After reading & digesting Ray's article & reader's comments l have waited 2 days to reply. And l'm still not sure l should but l think my real-life experiences can maybe be helpful. If only to one person. Because l know of what l speak.
I am a retired Registered Nurse with 40 years of proffessional experience in many different settings (including psychiatry & hospice). I graduated from a world renowned county hospital nursing program in Miami, Florida.
I also owned & operated a livestock farm for 12 years when l took a hiatus from my nursing career.
The point is, l have been present during the dying & deaths of MANY human-beings as well as animals. I know of what l speak.
l was at the bedside of my mother who was terminally ill with cancer. She was alert & oriented & pain free. Suddenly she said "This disease is a bitch!" & blinked her eyes & was dead.
Now my mother's death was unusual. That is the one & only time l have observed a person expire like that.
What l want to say is....barring a violent, traumatic death (car accident, drowning, death by stabbing/gunshot, fall from at rooftop, etc) the deaths l have witnessed are a slow "fading" of the biological organism. In both people & animals. Body functions slow down. Appetite disappears. Sleeping & dozing increase. Periods of alertness & awareness diminish. Often control of bowel & bladder is lost. Breathing becomes slower & slower until it ceases. Then the heart stops beating. That is what occurs 99% of the time. It really is not awful. Honest.
Of course, each death is unique (as each organism is unique). Some deaths are painless. Some have horrible pain but in the hospital setting & in hospice settings (be it in a facility or the person's home enviornment) the pain is always easily managed. Or at least it used to be!
Granted, l have been retired for 16 years so l can't speak to the current state of affairs that is now happening in hospitals & various other facilities. Especially in the covidian-era climate.
But death comes to us all. And we all experience physical pain from the moment we are born in one form or another. Pain during the dying process, if managed appropriately by an honorable practioner, can be significantly minimized. And generally there is no pain when an organic organism goes through the dying process. At least by all observable outward signs & symptoms. Which cannot be missed. And by the verbalizations of those that are still able to communicate.
Ray, the tragic story you told about the elderly lady dying in obvious gruesome pain is terribly sad. And was so unnecessary. It could have been avoided if she had had a sympathetic, knowledgeable practitioner there to help her get through her last days. Or if there had been someone with her who had a knowledge of natural pain relieving herbs & tonics as was done in days past before alleopathic medicine came into existence.
Most people & animals do not lie there howling & writhing in pain & agony for days before they finally expire. Hopefully, caring folks will be in attendance to keep the dying person clean & dry. To offer sips of cool water if it can be tolerated. A cool washrag to the forehead. And appropriate pain relief if needed.
Dying with dignity can be achieved. Really & truly.
Before l close, l would like to also say....l do feel that death in our Western culture in the last 50 years or so has become a taboo subject. Where the average person used to expire at home in their bed surrounded by loved ones it has now become a sterile, lonely event that is hidden behind closed doors in a barren room in a nursing home or hospital. In my opinion, it is truly unfortunate that it has come to this. Death is part of life. None of us come out of this world alive in the physical realm....not one of us! We should not fear death if we have lived our lives well. To the best of our ability.
As far as the insane elite who think they are going to live on forever in the "cloud"....well, that's another story for another day....it is my sincere hope that they all burn in hell.
My uncle off'd himself with his favorite hunting rifle a lever action 3030 sitting on the bench he used to watch the birds fly around.
I think opium/morphine manufacturers are a part of the profiteering circle scheme starting with agribusiness food poisoning people, pharmafreak drugs and injections posing as cures, then morphine to hide the screaming death from others, doctors advising euthanasia speeds up the process to this point, finally, cremation to get rid of the evidence. Highly profitable altogether.
What is your point? No pain, no gain? You want to dictate how someone takes their life if they decide to take it? It was your uncle's choice presumably to take his life in a violent manner. There are options available to take your life in a more merciful, less violent manner that's no different than going to sleep and never waking up. Which way is better for the ones you leave behind? I'd say the latter unless you think it's considerate to have your loved ones pick your brains up after you've blown your head off. Think of the effect that horrific imagery has on those your uncle left behind. Versus just going to sleep and never waking up.
Like all people you have glossed over the point of our death culture. Obviously jobs and profits are more important as to how we die. For the record, my view is the best way to die is peacefully at home in my bed with caring people about.
I am not glossing it over and in fact it is part of my point. By stigmatizing YouthInAsia, our maximal suffering violent culture society makes it taboo so if you find life unbearable and wish to take your own life, you must do so violently on society's terms versus your own terms.
I watched my mother struggle mightily to breath her last three days. They sedated her and stopped feeding her and we waited for her to die. There was no need for the three days of struggle when she could have just gone to sleep after we said our goodbyes and twenty minutes later her heart stops. There is nothing sinister about that. There is nothing wrong with that. It's a beautiful way to exit this reality and yet society forbids it because? Because it wants to wring every last bit of suffering out of you until the last drop and if you can't and won't oblige, well, violence is your only option and that's in society's favor as well since violence and suffering is what drives this machine.
Very thoughtful. I had a sister who hanged herself who asked to be "put down" but that wasn't accessible then. The reason she got to that point is from abuse from the system, particularly the mental abuse system (psychiatry.) So it was pretty much their fault that most of her adult life was constant suffering but when she wanted the final "dose" they weren't there for her. I know SO many people who have relatives and friends who have done it too. It seems like it was already an epidemic. Thanks for asking the provocative questions. In my opinion, the entire medical mafia is centered on pharma assisted suicide - some just take longer than others. IMO the system murdered my mother, father and drove my sister to do it for them and just recently my brother through the death vax.
I have a plan for my death. I'll take a globalist shill with me. The main preparation will be selecting someone who is guilty and accessible. I hope I won't have to do this for years, but it depends on how bad things become.
Come on, Ray. You don't need expertise or authority to think as you've so emphatically pointed out to me on more than one occasion.
Take out a globalist shill? Really? Coming from someone who believes Trump "won" the last election. Feral subscribes to another blog where it's being bandied about that Trump "won" the election in 2020. That's bull just as the adrenochrome garbage is bull just as QAnon is bull. Violence coming from rubes like this with this easily duped mindset will always be misguided and misdirected.
Actually, Trump probably won, but it wouldn't have mad any difference, anyway. He was the one to start Operation Warp Speed, and still kept pushing for the lethal injections long after he bailed out (I am quite convinced he didn't even want to win, because he got sick of the shitshow).
Adrenochrome is only a single step from "young blood," and the latter is publicly acknowledged and admittedly used. Considering the number of children disappearing in the US every year, including from CPS, where are they gone? The police don't even issue a public notice and don't search for them, because they left on their own accord. Right. The police usually maintain a balance of power for kickbacks, and eliminates the competition for the leading gang(s) (some of them directly linked to you-know-who), so too many arrows are pointing in the same direction. I call the method vectoring. It usually doesn't miss much...
It's the cycle of life but there are distinctions. Many times, most of the time, we are conscious of our death and the dying process as we traverse it. We are not conscious of our birth and this is where mercy comes into play. Being conscious during a torturous process is horrific unless you are a sadomasochist and unfortunately many religious zealots who claim God's will as supreme are sadomasochists who think mercy is for wimps and suffering is to be exalted.
Unfortunately the drugs used to ease the pain of death are also killers themselves. Midazolam and Morphine is the combo of choice in our care homes and hospitals but the prescriptions are given in suspect situations sometimes. Unfortunately family members get no say and have some hair-raising stories to tell of the way their relatives have been 'offed' ahead of time.
My mother was effectively euthanized but in slow motion which resulted in maximal suffering as afar as I'm concerned. She wanted to die. She said so and accepted it and she refused to eat and drink. She had an infection fo the linings of the lung and she just gave up. She was 91. They sedated her and sent her to hospice where she malingered for three agonizing days of labored breathing. It didn't have to be this way. It could have been over and done with in half an hour with everyone present to embrace her and be with her as she passed without undue suffering.
All the more reason I'm for Euthanasia. Sedation using those drugs is not what people think it is. In fact, it could very well be a nightmare for the patients. We may look at them and think they seem peaceful and sedated but they could be tormented mentally in an altered reality that doesn't register physically because of the drugs. In fact, I know this is the case. Early in the pandemic there were peeps who survived who were sedated and they described their sedated reality as a horrific nightmare and they are damaged mentally now as a result.
That is awful. I am so sorry about the way your mum lingered. I guess it is a post code lottery because when my late husband was dying in a hospice he was administered a drug while all the family was around him. He died holding his son's hand, peacefully and out of pain.
What may have seemed "peacefully and out of pain" may not have been.
****Not long after this my father died, as expected. Shortly before he passed away, however, he told his doctor that he was concerned that the medication he was taking might have been making him mentally fuzzy. It was debated whether this was an effect of the medication or the illness, but Dad told us the doctor agreed to scale back his medications to see what happened. The morning after this occurred, we were told, Dad complained of worse pain and he was strongly medicated. He never regained consciousness.
Sitting by his side he scarcely seemed present at all. His breath scraped and rattled, his eyes were permanently half-closed and he never moved any part of his body except, it seemed, involuntarily. Now and then he would jerk and let out a harsh cry – as if in pain – before lapsing back into inertia.
I spoke to a nurse who told me that this was a natural stage in the process of dying. She urged us to stay, to hold Dad’s hand and talk to him because, she said, hearing was usually the last thing to go. Dad could hear and understand us, she said.
This seemed borne out by one incident when we were talking about the fate of Dad’s ashes. I said aloud that we knew already that his ashes would be kept until Mum passed away, then the ashes of both would be scattered at a previously agreed favourite place. As soon as this was said, Dad’s arm flung out towards my mother and he gave one of his harsh cries. It seemed to me that he had overcome some massive drag on his body to perform this action.
I was struck, all the while, by how different this process of dying seemed in comparison to descriptions given to me by a number of other people. They had described a process in which the dying person drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes speaking, sometimes silent, until the end came. For Dad it was not like that. Now I wonder if his ability to communicate his pain was suppressed by sedatives. I wonder if he died in pain, after all, but that he was unable to tell us about the pain because he was sedated with midazolam. I wonder whether I let him down by not understanding what was happening.****
You mustn't blame yourself. You were doing your best with limited knowledge. We know about Midazolam now, but we didn't until relatively recently.
I lost my parents too. My Mum died in a fire at 75 years old in 2007 and my Dad lived on until he was 93 years of age but with Alzheimers. He barely knew who he was at the end and my sister-in-law was present when he passed. She said his final days were fraught with bouts of anger and tears. He did not know who she was but she comforted him by reading my letters. Each reading was new to him every time. His memory was non-existent. I was in Spain, working as a teacher and running an off-grid fruit farm. Apparently he was very proud of me.
If God as a human being, Jesus Christ, can SUFFER (brutally tortured), DIE (humiliating, slow), and RISE on the third day...I will live and die as my Father allows my soul to be. Suffering and death is spiritual and supernatural, not simply physical, in my humble opinion.
Bull. You can live and die as you please but I'll be damned if you are going to dictate how me and my loved ones live and die. What kind of deity tortures his creation and sets it against itself? It's more a malevolent genie than it is a deity that people worship. The Gnostics had a better grasp than the forming Church. Our reality is the creation of a Demiurge. The Demiurge has God-like powers but it's a malevolent trickster and this reality is a prison of sorts designed to keep us from the light and it's so malevolent, this Demiurge, it has convinced the inmates that IT is the one true God and they dutifully worship the sadomasochist who holds them hostage.
I’m Christian and understand why what happened, happened. God didn’t cause the physical suffering of Jesus, MAN did. Just as man does today. We have free will…and what do many souls do with that free will? I think some people want to blame God instead of the folly and ego of man.
Also, irrespective of what people believe in, Christianity is the only religion in which God becomes human and takes part in human suffering. Anything else would render the "Divinity" into a sadistic asshole! :)
There are two parts to sadomasochism. The sadist part and the masochist part. God creates man to murder his son which also happens to be him. Convoluted, much? God is all-knowing so he knew his creation would murder him when he became flesh. Also, why did this divinity come as a male and not a female?
Free will? Disobey me and burn for eternity? Is that some kind of choice?
Perhaps the most terrible night of my life was at the age of 19. I was traveling on my motorcycle, and an acquaintance of someone I knew took me in for a night, while I was passing through their village. Next door, an elderly lady was dying, obviously of cancer and obviously without painkillers. The groaning and moaning filled the dark air from dusk to dawn; I couldn't sleep a blink.
Sorry, she sounded anything but spiritual... She was like a dying animal, not even asking for her suffering to end, only taking it with every dying breath, completely alone and out of her mind because of the pain...
It took my 32-year-old sister four hours to die, coughing all the time, while her lungs kept filling up with fluid. The "doctor," after I called her at the beginning, said she would come soon, and she arrived about an hour after my sister died.
Most of my friends and relatives are dead by now, and I have the accounts of some of their deaths, too. I also worked in a hospital for eight months, so I have plenty more stories...
I cannot even fathom how difficult and surreal that was for you. That’s how my experience with death has been…very surreal (especially parents). Death is a very personal and solemn thing.
Death has always freaked me out, with the first experience as an 8 year old seeing my old great grandmother in a coffin and hiding behind my mom and wanting to get out of there. Never liked funeral homes after that.
Suffering changed you, as it has changed me. I remember having to identify my father’s body before cremation. He had been dead a week. Surreal???? It was in 2005 and I will never, ever forget that. I kissed his cold, lifeless forehead. And I knew, he was not there. It’s one of the most foreign things I have ever done in my life. And I do everything alone (only child). I actually find solace alone.
After reading & digesting Ray's article & reader's comments l have waited 2 days to reply. And l'm still not sure l should but l think my real-life experiences can maybe be helpful. If only to one person. Because l know of what l speak.
I am a retired Registered Nurse with 40 years of proffessional experience in many different settings (including psychiatry & hospice). I graduated from a world renowned county hospital nursing program in Miami, Florida.
I also owned & operated a livestock farm for 12 years when l took a hiatus from my nursing career.
The point is, l have been present during the dying & deaths of MANY human-beings as well as animals. I know of what l speak.
l was at the bedside of my mother who was terminally ill with cancer. She was alert & oriented & pain free. Suddenly she said "This disease is a bitch!" & blinked her eyes & was dead.
Now my mother's death was unusual. That is the one & only time l have observed a person expire like that.
What l want to say is....barring a violent, traumatic death (car accident, drowning, death by stabbing/gunshot, fall from at rooftop, etc) the deaths l have witnessed are a slow "fading" of the biological organism. In both people & animals. Body functions slow down. Appetite disappears. Sleeping & dozing increase. Periods of alertness & awareness diminish. Often control of bowel & bladder is lost. Breathing becomes slower & slower until it ceases. Then the heart stops beating. That is what occurs 99% of the time. It really is not awful. Honest.
Of course, each death is unique (as each organism is unique). Some deaths are painless. Some have horrible pain but in the hospital setting & in hospice settings (be it in a facility or the person's home enviornment) the pain is always easily managed. Or at least it used to be!
Granted, l have been retired for 16 years so l can't speak to the current state of affairs that is now happening in hospitals & various other facilities. Especially in the covidian-era climate.
But death comes to us all. And we all experience physical pain from the moment we are born in one form or another. Pain during the dying process, if managed appropriately by an honorable practioner, can be significantly minimized. And generally there is no pain when an organic organism goes through the dying process. At least by all observable outward signs & symptoms. Which cannot be missed. And by the verbalizations of those that are still able to communicate.
Ray, the tragic story you told about the elderly lady dying in obvious gruesome pain is terribly sad. And was so unnecessary. It could have been avoided if she had had a sympathetic, knowledgeable practitioner there to help her get through her last days. Or if there had been someone with her who had a knowledge of natural pain relieving herbs & tonics as was done in days past before alleopathic medicine came into existence.
Most people & animals do not lie there howling & writhing in pain & agony for days before they finally expire. Hopefully, caring folks will be in attendance to keep the dying person clean & dry. To offer sips of cool water if it can be tolerated. A cool washrag to the forehead. And appropriate pain relief if needed.
Dying with dignity can be achieved. Really & truly.
Before l close, l would like to also say....l do feel that death in our Western culture in the last 50 years or so has become a taboo subject. Where the average person used to expire at home in their bed surrounded by loved ones it has now become a sterile, lonely event that is hidden behind closed doors in a barren room in a nursing home or hospital. In my opinion, it is truly unfortunate that it has come to this. Death is part of life. None of us come out of this world alive in the physical realm....not one of us! We should not fear death if we have lived our lives well. To the best of our ability.
As far as the insane elite who think they are going to live on forever in the "cloud"....well, that's another story for another day....it is my sincere hope that they all burn in hell.
My uncle off'd himself with his favorite hunting rifle a lever action 3030 sitting on the bench he used to watch the birds fly around.
I think opium/morphine manufacturers are a part of the profiteering circle scheme starting with agribusiness food poisoning people, pharmafreak drugs and injections posing as cures, then morphine to hide the screaming death from others, doctors advising euthanasia speeds up the process to this point, finally, cremation to get rid of the evidence. Highly profitable altogether.
What is your point? No pain, no gain? You want to dictate how someone takes their life if they decide to take it? It was your uncle's choice presumably to take his life in a violent manner. There are options available to take your life in a more merciful, less violent manner that's no different than going to sleep and never waking up. Which way is better for the ones you leave behind? I'd say the latter unless you think it's considerate to have your loved ones pick your brains up after you've blown your head off. Think of the effect that horrific imagery has on those your uncle left behind. Versus just going to sleep and never waking up.
Like all people you have glossed over the point of our death culture. Obviously jobs and profits are more important as to how we die. For the record, my view is the best way to die is peacefully at home in my bed with caring people about.
I am not glossing it over and in fact it is part of my point. By stigmatizing YouthInAsia, our maximal suffering violent culture society makes it taboo so if you find life unbearable and wish to take your own life, you must do so violently on society's terms versus your own terms.
I watched my mother struggle mightily to breath her last three days. They sedated her and stopped feeding her and we waited for her to die. There was no need for the three days of struggle when she could have just gone to sleep after we said our goodbyes and twenty minutes later her heart stops. There is nothing sinister about that. There is nothing wrong with that. It's a beautiful way to exit this reality and yet society forbids it because? Because it wants to wring every last bit of suffering out of you until the last drop and if you can't and won't oblige, well, violence is your only option and that's in society's favor as well since violence and suffering is what drives this machine.
So sorry 😢
Very thoughtful. I had a sister who hanged herself who asked to be "put down" but that wasn't accessible then. The reason she got to that point is from abuse from the system, particularly the mental abuse system (psychiatry.) So it was pretty much their fault that most of her adult life was constant suffering but when she wanted the final "dose" they weren't there for her. I know SO many people who have relatives and friends who have done it too. It seems like it was already an epidemic. Thanks for asking the provocative questions. In my opinion, the entire medical mafia is centered on pharma assisted suicide - some just take longer than others. IMO the system murdered my mother, father and drove my sister to do it for them and just recently my brother through the death vax.
I have a plan for my death. I'll take a globalist shill with me. The main preparation will be selecting someone who is guilty and accessible. I hope I won't have to do this for years, but it depends on how bad things become.
Yeah, all those little hispanic kids in class in Uvalde were globalist shills, weren't they?
Please, clarify. While I understand the sarcasm, I cannot see the underlying reason for it.
Who was/is the victim, following Uvalde?
Come on, Ray. You don't need expertise or authority to think as you've so emphatically pointed out to me on more than one occasion.
Take out a globalist shill? Really? Coming from someone who believes Trump "won" the last election. Feral subscribes to another blog where it's being bandied about that Trump "won" the election in 2020. That's bull just as the adrenochrome garbage is bull just as QAnon is bull. Violence coming from rubes like this with this easily duped mindset will always be misguided and misdirected.
Actually, Trump probably won, but it wouldn't have mad any difference, anyway. He was the one to start Operation Warp Speed, and still kept pushing for the lethal injections long after he bailed out (I am quite convinced he didn't even want to win, because he got sick of the shitshow).
Adrenochrome is only a single step from "young blood," and the latter is publicly acknowledged and admittedly used. Considering the number of children disappearing in the US every year, including from CPS, where are they gone? The police don't even issue a public notice and don't search for them, because they left on their own accord. Right. The police usually maintain a balance of power for kickbacks, and eliminates the competition for the leading gang(s) (some of them directly linked to you-know-who), so too many arrows are pointing in the same direction. I call the method vectoring. It usually doesn't miss much...
What are you talking about?
Think about it.
On second thought, never mind. Apparently people aren't really serious about "thinking" even though they say they are.
It usually depends on how far they feel/think they are affected! :)
I sense censorship coming my way.
Can you do a fake death right now and take Fauci with you? I just started Robt Kennedy Jr’s book.
I wouldn't worry about them; their time will come.
Death is just like being born. We cannot do much about it and we cannot avoid it. I believe in reincarnation and do not fear it.
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/reincarnation
It's the cycle of life but there are distinctions. Many times, most of the time, we are conscious of our death and the dying process as we traverse it. We are not conscious of our birth and this is where mercy comes into play. Being conscious during a torturous process is horrific unless you are a sadomasochist and unfortunately many religious zealots who claim God's will as supreme are sadomasochists who think mercy is for wimps and suffering is to be exalted.
Unfortunately the drugs used to ease the pain of death are also killers themselves. Midazolam and Morphine is the combo of choice in our care homes and hospitals but the prescriptions are given in suspect situations sometimes. Unfortunately family members get no say and have some hair-raising stories to tell of the way their relatives have been 'offed' ahead of time.
My mother was effectively euthanized but in slow motion which resulted in maximal suffering as afar as I'm concerned. She wanted to die. She said so and accepted it and she refused to eat and drink. She had an infection fo the linings of the lung and she just gave up. She was 91. They sedated her and sent her to hospice where she malingered for three agonizing days of labored breathing. It didn't have to be this way. It could have been over and done with in half an hour with everyone present to embrace her and be with her as she passed without undue suffering.
All the more reason I'm for Euthanasia. Sedation using those drugs is not what people think it is. In fact, it could very well be a nightmare for the patients. We may look at them and think they seem peaceful and sedated but they could be tormented mentally in an altered reality that doesn't register physically because of the drugs. In fact, I know this is the case. Early in the pandemic there were peeps who survived who were sedated and they described their sedated reality as a horrific nightmare and they are damaged mentally now as a result.
That is awful. I am so sorry about the way your mum lingered. I guess it is a post code lottery because when my late husband was dying in a hospice he was administered a drug while all the family was around him. He died holding his son's hand, peacefully and out of pain.
https://www.phototimetunnel.com/our-troubles-with-midazolam-a-story-of-death-dying-and-a-powerful-drug
What may have seemed "peacefully and out of pain" may not have been.
****Not long after this my father died, as expected. Shortly before he passed away, however, he told his doctor that he was concerned that the medication he was taking might have been making him mentally fuzzy. It was debated whether this was an effect of the medication or the illness, but Dad told us the doctor agreed to scale back his medications to see what happened. The morning after this occurred, we were told, Dad complained of worse pain and he was strongly medicated. He never regained consciousness.
Sitting by his side he scarcely seemed present at all. His breath scraped and rattled, his eyes were permanently half-closed and he never moved any part of his body except, it seemed, involuntarily. Now and then he would jerk and let out a harsh cry – as if in pain – before lapsing back into inertia.
I spoke to a nurse who told me that this was a natural stage in the process of dying. She urged us to stay, to hold Dad’s hand and talk to him because, she said, hearing was usually the last thing to go. Dad could hear and understand us, she said.
This seemed borne out by one incident when we were talking about the fate of Dad’s ashes. I said aloud that we knew already that his ashes would be kept until Mum passed away, then the ashes of both would be scattered at a previously agreed favourite place. As soon as this was said, Dad’s arm flung out towards my mother and he gave one of his harsh cries. It seemed to me that he had overcome some massive drag on his body to perform this action.
I was struck, all the while, by how different this process of dying seemed in comparison to descriptions given to me by a number of other people. They had described a process in which the dying person drifted in and out of consciousness, sometimes speaking, sometimes silent, until the end came. For Dad it was not like that. Now I wonder if his ability to communicate his pain was suppressed by sedatives. I wonder if he died in pain, after all, but that he was unable to tell us about the pain because he was sedated with midazolam. I wonder whether I let him down by not understanding what was happening.****
You mustn't blame yourself. You were doing your best with limited knowledge. We know about Midazolam now, but we didn't until relatively recently.
I lost my parents too. My Mum died in a fire at 75 years old in 2007 and my Dad lived on until he was 93 years of age but with Alzheimers. He barely knew who he was at the end and my sister-in-law was present when he passed. She said his final days were fraught with bouts of anger and tears. He did not know who she was but she comforted him by reading my letters. Each reading was new to him every time. His memory was non-existent. I was in Spain, working as a teacher and running an off-grid fruit farm. Apparently he was very proud of me.
If God as a human being, Jesus Christ, can SUFFER (brutally tortured), DIE (humiliating, slow), and RISE on the third day...I will live and die as my Father allows my soul to be. Suffering and death is spiritual and supernatural, not simply physical, in my humble opinion.
Bull. You can live and die as you please but I'll be damned if you are going to dictate how me and my loved ones live and die. What kind of deity tortures his creation and sets it against itself? It's more a malevolent genie than it is a deity that people worship. The Gnostics had a better grasp than the forming Church. Our reality is the creation of a Demiurge. The Demiurge has God-like powers but it's a malevolent trickster and this reality is a prison of sorts designed to keep us from the light and it's so malevolent, this Demiurge, it has convinced the inmates that IT is the one true God and they dutifully worship the sadomasochist who holds them hostage.
I’m Christian and understand why what happened, happened. God didn’t cause the physical suffering of Jesus, MAN did. Just as man does today. We have free will…and what do many souls do with that free will? I think some people want to blame God instead of the folly and ego of man.
Also, irrespective of what people believe in, Christianity is the only religion in which God becomes human and takes part in human suffering. Anything else would render the "Divinity" into a sadistic asshole! :)
There are two parts to sadomasochism. The sadist part and the masochist part. God creates man to murder his son which also happens to be him. Convoluted, much? God is all-knowing so he knew his creation would murder him when he became flesh. Also, why did this divinity come as a male and not a female?
Free will? Disobey me and burn for eternity? Is that some kind of choice?
Perhaps the most terrible night of my life was at the age of 19. I was traveling on my motorcycle, and an acquaintance of someone I knew took me in for a night, while I was passing through their village. Next door, an elderly lady was dying, obviously of cancer and obviously without painkillers. The groaning and moaning filled the dark air from dusk to dawn; I couldn't sleep a blink.
Sorry, she sounded anything but spiritual... She was like a dying animal, not even asking for her suffering to end, only taking it with every dying breath, completely alone and out of her mind because of the pain...
It took my 32-year-old sister four hours to die, coughing all the time, while her lungs kept filling up with fluid. The "doctor," after I called her at the beginning, said she would come soon, and she arrived about an hour after my sister died.
Most of my friends and relatives are dead by now, and I have the accounts of some of their deaths, too. I also worked in a hospital for eight months, so I have plenty more stories...
Thank you for sharing that.
That belonged to the article...
I cannot even fathom how difficult and surreal that was for you. That’s how my experience with death has been…very surreal (especially parents). Death is a very personal and solemn thing.
Death has always freaked me out, with the first experience as an 8 year old seeing my old great grandmother in a coffin and hiding behind my mom and wanting to get out of there. Never liked funeral homes after that.
Still, I am not a drone. Just remembering that woman made me cry, while writing it down or even re-reading my own story.
When your sister craps into your palm, it's anything but solemn, but it is certainly personal.
Suffering changed you, as it has changed me. I remember having to identify my father’s body before cremation. He had been dead a week. Surreal???? It was in 2005 and I will never, ever forget that. I kissed his cold, lifeless forehead. And I knew, he was not there. It’s one of the most foreign things I have ever done in my life. And I do everything alone (only child). I actually find solace alone.
I'm reluctant to call my hardships suffering. They are only parts of the human condition, which I share with a few billion people. :)