Thread: Well, he died doing what he liked to do.

There IS most definitely a good death, at lease in my opinion. My grandmother had been fighting brain cancer for about a year. For the last 6 months of her life, she was mostly confined to her bed. Could not walk in the least. I was over there every day and played piano for her. In the last two weeks of her life, she could not hold a coherent conversation with anyone. She was taking massive amounts of morphine to dull the pain of the cancer taking over. She died and the look of peace flooded her face. I would consider that a good death if you ask me.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

....As far as the dying alone part of your post, I think you getting a bit technical.
It's that "last" image or exchange that I consciously experience that I care about; I could give a damn about what happens when my eyes close.

Perhaps more philosophical, because I cannot experience what someone else goes through with their last four minutes. The individual may not interact with their environment but it does not mean that they are not aware for the time they have left.

The French, during the age of the guillotine, did experiment with the heads of those recently departed from their bodies. There is a legitimate question as to consciousness when the heart stops delivering blood and how long the brain activity continues.

The "horror" of the possibility that they are not unconscious and feeling pain is more than the average conscious person wants to accommodate, much like the discussion we are having about what the living say of the dead to ease their feelings about death.

I wouldn't ask such a question about good or bad death if I wasn't equally experienced. I am not a fit judge of either state and since people don't return from death there is hardly any proof to be offered. Perhaps my concern is more about how to ready any human being for their own death when the time comes. Then it may be possible to be satisfied with the life one has lived rather than concerned about the manner of death or what comes after.

In the end, we confront that fear alone, no one can go through that for us.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Oh, yes there is. I've seen enough death to know there is.
As far as the dying alone part of your post, I think you getting a bit technical.
It's that "last" image or exchange that I consciously experience that I care about; I could give a damn about what happens when my eyes close.

Once your heart stops your B.P drops to zero and you loose conscientiousness. Since no one has truly died and come back to talk about it just think about this possibility, time has no meaning and you experience a dream like state that to you lasts for eternity even though in real time it's only a second or two.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Once your heart stops your B.P drops to zero and you loose conscientiousness. Since no one has truly died and come back to talk about it just think about this possibility, time has no meaning and you experience a dream like state that to you lasts for eternity even though in real time it's only a second or two.

O.K.,,, I don't think I understand your point with quoting me, but I believe you, I think ?

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Perhaps more philosophical, because I cannot experience what someone else goes through with their last four minutes. The individual may not interact with their environment but it does not mean that they are not aware for the time they have left.

The French, during the age of the guillotine, did experiment with the heads of those recently departed from their bodies. There is a legitimate question as to consciousness when the heart stops delivering blood and how long the brain activity continues.

The "horror" of the possibility that they are not unconscious and feeling pain is more than the average conscious person wants to accommodate, much like the discussion we are having about what the living say of the dead to ease their feelings about death.

I wouldn't ask such a question about good or bad death if I wasn't equally experienced. I am not a fit judge of either state and since people don't return from death there is hardly any proof to be offered. Perhaps my concern is more about how to ready any human being for their own death when the time comes. Then it may be possible to be satisfied with the life one has lived rather than concerned about the manner of death or what comes after.

In the end, we confront that fear alone, no one can go through that for us.

This post I understand, and I'm with you,but I think this is not what the OP was about.

From the first paragraph of the OP, I see BigSpendur putting forth a question from the view of the risk taker.
In the second paragragh, he (BigSpendur) switches to the point of view of the survivors/family.

Could it be we have two , very different questions being asked & debated here?

Originally Posted by Mike Blue

Perhaps more philosophical, because I cannot experience what someone else goes through with their last four minutes. The individual may not interact with their environment but it does not mean that they are not aware for the time they have left.

The French, during the age of the guillotine, did experiment with the heads of those recently departed from their bodies. There is a legitimate question as to consciousness when the heart stops delivering blood and how long the brain activity continues.

The "horror" of the possibility that they are not unconscious and feeling pain is more than the average conscious person wants to accommodate, much like the discussion we are having about what the living say of the dead to ease their feelings about death.

I wouldn't ask such a question about good or bad death if I wasn't equally experienced. I am not a fit judge of either state and since people don't return from death there is hardly any proof to be offered. Perhaps my concern is more about how to ready any human being for their own death when the time comes. Then it may be possible to be satisfied with the life one has lived rather than concerned about the manner of death or what comes after.

In the end, we confront that fear alone, no one can go through that for us.

Actually the french investigated because severed heads were chewing holes in the catch basket,This was before there was any understanding of electrical involuntary muscle contractions.

I think you have to look at it like this:

By a Bier-Side

Man is a sacred city, built of marvellous earth.
Life was lived nobly here to give this body birth.
Something was in this brain, and in his eager hand.
Death is so dumb and blind, Death cannot understand.
Death drifts the bran with dust and soils the young limbs' glory.
Death makes women and dream and men a traveller's story,
Death drives the lovely soul to wander under the sky,
Death opens unknown doors. It is most grand to die.

John Mansfield

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Actually the french investigated because severed heads were chewing holes in the catch basket,This was before there was any understanding of electrical involuntary muscle contractions.

Now that's hardcore .

COOL TOMBS

When Abraham Lincoln was shoveled into the tombs, he forgot the copperheads and the assassin . . . in the dust, in the cool tombs.

And Ulysses Grant lost all thought of con men and Wall Street, cash and collateral turned ashes . . . in the dust, in the cool tombs.

Pocahontas' body, lovely as poplar, sweet as a red haw in November or a pawpaw in May, did she wonder? does she remember? . . . in the dust, in the cool tombs?

Take any streetful of people buying clothes and groceries, cheering a hero or throwing confetti and blowing tin horns . . . tell me if the lovers are losers . . . tell me if any get more than the lovers . . .
in the dust . . . in the cool tombs.

Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)