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Thoughts on death and dying

5/7/2013

2 Comments

 
Some years ago, I was privileged to survive a near death experience; my body ran out of oxygen, due to a pulmonary embolism (PE).  On the way out, I saw from afar, myself going down a sheep drafting race, with a pen for the dying on the right and for the living on the left.  It was my call as to which way the gate would swing.  As I got closer, I could see my family and friends either fussing around my body and in other parts of the driveway, waiting for an ambulance.  The sight of my young family, who presumably would grieve my passing, brought me to the hard decision to go left; turning right was so invitingly simple and calming.  From that moment on, everything transformed into a fierce, internal concentration on living.

Subsequently I lost all dread of dying and even now still know the peace associated with slipping into the dying pen.  My fear is not of dying, but of dying prematurely, in particular of dying from a debilitating or agonising non-communicable disease.  The sense of a wasted life, or part of it, would be devastating, compared to the contentment of knowing that I was to die of old age.

Living into old age is only a worry if one’s activity or cognitive levels are severely reduced, otherwise the pleasures of seeing grandchildren married and great grandchildren growing up before finally slipping gently through the right hand gate, are well worth pursuing.

All it takes is to become physiologically comfortable by eating the right foods, allowing those foods to naturally enhance the best of body and brain activity and to avoid doctor’s prescriptions for cures of almost all non-communicable diseases.

I feel I am well on the way to this nirvana but remain aware that my previous food habits may disappointingly catch up on me, or that my new found energy may result in an energy related accident; what a pity.

2 Comments
Richard Egan
5/7/2013 07:53:15 pm

Thanks James for death reflections. One of my missions is to get more people to consider death well before it happens. I get your mission re food. Feels like it's become your way - how life is now meaningful - broadly your spiritual focus. What is the relationship between spriituality and healthy eating...?

p.s. not sure about this way of doing emails?

Reply
James Wilson link
7/7/2013 04:45:27 am

Richard, an interesting question. I am not certain what the definition of spirituality is to me, but your question has prompted me to think about it.
I think eating plant based whole foods has led me to have a greater respect for life. That is, first, for my own life, which I now feel obliged to fill to the brim and extend as long as possible, without recourse to outside intervention other than healthy food. Second for the lives of my loved ones so they too can feel the vitality that comes from avoiding all animal sourced food, thirdly for the life of all sentient animals and finally for the life of Gaia, the planet we inhabit.
The first is self-explanatory, except that until one has experienced a vegan lifestyle, it is impossible to know the added vigour and health that emanates from it.
Obviously I want my loved ones to experience this sense of well-being and to avoid the health problems brought about by eating animals.
The third respect for the lives of all sentient animals has surprised me. As a farmer I practiced all the aspects of speciesism, where for purely abstract reasons we delineate between which animals we should treat, beat or eat. The hypocrisy of these delineations is absurd and sadly is also applied within the human race, where we choose who we should treat or beat. In truth our digestive system cannot identify the origin of any different animal, so physiologically we gain the same apparent benefits and the same life shortening diseases from eating rats, fish, cats, birds, sheep, humans, horses or elephants.
As for the health of the planet, our passion for meat is a madness that is causing huge damage. Farmed livestock, 70 billion of them, now inhabit 30% of the planet’s land surface, 78% of the world’s farmland, consume and polute over 50% of available potable water,eat over 60% of the world’s grain production and emit, in particular grass fed animals, more than 50% of the world’s man induced global warming gasses.
So if spirituality is associated with an expanded love of life in all its forms, then healthy eating is certainly related to spirituality.

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    Having joined the fast growing group of people who recognise the value of living on plant based whole food, I now want to share my experiences and views with as many others as possible.

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