No doubt many people have the feeling that to talk about death at all is, in effect, to conjure it up mentally, to bring it closer in such a way that one has to face up to the inevitability of one's own eventual demise. So, to spare ourselves this psychological trauma, we decide just to try to avoid the topic as much as possible.
Interpretation
People often avoid discussing death to escape the discomfort of acknowledging their own mortality.
Raymond Moody highlights the psychological tendency of individuals to steer clear of conversations about death, driven by a desire to avoid the emotional pain associated with confronting their own mortality. This avoidance can lead to a deep-seated fear of death and a reluctance to engage with the reality of life’s impermanence, demonstrating the struggle between human instinct and the acknowledgment of an inevitable end.
In practice
In a speech about embracing life, one might say, 'As Raymond Moody reminds us, avoiding the topic of death can keep us from fully living.'
People into hard sciences, neurophysiology, often ignore a core philosophical question: 'What is the relationship between our unique, inner experience of conscious awareness and material substance?' The answer is: We don't know, and some people are so terrified to say, 'I don't know.'
I have absolutely no fear of death. From my near-death research and my personal experiences, death is, in my judgment, simply a transition into another kind of reality.
The subject of death is taboo. We feel, perhaps only subconsciously, that to be in contact with death in any way, even indirectly, somehow confronts us with the prospect of our own deaths, draws our own deaths closer and makes them more real and thinkable.
You too must not count too much on your reality as you feel it today, since like yesterday, it may prove an illusion for you tomorrow.
Those who believe for a while make only a brief tour in the kingdom, though thereafter they often feel qualified to inform those who know even less about the Church; but the fact is they were really only tourists - not natives who really knew the kingdom's countryside.
Objectivity is impossible and it is also undesirable. That is, if it were possible it would be undesirable, because if you have any kind of a social aim, if you think history should serve society in some way; should serve the progress of the human race; should serve justice in some way, then it requires that you make your selection on the basis of what you think will advance causes of humanity.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand! Oh, oh, oh!
The Man who works for others, without any selfish motive, really does good to himself.
The true exercise of freedom is - cannily and wisely and with grace - to move inside what space confines - and not seek to know what lies beyond and cannot be touched or tasted.
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