Last night I helped a mouse die. (It was a feeder mouse that had been boarding with three other mice for six weeks since the snake has not wanted to eat.)
I saw it with its head over the edge of the shelf in the cage, eyes not seeing, with agonal respirations. Agonal breathing is the gasping breaths of the dying process. There is a characteristic head bob at the end of the inspiratory phase with each breath. I have seen intubated Trauma patients do this in the OR. It is not good.
I called my son to take a look at it and learn. He had no interest. The other mice were running on the wheel, oblivious to the plight of the one that was near death. I did not want for it to die alone. And I wanted to let it die in peace.
It took a header off the shelf and scurried to the corner of the cage farthest from the wheel. Since I had to clean the cage any way, I opened the lid in a larger container, scooted out the healthy ones, and gently placed the dying one in an old strawberry carton filled with lots of soft toilet paper.
As I worked on the cage, I would jiggle the box a bit, to see if it was dead. There were reflexes, startle ones. And in about twenty minutes, it was gone. I still am not sure if it was a girl or a boy. But I wrapped it in leaves and flowers, and buried it in the garden under a stepping stone.
I have seen death countless times. The way I see it, the one thing you can count on, is the fact that if you were born, you will die. I have lived my life trying to be ready every day, just in case, not going to bed without peace after an argument, etc. etc.
How about you? Are you afraid of death? What I want is for you to understand what happens in death, enough for you to be knowledgeable about it with your loved ones.
Death is a process in which your vital organs progressively shut down, and cease to function. In the OR, a progressive acidosis (a lowering of pH of the blood and tissues) is a grave sign. What happens is that all of the enzymes that catalyze biological function only work within a narrow range of acid-base balance in the body. The more severe the acidosis, the less compatible that pH is with life.
The myocardium gets irritable and gets extra beats. As the heart dies, the QRS complexes widen on the EKG. The rate slows, and it too becomes agonal. Then there is a time of ventricular fibrillation (the heart is like a bag of worms), and then it goes electrically silent.
What I know, that other people in the hospital don't, is that the chakras slow to a stop, and then they disappear. That is right, there are no chakras in a corpse. The column of Light through the top of the head connecting to Source is gone. So is the body heat.
It feels like a jumping out when a patient passes in my presence. Next thing I know, they are outside, looking healthy, and excited to be talking to me. They are kind of translucent, but want my attention! And are right next to the corpse. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred they are very pleased with themselves for having made it through the dying process intact. All communication is telepathic, but I see them like I did in life.
It is said that during the dying process, the soul goes back and forth between both worlds. My father started having dreams about his parents the days leading up to his death. They were peaceful dreams, and he was happy to finally be having some psychic experiences himself. But mother knew that those dreams were portents of death. I felt him going back and forth between his body and The Other Side, and could talk to him in both places telepathically. It wasn't until mother said he could let go that he left.
(I saw the whole thing, and Heaven's Gate, and I wrote a blog about it some time ago.)
The departed stick around for a few days, usually for the funeral. And then they go on to Other Work. Everyone has a job to do in Heaven! It is not lying around on a bunch of clouds. The work is actually harder there, because there are no nights and weekends off. Only two week's vacation a year. My grandfather usually comes to visit with us, and stay around. His job keeps him all over the globe, in a diplomatic function.
Some people say that we go where they are when we sleep. That our astral bodies travel.
I like to think of it like the White Swan and the Black Swan in the Ballet, Swan Lake. Humans by day, and swans by night. Which is the true reality?
The Toltecs say our waking awareness is The Ilusion. And that our True Selves are something far different from this.
If someone you know is dying, take the time to be at their side. No one should have to die alone. No one should have to suffer shortness of breath at the end (morphine or dilaudid is given to control that).
It is the highest gift that one can give in a relationship.
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
