The Difference Between Sleep & Death
Third Installment in
A Short Course for Physicians & Patients:
10 Things Medical School Does Not Teach
but Everyone Should Know
Regardless of what we have been taught, let’s remember that humans are not merely blood and organs, skin and bones. There is much more for physicians and patients to concern themselves. At the same time, the writer realizes that seeing or even imagining other layers to the human “form” is not an easy call. Generally, we just cannot see what we cannot see.
Still, pondering on seemingly inscrutable things can have surprising results. Taking the phenomenon of sleep as today’s point of reference, maybe we can get some glimpse of the greater reality of human existence.
So … every night when we lay in bed and go to sleep, we actually leave the body. Scientists may say that our brains simply turn off or go dormant, but the truth is a bit different: the brain and body are stilled when the soul goes away. Sure, it helps to be quieted in order to fall asleep. Our whole state of being is involved when we pass from physical consciousness to an inner one.
Have you ever looked at another person who is asleep and said to yourself, “Joe is not here. Slipped away. I wonder where Joe went.”
Ah, you may intuitively realize more than scientists who focus entirely on the physical form in their studies and thinking. Sometimes, the least instructed of people have keener awareness than the most educated and studied. Sometimes called intuition.
So … we the persisting being leave the body every night. We also separate when given general anesthetics which loosen the inner bond. Heavy doses of alcohol, drugs and narcotics act similarly. Hypnotic and magnetic therapies can produce similar effects. The meditative trance called samadhi is an exalted but fully conscious analog.
It is important to note here that the margin of error can be slim with some chemicals which can produce sleep states. Overdoses of one kind of drug or another are common causes of death through their power to break the connection between body and soul.
So, what is death then, by this view of things?
Death is “merely” a step beyond sleep. That is when for the higher self’s purpose, the soul is drawn into a permanent state akin to sleep. One from which it is impossible to return.
In Biblical terminology, it has to do with the breaking of the silver cord or golden bowl: That web of light which keeps the inner vehicle connected to the outer physical body during sleep states and meshes all the bodies during waking life.
We hear from time to time of people being pronounced dead and rising alive again in a morgue or funeral home. More actively, thousands have been raised from the dead by healers and saints over the ages. Such can only occur when the bowl/cord is still intact. When the thread of life has been severed, resuscitation is said to be impossible.
A century or so ago, societies were created to prevent premature burial. This development occurred after numerous cases were noted on inspection of exhumed caskets and graves. Instances were found where the “dead” had made obvious efforts to struggle from their graves after interment. The author is unaware of the effects of such organizations.
One of the benefits of modern technology should be the prevention of such happenings. But people still rise from the “dead.” So, it seems that medicine has not yet discovered the secret of the sages regarding the golden bowl — silver cord.
In a positive vein, it is both conceivable and possible to project consciously from the body at night or any time of the day as the yogis have been known. Sylvan Muldoon tells of his abilities and ventures in his writings on astral projection.
Paramahansa Yogananda died consciously in 1952 publicly demonstrating this phenomenon. At a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, Yogananda spoke his last words while passing into the state of samadhi and letting his lifeless body fall to the floor in front of the audience.
His Autobiography of a Yogi is a wonderful book and a great read. Highly recommended, it gives much information about the subtler aspects of living.
The Poughkeepsie Seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, describes clairvoyantly witnessing the phenomena involved during the death process. Rather than search for the passage in his book called The Temple (1871), you can read the whole scenario thanks to Michael Tymm at
http://whitecrowbooks.com/michaeltymn/entry/the_death_process_as_described_by_andrew_jackson_davis/
The next installment of this Short Course will discuss The Difference Between Health and Disease
Leave comments below or send to theportableschool at gmail dot com.
Comment:
Interesting the link and often seamless connections between waking, sleep and death, specially when considered from a consciousness point of view.
Comes to mind that the word “Cemetery” has at its root the meaning of sleep. The Cemetery is where the asleep lay (to rest). Indeed, there are intuitions that escape the narrower scientific focus. Science is not the issue, maybe its focus is.
As a Spanish poet (Calderón de la Barca) wrote:
A reinar fortuna vamos
No me despiertes si duermo
Que la vida es sueño
Y los sueños, sueños son.
To reign fortune we go
Do not wake me up if I sleep
That life is dream
And dreams, dreams are.
Best and sound dreams,
Nic