If you want to get straight to the pasta, please skip the following two lines.
The content in this pasta has nothing to do with my actual beliefs. I just want to tangle with the apparent meaning of death.
Let us start with a simple question: What is death? Well, it can be simply defined as the ending of life. But such a short definition hardly portrays the suffering and sadness it puts others through. No one knows the exact experience of death, as no one returns after it happens to them. But just what happens after one dies? A sort of afterlife? A simple matter of kaput? So many suggestions have been put forth, as to what happens afterwards, but there is always a lingering part of the mind that is not aware of the state. Let's imagine what death could be. Let's start off with a tragic death. Someone is shot, or something of that sort. What if someone, an average someone, is shot in an alleyway and is never heard from again? Let's imagine the criminal puts his/her body in an abandoned field. Does the body spend eternity staring into nothingness?
Now, if one had already perished at the time and had no life left in them, this would not be a matter of fear. But what if they still had life in them, only known to themselves? He/she would be trapped in a body that couldn't move, a spine that couldn't rise, bones, muscles and joints that couldn't stretch. A desperate cry for help which is heard by no one. The body decomposes and the pain is felt; the pain of being turned into dirt and feeling your skin sink beneath the Earth, becoming part of the field itself. Only, this would happen over years. Imagine feeling your presence wash away. Imagine the feeling of a mouth that could speak, but could not physically move in the view of others. Lungs that breathed, but could not be heard. A beating heart, that would cease to pump blood. But this is just one example.
Death is most commonly peaceful, and does not usually occur in this manner. Now what if someone were to just die a normal death, breathing a final breath and succumbing to an illness? Imagine the feeling of letting go of your family member's hand as you pass away. However, imagine being unaware of your death for a split second. At this point, the person beside you begins to say your name, in fear of the inevitable. Your name is repeated, and the voice sounds more alarmed with each repeat. "I'm ok," you want to say, "I'm right here," but alas you are not. You are present, as present as you have ever been but your actual presence is not. The feeling passes you. You have perished. You are dead. While funerals always have an eerie atmosphere, imagine being the dead one; imagine having life in you, only known to yourself. If you were to be placed in a coffin with life left inside you, what would your reaction be?
If someone who had had a controlling personality were to be placed in a coffin, imagine his/her reaction. He/she would be placed inside, and would obviously have a desire to fight against it. But the attempt would be in vain: the person would be placed inside the coffin only to be shut in for eternity. He/she would be placed in a rectangular-shaped hole, never to see the light of day again. They would only see the lid of their coffin: their eternal captor. They would long to lift the lid of their coffin and to see the faces of all of their friends and family. They would long to have their life back again. They would long for another chance. During their time in the coffin, they would have to ponder over all of their regrets, everything they hadn't accomplished, everything they ever desired. If they had been too timid to do something they would have no chance to do it, as they had reached the final stage of what they had always feared. The coffin is the person's eternal bane. In some ways, the aftermath is worse than the death itself.
Now imagine any other scenario of death. Imagine having no way to leave its grasp. Imagine the terror it would spread to your newly inactive mind.