Psychology & The Cross

 Um, you, you have written at one time and another, Sentences which have surprised me a little about death.

Now in particular, I remember you've said that death is psychologically just as important as birth. And like it, it's an integral part of life, but surely it can't be like birth if it's an end, can it? Yes, if it's an end. And there we are not quite certain, uh, about this end. Because, you know, there are these, uh, peculiar faculties of the psyche.

that it isn't entirely confined to, to space and time. You can have dreams or visions of the future. You can see round corners and such things. Only ignorance deny these, these facts. These are, it's quite evident that they do exist and have existed always. Now these facts be, show that the psyche, in part at least, is not dependent upon these confinements.

And then what? When the psyche is not under that obligation to live in time and space alone. And obviously it doesn't. Then, in, uh, to that extent, the psyche is not subject to those laws. And, uh, that means, uh, a practical, uh, uh, Um, uh, continuation of life, of a sort of psychical existence, uh, beyond time and space.

Do you yourself believe that death is probably the end, or do you, do you believe that Well, I, I can't say You see, the word belief is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason, uh, for, for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and when I know it, I don't need to believe it. If I I don't allow myself, for instance, to believe a thing just for the sake of believing it.

Uh, I, I can't believe it. But when there are sufficient reasons to, for a certain hypothesis, I shall accept these reasons, naturally. I shall say, we have to reckon with the possibility of, uh, so and so. No. Well, now you've told us that we should regard death as being a goal. Yes. And that to shrink away from it is to evade life and life purposes.

Yes. What advice would you give to people in their later life to enable them to do this when most of them must, in fact, believe that death is the end of everything. Well, you see, I have treated many old people, and it's quite interesting to, to watch what the unconscious is doing with the fact that it is apparently threatened with a complete end.

Uh, it disregards it. It, life behaves as if it were going on. And, uh, so I think it is better for old people to live on, to, to look forward to the next day. Uh, as if, uh, he had to spend centuries, and then he lives properly. But when he is afraid, when he doesn't look forward, he looks back, he petrifies, he, he, he gets, uh, stiff and, and, uh, he dies before his time.

But when he is living on, looking forward to the great adventure. that is ahead, then he lives. And that is about what the unconscious is intending to do. Of course, it's quite obvious that we are all going to die, and this is the sad finale of everything. But nevertheless, there is something in us that doesn't believe it, apparently.

But this is merely a fact, a psychological fact. It doesn't mean to me that it proves something. It is simply so. For instance, I may not know why we need salt, but we prefer to eat salt too, because you feel better. And so when you think in a certain way, you may feel considerably better. If you think along the lines of nature.