincarnation and subsequently trained in a mon-
astery to fulfil his appointed reincarnated role.
Much debate as to whether the mind and body can function separately
continues as a result of the controversy surrounding the subject of
survival of death, with sceptics taking the view that without the brain
and the senses there can be no consciousness, while others argue for a
dualism of mind and brain, enabling the former to function without the
latter.
Here is an account with subsequent detailed analysis, by someone who
was given intimations of a previous life.
I had repeated recall, over years in my 20s and 30s, of someone in a
concentration camp, and I ‘received’ a whole historical picture of that
person’s life and death. These ‘past-life-type’ images came ‘whenever’
and didn’t arrive in sequence, but I knew where they fitted in the nar-
rative. I could always tell which was common consensus reality, and
which was part of this historical scenario. I prayed that the experiences
would stop, and eventually they did.
This series of experiences of ‘tuning into a concentration camp’
informed me that there was more to life than the mundane reality, that
human beings could perceive non-local realities, shifting in time and
geographical space, spontaneously or at will. They made me feel:
as if reincarnation was a certainty;
that there was no point in suicide since one would be reborn with
recall of same scenarios;
that unexpected death, like murder, or an accident, can be remem-
bered once one is reborn;
that unresolved issues can also surface during the next life, in
order to be addressed;
that unless a person has a similar experience, they do not believe it;
that I could better understand my mood swings as if I’d had Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (I’d had no trauma in this life, but had
technicolour recall of torture in the life of a person who was killed
seven years before I was born);
that people who were considered by common consensus to be
delusional or hallucinating, may not be. They may simply shift
between different time and space realities, and not realize it;
I was lucky. I always felt I knew which reality was common con-
sensus, and which visionary.
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I believe nothing caused me to have the experience. I believe I was born,
like so many other people, with the ability to shift the focus of my atten-
tion to different historical and geographical locations. I believe this is a
normal human faculty, which has been pathologized in white British,
American and Australian societies. Or, it has been kept quiet by those
many who have the skill and remain silent. Or it has been pathologized
by those who get lost in it, and become anxious and confused. [100056]
Dying
Within religions, survival of death is accepted and so treated as something
natural for which one could prepare. Dying well according to the guid-
ance offered by special religious texts has long been accepted practice.
The Egyptians had their
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