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On Awareness In the Time of Plague

There are only 2 possible outcomes when it comes to what happens to you, your consciousness, at death: either you become extinct, 'nothing', or your self continues as a sentient consciousness, one which existed before your birth and will exist after the death of your body and brain--what poets and the Holy Books call the soul. Many today would vote for the former-- that is nothing new. At the time of Christ many Jews--and Romans-- believed death meant extinction; so it is not because science is ascendant that materialism [the belief that only matter is real] seems the default position of so many.

I held to that myself as a young man and might still do if I hadn't had an NDE when I almost drowned at 24: I allude to the details in some poems/essays on Soup. That was a terrible time, yet I am 50 years on grateful for it--to paraphrase a great writer, the hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men. A year later I was given further 'proof' of my soul in a much sweeter way when my former fiance and I were 'canoodling', as young folks are wont to--suddenly we are conscious outside our bodies, only for a moment or two, and no, there was no liquor or drugs involved--just love in the afternoon. Sadly, we were both still too neurotic/fearful to talk about this wondrous thing we shared, something I regret to this day.

I write this on Easter Sunday, marking the return to life of Jesus, who freely and knowingly gave up his life for the entire world [ then as now ]. Many will say not possible, but there are myriad accounts of people who have been visited by deceased relatives 'in the flesh' as it were. A friend, a former psychiatric nurse and one of the most rational people I know, told me how 30 some years ago she was coping with stage 4 breast cancer, abandoned by her partner, with a young son, and at the depth of despair one day when her father, dead 15  years earlier, suddenly appeared to her in the flesh [he even touched her shoulder], and told her she would be completely cured--and she was!

This plague has caused mass fear worldwide; perhaps that is less so for those who can 'sense' that life never really ends, and instead of being meaningless, as atheism must logically posit, there is a myriad of meaning to everything we think, feel, and do. That is why I chose as a title for a collection of my poems a trade publisher released last year, 'The Enormity of Existence' [under my pen name, Nolo Segundo], because your soul is truly enormous--eternally so.

Copyright © L. J. Carber | Year Posted 2021

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Geoffrey Brewer Date: 6/20/2021 7:40:00 PM Dear Len, your eloquent recounting of personal supernatural(?) experiences is of great value to me, as one who has only had brief but striking episodes of this nature. You correctly indicate that the materialist belief is not based on modern scientific reason, but is yet another ‘faith’. Blessings to you and yours in these times of continuing trial, but hope. Geoff Login to Reply L. J. Carber Date: 6/21/2021 10:09:00 AM Thank you Geoff-- I hope almost against hope that the sleeping will awake--or at least come to realize they are asleep...