Today's subject is one that I feel it necessary to express my views about. It relates in great deal to how I see the world around me, why I hardly ever grieve over death.
I first got the idea of how to express and explain my understanding when a friend who I call Shorty asked me a question about death. At what point do we die? Is it when the heart stops? What happens after we die?
I replied that it was indeed a "difficult" question to answer, but as for my understanding, our spirits communicate with our bodies through our brains. Somewhere in the cerebral cortex are cells that are able to interact with our spirit. I am unsure if this is gray matter, white matter, or the basal ganglia. However, it is evident not only in science that the body is controlled by the brain, but it is by electrical impulses that cause such control through the nervous system, so also is the "head" (Christ) what leads the body (the church). (Colossians 1:18)
Now, what I understand about memories I will go into greater detail in a later post, but it will suffice me to say that one key distinction between a brain an a computer is the ability to "choose" what to think about, what memories to recall and how to recall them. A computer can be made to cause random stimuli or even "ideas" on a subject, however, a human brain can "choose" to think about something else.
Now, because of a bioethics class I had a while back, I have thought about what is the decisive point of death. Indeed some people think that once the heart stops, then that is death, but then people can have their hearts restarted and come back to life. Thus the question, is that death? I don't think so, at least not in the definite sense. The heart stopping is like the power going out. No more oxygen and nutrients for the brain is equal to no more electricity to the computer. It shuts down and waits for the power to come back on. However, unlike a machine, cells die and cease to function if they are deprived for too long. Thus the spirit may linger hoping that the "power" will come back on, but when the brain itself dies, there is not much point for the spirit to linger at a "broken computer".
Therefore, death occurs, really, at brain death. Now, someone can be raised from the dead, as Christ did to Lazarus, like someone fixed the computer and the spirit came back to play. Yet, raising the dead is different from resurrection.
Comas, often times, still have brain activity only the brain is no longer in communication with the rest of the body. Kind of like if a computer freezes, it is still on, the person is at the computer, but they can not do anything on the computer. Sometimes whatever problem that caused the freeze is resolved and the individual awakes from the coma, but sometimes that does not happen and the plug is eventually pulled.
Also, there are cases of perfectly healthy people just dropping dead. This is also seen with old age, when the body is just so worn and used that the spirit simply walks away from the computer. With no more internal stimuli from the spirit, the system shuts down.
From what I have generally heard of near death experiences, and the religious aspects of it, which is mostly limited to my having watched movies like Dragonfly, Flatliners and similar media, most people find themselves in some kind of passage, a black tunnel, on a road, or at a train station like in Harry Potter. The visual symbolism is clear, of movement or transportation. Some places give you a choice to stay or move on. Often times it is the dark tunnel with a light at the end, and the individual moves or runs towards the light, but they don't make it. I would say that in these cases, the light would be God welcoming them home, while their not reaching the light is the re-establishment of whatever connection with the spirit and the body.
Sometimes there is also a guide, again similar to Harry Potter where Dumbledore was there and gave him advice, the guide may escort the spirit home, or advise them to stay. These spirits could be compared to angels of death, and can be friends, mentors, or even relatives who have passed beyond the veil of death.
These concepts work with scripture, particularly Alma 40:11 "...Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life." The emphasis I would like to add here is "taken" which could be synonymous with "escorted".
So, if physical death happens when the spirit has left the body, why are bodies "alive" meaning still breathing because of machines and other devices, even after brain death? It all depends on what you mean by life, if the spirit is connected, then it is a living soul (spirit and body together [Doctrine and Covenants 88:15]) otherwise, without the spirit, it is simply a living body. As far as I am concerned, keeping someone in this "alive" or living body state is only good for harvesting organs to help other people stay really alive. Though, I would like to emphasize that this is only in the case of brain death, not just being comatose.
Now, what about what happens after we die.
As I already quoted Alma 40:11, the rest of that chapter gives us the best straightforward insight I have found, "11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection... the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body... whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life. 12... The spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where thy shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow. 13... the spirits of the wicked, yea, who are evil... these shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and this because of their own iniquity... 14 Now this is the state of the souls of the wicked, yea, in darkness, and a state of awful, fearful looking for the fiery indignation of the wrath of God upon them; thus they remain in this state, as well as the righteous in paradise, until the time of their resurrection." This return to God and then consigning ourselves to a state of happiness or misery we call the first judgment, where we either feel pleased by the life we lived and our relationship to God, or feel wretched because we remember all of those willing sins that we have committed.
These two states, paradise and prison, are both states of being in what Mormons call the spirit world. Catholics would refer to this state as purgatory. This spirit world is here all around us (Gospel Principles 41), and we cannot see those spirits because spiritual matter is more fine and pure "and can only be discerned by purer eyes" (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8).
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| Science Company Image Link |
There is a valid question, however, if spiritual matter and spirits exist, why can't we see it/them and how can they both be in us and yet interact with our bodies through the brain. There is a wavelength theory, that similar to how photons of ultraviolet ray wavelength can pierce through cells and destroy DNA which either kills the cell, or in some cases cause cancer, that spirit is photons or some other particle moving at a wavelength that can only interacts with certain depths or types of other matter.
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| Brian Greene's depiction of 4th dimensions from the video. |
Though I like that theory, there is another one that I find more complete and intriguing. The idea of the 4th dimension. Most of the natural phenomenon can be predicted mathematically taking into account the 3 dimensions of space, and the dimension of time. However, the algorithm for electromagnetic fields require the abstract idea of a 4th dimension of space. This may seem absurd, yet let us think about this a moment. Brian Greene has endeavored to try to explain the running theory about this 4th dimension in his video Brian Green: The Search for Hidden Dimensions. In this, he describes how the dimension might be so small that as we look at them, they appear 3 dimensional when they are really 4 dimensional. Much like how a piece of paper looks 2 dimensional until you get a closer look at the edge and see some, not much, but some depth.
This idea of the 4th dimension would explain how spirit matter could be all around us in these dimensions, and yet we cannot see it, and it works with the scripture about spirit being too "fine" which could mean small, like fine grain salt or sandpaper. However, it is yet incomplete. This may only be personal preference, but I enjoy the idea of a larger 4th dimension that extends out like an actual direction. I go into this all in further detail in my blog post "Gravity, Science, and the Spirit World". It will suffice me to say that whatever means, likely a combination of directional 4th dimension, miniature 4th dimension, and wavelength frequency, our spirits interact with our bodies.
It is important to note that our own spirit looks like its owner, and the body grows, if not prohibited by genetic malfunctions caused by the fall, to grow in the likeness of the spirit body (Ether 3:16). As I already said, though the spirit is in the likeness of our bodies, or rather our bodies are in the likeness of our spirits, right now, here in mortality, our spirit only interacts with our bodies through the brain. Yet, as I recently discovered and talked about in my blog post about Quickening, Resurrection, and Ectoplasm, that when we are resurrected we will have spirit in our veins. Our spirits and our bodies will be inseparably connected. This would mean that our bodies would be quickened so that our spirit will connect with our bodies in the finger, in the toe, and every cell one to another. No longer would we simply control our bodies through our brains, but we will truly be one with ourselves. How glorious that immortal body will be will depend on our righteousness and how much of Christ's light we let quicken us.
Alas, that is after the resurrection. Until that time, post-mortal life will continue. The righteous, though at peace and rest, will continue to reach out to those in darkness and bring Christ's divine light into their spiritual lives. As with this scripture from 1 Peter, Christ taught spirits in prison who had lived in the days of Noah (1 Peter 3:19-20) and "for for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Though Christ did not personally minister to those in spirit prison, they were taught, for in the three day slumber for His body in the tomb, He organized the missionary work, and the word was first ministered to those of Noah's day. (Doctrine and Covenants 138:19-21)
With this wonderful missionary work going on beyond the veil, we wonder what the point is and why it is going on. 1 Peter 3:21 gives some insight. "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:" That is to say, baptism cleanses the spirit of the guilt and corruption of sins and it is in the like image of the resurrection of Christ which cleanses our bodies into immortality. "...why are they then baptized for the dead?" (1 Corinthians 15:29) This is why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints performs baptisms by proxy on behalf of the dead. Baptism for the dead allows a spirit beyond the veil to accept Christ's atonement and be cleansed and redeemed from spiritual death (separation from God). Alas, it does not force Christ's atonement upon them, it merely allows them to full accept Christ and feel His peace, enabling them to rise from prison to paradise.
God does not want His children to be left in darkness. Though there are certain things that we must do to return to His presence, He will not deny us from any of them, we can only deny ourselves. Death is not something to be feared, it is simply coming home to our ever loving, ever merciful Father in Heaven and waiting the fullness of Christ's redemption to come upon us.
Love,
Jacobugoth
