Ruminations

I started reading Adam Leith Gollner’s The Book of Immortality: The Science, Belief, and Magic Behind Living Forever on April 17th and I finished it on about the 10th of May.

This was also a very good book, full of plenty of “food for thought” and I originally wanted to do an in-depth outline or essay or similar to what I did for Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.  But I am so behind on this blog that I decided to just make some brief notes and move on.  I did find some parallels though between the two books and my notes, I believe, reflect that.

First of all, I was amazed by the crazy/insane things that people throughout the ages have done and still do or believe in their desire to achieve immortality.  There has never been a time when humanity has not wanted desperately to avoid death.  We do not, nor will we ever completely understand death.  It is not logical, it does not make sense.  How can someone who is alive suddenly no longer be alive; how can existence suddenly cease to exist?

We know intellectually, of course, that all things die, including ourselves.  Nothing lives forever.  But that knowledge still defies understanding.  Our brains simply cannot process the loss of loved ones.  And how can we envision our lives ending and ourselves ceasing to exist?

The way we mostly have dealt with the idea of death is through religion.  Religion has enabled people to believe that death is not the end; that there is life after death.  This belief is contained in nearly all human religions in some form or another.

‘The belief in a supramundane unity beyond all material perceptions has been with humanity since prehistorical times. It’s not a “primitive” belief; it is the “perennial philosophy.” Every cultural tradition refers to another plane of existence alongside our own from the time documenting began. This other world can’t be apprehended by the instruments of rationality. There’s no way to demonstrate the veracity of something apart from “this world.” It’ll never be proven, yet, in some form or another, it’s a crucial fact of life for the majority of humans. The sheer quantity of testimonials by mystics who’ve participated in the phenomenon is the only indication that it exists.’  [Page 54.]

The issue of immortality is bound up in our mythologies:

‘Myths are concerned with something insoluble and ineffable.  To discuss that which words cannot discuss, myths use symbolism.  A symbol is a go-between, something that stands for something else.  Symbols are multivalent; they have multiple means, many values, various possible consequences.  We can imbue them with our own significance.  …

‘Symbols encapsulate a fleeting sublimity that can never be fully articulated.  They are incipient transitions.  They float between thoughts and feelings.  They connect the conscious mind with the collective unconscious, the within with the external, the above with the below.  The word itself derives from a Greek term meaning “to bring together, to combine, to integrate.”  …

‘…Those with a scientific-mechanistic worldview think that if something cannot be defined outright or coherently, then it probably isn’t anything.  This contrasts with those who consider the spirit world to be a reality full of potential.’  [Page 213.]

Regarding the ancient Greeks’ doctrine of the Forms:  They considered Forms to be “eternal, unchanging archetypes of true Reality.”

‘… Truth, explained Socrates, can only be attained through the inspiration of love. And all lovers desire both beauty as well as immortality. In the Phaedrus, love sent from above is described as “the greatest benefit that heaven can confer on us.” Why? Because it shows us that the soul is immortal and indestructible.’ [Page 217.]

We cannot comprehend death.  The only way to contend with it is through religion, mysticism and mythology.  However:

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