Notes #5

Life, Death and Afterlife Concept Differences of Hindus and Christians by Bryce

Between both ages and religious groups, there exist a varied understanding and conception about death and afterlife. It turns out that Hindus’ beliefs are less diverse compared to Christians. Furthermore, adult Hindus have also less varied beliefs compared to Hindu children. On the other hand, adult Christians have more differing beliefs compared to Christian children as a result of their dissimilar ways of understanding spiritual questions like “What is resurrection? Is it a resurrection of the physical body or of the soul?” (Bryce, 2007).

Bryce(2007) realized that the afterlife concepts of children under 6-8 years old and even 10-12 years old are still under improvement. And this confusion of children and even of adults about afterlife seems to be particularly evident among Christians, thus, religious programs/groups should focus on defining clearly the religion’s beliefs on life, death and afterlife, and allow children to question and discuss their divergent beliefs to make it clear for them and to minimize, if can’t be removed, confusions.

As projected, precise responses about human life, death and afterlife are given by all people from all age groups, but confusion comes in when it is about other entities such as animals or plants. Logical responses about human life and death are important for death education since it usually focuses on humans’ death but it can’t help much anymore when it comes to other entities. There was no agreed or accepted truth either from Hindus and Christians that could foretell the destiny of an animal after its death which can disappoint and disturb children having pets. Plants may cause confusion about what could be its fate after it dies, but its death is insignificant to people, especially children since almost everyone don’t get sad or bothered when it comes to death of plants, unlike to animals(Bryce, 2007).

I n general, there exist logical differences in life, death and afterlife perceptions between both Hindus and Christians, and both adults and children, and these religious and developmental differences are essential to effectively relate or sympathize to all people when it comes to much avoided topic of death(Bryce, 2007).

Reference:

Bryce, S. N. (2007). Hindu and Christian Children’s Concepts of Life, Death, and Afterwards. (Honors Thesis). Retrieved from http://discoverarchive.vanderbilt.edu/jspui/bitstream/1803/826/1/Honors%20Thesis%20Suzi%20Bryce.pdf

Link from insidiousdeath:

http://insidiousdeath.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/notes-5/

Notes #4

Death Understanding and Fear of Death in Young Children

Children’s first recognition of death is at the period when they learn about the basic biological concepts of life and death – the preschool period. At this period, though the concept is still immature, children usually think death as something that occurs only to some/other people such as the ailing and/or aging people and therefore can be avoided by having a healthy lifestyle and avoiding accidents. For children, death is a normal interruption to the living state, as if one is still alive even though death had already caught you, thinking that the dead can still do and need the things the living does. Furthermore, they are not even aware of the real possible causes of death other than internal factors such as illness or external factors such as accidents (Slaughter & Griffiths, 2007).

Source:

Slaughter, V. & Griffiths, M. (2007). Death Understanding and Fear of Death in Young

Children. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12. Doi: 10.1177/1359104507080980

Entry of: Lemuel John Beduya

Link from insidiousdeath: http://insidiousdeath.wordpress.com/2011/07/27/notes-6/

Notes #3

Investigating the Concept of Death in Adults Who are Mentally Handicapped

There are only few information about what could be the adults’ perspective of death and even fewer was known on mentally handicapped adults due to the belief that an individual’s concept of death became clear and firm at early adolescence and remains constant all throughout. Though it appears from recent researches that mentally handicapped adults may be a good springboard of research on concept of death for they have rich and differing views about death resulted from their varied dreams about their deceased loved ones and being hesitant to talk about them thinking that it would bother them from their peaceful rest, little research has been done due to lack of interest. The notion that talking about mental handicap and death as forbidden, if not offensive, topics is probably the cause of such lack of interest to conduct research on these topics. Furthermore, biased pre-judgments about the views of death from mentally handicapped such as that they may not be reliable also hinders any research about them. Therefore, collecting data about these adults’ attitudes, understanding and expectations on dying people – death, will help us to enhance our knowledge and conception about mentally handicapped adults(McEvoy, 1989).

Even with less enthusiasm from the majority, McEvoy(1989) found out that mentally handicapped adults, despite the fact that they have a logical understanding of the effect of death, there still exist a large population of them that have a little understanding on aging and on cycle of life which includes death as end result of these processes, especially if they are to be related to themselves.

Source:

McEvoy, J. (1989). Investigating the Concept of Death in Adults Who are Mentally Handicapped. The British Journal of Subnormality, 15, 115-121. Retrieved from http://contents.bjdd.net/oldPDFs/69_115to121.pdf

Link from insidiousdeath(common blog): http://insidiousdeath.wordpress.com/2011/07/24/notes-4/

Notes #2

Why Is It Hard to Die?

In her book, Ross(1975) cited that according to Hans O. Mauksch , Ph. D., one of the reasons why it is hard to die is the health institutions’ perspective of dying people. In our modern and complex society, we set up expectations and roles that should be done by the health institutions such as the hospitals and its workers: the doctors and nurses. And those roles were to heal or to cure sickness and to aid in recovery process. And these expectations what made the health institutions shift from being devoted to help those poor and dying people to an institution that focuses only to meet the expectations of the society. Thus, even with the advancement of the science and technology of medicine, health institutions perceive the dying people as failures of their roles without even considering that those people served also as a reminder of the limits of the science and technology of medicine. And the very prevalent example of this is the whisking away as quickly as possible of the bodies of the dead persons even minutes have only passed after their death, as if their deaths were a haunting reminder to them that they failed. With that connotation, it’s hard for people to die for they don’t want to symbolize failure that needs to be get rid of or hidden away, they want to be cared and cherished even in death(pp. 5-8).

Source:

Ross, E. K. (1975). Death: The Final Stage of Growth. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice – Hall Inc.

Link from insidiousdeath(common blog): http://insidiousdeath.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/notes-3/

Notes #1

Death in Disney Films: Implications for Children’s Understanding of Death

Portrayals of death by media, such as Disney movies may affect children’s concept of death. These death scenes may be good or bad for the children. Good, since those portrayals may help children understand death in a less fearful and harsh way. These movie scenes may help the children to learn on how to cope up and understand the situation when someone dear to them dies. Furthermore, since most of the parents or adults avoid talking about the grim reality of death with the children, these movies therefore will serve as a starting point for both parents and children to discuss freely the most avoided topic of death as depicted in the Disney movies by relating them to the reality, removing the unrealistic parts, and clarifying the parts which are exaggerated or perplexing. On the other hand, it may bad because it may affect the children’s concept of morality since most of the Disney movies depict the death of the bad guys – the antagonists, giving the children the perception that bad people really deserve to die. These movies also may distort the children’s concept of death when they depict unclear and exaggerated way of death or in relaying vague messages pertaining to death. And it is during these times that parents should freely discuss with their children to what is really happening or the reality in a way that is understandable to the children (Cox, Garett, & Graham, 2005).

Therefore, we can assume that death for children may be as simple as sleeping but when the media comes in, they change or distort it by persistently depicting in the movie scenes that bad people will die and deserve to die, and the good people may come back alive or there will be always someone who will bring them back in the world of living. And as result, the children may bring this perception until adulthood and may become their foundation on the concept of death.

Source:

Cox, M., Garrett, E., & Graham, J. A. (2005). Death in Disney Films: implications for Children’s Understanding of Death. (Unpublished thesis, College of New Jersey, Ewing). Retrieved from http://jgraham.faculty.tcnj.edu/scan/0009.pdf

Link from the insidiousdeath(common blog): http://insidiousdeath.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/notes-1/

(Common) Blog for Research

Check out our blog for the research paper together with Tatiana Georgia Misa: http://insidiousdeath.wordpress.com/

Paraphrasing Exercise

Another exercise, specifically paraphrasing exercise given to us by our Comm2 instructor to prepare us for our ever so near research paper.

Original Text:

1. Time is also described in Chassidism as the flux of ratzo v'shov -- a continual positive/negative oscillation of creative energy that drives all phenomena of the cosmos. Just as hearts beat, lungs inhale and exhale, energy pulsates in waves, particles vacillate between negative and positive states, so too the very substance of the cosmos continually oscillates between a state of being and not-being. This oscillation, as well, "precedes" Time as we know it. The essential continuum of Time in our world is the eventual manifestation of this higher form

Paraphrased Version:

Time is also described as the continuous movement or cycle of the opposites such as the yin and yang or the charges’ positive and negative, as proposed in Chassidism’s “ratvo v’shov”. And this very concept of movement between the opposites is the foundation of all the phenomena in the universe. This specific movement also precedes the concept of time as what most people know, thus, it can be inferred that time’s continuity depends on this movement’s manifestations (Freeman, 2011).

Original Text:

2. Why does creation necessitate ratzo v'shov? The standard explanation in Chassidism goes as follows: For anything to exist, two opposite processes are necessary. On the one hand, the object must be sustained by the will of its Creator. On the other, it must feel itself as a detached and distinct entity of its own. Ratzo v'shov is the artifact of this dynamic of conflict. In this way, it is the glue, or intermediary, between the creative force and the created being. In the words of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (the "Tzemach Tzedek", 1789-1866), Time is the intermediary between the cosmic soul and space. Time is the process of being, as opposed to the content of being.

Paraphrased Version:

The concept of creation needs the Chassidism’s ratzo v’shov since the latter’s concept of continuous movement of opposing energies or forces supplements the creation’s. With ratzo v’shov’s concept, a notion was formed that creation involves the dependence and independence of the ‘Creator’, dependence and independence being the divergent forces. Furthermore, ratzo v’shov, aside from being a supplementary concept for creation, is also thought as the mediator of the ‘Creator’ and of the ‘Created’ such as the human beings. Other than that, time is also the mediator of the “cosmic soul and space”, the development of the creations and not the creations themselves as suggested by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch (Freeman, 2011).

Source:

Freeman, T. (2011). What is Time. Retrieved from http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/74335/jewish/What-is-Time.htm

Precis Exercise

In preparation for making research paper we’ve been through some exercises such as plagiarism exercises and proper citation/bibliography exercises using APA style. Now, to further our preparation, we have to exercise/train ourselves to make accurate précis, a skill which can be very useful when adopting ideas from various people in the Review of the Related Literature section of our research. And here it is now:

1. It's worth emphasizing that although we say this form of Time preceded creation of the physical world, its precedent is not in terms of physical time that has any form of measurement -- just as we have no form of measurement of any of the higher worlds or the phenomena within them. Furthermore, this form of Time is also a creation, just as all else within the higher cosmos. It precedes the creation of the physical world, but is not primal in an absolute sense. That is to say, the very concept of precedent and antecedent is a creation.

Précis:

According to Freeman(2011), it must be pointed out that this specific form of time is also a creation just like any other phenomenon of higher form which is immeasurable albeit it preceded the creation of the physical world. Furthermore, the very concept of precedent and antecedent is a creation itself.

2. Time is also described in Chassidism as the flux of ratzo v'shov -- a continual positive/negative oscillation of creative energy that drives all phenomena of the cosmos. Just as hearts beat, lungs inhale and exhale, energy pulsates in waves, particles vacillate between negative and positive states, so too the very substance of the cosmos continually oscillates between a state of being and not-being. This oscillation, as well, "precedes" Time as we know it. The essential continuum of Time in our world is the eventual manifestation of this higher form.

Précis:

Freeman(2011) says that time is also described in Chassidism as “the flux of ratzo v’shov” which means the continuous movement of the opposing energies that sets all the phenomena in the universe into motion. Moreover, the very movement itself precedes time, thus, time’s continuity depends on its eventual manifestations.

Source:

Freeman, T. (2011). What is Time. Retrieved from http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/74335/jewish/What-is-Time.htm