You know, sometimes it is possible to feel new emotions. Seen in my analytical, detached way, it seems to me likely that emotionless emotions are possible. By this, I mean that we normally consider our emotions to be marked by biochemical/hormonal responses to thoughts and situations. Anger has physiological causes and expressions. Sadness likewise.
But what if we take the notion of a soul seriously, and extend “emotions” to it, that are NOT conditioned by physiology? This is a qualitatively different sort of thing, isn’t it?
Today, on a long drive somewhere, this connection with death came upon me. Now, this was not a melancholy thing, but rather something intensely interesting. It came upon me that death is in fact an adventure, and that, as Sharon Stone once put it, it is “always close”. We look forward to futures on this earth. But if we are in fact spirits in a material world, our real lives cannot begin until we leave here. We act as if we were going to live forever, when this is not possible, on Earth–not now, at any rate.
Some years ago I read the Carlos Castaneda books, and one of the lessons was “use Death as an advisor”. I read that as remembering that time is always short, and you have to be always focused on the little time you have. That is one way to read it.
Another, though, is to focus on this energy of connection with something larger. This energy is both frightening and exciting. The two cannot be separated, at least until someone develops skill in dealing with it. Driving a car is both terrifying and mundane, depending on where in your learning curve you are.
The net takeaway is that a focus on the macabre is not intrinsically bad. Death has an energy that can be used for personal growth.
Long day, so I’ll leave it there. This feeling is hard to express in words.