Posted on 10/14/2026 12:52:25 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
There have been people who didn't. Enoch was Noah's grandfather, God found him too pleasing, so He just took him up, without his dying. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, without dying.
So it is not absolutely 100.00% certain that you're going to die. The angel Gabriel told Mary, mother of Jesus, about the pregnancy of John the Baptist by Mary's elderly cousin Elisabeth, wife of Zachariah, saying that no word is impossible to God, in other words, that nothing is impossible to God.
Now rather than get right back to harsh reality from such foolish talk, let's work up through a kind of oddsmaking excercise, asking if your parents died, and so, how likely is it that you will too? Maybe one or both are still alive. Then, go up a generation, to your four grandparents, or to your eight great-grandparents. Certainly by your sixteen great-great-grandparents, they virtually all died. And that's a kind of genetic inheritence, that makes it rather quite likely that you will too.
What's the point of all this ridiculousness? It's to diffuse the morbid fear of death. I'll tell a story in the first comment about an acquaintance of mine who actually has a serious, morbid fear of death. What it involves is that certain subjects, like funerals, morgues and even hospitals, cause paralyzing fear in certain people.
But that is a direct result of simple unfamiliarity. People who are approaching their life end, have a lot of time as they slow down, then start getting sick, to think about death a lot. So it becomes less and less frightful.
What's all this getting at? It's by way of diffusing the fact, that because of our war, and the fact that we're undergoing a fall quite parallel to what Britain experienced after World War II, it is a virtual certainty that there will be food shortages.
It's all in the Wall Street Journal.
That evokes INSTANT TERROR, equivalent to all these ideas of fear of death that I've been feinting toward, faking at.
The similarity with gradually accepting that death is going to come, is that, with a little time to think it out, the paralysis of terror of no food, can be overcome.
Then you can plan.
And, actually, AVOID the worst happening to you.
Because you have a lot of freedom of action, if you will just THINK!
There is still food in the stores, even if it's getting quite expensive. Those with big belts, will have to tighen up to buy it; those with lean belts may have to default on loans, or worse. But nothing's more important than eating, than drinking water and breathing. So eating is basically, Mandatory.
So if the fear is starting to recede now, then, things get much brighter, if only gradually.
What if...
What if we could actually PLAN for severe food shortages, including empty store shelves. What would be our rational course of action.
We wouldn't have to go to extremes like Burt Gummer in Tremors (A**blasters), stocking up fantatically on Meals Ready to Eat that last 20 years, as though there would be 20 years if we got into a civil war.
More scary talk. Just kidding.
What would you do if you could actually, think about what you'd do, without having to run off to the bathroom right away as soon as the thought "Meal Plan" crossed your mind.
What would it consist of? You'd chart out an expected lenght of time when there wouldn't be any diesel to deliver the food to stores. So, how long would you guess. (Please comment, how long?)
For me, I'm guessing 90 days, but for a margin of safety, I'm going for 105 days of severe food shortages.
"The Sky is Falling!", said Chicken Little.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself," said President Roosevelt, when radio allowed his voice to enter nearly every home, and you could be encouraged by his confident tone.
But, BUT ... how would you actually DO a food plan?
Ready dot gov has a reasonable model, for those still so terrified of the thought that they just can't think.
https://www.ready.gov/food
For those who have gulped down the bullet and decided to calm down, take off the training wheels and think a bit, in essence a food plan consists in stocking up on staples that, while they might be disgusting after a while, will keep you alive. That's a remote stretch, unless you've been through a natural disaster and have some experience with what works and what Definitely doesn't.
A "nearer" approach, one with the virtue of familiarity, is starting out with making a list of what you already eat, bridging over to the staples and the available supplies, then going between (interpolating) to structure your food plan on familiar food that has to be stretched or bridged over to disaster food supplies.
So, I got potato flakes and giant cans of dried onions at a Latter Day Saints (LDS) Bishop's Storehouse. (Just use those terms.) They have dried carrots, giant cans of dried beans that aren't fundamentally different than bulk beans from the self-serve bins especially at markets that serve Latinos.
If you will just face up to facts, you might be very glad that you didn't let FRIGHT cause you the considerable, beyond embarrassment, the desperation of running out, for yourself, and, far worse, of seeing your family go hungry and possibly get quite sick, or worse.
Buck Up, Bucko.
I'll call her Selina. She'd had a bum deal from Dad, and I have a daddyish appearance and manner. She's not the first young woman who adopted me as her teddy daddy.
We would meet with mild affection and hug lightly every time we saw each other. I would pay her special attention at light intensity.
When my wife died, like the idea that "you'll be amazed at who they let into heaven" (if you get there) "and who they keep out" that you'd certainly expect to see there;
...I was surprised at the people who showed up at the funeral, who I never thought of seeing.
And surprised at the people who I certainly expected to see there, who were missing.
Selina was quite friendly and affectionate with my late wife.
Then the next time I saw her, I mentioned my surprise.
You'd have thought I dragged her pet kitty behind my car.
I got icy dagger stares.
But it never stopped.
I always get the dagger eyes from her.
So I stopped going toward her when I would see her, subtly moving away.
Dread fear of death.
I've just been through it. Five years ago my wife of 40 years died, the worst thing that ever happened to me.
Then, two weeks ago, my second wife got toxic shock (sepsis) without any symptoms except having a temperature 10 degrees low, 86.
I have had to try to cope with fear of death.
Last Friday I was at a cemetery alone.
All of a sudden I got frightened to the point of panic.
It worked out that it was morbid fear, not of myself dying, but of my second wife.
Now, I just heard a woman describing how she was delegated to arrange for the funeral of a man who had, some money, but no family and few friends.
She started out sad, but not morbid, then gradually as good things were said about him and done for him, she started speaking about it with positive joy.
It was just what I needed, to get my back out of the maw of death.
It's a kind of acute depression.
Whatever helps with serious depression, should help with morbid fear of death.
Most people are afraid of death because, almost by definition it is something you only do once. And you’re always afraid of the unknown. My mother had a near death experience when I was very young. After that she had no fear of death whatsoever. She passed peacefully many years later. To her death was no longer an unknown, so it held no fear for her. This is a common outcome for many who have had NDE’s. The conflict in death is between the body and the soul. The body is designed, built and hardwired for survival. When near death I believe what many people experience as fear or dread is the body fighting to stay alive, as opposed to any genuine fear about death itself.
CC
May our families fondly laugh throughout the “celebration of life” memories …….
Itvis inevitable that you will die. You should striving to have your children better off than you.
There are those who are seeking to engineer a technological path to eternal life... they may succeed, somewhat...
see my tagline
I prefer to use the Lazurus Long outlook:
I have no plans on dying.
What life/G-d has planned for me, well, I cannot say.
So it is not absolutely 100.00% certain that you’re going to die.
Ya ain’t Enoch or Elijah. So, yeah, its 100% da body gonna die.
Get over it.
The soul, however, is a very different matter.
Last I checked, the mortality rate is still 100%.
But that is only if you define yourself as your physical body and not the soul that occupies the body.
I’ve had the fortunate, or unfortunate experience (depends upon the perspective from which you view it) to have already died, crossed over into and fully experienced Heaven, and then return to my physical body. The first NDE was in 1988, and it changed my life by putting things in perspective.
Heaven was so beautiful, full of Love and Bliss, that I can’t wait to return. There has not been one day in over 38 years that I have not wanted to die and go home, I miss it so much. God has other plans for me, and keeps sending me back here.
These experiences have given me a new perspective on reality that diminishes my attachment to the earthly reality. I am not this physical body, and never was. I am a soul that moved into this body and created it to act as a projection screen in order to communicate with other souls who are doing the same.
Problem is, I have been straddling the proverbial fence between two realities all this time since 1988. I never fully returned to this physical body. The experience changed me in that I now perceive directly with my soul consciousness beyond my physical body, not just with my physical body senses. It’s not all ribbons and roses as the increased perception causes you to feel and experience all the physical and emotional pain and suffering of everyone around you. Becoming “One with everything” is a very painful experience.
It doesn’t matter what religion you are, your physical body and how it functions is very similar to every other human on earth. Guess what? It doesn’t matter what religion you are, your soul and how it functions is very similar to every other human on earth.
All religions are just theories and philosophies as to how the soul functions and how it interacts with its environment. They are for the most part correct, but incomplete. For good reason. Just as you can’t teach first graders in elementary school advanced calculus, you can’t teach young souls how to do the things that Jesus did and even more as they would harm themselves and others.
In Matthew 13, after Jesus tells the parable of the Tares or Weeds in the Wheat, His disciples did not understand it and asked Him for an explanation. Jesus’s answer explains the purpose of life on earth in these physical bodies.
“37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.”
Seeds of What? Seeds of our Father. We are seeds of consciousness or individual souls, planted here in the darkness of the earth to sprout and grow.
How do we know when these seeds have grown and are ready for harvest? When the seed pod has broken open and the plant has grown beyond the seed pod. That is, when our souls have grown to the point that they Transcend our physical bodies and we perceive directly with our consciousness of our soul. We are ready for harvest when we realize and experience that we are one with the field of all other souls growing on earth, and One with the Divine Soul that planted us here on earth.
Death is not graduation from earth, Transcendence is graduation. All of these experiences on earth, including our physical body death are just learning experiences for our souls to grow.
That’s what I experienced when I died of my physical body and crossed over into Heaven. That is why I desire to die daily and return to Heaven. Not by escaping my physical body, but by dying daily of self so my consciousness is no longer restricted and shackled by my physical body.
I’m a Christian and Jesus is my Savior as He is here now, just not in a physical body where people can see Him as people are still asleep.
The Love of heaven was so strong that it changed my soul. When I returned to my physical body, the souls of others became physical to my perception, even if they died and left their bodies. Yes, people jokingly call me a ghostbuster!
What I perceive directly is physical and tangible. It is exactly what Jesus told us about and why He taught what he did. Once you awaken, you can also understand why Buddha, Krishna, and many other enlightened or awakened individuals taught what they taught. They are all describing the same consciousness realm of the soul.
It’s very difficult to ride a bike or drive a car unless you have a destination or focal point. For people who view themselves as a physical body and death as the end of it all, they will be surprised. They spend their lives running in circles and accumulating earthly attachments, only to realize that they are empty.
“We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” ... As holding onto fear blocks the experience of Divine Love. Just as Divine Love casts out fear, fear blocks us from receiving the Divine Love of the Holy Spirit.
Dying daily causes us to let go of fear. But that is not the goal and if we focus on letting go, it never happens, just as a dry drunk is still attached to their alcohol.
If we focus on our destination beyond physical death, our soul will grow closer to it. Letting go of fear and our earthly attachments is much easier if we focus on our destination. The problem is that most people are walking through life backward, focusing on the past, and end up walking into every difficult experience that lies ahead of them as they are not looking forward.
I pray that these words are helpful.
Agree to disagree. A lot of people fear death who shouldn’t and a lot should fear it a LOT. But there is real fear. I hope there is little or none for you and everyone here, but plenty of people experience real fear.
Agree to disagree. There will be plenty of people alive when judgement arrives. They will not experience the first death. Some will be judged to the Second Death, but many won’t. Those lucky ones will never personally taste death. Now - when is that? Weeks, years, centuries? I’m sure someone around here will give me yet another date certain any day now.
But that day certainly is coming - and it will come like a thief in the night.
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