Nothing+is+as+Dead+as+it+Seems

Dre B. 007 Professor Charles Grimm English 1102 10 March 2017 Literature Review: There is Eternal Life after Death Death is the “elephant in the room” that no one wants to talk about. It brings up repressed memories, causes an awkward silence in conversation, and often takes us back to an all to familiar place. At times, Death is perceived as the end of our lives and that is basically i t-. Since Death is spontaneous and often sits in our unconscious mind, it pushes you to try to live a meaningful life and accomplish all that you can before your untimely end. However, death is not only seen in a gloomy light, but rather celebrated, embraced, and often even encouraged because of the belief of eternal life –ie in heaven, or reincarnation- and that the death of our physical body is the beginning of our spiritual one. Death P oses many questions according to Angel Sumgei –author of Understanding Death -, and how not answering these questions causes a enormous amount of stress. “What is Life?”, “Where do we go from here?”, and “Who lives?” are some of the more common questions we ask ourselves at some point in our lives; however, THE most important question that should be ask that separates society is What is Death and most importantly What does death mean to you? Understanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and the Afterlife in World Religions – written by Angela Sumgei- provides multi-cultural perspectives on death allowing the reader to partially answer the question “What is death” by showing how different religions across the world view death. Whether it is a death of a Hindu man that leads to reincarnation, or the death of a Christian woman leading to an angel in heaven; the common denominator between all religions is that death is only the physical portion of a human being and that a dynamic force within emerges and lives eternally. This perspective of eternal life started a conversation about immortality during the middle ages. Nancy Mandeville- author of Afterlives: Return of the Dead in The Middle Ages- continues with the conversation about eternal life as well as considers what she calls “The Flesh and Bones of Mortality” (Madeville). Nancy draws on the hypothesis that there is another life after death and focus on communicating with the afterlives by means of mediums, oracles, and Spectral possessions. Fast Forward to present times, many of the concepts that emerged during the Middle Ages are not thriving as much, but the idea of an after-life, spectral possessions and communication with the afterlife are still very much practiced. This is evident in works of Author Kate Sweeney – creator of American Afterlife- and Author Candi Cann – creator of Material Worlds- and their take on how we cherish the dynamic force of the deceased and not their present body. For example, Cann states that we now communicate with the deceased by tattooing them on our bodies, putting angel wings on our cars, and speak with them by social media instead of a oracle or medium as was practiced during the Middle Ages. The academic sources I have read allow me to continue the discussion of eternal life and death and how we should not fear it or even dread it. It is obvious that we miss the tangible experiences we had with a deceased one, but it really is the intangible experiences that we miss and yearn for after losing a loved one. I can continue this conversation with my paper by taking it even a step further and discussing how it is the physical body that is dead and not the person themselves. Simply put, a person is never dead because we always keep them alive, whether it is mentioning them at prayer, wearing an article of clothing, or even thinking about them when a familiar song on the radio comes on, the eternal life is always there and never really dies.

__ Works Cited __ Caciola, Nancy. “ Afterlives: The Return of the Dead in the Middle Ages”. Cornell University Press, April 2016 []. Accessed 1 March 2017 Cann, Candi. “ Material Worlds: Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the Twenty-Firt Century” The University Press of Kentucky, May 2014 []. Accessed 1 March 2017 Sumegi, Angela. “ Unerstanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and the Afterlife in World Religions.” Wiley-Blackwell, June 2013 []. Accessed 1 March 2017 Sweeney, Kate. American Afterlife : Encounters in the Customs of Mourning. Athens, US: University of Georgia Press, April 2014. []. Accessed 1 March 2017Nothing is as Dead as it seems