What is being dead and what is death? Being in the medical field convinces me to see what we call death from a different and better perspective, one that may be controversial to some.
Does death really exist, some may be asking? We all may disagree in principle, but there is one thing we all can agree upon, and that is the notion that human intelligence is limited. Could it be that what we call death is basically the point of climax of human intelligence, the point of limit of our intelligence?
We declare people dead because our intelligence does not allow us to go beyond and do anything to revive them. Don’t we all believe in the theory that what we don’t know is bigger than us? There you have it.
Death is our greatest challenge simply because our limited intelligence has not given us YET the prescriptions as to how to overcome it.
Until our intelligence granted us access to scientific research and space exploration, we used to believe then in many assumptions about the earth and its relations with the solar system, which we came later to realize were scientifically false.
We send people away to be buried because our limited intelligence does not allow us to go beyond. But there will be a day, one I may not live to see, where what we call death will be laughing matters.
When your computer crashes, for instance, what do you do? You seek professional counsel and help from someone having the trusted expertise to repair it, right? And what do you do if the trusted expert tells you that there is no hope to get the PC to work again? You dispose of it, right? Well, just because it is disposed of does not mean that it ought to really be forever gone and that nothing can ever be done in the future to bring it back to operation.
So does death really exist? I think the notion of death is relative. Death can mean different things to different people. I may be laughed at if I say that death does not exist. We came up with the notion of death because we forged in our psyche a place for it to reside but, in reality, it does not exist.
Ekspoze! -The final word 
first and foremost i would like to say wow…very insightful…. to some level, you are right…Death is just tunnel that we use…everything in its own time, a time to be born a time to die…it is merely a cycle… and death is the passage we use to go to the other part of that cycle
You are right on target, Mia. It is, indeed, a passage just like birth is. By dying, one does not lose nor win anything. It is a passage, a perpetual cycle, which is part of life. In other words, you must die for life to sustain itself. But people’s understanding of it is so out of synch that they perceive it to be the end of life. I like the use of the word “passage” in your reply. Good job!!!
One die to cement his/her legacy and move on to the “spirit world” like Nadine mention below
I definitely enjoy this piece because it took me back to a paper i wrote my last year in undergrad. I love the fact that love is mankind’s biggest challenge. We have somewhat conquered the universe with our trips to the moon, gadgets in mars, airplanes, spy gadgets, etc. Yet death is the ultimate challenge. One of my favorite thinkers of all time didn’t get a chance to publish any books or pamphlets but his student, Plato, got to do it for him. In The Apology, Plato took his readers to the courtroom where Socrates was standing trial and when he chose death over changing his views or behavior people thought he was crazy. But Socrates rebuttal was, how could anyone be afraid of something they have no knowledge about. Death to him to sleep without dreams, without thought or consciousness. The kind of sleep or rest he felt like he was in need of so he attain complete and absolute relaxation and tranquility.
Socrates was right in his thinking. If you think about it, how could you be afraid of something you have never lived and experienced? Death could be the best thing to happen to a human being; we are afraid to face it because no one has ever been there to come back telling us how it was.
The reason why people feel the sense of sadness and grief over someone’s passing is because of the emptiness the person’s absence tends to create in the lives of those close to him/her. The same feeling can be expressed when someone you are close to is going away for long time. The emptiness the person’s absence is going to create basically causes that feeling of grief to surface. That’s why people just don’t love saying goodbye. Interesting comment, Prod.
I feel Socrates, Mr Prodg! We must shine our light while we are on Earth. Fear of the unknown causes people to enslave themselves in the mental and physical systems of others, a waste of time while here, more tragic than death.
lol Great point, OJ!
Emann,
You and Prodg never ceased to amazed, sometimes you blow my mind away other times, ya’ll refuting God’s will.
“Sa’w pa konin pi gran pase’w” is what my grandma usually say when i used to asked her over the top questions that she refused to tell. Don’t you think that there should be a limit to everything on earth, a limit that scientist nor the geekest of’em all will never be able to discover. Perhaps, i may be limiting my bring to accept what i dont know, but when we talk about rest, let the decease rest in peace…For they have live a long life and in dire needs some sleep.
Love the idea, but everything in life has its limit.
“Don’t you think that there should be a limit to everything on earth, a limit that scientist nor the geekest of’em all will never be able to discover.”
There is no such thing as “limit.” I do believe that everything, including life, goes through a series of phases; birth, growth and death are some of them.
You can always push the envelope
WOW!You put my thoughts into words. My mom always says “Death is the only thing blanc(whiteman) has not figured out” in creole of course. People call me crazy when I tell them – I pulled the plug on my sister because she needed to go. I had to read this 2x’s because I didn’t really see how the title relates to the article; but now it is CLEAR! I am taking it a bit further…People preserving the flesh thinking one day “the man” will figure out how to ring back to life. Let sleeping dog Lye…Great article.
Your mom is funny. 😀 She is right in a sense, though. Death is, indeed, the only thing White folks have yet to figure about. 😀
Thanks for the kind words. lol
Yes, and that’s where reincarnation comes in. @ Emann.
Possibly! 😀
Indeed Death is a passage, I concur, but I do also believe that death takes us to another plane, a different and higher dimension if you will. I may be wrong, but I have always sense that ones’s spirit continues to live on and crosses over to a higher and more complex understanding which our human intelligence on earth would not have allowed us to entirely and fully explore and to comprehend the bigger picture. Who knows– death may really shock or surprise us all as the author puts it; for it may really be the beginning of wisdow, the return to innocence, and the contribution of what makes us human beings vulnerable, beautiful, complex, and unique individuals, in the subject of spirit and soul. Death, as I have always understood it, is in my views, a transformation of self, a permanent mark of ones existence here on earth, and even a graduation to the next phase, granted another level of greater wisdom and power. Death can be to some a complete earthly termination with no hope, or light at the end. Therefore, in my opinion, this creates a sense of fear and confusion in some people who might see it in this fashion. In contrast, this may mean to others, a full resignation of earthly life to proceed on to the next circle, which may continue to reshape and redifine our thoughts in terms of greater spiritual knowledge, growth, and deeper maturity of the soul.
I do believe personally that there is another world outhere. That world is the spirit world. Just because we humans cease to exist on earth after death does not mean it’s totally over and that there is no other world outhere. Personally, I really feel that death is not the end, but it is simply the beginning and continuity!
I kind of agree with you Nadine. “The Spirit World” is a new lingo but my friend Jovan and I have discussed the possibility of such world existing…
Base on your analyze, you seem to agree with most people that accepted the fact that everyone most die as the author of “house of dead” might agree as well yet to my understanding of the author, it’s does not have to be a fatality
When you try to start you car and fail, if you did not know better and you suspected that the battery had “died “, you would remove the “death” battery and buy a new one. Knowing better, you get a cable booster and connect the “death” battery with the functioning battery and doing that charged the battery that you otherwise thought was “dead”
That science of recharging “dead” battery could be paralleled to our own human battery if ever we knew how to recharge the human “death battery”. If we knew how to tap into that of knowing how to recapture that “evaporated gas” (spirit), condense it and re-enter it back into our flesh, maybe then maybe we would have that power to revive death providing that all the fibers within our fleshes are still intact
At some point, I understand that the machine(flesh) most go but I still believe that there are time we could still get that machine to work again until the real time for it to go
ps: happy to see you by the way[laugh]( I know it’s won’t work[lol])
FANTASTIC COMMENT, Bonmoune!!!! I looooove the car battery analogy you have used to make your point. Great insight!!!!
Nice seeing you too. lol
Great comment, Nadine!!!
very nice…love the comments…
I was always afraid of the cemetery, if I can recalled clearly I entered the cemetery twice (a funeral and as a pathway in the city of Gonaives to get home) but yesterday on my way home I felt the need to stay just a little bit longer by the cemetery I drove by mostly everyday.
As I drove around the perimeter of the cemetery I felt no sense of fear. As I packed my car by crave site – I felt peace, calmness, no sense of belong but there was no fears.
I strongly agreed with you Emann,as my view of spiritually change I learn to accept death and see it a rite of passage to the spirit world and I do believe there is another world/life after this life on Earth.
Emann Joasil says: “The reason why people feel the sense of sadness and grief over someone’s passing is because of the emptiness the person’s absence tends to create in the lives of those close to him/her. The same feeling can be expressed when someone you are close to is going away for long time. The emptiness the person’s absence is going to create basically causes that feeling of grief to surface. That’s why people just don’t love saying goodbye.”