The Substantial Transformation of Dying

One of the ways in which dying is conceptualised seems to be as the absorption of a small and individuated amount of some substance into a large and undifferentiated mass of that substance. This schema is played out slightly differently according to the particular properties of this small amount and mass. When (some aspect of) the self is conceived of (non-consciously) as a liquid then the story tends to be one of drops of water entering the ocean; an image found in many poems associated with death and dying. When this self that is approaching death is thought of as an evanescent vapour or volatile ether then the narrative becomes one of spirit rising and being united with some gaseous unity. I think this schema even plays itself out in the apparently down-to-Earth and literal narrative of death in which 'all' that happens is that you get put in the ground and eaten by worms. To me this description is mobilising a metaphor in which the self is conceived of as being coterminous with the body (which is not to say that there is anything more than the body really, only that this is not how our conception of the self seems to operate). The solid substance of the self, placed within the greater whole of the substance of the earth, is gradually absorbed into that totality and becomes part of the unity of ground.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• metaphor
• death
• dying
• self
• concept
• cognition
• substance
• embodiment
• dualism
• Paul
• Bloom
• David
• Icke
• William
• James
• Rabindranath
• Tagore

[wgaule]

I came across this video because it was in the Related Videos box beside one of mine. I've looked at some of them and they are very interesting.

We may die some day, but our videos live on.