Introspection — Part 1: Death
For some reason or another, I’ve always been fascinated with death. This sounds a bit morbid, but hear me out.
As a child with a curious mind, I always had questions which could not always be answered by the adults in my life. In my teens, I kind of developed a death wish and this was because of the fact that I was depressed in my teenage years.
All in all, I always had this lingering question:
What happens when you die?
The Religion Perspective
In school, we were taught as kids that when you die, you would either go to heaven or hell.
That seemed a little rudimentary….
As a Christian, You were supposed to follow the rules that were outlined in the Bible with the promise of going up to the heavens to be with God for all eternity when death knocked at your door.
However, if you failed to adhere to these rules, you would go to hell and suffer eternal damnation for all eternity (A bit harsh but OK…)
In growing up and becoming an adult, you soon start to learn many other things that your child brain couldn’t grasp in the beginning. One of those things you start to learn is different versions of what happens when you die. In one instance, when you die, you go to Purgatory.
Purgatory is from Catholic doctrine. It is described as a place where a “final purification for all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but are still imperfectly purified” are placed so that they might “achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven”.
Then I read Dante’s Inferno (Not the Book by Dan Brown, but the poem) from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
It was a tough read but it was interesting nonetheless. If you want to have nightmares learning about the seven circles of hell and the immense suffering that sinners go through, you might want to prepare your mind before you read :)
So Purgatory, seven circles of Hell, heaven….these are some of the concepts of Christians about what happens when you die.
Other religions have their own perspectives after what happens in the afterlife. Islam has it’s own interpretation of heaven and hell, similar to Christianity while Hindus believe in reincarnation to another entity depending on what the type of deeds (good/bad) that they committed on Earth.
Death In The Real World
I hadn’t encountered death till my grandmother died when I was young. Me and my grandma weren’t close. She never learned English and I never learned the Ghanaian language, Twi.
Plus I hardly saw her unless she came down from Kumasi to visit my mom and aunts.
The day she died, we had a “wake keeping” in my aunt’s house. To see a dead person up and close was jarring to say the least. I’m still not comfortable with the whole concept. I also have a problem with funerals but that’s another story for another day.
My next encounter with death was when I learned that the foster family I was staying with, had a friend who died of cancer. He had been given six months to live. I saw him once and he appeared to be in good health. But that was before they had given him the diagnosis.
He passed away before the six months elapsed.
Another sad way death struck was when the daughter of a family friend died in a car crash while in Tanzania doing volunteer work. It was the age that she passed away that was the most upsetting. I think she was about 19 years old at the time.
The last people who I know who was touched by death was a young lady named Akyaa. You can read about it in the link on her name. It’s hard to go into detail again.
Purpose And Afterlife
It’s a weird thing to say that one is fascinated with death. But it’s the uncertainty part that intrigues me. I’ve heard that personality types like mine have this saying:
“The only thing we can’t wait to challenge is death”
So what does come next?
I’ve read multiple accounts about near death experiences. Most range from seeing white light, family members and lights at the end of the tunnel to others seeing nothing but darkness and utmost relief.
So what happens after you die? What is the correct answer? Or are there multiple answers?
What is our purpose in life? Do we just pass on or we do come back to this world in different forms but with wiped memories?
The only near near death experience I can recall is having malaria as a kid. It must have been really bad because it somehow felt like I was dying and I appeared to be fading. There were hallucinations and voices, but I can’t recall everything.
But death still fascinates me. I do think about it sometimes.
When will I die? What will I finally see? Is it really the end? Or will be there more?
I don’t have the answers. But I do have lots of questions….
