On death
I decided for this blog post to change things up. Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, host of Making Sense [podcast], and creator of Waking Up. I am a big fan of Sam due to his logical sense of the world and ability to touch on 'sensitive' topics.
Recently, Sam has released a series called "Making Sense of..." which explores topics such as consciousness, social media, and death. Each series is accompanied by a package that offers more detailed content and questions. As a parent, I find myself contemplating death frequently, and so I decided to share the companion questions and my answers in this post, with full credibility going to Sam Harris and all of his great work (including the Waking Up app.)
Do you ever think about death?
How often do you think about death?
I think about death everyday.
How do different theories of consciousness (materialism, panpsychism, idealism…) change the nature of of death?
We can look at death through whatever lens we like, but the result remains the same. Death is looming and uncertain, and death is the end of the line.
[Frank] Ostaseki says that one thing we know for certain about death is that it is more than a “medical event.” Do you agree?
Death can be understood in various ways, with physical death referring to the cessation of bodily functions and organs. However, psychological and spiritual/religious aspects of death are distinct. Losing loved ones, hobbies, and the uncertainty of the future can cause significant anguish. It's natural to worry about whether your affairs are in order and to experience an internal struggle. Dylan Thomas writes about this struggle in his poem "Do not go gentle into that good night."
On the other hand, death can also bring relief and acceptance, highlighting its psychological complexity. Depending on one's faith, death can be viewed as a transformation from this life to the next, a time to reap what they have sowed, or an opportunity to find solace in religion or spirituality.
Michael Behrens- The Art of Life (Youtube)
What are the benefits of mortality? Should we want to keep it?/What are the benefits of immortality? Should we want to achieve it?
The idea of immortality is fascinating as it would allow you to witness all the societal and cultural changes, wars, geographical shifts, and potentially extraterrestrial life. However, there is a downside to it as well. You would have to witness the death of everyone you love, which could be emotionally challenging. Therefore, I would only want to achieve immortality if the people I love could do the same. Death reminds us of how precious our mortality is.
Have you used psychedelic drugs as an aid for exploration of death and mortality? If not, [does it intrigue you?]…
It does intrigue me. Chris Trejbal, CNP, proudly supports MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies. MAPS emphasizes the careful use of psychedelic medicine for mental health, well-being, and connection.
My only experience with psychedelics was taking a small dose of mushrooms in Tobermory, Ontario. My little experience was fun, but I haven't tried a heroic dose like that recommended by Terrence McKenna. However, as a long-time meditator, I think there are similarities between the two.
As a caveat, I (currently) don't think MDMA or mushrooms of LSD or psilocybin or ayahuasca opens a gateway to another dimension full of serpents and extraterrestrial garden gnomes. I think these compounds open different layers to the brain and mind that we already have, which can benefit our outlook on life, including death. It just appears other-worldly.
Rolland Griffiths is a researcher looking at using these compounds as a therapeutic intervention to treat anxiety and depression. Most notably, the forms of anxiety and discomfort surrounding death. Griffiths was able to summarize the following from his patients…
There is something about the core of this experience that opens people up to the great mystery of what it is that we don't know. It is not that everyone comes out of it and says 'oh, now I believe in life after death'. That needn't be the claim at all. But the psilocybin experience enables a sense of deeper meaning, and an understanding that in the largest frame everything is fine and that there is nothing to be fearful of. There is a buoyancy that comes of that which is quite remarkable. To see people who are beaten down by this illness, they can start actually providing reassurance to the people who love them most, telling them 'it is okay and there is no need to worry'.
The proper use of psychedelics likely offers many benefits to the user, including dampening the Default-Mode-Network (DMN). In short, the DMN are thoughts of the future and the past that occur when we're not doing anything. Two examples would be walking and showering. These are thought hotspots! If you've developed a mindfulness practice, you likely know how many thoughts perk up while you're washing your hair or just walking around the neighbourhood. Psychedelics offer ways to reduce the activity of the DMN.
The DMN may play a pivotal role in mental illness, including ruminating thoughts, loneliness, anxiety and depression, which psychedelics offer to reduce. What's the result when you're not thinking about past and future thoughts? You get the here and now.
Meditation and the DMN
This is where meditation and mindfulness play a pivotal role. To put it more precisely, meditation can strongly impact suffering. Even focusing on the breath and then coming back to the breath when a thought comes. Some call this 'concentration meditation', and it can benefit the meditator by having a focal point in a stressful situation or in the rigmarole of day-to-day life.
Suppose you meditate enough or develop the fundamentals. In that case, you might get to the point where you understand that thoughts and emotions and physical sensations are just that- appearances in your consciousness. They arise and fall away, come and go. One example I can think of are kids who bump their knee and come running to their parents crying as if the world is ending. Big deal to them, right? You kiss it better, and as if your kiss instantly removed the inflammation and pain from the bumped knee, they go to playing as if nothing happened. Did the pain go away with a kiss? Likely not, but the way they reframed their experience around their bumped knee changed.
Another more visceral example is Thich Quang Duc, AKA the burning monk. In June 1963, a veteran monk sat in the streets of Saigon to protest the Vietnam War. As if in deep meditation, another monk covered him head to toe in gasoline…and lit a match. His entire body was engulfed in flames. Now, most people lit on fire would likely stop-drop-and-roll to try and extinguish the fire or scream and run wildly. But Thich Quang Duc? In the chaos of it all:
Only one person was calm: Thich Quang Duc himself. "He never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound," a witness recalled, even as his body burned. For 10 minutes, he was nothing but a burning match on the ground. Then, finally, his body collapsed… "I don't know exactly when he died," Malcolm Browne later said. "He never yelled out in pain."
John F. Kennedy would go on to say that "No news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one." Rightfully so.
Unless Thich Quang Duc had some sort of physiological disorder where his pain receptors didn't work, my interpretation is that he could modify his awareness of pain through his meditative practice. You can use this similar meditative practice when worry, anger, or frustration pops up by noticing the feeling and letting it pass. Or leaning into it, which sometimes dissolves it of its hold. Like a piece of driftwood floating on the riverbank, you can watch it float on by without grasping it for dear life. You are not your thoughts.
Psychedelics, meditation, and death
I’m not claiming to be a meditation expert, nor in psychedelic medicine or a psychologist. I certainly have a long, indefinite way to go in my practice. But meditation has alleviated a lot of suffering in my life and for many others. Likely on a smaller scale compared to psychedelics, a practice in meditation can have a similar smoothing out of worry and anticipation of what’s to come, what has happened, and what’s happening right now. From the quote above…
…an understanding that in the largest frame everything is fine and that there is nothing to be fearful of.
I believe these altered states of consciousness offer to alleviate a large majority of the anxiety surrounding death. When the only thing you have is the moment- the breath, the feeling of yourself sitting on the floor, the sound of the wind blowing through beach tree leaves, the running of water in a stream, the birds singing their tune, the face of your son or daughter looking back at you- death itself cannot stifle the beauty this world has to offer.
Would you like to know the exact time of your death? How about the deaths of your family and friends?
Knowing when you and your loved ones will die would add extra pressure to ensuring you live a fulfilling life. It depends because one person could find comfort, while another may see this as anxiety-inducing.
Death will come at some point, and I don’t think I need the expiry date for me and everyone I enjoy spending time with. I would just live as if death could appear at any moment.
How would meditations on your death affect your level of compassion towards others and/or your daily behavior?
I take the stance that you are not the same person you were yesterday, and you don't need to be. One could argue that there is no self and free will, but that's for another time.
Nobody needs to hold you as the person you were yesterday. If a partner or friend loves you unconditionally, there is room to change and grow with acceptance. Of course, this can have many caveats, but I believe it holds true as a general theme. In my relationships, meditating on death has made it easier to 'begin again.' A term I got from Sam Harris that refers to the ability to begin anew in your thoughts and feelings- to be a different person than you were a moment ago.
Picture this common scenario- you and your partner have just had a heated argument. You're both frustrated, upset and really don't want to be around each other. This pressure overlaps your face and thoughts, and your neck and shoulders are bunched up. But instead of riding that feeling out for the rest of the day and even into the next, you look at your partner and relinquish all those feelings within a split second. How? Well, the person you love most could be dead tomorrow.
It sounds silly- my person won't simply drop dead tomorrow. They're young and healthy, and active. Their parents lived until their late 80's. But I think we would be surprised at the potential of life to be so brief. And what if we're wrong in that assumption? Wouldn't you want your 'final' day to be filled with nothing but love? This is why meditating on death in relationships can be so powerful. It encourages the idea that life can be short, so why spend it unhappy with the people you love? If you find yourself in that situation above (which I have certainly been in), try to meditate on the brevity of life and 'begin again.'
Finally, compassion towards others arises when you realize we're all in the same boat. We're all at the hands of death's grasp, and I think that fragility could offer more compassion toward others. If today was your last, why spend your energy on the guy who cut you off in traffic? These things become trivial as death illuminates the perspective that life can be short.
In 1951, Dylan Thomas wrote a famous poem called “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,” which delivers an emotional plea to resist the inevitability of death and continue fighting for life until the very end. The poem repeats the line “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” How does this plea strike you after listening to this compilation.
This poem reminds me of my favourite movie, Interstellar. Michael Caine recites this poem as Matthew McConaughey drifts in his spacecraft towards a black hole to hopefully save the world.
Taken as it is, resisting the inevitability of death is a battle lost. There is no escape from death. If you spend your days raging at the end, your life will be an angry, frustrated ride.
If by raging against, we mean to live with so much vigour and passion that we leave no stone unturned or bridge uncrossed, then yes. In that, there may be a ghostly pressure unbeknownst to the adventurer. Again, the brevity of life- to live life to the absolute fullest, knowing the end.
Below is the poem. It’s quite beautiful.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas
The Tale of the Three Brothers- Youtube
