Faithfulservant said:
Are you in the medical field, Path?
i havent been exposed to much death.. I was 12 when my dad died and my grandfather had a peaceful passing a year and a half ago and a dear friend of my family who passed a little before that told the Doctor "no more" when she had had enough kidney dialysis she was ready to be with the Lord.. thats pretty much the extent of my experience.
No. Before I decided to become a cultural anthropologist, however, I was in biomedical sciences and intending to be a surgeon. So I did a lot of volunteer work in a local hospice and an emergency room. I haven't seen a lot of death compared to most who stayed in those fields, but I saw more variety than many, I'd wager. Around the same time I took a course in Religious Studies called simply "Death," and it was very helpful in my understanding of how different religions understand death, their practices, and individual responses to the process. During this course, I was working for hospice, lost my grandfather to stomach cancer, and my brother-in-law to suicide. My grandfather, thankfully, died peacefully at home in hospice care; my brother-in-law's death was the tragic end of years of depression and physical pain that he could no longer bear. My hospice ladies varied between those who were heart-breakingly ready to die and physically unable to pass over, and those who were desperately scared of the process. I tried to give comfort and love where I could. I will be forever grateful for sharing their dying processes with them, for hearing them describe their slow process of going in and out of this world and the next, despite how hard it was emotionally for me. They, and my grandfather, had the time to live between worlds for a while, on the threshold, and it was a profound gift to share such an experience, albeit second-hand. This contrasted so greatly with the traumatic deaths I had seen in the ER and with my brother-in-law, in which folks had little or no time to transition and process the experience. I sometimes sense spirits, and I could sense the confusion, the grief of some of these unfortunate folks. I can sense sometimes the anxiety and fear of living folks when they contemplate death, even those who profess to be going to heaven. Death is a difficult thing for some, no matter their beliefs, while for others it is a welcome transition, even if they don't know where they are going. At least, that is my observation.
Q, I appreciated your eloquent words and I wholeheartedly agree. My experience has been that time for the dying, and of course for God, is not the same as time for us. I spoken to people who had near-death experiences who said that time seemed to stop, to accelerate, to decelerate... that eternity was held in an instant at times. This resonates with my own experiences when I've been out of body, though I have never died. I have heard accounts from hospice nurses of atheist patients suddenly being with angels, and I believe them. I truly believe all time stops and eternity begins when one turns toward God and is embraced by the Divine.
