Today I spent an hour and a half in the hospital with a friend who has been given less than a month to live.
Mostly I listened to her talk. She told me amazing stories about deep disappointments she had with her doctors, her ex-husband, her daughters, even her parents. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she described the deep hurts she had experienced.
Today I also started listening to “Archetypal Experiences Surrounding Death,” a talk given many years ago by Marie-Louise von Franz, one of Jung’s closest associates. She told this story. (I’m paraphrasing) “In a BBC interview Jung was asked a question about death, and he said that the unconscious psyche seems simply to ignore it. And that dreams behave as if life would go on as before…”
In other words, with some exceptions, even to the end, our dreams are trying to cause us to grow and progress.
Now I didn’t want my friend to die, and I was trying to get her to practice a certain spiritual tool that I hoped might prolong her life.
Was I wrong to even try? Who am I to mess with the natural order of her death?
What do you think?
There is a school of thought that death is a non-event and is only perceived as such by us in this three dimensional world of form. Likewise, space and time, are also constructs of our ego and conscious mind. This school of thought continues that our greater self is 100% responsible for all our experiences in life and that, further, create them for our benefit. We need to realize this if we are to progress in life. Had your friend realized this, truly realized this, she would have seen that she created all her experiences for her own benefit and growth, and pure joy and vitality would have welled forth from her life. Not to worry, however, because she, like all of us, is on the path to that realization.
Beautifully said, Gary… thanks…