Accustomed as we are to holding rigid and exclusive opinions, life and death have become two topics that captivate us in a special way. Generally, death is the one that causes greater aversion and fear, as it concerns unknown levels to us, except when it is considered an endless emptiness, a nothingness without content. Comparing it in this way, life seems more acceptable, although the problems it brings affect us daily and in some cases lead to suicide as an escape.
While life brings its difficulties, death is categorically rejected, without even knowing for sure whether it is better or worse than life.
However, life and death seem incompatible, even to many of those whose religious beliefs see death as a different type of reality or “life”. It is precisely this apparent lack of connection that hurts the most, since one of mankind’s greatest aspirations has always been to unify life and death, to overcome the dark and difficult obstacle that has been placed between them.
Everyone would like to know more about death. Many would like to know more about life, but that interest is very lukewarm because they believe they have enough time and that life will gradually guide them to its causes.
However, it is good to remember that it was not always like that. Certainly, there have always been people in all times whose preoccupations were far above this game of duality, and history indicates that there were times when different civilizations considered the binary of life-death and easily connected them into vital unity with two aspects. Life and death were just two sides of the same coin, and both were explained and adopted from the earliest years with the first teachings.
There were nations – let’s take the example of the Egyptians again – for whom death was an entry into true Life, so that the time spent on Earth was preparation for transition into this other, more perfect, more intense, and more spiritual state that enabled direct contact with the gods; but even death was also transient because every individual The cosmic being should be returned to the earthly world in order to gain new experiences in this material, concrete dimension.
The Egyptians and many other ancient civilizations (Indians, Iranians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Germans, Celts, and not to mention many pre-Columbian American cultures) did not express a strong need for connecting the living and the dead, or the need for those who die not to lose connection with those who remain on Earth. It was known that the doors between the two worlds are not impassable and that in any case, if there was not regular contact, it was so that everyone could continue to act in their environment without unnecessary interference.
Over the centuries, shifts in ideas and various religious controversies (which involved political and economic interests) have created an increasing gap between life and death and increasing disagreement among people. Different religions have tried to become masters of life and rulers of death in different ways, emphasizing… Behavior on Earth that will earn a reward in the afterlife, administering punishments and forgiveness like any court.
Associated Concepts
The tradition of most religions does not only perceive the idea of death as a new state of the soul, but also necessarily includes ideas such as the previous existence of the soul, immortality, resurrection, reincarnation, transmigration, palingenesis, metempsychosis, and other similar ideas.
Whatever approach is taken, it is certain that certain definitions of the soul or human spirit, of what dies and what lasts, and of the state in which what lasts is found, had to be accepted – and still need to be accepted.
Without going deeper into the consideration of the spiritual nature of man and aspects that can transcend the death of the body, we will provide a brief overview of the most widespread notions on this subject.
To accept that there is another lasting life after living, whether happy or painful, in accordance with acquired merits, also requires accepting the previous existence of the soul because it is meaningless to think about the durability something that didn’t exist before it appeared in this life. The quality of the soul’s lastingness must originate from previous lastingness, unless we assume the existence of infinite whims or divine moves incomprehensible to humans. Immortality of the soul has been the foundation for many religions and philosophers with a different approach, an approach that includes reincarnation, or life on earth multiple times, but in different circumstances within the common human denominator, in the same way that all nature cyclically renews itself without definitively dying in each season.
This approach presents several nuances:
One single resurrection, but not on earth, rather in heaven, where the body that was already had is obtained, in order to dwell in eternal peace after the final judgment. Some will rise to live eternally in heaven; others will live eternally in hell, while the rest will remain in an intermediate space, cleansing themselves from their mistakes that weren’t even so great as to deserve Hell is neither so small as to allow access to heaven.
In India, the Sanskrit term “samsara” refers to the “wheel of life,” which, constantly turning, touches the manifest world and passes through the subtle world where those we usually call the dead are located. This wheel is in motion due to the actions of people: since every action causes a reaction, it is impossible to stop the cycle of life and death until consciousness rises and initiates selfless action, free from all personal desires, generous and in service to all beings. Then the wheel will stop, but it will not happen tomorrow…
The Greek concepts of palingenesis (palin – again; genesis – origin, birth) and metempsychosis (metem (meta + en) – in, change; psyche – soul) point to ideas similar to reincarnation that were held by the peoples of antiquity. The soul, after earthly life, needs to be rearranged, to regain awareness of its nature, to detach itself from attachments and influences of matter, and then the person returns to earthly life; but… As physical bodies are weak, death will come again as rest and respite before a new beginning.
What seems completely inappropriate and wrongly interpreted is when the concept of transmigration is explained as the possibility for the human spirit to reincarnate into any form of life, whether it be a stone, a tree, or an animal, thereby opposing every logical principle of evolution and creating a complete chaos in life where nothing has its place or purpose.
Fear of death
Since the sixth century, after the church council in Constantinople called by Emperor Justinian to reject the works and teachings of the philosopher Origen, everything related to pre-existence of the soul and reincarnation, which was an integral part of the teachings, has entered the realm of forbidden.
For our Western world, this has become a taboo and it was necessary to reject all ancient religions, philosophies, and psychologies that developed these teachings for centuries. In the same way, thinkers and writers, whether mystical or philosophical, were avoided from being studied. woods or scientific orientations that dealt with these topics. A whole rich past of experiences and generous wisdom has been neglected in favor of new ideas whose task was to replace old misconceptions.
Until two centuries ago, holy books and philosophical texts of the best authors had to be read literally, as if symbolism and coded language had never existed. However, it is well known that every work contains more than mere text, that symbols have always existed, and that it is more suitable for spiritual development to be closer to the deep meaning of words than to simple parables that serve as first steps and enable initial explanations.
We will not list examples from the East that may seem foreign to our way of life and thinking, but we will mention a series of examples from great Western writers, artists, and philosophers, from the Greek period up to the present day, who did not hesitate to accept the immortality of the soul and the natural possibility for the soul to pass through different lives in order to reach There are various experiences. Let’s start with the famous Pythagoras, then Heracleitus, Empedocles, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, Ovid, Plutarch, Plotinus, and the Neoplatonists in general, Emperor Julian… The Middle Ages covered this kind of thinking with a veil, which returned with full force under the pen of Dante, Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola, and many great aristocrats who acted as patrons of artists and philosophical movements such as Neoplatonism, the Pythagorean school, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, and freemasonry. Furthermore, let’s mention Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, Shakespeare, Thomas Campanella, John Milton, Spinoza, Leibniz, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, David Hume, Kant, Lessing, Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Thomas Carlyle, Balzac, Victor Hugo, Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Tennyson, Kierkegaard, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Mark Twain, Bernard Shaw, Gustav Mahler, Rudyard Kipling, Yeats, Romain Rolland… Rilke, Hermann Hesse, Khalil Gibran, D.H. Lawrence, Priestley, Aldous Huxley, and many others, the list could go on. Is it possible that all of them would mindlessly and without reason express their beliefs and philosophical ideas if they weren’t supported by scientific knowledge?
Religion and science
In the last two centuries, a new obstacle has arisen between life and death, in addition to the existing one due to a limited understanding of nature. The opposition between science and religion has further sharpened the differences between these two concepts, and if there was still a glimmer of spiritual freedom, science mocks it under a new condemnation: “None of it can be proven,” “We have no scientific evidence for these claims…”
Through material means, an attempt was made to portray abstract reality. An attempt was made – and for a while succeeded – to reduce psychological, intellectual, and spiritual life to the mere functioning of different glands. Everything was reduced to the organic functioning of the body, and therefore, there was a… We love one life, this life, and death was the end of everything.
But science is not separate from people, and human restlessness has directed science towards new areas, new research, and new forms of interpreting reality. Thus, numerous “pairs” were born: paranormal, parapsychological, para-physical, and similar phenomena that attempted to explain what undoubtedly needed some explanation in the light of concrete facts.
Unfortunately, along with serious research aimed at finding the truth, charlatans have appeared – as has always happened and will always happen – who have used new discoveries to make a profit. So-called spiritualists, fake wizards, carnival fortune-tellers, and countless intermediaries with the otherworldly have seized their opportunity at the expense of the path of knowledge that could have opened faster and cleaner.
Nevertheless, despite the intrigues of deceivers, the need for knowledge, good knowledge, is still alive. Today, there are more and more works that deal with cases… phenomena that were until recently considered unusual and impossible are being discovered to the extent that the fear of their discovery is vanishing.
Doctors and psychiatrists, backed by their strict professionalism, have had very specific cases where certain individuals in a hypnotic trance have had memories that could only relate to periods before their current existence, with no possibility of premeditated deception. Other observations relate to the realm of terminal illnesses or deep comas, in which clinically dead individuals “return” to their bodies, to “life”, recounting their experiences while on the “other side”, to varying degrees of clarity.
The similarity in these stories makes it difficult to assume that millions of people from different parts of the world, with different education and beliefs, have agreed to repeat the same thing. It seems more like we are faced with the possibility of opening a path across a border that has always seemed terrifying. no longer accessible, or at least since certain taboos about death have turned this natural and logical event into something terrifying and painful.
It is undeniable that living beings have an “instinct” – let’s call it that – for eternal life. Everything that is alive resists death, either through simple actions and reflexes, or in the form of anxiety that weighs on people who must reluctantly leave the world while their hopes and dreams are still alive.
The desire for life is still alive, the desire not to leave things unfinished, the desire for new opportunities. The desire not to permanently lose the people we have loved is still alive; it is difficult to come to terms with the thought of leaving and leaving behind many dear ones, that we will no longer be able to communicate with them, or that these people will go before us to a dark world – if it is even a world – from where they will no longer be able to contact us. It is difficult to imagine that we come into the world only once, that we have very few years to learn and mature, and that after this lifespan Through various experiences, whether happy or sad, there is no other way out but paradise – somewhat monotonous for the more active, or indecent hell for those who have not truly understood the value of their mistakes.
Far from difficulties and prohibitions, doubts and despair, there are many who try, in one way or another, to overcome the insurmountable obstacle. After all, it is not necessary to touch or hear those who died before us in order to “feel” that they are close, that we can feel their presence on more than one occasion, that there are permanent psychological, emotional, mental, moral, and spiritual connections. Finally, it is quite possible that those who are “on the other side” are also trying to reach us, if not every day, then in special moments, just as in everyday life we are not always necessarily next to each other in order to understand and communicate with each other.
Life gains a deeper meaning if we accept death as a natural rest, like a dream that helps us reflect on a thousand and one circumstances before we awaken again. In my opinion, death makes sense if we understand life as a unique Life that is expressed from both sides of the obstacle. Life and death support and complement each other. If we compare and analogize, if we are alive now, we came from some other form of life and we are heading towards another form of life. Why should humanity suffer because of this terrible instinct for survival; why give space to feelings and thoughts about something that does not exist? It would be interesting to turn this desire for survival into a clear awareness of immortality, so that every minute of our existence is a step forward, a permanently useful experience, a lasting unity with those who are on the same paths. It is possible that this will finally put an end to the endless debates about life and death so that instead we can be awake and active in both life and death, on both sides of the doors that will seem less and less dark and terrifying to us. Because those are the doors of our passage, the doors of entrance and exit. or: Delia Steinberg Guzmán