Are you afraid of dying?

[Elmyn Noos]

While I was giving birth, I burst a blood vessel in my cervix. The midwife called for a doctor and by the time he got there I'd already lost loads of blood. At first I felt quite panicky, because it's obvious that lying in pints of your own blood isn't good, but then I started to feel quite floaty. Not in a floating up above the bed and looking down on yourself way. Just really, really chilled out. I can't explain it because 'chilled-out' doesn't come close. Imagine the most happy, relaxed, loved, drugged-up state you can and multiply it by a billion and it still wouldn't come close. It was awesome.

 

I knew I was dying and I wasn't scared at all. I was anxious for it to come quicker, because the feeling kept getting stronger. I said to my ex "I'm going to die now. Look after the boys for me". He was hysterical and the doctor was shouting and then I lost conciousness.

 

I didn't see a tunnel or dead relatives or anything, but it was like developing another sense. It wasn't sight or touch, but more an awareness that I wasn't on my own, and this absolutely overwhelming feeling of 'love' (for want of a better word). It didn't last long because I'd been brought round, but even when they brought me back I could still feel myself drifting off again.

 

As I came round the doctor was shouting at the midwife "Where's the baby? Where's the baby?" and she was looking at him like he was a dickhead as if to say "This woman's bleeding to death, what does it matter where the baby is?". Anyway, another midwife pointed to the corner and he ran over and picked Callum up and ran back over to the bed with him.

 

 

He was shouting at me "Liz, look at your baby!", and I feel a right bitch saying this now, but I wouldn't open my eyes because I knew if I saw him I'd want to stay, and I didn't want to stay, I really want to die. The doctor kept shouting and slapping my face and in the end he opened my eye with his fingers, and he had Callum right in front of my face. He was saying "He needs you. He needs his Mummy". And the split second I saw him, it was all over, and I felt back to normal.

 

The next day the doctor came to see me in intensive care, and I asked him about how he knew to do what he did with Callum. He said that it'd happened a few times before, and he'd heard amazing stories from women about what they'd experienced, and that in all cases a mothers' inherent need to care for her child was the thing that had kept them alive.

 

It goes to show how much of a factor a person's will to live has over their survival. I know scientists would say that it was caused by chemical releases in the brain. I don't know what it was, although I do believe in God. Whatever it was, I feel very blessed for having experienced it.

 

So even God said "Fuck that, send her back."

[kop]

Just read your posts SKI, thank's for sharing. It must've been very conflicting feelings you had after you came to yourself. On one hand you had given birth to your son, which is overwhelming to most I've heard, and on the other hand you'd just experienced something like that. I guess it gave you confidence and a reassuring feeling that your obligations as a mother wouldn't be a problem (afterall?).

[Stu Monty]

I'm not at all frightened of death, but I am worried about the idea of a slow painful death and the loss of my health. The thing that people should really be worried about is, as a few people have mentioned, regret, because you don't want to be approaching the finishing line and thinking "I had one chance here and I never really made the effort to get what I wanted out of it".

 

There is nothing after death, so nothing to fear. There is something before death, so make the most of it.

[BRANDS]

i have proper panic attacks over it - lost my dad when i was young he was 36it shits me up that in 6 years ill be the same age he was when he died - ive got so much to do,

 

i rememeber somone saying(possibly a jehovah witness ive given 5 mins too when ive been hungover)- we are living on hell because of all the shit that goes on and only the good go to heaven maybe a good way of looking at things

[Unrighteous]

I'm not afraid to die really... I'm a bit of a risk taker... but I really don't want to die.

[Seamus]

I'm not at all frightened of death, but I am worried about the idea of a slow painful death and the loss of my health. The thing that people should really be worried about is, as a few people have mentioned, regret, because you don't want to be approaching the finishing line and thinking "I had one chance here and I never really made the effort to get what I wanted out of it".

 

There is nothing after death, so nothing to fear. There is something before death, so make the most of it.

 

 

How do you know? You know something the rest of us dont?

 

Just interested like....

[Stu Monty]

How do you know? You know something the rest of us dont?

 

Just interested like....

 

It's just a reasonable assumption based on the evidence. I'm happy with the idea of my life having no greater divine purpose than that of a goldfish and with the finality of mortality. I think most people are aware that I think people cling on to some desperate hope of an afterlife because they can't deal with the idea of death being final and there being no grand scheme.

[Flathead]

Spooky coincidence or what?

 

I was going to start a new post to share a recent experience with you but after seeing this one already up and running here is my contribution to the discussion. As briefly as I can :-

 

In August this year I lost my mother after a long illness.

The night before last (Tuesday) my sister and I went to see a Spiritualist Medium ‘perform’ to an audience of about 260 people.

My mother was the very first person to make ‘contact’ with the medium and through him she conveyed facts about herself, my dad and my nan (who are all together again now) that only she, my sister and I would know.

To say I was astonished at the accuracy of his information would be a gross understatement but nobody can now tell me that there is nothing after death.

I now know that there is and for that reason alone I have no fear of death.

My only fear would be for those I leave behind. I still have so much to look forward to and to enjoy before I meet up with my parents and grandparents once again.

[Spy Bee]

Sorry to piss on your chips, but have you heard of cold reading?

 

Derren Brown could do exactly what that medium did and then explain to you how he did it.

[cochcaer]

Didn't think I was til riding down to the operating theatre for a risky op, on the way down I began bricking it and calling on any religion I could think of.

[Flathead]

Sorry to piss on your chips, but have you heard of cold reading?

 

Excuse my ignorance but is cold reading when just from my body language, facial expressions and verbally revealing, almost sub-conciously, snippets of information he was able to piece together/ reconstruct events that would mean something to me?

 

If so, with all due respect, I cannot agree.

 

The only words I used were yes and no although admittedly I did not hide my facial expressions or my body language.

 

I will quickly google 'cold reading'

[Spy Bee]

Yes Flathead, that's what it is. If these mediums where legit they would go through scientific testing etc, but they are not. I've been to one of the things you went to and I had to leave because I was so angry with it. They prey on desperate people, or on people who are desperate to communicate with people they have lost.

[Spy Bee]

He's in his sixties now, and that fear's long gone.

 

Senile dementia?

[G Richards]

I love what the Apostle Paul said: "For me, to live is Christ; to die is gain." In other words, it is the ultimate win-win. Live a full life here and now, making it count, no regrets etc. But there is even better to come beyond the grave.

 

That's what I believe. I sincerely do.

[Spy Bee]

Good to see another Paul getting his semi colons in.

[Mr.Smoketoomuch]

I will never die. Though that feeling is fading by the day

[Flathead]

Yes Flathead, that's what it is. If these mediums where legit they would go through scientific testing etc, but they are not. I've been to one of the things you went to and I had to leave because I was so angry with it. They prey on desperate people, or on people who are desperate to communicate with people they have lost.

 

Obviously I respect your opinion but let me put something to you that may muddy the waters a little.

 

If I was, and I hasten to add that I'm not, desperately clinging to the fact that somehow through this medium my mum did make contact with me. That I did 'feed' him with information verbally or by any other way and I believed that he told me what I wanted to hear even though he perhaps didn't actually say it.

 

Then why did the wife of a friend who was present who didn't know that I would be there and visa versa and with no emotional connection with me or my family and in a rational state of mind if you are perhaps suggesting that currently I am not (she was there with a friend purely out of curiosity) confirm that I gave him no verbal information whatsoever other than answering him with a simple yes or no. She also confirmed that what he said to me was what I thought he had said so I didn't hear what I wanted to hear.

 

Surely he cannot gather all that information from my body language and facial expression alone or can he?

[ATXRED]

It's not death I'm particularly afraid of, it's more that I'm afraid of not getting to accomplish more of what I hope to.

[Spy Bee]

So why don't these people put themselves forward for scientific scrutiny?

 

I'd love to believe it, but I can't. Others can if they wish obviously, but nothing points towards it for me.

[Flathead]

So why don't these people put themselves forward for scientific scrutiny?

 

I'd love to believe it, but I can't. Others can if they wish obviously, but nothing points towards it for me.

 

Sorry AdamS. Fraid I can't answer that and like you I had experienced nothing, prior to Tuesday, that would make encourage me to believe there was something to look forward to after death but what I can do is give you an example of what he said just to validate my point.

 

My mum suffered from Alzheimers Disease and her mental health worsened by the day. So much so that when I visited he in the care home where she was looked after she would refer to my dad and her parents as if they were still alive and asked how they were, had I seen them etc etc.

 

Initially I would correct her and remind her that they had all died and naturally this would upset my mum greatly.

 

To avoid this the carers explained to me that mum was now living in her own happy, little world and that to avoid upsetting her they suggested that I should 'play along' with her ie say that they were fine and that I had seen them earlier that day etc. Naturally this I did until the day she died.

 

On Tuesday, through the medium, my mum said to me that during the times I visited her she now knows that I played along with her just to avoid upsetting her!

 

How?

 

I suppose you could argue the point that the medium perhaps knew how to converse with mentally ill people but not once was her ilness or mental health even discussed.

[Spy Bee]

Okay, but that's a very open ended statement. It could mean something different to a lot of different people.

 

Also, I don't know your age, but from what you have said I would guess that you are middle aged, which would make your mother fairly elderly when she passed away. If that is the case, it makes the above statement even more true.

 

I bet if you had a recording of it and went back through it you could pick holes in it yourself.

[Flathead]

Okay, but that's a very open ended statement. It could mean something different to a lot of different people.

 

Also, I don't know your age, but from what you have said I would guess that you are middle aged, which would make your mother fairly elderly when she passed away. If that is the case, it makes the above statement even more true.

 

I bet if you had a recording of it and went back through it you could pick holes in it yourself.

 

Hmm. Yes possibly.

 

You are right - I'm 42 and mum was 71.

 

Quite possibly.

 

Anyway thanks for your thoughts & comments.

 

Must turn in now or I'll never be up for work.

[Paul]

Good to see another Paul getting his semi colons in.

 

We're fucking deadly when it comes to punctuating. True dat.

[kop]

We're fucking deadly when it comes to punctuating. True dat.

 

The teach in "wrote a word in a text message format" - shocker.

 

Next issue

 

"Teacher uses smilies in angry reply to Knut".

[Paul]

The teach in "wrote a word in a text message format" - shocker.

 

Next issue

 

"Teacher uses smilies in angry reply to Knut".

 

Knut, please. "True dat" is quite obviously a phrase written in "Omar from The Wire" format. As if I'd stoop to text message drivel - I don't even own a mobile.