We can be buried on land or at sea, or burnt, or left to the vultures. We can turn into dust and manure, or we can line the digestive tracts of some other species. Finally, we will return back into the elements, just as we were created from the elements through a series of magical – if scientifically explicable – processes of nature. We accept this, and still, the question remains. The “me” that was neither skeleton nor synapse, where does that go?
There was a time when I would have unequivocally said, “Nowhere!”
The spirit is probably an electrical impulse. You may survive in the memory, or in the DNA, of the living. But no dead person has access to our living rooms, living habits, living bodies. If legs have decayed, on what does a spirit walk? If tongues and vocal chords have decayed, with what does the spirit speak? Dreams, failures, injustices, anger – all of it ceases. I was sure of this.
Then, I was no longer so sure.
This is from an essay I wrote about certain strange/inexplicable/paranormal experiences originally published in 'What The Jaguar Knows We Don’t Know': The Kindle Biannual (2014). Link: http://scroll.in/article/693137/If-you-don%E2%80%99t-believe-in-the-paranormal,-can-you-explain-these
There was a time when I would have unequivocally said, “Nowhere!”
The spirit is probably an electrical impulse. You may survive in the memory, or in the DNA, of the living. But no dead person has access to our living rooms, living habits, living bodies. If legs have decayed, on what does a spirit walk? If tongues and vocal chords have decayed, with what does the spirit speak? Dreams, failures, injustices, anger – all of it ceases. I was sure of this.
Then, I was no longer so sure.
This is from an essay I wrote about certain strange/inexplicable/paranormal experiences originally published in 'What The Jaguar Knows We Don’t Know': The Kindle Biannual (2014). Link: http://scroll.in/article/693137/If-you-don%E2%80%99t-believe-in-the-paranormal,-can-you-explain-these
1 comment:
Have had these questions since I was a child and its crazy when you get no answers.
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