Home | Community | Message Board
You are not signed in.
Sign In New Account
Forum Index Search Posts Trusted Vendors Highlights Galleries FAQ User List Chat Store Random Growery


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.

General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1 | 2 |  [ show all ]
Don't Fear Death
    #6500118 -

This was a message I sent someone who was asking about something I posted somewhere, but I thought it would outline a great topic for discussion here. :wink:



I've had a few acid trips recently, in which I would become afraid of something, and from that came a progression of thoughts. That isn't the best way to phrase it, but, anyways, I had a trip where I basically died. I wasn't sure what was happening but I ended up in bed, knew that it was imminent, and the only thing left to do was to lay down. I could feel it coming, closer and closer (it was an energy experience). We live not too far from an airport, and we often have airplanes flying over. Well, I kept hearing these airplanes, and I experienced them dropping bombs. Then came this aircraft, and I could feel that it was the one. I sensed a vibe that it was partially military but also extraterrestrial. I then had this "flash" of these greys standing, but I just sort of accepted it all, in the sense that I knew that it was happening, that I didn't second guess it. This acceptance brought the bad trip to an end, and I basically came down.

I personally think that all fear stems from an underlying fear of death, that all fear is a fear of death. It requires a progression of thought and experience to become fully aware of death, in that one fully accepts that it is imminent, that one isn't going to struggle with it, that there isn't anything that one still wants to do, etc.

A few times while stoned I've had this happen, and on acid as well (which is responsible for it happening while stoned, of course :grin:), where I truly feel/know that if I close my eyes right then and exhale, that I will simply cease to be. It has gotten to the point where I am telling myself that I simply cannot know whether or not I will wake up the next day or never again.

I do know that I can't wait to be able to fall asleep in that state of mind - I haven't yet. I know that, if I do, it will be the best sleep I have ever had, and that I will wake up, "born again", so to speak (not in a Christian way :lol:).

I guess that is my explanation. :grin:



Thoughts?


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500520 -

I beg to differ :grin: Let me illustrate with a short story, told by an Ojibway writer..

A man, a sorry sight of a man who failed in life, is walking sluggishly in the woods. Carrying with him is a rope occulted with a noose to hang himself with, and an old wooden chair in his other hand. With every intention on dying that very day, he musters whatever fortitude he has left in him to secure the knots. Regretful and weepy, the man barely has enough strength to tie the rope around the branch, let alone continue another day in the world of the living. With time and struggle he manages to secure the noose and lodges up the wooden chair, standing upon it upright, perhaps the finest posture this man has had in weeks or months as he prepares to wade into the valley of death. Standing on the chair in what were his last decided moments before he would inflict death on himself, he stopped his own production without warning - frozen in fear, in what was only pure terror. It wasn't death that terrorized him. His eyes were fixed on something else, something animate in the distance. It was a mother Grizzly bear.

With righteous indignation of the man's presence, the Grizzly began to charge, throwing its weight with each push of the leg. The poor frightened man quickly snapped out his fearful paralysis, undid the noose around his neck and began frantically climbing the tree he had attempted to hang himself by moments earlier. With an unprecedented amount of summoned energy, he climbed up the tree to safety. Shaking and nerves shot, he watched as the bear struggled to climb the tree for several minutes, but the thin base of the branch made it too difficult for the mighty creature, so it dispersed in resignation. The poor frightened man, still petrified, remained up on the tree all night, mindful that the mother Grizzly could still be lurking in the region. It soon became obvious that the Grizzy was not in the area, at least at that moment. But the poor frightened man was still frightened and did not want to take the chance immediately. After some time when it became intolerable for the man to remain up in the tree for any longer, he attempted to climb down - only to have the Grizzy return, rushing out of the bushes towards him and forcing the man to retreat to the top of the tree once again. The Grizzy however did not leave this time around, and stayed at the base of the tree. As time dragged on, the poor frightened man's desire to survive and live became ever so stronger.

For days he remained up in the tree while the Grizzy lurked bellow him, waiting for the poor frightened man to concede. The man, his only hope in the prospect that the ominous beast would give up and leave, began to feel ill. When the day arrived that it became apparent that he would die, the Grizzly grew bored and finally left the area for good. It was too late for the poor frightened man however, who soon died after climbing down from the tree. Some still say his spirit wanders the woods in perpetual futility, searching for a bear that passed away many generations ago.

In time, the woods became known to locals as a haunted region and few people would go there; frightened of the ghost of the poor frightened man.


--------------------


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

Edited by Basilides (01/26/07 08:52 PM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500590 -

fireworks_god said:
I personally think that all fear stems from an underlying fear of death, that all fear is a fear of death. It requires a progression of thought and experience to become fully aware of death, in that one fully accepts that it is imminent, that one isn't going to struggle with it, that there isn't anything that one still wants to do, etc.




I think youre right. good call

I can see how living near an airport would be intense, especially fi the planes are flying close to you... hmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMZZZZZZ woosh!
that would be intense

are you kidding us that you disagree baselides?

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6500606 -

My fear of death comes from the people I care most about. If I were to die tomorrow I wouldn't so much be afraid of never seeing my loved ones again but more afraid of what would happen to my loved ones. I can't stand sad,unhappy people and my biggest fear is being the cause of that.


--------------------
So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6500616 -

Not fearing death, consciously accepting that one is to die, does not equate into a desire to kill oneself. In fact, I find it brings myself to appreciate the present moment, and to set out and accomplish, as I am not being restricted by subconscious processes that would influence my choices.


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500631 -

The moral of the story isn't suicide. The core of the story is that the man was going to kill himself, but for some reason responded with fear when interrupted by a deadly creature. The events that ensue afterwards are a series of ironies related to fear.


--------------------


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6500653 -

Yes, but was he actually afraid of dying? I would much rather hang myself than be mauled by a bear. My goal is to kill myself in the least painful way possible. Sadly I think starving to death would take the cake over being mauled. Interesting story.


--------------------
So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6500662 -

I sensed that, but was confused by your statement "I beg to differ". I was assuming that the story was to be put in a different context. I am reminded of the e-comic "The Jain's Death", in which she is faced with certain death at the hand of a tiger, and she cannot move, as she does not wish to harm the ant which has climbed into her hair. She takes the moment to appreciate how strikingly beautiful the tiger is before he mauls her. I prefer that story over yours. :tongue:


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500668 -

Also, the story of the monk being chased who ends up hanging over the cliff by a vine with wolves below him. He reaches out and enjoys the strawberry. I'd like to think that every moment exists just like that, one moment of life surrounded by death, and the experience of what is within our reach. :nut:


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500739 -

Quote:
fireworks_god said:I personally think that all fear stems from an underlying fear of death, that all fear is a fear of death. It requires a progression of thought and experience to become fully aware of death, in that one fully accepts that it is imminent, that one isn't going to struggle with it, that there isn't anything that one still wants to do, etc.


I agree with you.

I had a very similar experience only mine was during a very vivid dream. I dreamed I was a Marine in some industrialized Middle-Eastern country. At the climax of the dream we learned that the enemy had launched a plethora of nuclear missles at our local bases. You know the WWII scenes of bombers flying over a city? It was like that but each plane was a nuclear rocket. My fellow Marines and I were on the top of a building and were watching all these rockets slowly (they were pretty high up there) cruise by overhead towards our base. As they kept coming, the last ones slowly decreased altitude and were heading right at us! Our commanding officer was telling us that we had only about 30 seconds before direct impact and some other stuff that I don't remember because I really thought that I was about to die. We watched it right up until it hit us.
Interesting stuff you think about right before you die.....


--------------------

"The choiceless truth of who you are is revealed to be permanently here permeating everything. Not a thing and not separate from anything."--Gaganji
"Yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream."
"My karma ran over my dogma!"

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: SoY]
    #6500759 -

I think it is interesting, the situations that our mind will put us in when we have this conceptual experience of death. :wink:


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500848 -

fireworks_god said:
I sensed that, but was confused by your statement "I beg to differ". I was assuming that the story was to be put in a different context. I am reminded of the e-comic "The Jain's Death", in which she is faced with certain death at the hand of a tiger, and she cannot move, as she does not wish to harm the ant which has climbed into her hair. She takes the moment to appreciate how strikingly beautiful the tiger is before he mauls her. I prefer that story over yours. :tongue:


But that story doesn't carry any weight... she admires a tiger before it mauls her?


--------------------


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6500850 -

She accepts imminent death, and, as such, is not consumed with fear of death, leaving her mind free to appreciate the qualities of the present moment she is immersed within.

Time for me to get stoned and read The Jain's Death again. :stoned:


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6500936 -

The poor frightened man was about to embrace death with a straight face until the Grizzly showed up... that's the knee smacker, that he's frightened of the bear and climbs the tree to save his life when just seconds ago he was about to hang himself. It's a literary paradox.


--------------------


"Have you found the beginning, then, that you are looking for the end? You see, the end will be where the beginning is. Congratulations to the one who stands at the beginning: that one will know the end and will not taste death."

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6501030 -

I think its a great concept. I see how a man could wish to die with an extended period of time of depression and thought. But at the sight of a charging bear, not only run to save his life, but to not even just hang himself before the bear arrived at the tree. I percieved that the man on instinct wished to live. Contradicting his collective extended period of time thoughts.

Then I imagined having that happen to me. I am up in a tree and I just realized that I have a paradox in thought about death. That would be quite an intense moment.


--------------------
I love you

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: Basilides]
    #6501038 -

id say that the mans paradox is rooted in his delusions.


--------------------
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6501292 -

I think there are greater things to fear than death.

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6501337 -

"Dare to be afraid, ... !"
~ Unknown

:happyheart::thumbup:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: capliberty]
    #6501685 -

capliberty said:
I think there are greater things to fear than death.


I'm sure the fear is just as irrational as well. :wink:


--------------------
:redpanda:
If I should die this very moment
I wouldn't fear
For I've never known completeness
Like being here
Wrapped in the warmth of you
Loving every breath of you
:heartpump: :bunnyhug: :yinyang:

:yinyang: :levitate: :earth: :levitate: :yinyang:

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Re: Don't Fear Death [Re: fireworks_god]
    #6501771 -

The fear that the opposite of what we want to happen to us will happen to us while we are alive and interacting with reality is far greater than the fear of personal death IME.


--------------------
“Strengthened by contemplation and study,
I will not fear my passions like a coward.
My body I will give to pleasures,
to diversions that I’ve dreamed of,
to the most daring erotic desires,
to the lustful impulses of my blood, without
any fear at all, for whenever I will—
and I will have the will, strengthened
as I’ll be with contemplation and study—
at the crucial moments I’ll recover
my spirit as was before: ascetic.”

Edited by Lion (09/23/11 04:13 PM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1 | 2 |  [ show all ]

Unfolding Nature Shop: Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order

General Interest > Philosophy, Sociology & Psychology
Threaded Mode Threaded  Previous topic Previous  View all topics Index  Next topic Next 

Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Ram Dass --death and dying Hermes_br 1,625 2 11/23/02 05:52 AM
by Hermes_br
* Death not ends it.... SoulTech 1,690 17 03/31/02 01:45 PM
by NextGenHippie
* Birth and the psychedelic experience Xlea321 1,235 4 02/16/02 04:32 AM
by Asante
* death and dying Sir Tokes-A-Lot 2,455 14 05/18/17 11:13 AM
by birdeatingspider
* Physical Death Nathaniel 1,462 6 10/15/01 08:58 AM
by CACA
* Death / Rebirth / DMT / Light Isolation etc... justthiz 4,783 10 11/10/10 09:45 PM
by BlueSonicRibbon
* Death, and whatever lies after it...
( 1 2 all )		 Meph 3,131 23 10/25/02 10:38 AM
by bluesky
* Death. Strange happening. DeEmpty 3,196 14 06/07/01 04:08 PM
by DeEmpty

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Middleman, DividedQuantum
3,333 topic views. 0 members, 123 guests and 27 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2026 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.03 seconds spending 0.007 seconds on 18 queries.