Is Death Inevitable or Unacceptable?
Café-Salon Philosophique #25
November 7, 1998
No. of Participants: 25
Evening's Topic: Immortality - Is Death Inevitable or Unacceptable?
Samuel began the evening by welcoming everyone new and old to our philosophical discussion. Tonight's topic was dedicated to Marc Sautet, Founder of Cafe Philosophique, who died suddenly this past year in Paris, France.
He then began the discussion by saying, "The belief in Society today is that someday we are going to die." The evidence seems so overwhelming, that people can't even "possibly" conceive of immortality. "Pseudoscientists" gather samples of information and present hypothetical evidence that concludes, "some day, you are going to die." Why can we not conceive of living 100, 200, 500, or even a 1,000 years? Why do we have to rot away and decay at age 70, 80 or 90?
Have you ever heard the statistic that "humans only use 10% of their brains?" Just think if we were to use 5% or even 10% more! Would that possibly increase our life span? What would life be like if we were to activate 50%, 75% or even 100% of our brains? Can you imagine for a moment?
Another common, well-known fact is that "we tend to be a Left Brain Society." We learn to be analytical, logical, linear, symbolic and rational. The "artistic"right brain (nonverbal intuitive, abstract, spatial) often gets overlooked, or time is not allowed to develop this side of our brain as much as the left.
Not many people take the time to stop and consider what they are doing, why they are doing it, and for what purpose is this being done. Left and right brain activities are not integrated into an active whole.
So bouncing back to thoughts on aging. Aging became the "coin term" for scientists to depict the decay of the human organism. Well, what causes this decay? Why do generations of people become old and decrepit?
Our bodies are composed of over a 100 trillion cells! Everyday people go to war with those cells. Nothing is done in moderation. Everything is done in excess! We learn from our cultures to overindulge in everything - food, drink, drugs, sex, rock n'roll! Along with too much mental and physical stimulation.
Our poor cells never have any peace. They are constantly on the go! We "push our selves to the max!" We say, "no pain, no gain!" We've "got to hurry" or,....or what? How could we possibly think about immortality when we abuse our bodies like this? We are still as Samuel describes, "humanimals." We haven't evolved beyond survival, competition, territorial rights, the ego.
The next question for the group was, Do you believe you are going to die, and immortality is possible?
Brian sees "decay in everything" and thinks that "death is inevitable." Prashant thinks "death is both physical and spiritual. It depends to what culture, tribe or civilization you are a member of, and what kind of beliefs you grew up with." "This determines how one interprets death." "There must be an internal motivation and development of the concept of the self in order for one to even possibly think of living forever."
Basil shared with the group writings by science fiction writer, William Gibson, on which he gave a brief description of Gibson's futuristic views of the world and the way humans are and live.
Ted pointed out, "Our bodies come from nature and to there we must return." "We need to pay more attention and have greater respect and awareness for the cycles and the seasons of nature."
From Jim's view, "the self is illusionary." We are really just an electrical network giving and receiving information. "All the thoughts and ideas that we come up with about the self, the soul and immortality is fictional. That is not the real us."
"We learn that bad things mean death and that good things mean life." We are constantly bombarded by data that we are supposed to believe in." Brian added, but really, it's the way you think and what you do with the data. Take for example cancer. The Hemlock Society would see it as good, whereas a kid with cancer, that would be seen as bad."
Jeannette believes "the physical realm will end." "It might be proven otherwise, but I myself, see death as inevitable." Eric reflected back to the question of living 100, 200, 500 years, etc. "Why would I want to live past 100? I can't think of a good reason why I would want to live longer. I'd probably get bored."
Samuel retorted with, "one could play and learn forever." One could study French, then Theatre, then Sports, etc. What interests do you have? What have you always wanted to learn and do, but have stopped your self from doing?
Living forever would definitely destroy all concepts and shatter the very foundations of the family, religions, school, and governmental functions.
We all laughed when Basil said, "I don't know if I could put up with myself that long - forever." Nora said, "if we are even to think about living forever, one would have to go through some sort of rebirthing. That person would be one that has reached a certain level of maturity through experiences.
The next question was, Do you think people want to evolve? Eric mentioned, "Old people probably want to die when their health starts ailing, and they lose their mental faculties."
Mark thinks "people find it hard to imagine living forever because of how we were programmed by parents, friends, schools, government and religion." Samuel added, " the ways of thinking have been built in from generation to generation."
Prashant doesn't believe "all people want to die." "If one has goals, then I believe a person can and will live longer. If the goals are done, then it's time to die." What drive, what ambition, what kinds of goals would make a person want to live forever? How would one work towards changing the mindset about death?
Samuel commented that the concept of time and space needs to be re-evaluated. Jim said, "we need to stop thinking so much." Aziza believes, "time is linear such as morning and evening, the seasons, etc. "When we are in beingness, we don't care about time." Aziza feels as though she has been "living fully and wouldn't care if she died tomorrow."
The group then turned to discussing the quality of life. Prashant believes "we are here to find our place in the world" and to "realize self importance." He would like to "contribute something of significance to the world" while he is here, like Shakespeare.
Ted bounced back to the fact that we have to remember we come from nature and "all of our cells are alive." "Which are atom (adam) and eve cells," Samuel added. Reinhardt believes we need to "enjoy life and live it with good quality."
If one is to conceive of immortality or longer life, then one needs to develop better mental and physical habits. Reasonal, rational, productive and economical habits lead to good health which can be reflected in all aspects of your life.
Most humans haven't learned or don't know how to think and do in an efficient and orderly manner. They were never taught what to do with their bodies.
The group then bounced off of the subject by discussing "out-of-the body" experiences for a little while. Samuel redirected the group back to Earth and into the body by stating, "the physical body is the vehicle for navigating through life here on Earth." One needs to stay grounded, centered and rooted in this physical plane in order to develop and evolve.
We must locate, study and learn to expand our consciousness to all cells in our bodies. We must learn and remember which space in our bodies are open, which ones are closed and keep it that way.
Our core existence is the body. Inner wars, self hatred and reacting emotionally must end. Thesecomponents are what can keep us out of balance, and drive the cells to poor health, weakness, dis-ease, and finally to decay.
It takes courage, perserverance and body honesty to anchor one's self in the body, and to discover new things.We must foreclose on the dualisms that exist between male/female, mind/body, left brain and right brain.
In order for any change to occur, one must invest time, money, energy and effort in order to relearn, retrain and make new discoveries about the body. If one wants to become an orderly human being and learn to live life productively and full, then one needs to seek guidance in rediscovering their true essence. (See What is BodySpeak™?) Learn what is happening in the inner world. Learn to tune out the outer world.
Ninety (90%) of communication is nonverbal. Only 10% of a message is received from words. Are you honest with your body? Do you know what it is saying?
To conclude the evening, we were left with these thoughts. How could I live longer? Would I want to live longer? What would I do with all that time?
Our next three Cafe gatherings are to be held at The Troubadour Bookstore located at 1638 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO. Dates for the meetings are November 21st, December 5th and December 19th. Meeting time is 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Come join us in this beautiful, quaint, specialty bookstore. Invite your friends!
Reported by Alessandra
