Is Death Necessary?

Is Death Necessary?

The title of a 1970‘s pamphlet by Harvey Jackins, developer of Re-evaluation Counseling, sported this title. Mr. Jackins, a union organizer in the ’50’s had an experience with a co-worker who had a “nervous breakdown.” Harvey sat with his friend and witnessed him just shaking and crying and, finally,  yawning as Harvey repeatedly asked his friend, “What’s wrong?” The friend never did  answer the question, he just kept emoting. The last time Harvey asked him - three days into the friend’s bizarre behavior - the friend said, “Nothing. Gotta go to work!” and he did just that. He was completely healed from the crisis - whatever it was! What caught Harvey’s attention was the spontaneous nature of the friend's responses. Nothing was manufactured or strained. The man simply allowed his body to do what it was doing without interruption, interpretation, analysis or question.

After years of teaching people how to heal using the gift of spontaneous discharge of emotions, Mr. Jackins deduced that perhaps, if we humans continue to discharge, death itself can be held back. Perhaps the body does not have to break down and age, if we stay current with our feelings. Alas, Harvey Jackins died in 1999.

Is death necessary? Despite experiencing personally that trauma resolution and discharge of bound emotions and survival energies can, indeed, reduce pain, reverse debilitating symptoms of mental illness and disease processes, I propose that, in fact, death is essential to life.

Is not Death what the seed experiences when we bury it in the earth?

The wriggling flagellate must certainly experience a kind of death when it loses its head in the enveloping ovum. 

Life is born of death. No death; no life.

Parts of us die away so that other parts may thrive. Our very cells are in constant flux - dying away and renewing themselves.

What must die in order for life to continue on planet Earth? What habits which are so dear to the “civilized world” are killing us?

I wonder if we can let our imaginations carry us back to the garden... where simplicity reigns. The view of modern conveniences from that vantage point must certainly seem other-wordly and bizarre. Then the question must be asked: “Is this convenience life-sustaining or life-draining?”

Take my cell phone (please!). Are the copper, silver, gold and other precious metals used in its manufacture worth the energy it takes to mine them and the wars and greed attendant to their harvest? Are the Wireless Frequencies passing through our brains and bodies from our ubiquitous communication devices truly safe? Or are they responsible for the near epidemic proportions of auto-immune disorders, Autism and ADHD? 

It makes me sad to think that the whales can’t vote, yet their lives are deeply affected by our choices which seem to put them in danger. Sonar waves emitted by our Naval Vessels, effluence from the land flowing into the sea, and shipping lines which cut across their migratory pathways compromise their safety daily.

In her book, “Who Speaks for Wolf?” Paula Underwood gives us a teaching from her Oneida oral tradition. The story asks us to consider all the creatures when we’re making decisions that may affect them. 

Is death necessary?

I believe it is and that we may need to allow some of our destructive habits to die away so that a new world may be born. A world that supports life in all its varied and marvelous manifestations is the kind of world in which I want to live. How about you?