With our material world about to experience large numbers of deaths due to major upcoming events, we felt we should present this topic.
So much has been written trying to define or explain death — the actual act of dying as we discuss here — that it’s a field of thick mud.
Medicine has defined the state of death in several ways. It can be the absence of a heartbeat, breathing, or responsiveness to stimuli. In terms of greater technology, it can be the absence of an electroencephalogram (EEG) or brainwaves.
But these have not proven totally reliable. People may not be dead after experiencing one or more of these.
In many cases, active resuscitation efforts have brought people back to life, but in others doctors or medical personnel can’t or don’t do anything and yet the person returns.
Something else determines whether a person’s material body lives or dies. It’s more what might be called a “spiritual” thing, for lack of a better term. That person alone and/or in combination with some entity(ies) on the “other side” determine whether or not to leave the body behind.
At the moment of death, other people in attendance may report seeing a “mist” leave the body, a flash of light, or other environmental changes. Unfortunately, we have no material way of detecting or measuring when this change occurs.
There are times when the old knowledge may actually have had things right, as opposed to current scientific, materialistic, or philosophical opinions.
This is one of those times. The concept of a soul originated at least millennia ago. The soul is that part of consciousness which survives the death of the material body.
We discovered an article on Encyclopedia.com titled “Definitions Of Death”. This article cited a 1768 Encyclopaedia Britannica definition that “DEATH is … the separation of the soul and body.”
Aside from limited materiality beliefs, one of the problems with modernity accepting such a definition lies in its requiring a “clear” definition of terms. Terms such as life, death, and soul are difficult to define precisely.
Many people deny the existence of what others call the soul or spirit. To them, the material body is our only existence. When the brain/body “dies”, that person’s existence is terminated. There is nothing else.
But such a belief shows a very limited and incorrect understanding of the universe. Although humankind has gained a lot of knowledge and understanding about the material universe recently, there is so much more they are unable or unwilling to admit.
We, in our current limited material state and limited by words, can’t offer a fully detailed definition of soul. But evidence from various fields of research clearly indicates the existence of something we call soul, spirit, higher self, or a variety of other terms which exists outside the material body. If the body dies, what some call the afterlife is still there.
Two of these fields are out-of-body experiences and remote viewing. Both of these phenomena demonstrate a consciousness separate from the material body.
An out-of-body experience is a condition where one’s consciousness voluntarily or involuntarily observes an environment which cannot be viewed with the material eyes based on the body’s position or location. An example reported by many people is a near-death experience or NDE, which occurs when a person appears to die, but observes what is happening around them and returns to the body and resumes living in the material world.
Remote viewing is the intentional viewing of remote locations with one’s consciousness for purposes of gaining information. This was used in the 1970s and 80s by the CIA to learn about Russian activities.
Those who are bogged down in materialism don’t want to admit that these independently-verified phenomena being studied even exist.
While this still leaves something to be desired, we suggest an improvement for the definition of death as “the process of a permanent separation of the soul/spirit and material body which typically leads to bodily decay.”
Many religions and other groups believe in an afterlife. Usually it is said to be spent in heaven or hell, depending on further beliefs.
The existence of an afterlife raises another question. Is there a pre-life?
Reference:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/definitions-death