Just saw this clip (literally 5 minutes ago) and I found it life affirming and comforting .
The speaker is a death researcher, spends a lot of time around dying people. She speaks of the common experiences of people near to death, of the comforting visions they have, as opposed to hallucinations.
She asked rhetorically 'Are they real?' ,answering "Yes, because they are real to the person experiencing them" I think that's fair enough. Atheist or no, I have no issue with the notion of having pleasant visions as I lay dying.
I don't fear being dead because as far as I can tell, it isn't an experience .It's the antithesis of experience . However, like all mammals I'm afraid of dying, because I think that IS usually an experience -----but with luck,I'll be like a bloke at my mens group. He was 81. Went home after group, to his son and daughter in law. Had dinner, went to bed and died in his sleep. Or my mum ; she had chosen palliative care only, but had a lot of pain. She was put on a morphine pump, floated away and died within 24 hours. I have no way of knowing her final experiences, if any.
So, as the thread title says, there is more to dying than meets the eye,. I am a coward for wanting my dying to be free of pain and emotional distress? El stiffo if I am. I can't refuse to go, or I would. I think I have every right to want my final experiences to be pleasant, or at least free from pain and terror .
AN aside to our resident apologists. My parents both died in care. I got to know a lot of carers over the years. Anecdotally, I was told that it is common for devout believers, including clergy, to die 'badly. Seems there are no guarantees.
Does this mean I suddenly believe in god etc etc? Certainly not, I still do not believe. And I still can't claim to know. I may be wrong.
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