Before I start on death, I should explain my views of life. I feel that we are more than the sum of our parts; in short, we have a soul of some sort. Our brains are nothing more than complicated electro-chemical batteries. A thought, in its simplest form is an electron passing between two nerve bundles. Say I want to raise my arm, an electron in my brain fires, sending the impulse down to arm, which responds. But the question is this – what causes the electron to fire in the first place? I believe there is an underlying force, an element of our being that we cannot see, nor explain with current technology, and perhaps technology is the wrong place to look for the answers.
It is assumed by modern science that all matter and energy in the universe began from 1 single entity. It then it seems logical to me that we are still a part of that single entity, that we are a part of a larger unit, in this life, and after.
To make my thoughts easier to explain, and understand, let me use a metaphor. Imagine that underlying force I spoke about as a great single ocean. Obviously in life we are all different, in one way or another, but how different? Consider our bodies as glasses, or some other container, but each container shaped differently.
In life, we are filled with the life force of the ocean; we are born with little of the force, but as we grow, as our “containers” grow, it fills more and more with the fluid, and in death, our container is broken, and our force returned to the ocean, to become one with everything once again. When this force is in the “container” we would consider that our soul.
To expand on the metaphor, consider the base of the container as our more important functions, and the lesser functions towards the top – if u crack the top of the container, you might lose some of the force, but it can be repaired, and fluid returned. However, the lower the crack, the more serious, and the harder it is to fix.
The reason I make this distinction, is because I don’t agree with the most common theory of the soul – that when it passes to “the other side” we retain out individuality. It is human nature to want to preserve our individuality, but consider this: a person has an accident, and his container is cracked, namely his brain is damaged. This would be towards base of the container and thus serious.
I personally have known people who simply are no longer the same person after suffering an injury to the head. If our soul is our personality, how can damaging our body have an effect on our personality? Therefore, it seems logical that our individuality is a combination of our soul and our body/container.
So if when we die, our container is destroyed permanently, what of our personality? Here is the focal point of this my thoughts. I believe that when we die, and our container is broke, our force is returned to the ocean. This next part is the hardest to explain, and describe, but I don’t think our personality is completely lost.
If you pour a glass of water into an ocean, it is dispersed and mingles with the rest of the ocean. Some of that water may wash on the shore of the US, and some in the shore of Australia, it is spread all across the ocean, the essence of what was in the glass has mixed with the ocean, it adds back to the whole from where it came. It becomes one with the rest of the ocean, and yet, still it is the same force that filled the glass.
In other words the force that was the force that was in a person, what contributed to his individuality is added to the ocean. It spreads, its knowledge is added to the ocean, and at the same time, it becomes able to draw on the knowledge of the rest of the ocean. Everything become one thought, or essence, and still there are currents – signs of individuality
All of our loved ones before us, all that they were, are part of the ocean; and we are reunited with them, in the most intimate way possible. We become one with them and share share all of our memories, all of our sense of being, everything that made us, us.
So ultimately I don’t think we retain our individuality, but I don’t think it is exactly lost either.
Wounded Memories 