As we grow older death does appear more often in our vision field. Hence a curiosity arose about what is the nature of death and why we fear it. I wrote my first book “Nature of Human Thought” in 2004 and one of the main chapters in it was on death.  It was based on the basic tenet of Indian philosophy and how it pertains to death. Most of the material was therefore heuristic in nature and death was explained in general terms.

Death is a very physical process and is the final exit of the body. Hence, I felt that it should be  governed by physical, physiological and neurobiological laws. This thinking led to the treatment given in this small essay.

All living entities from the smallest to the largest fear death. In fact fear defines an entity as living. Fear is ingrained in our DNA from time immemorial and is a part of the evolutionary process. This fear of death comes from fear of losing form and from fear of unknown. Loss of form means losing lifetime memories and this probably produces both emotional and physical pain.

There are two types of memories in human beings. One is the brain memory which is the sum and substance of all our living experiences and the other is the body memory which resides in cells all over our body and consists of  storage of lifelong experiences of the forces acting on our body. During death both these memories are shed. The shedding of brain memory produces emotional pain whereas body memory shedding produces mostly physical pain.

Brain memories are fairly well understood. However cellular or body memories are not and yet I feel they play a major role in the fear and pain of death.

Cellular memory and cell death

We exist because of cells. Cells are the basic building blocks of all living things and every part of body contains cells. There are about 40 trillion cells in human body (including those in the gut bacteria) though the exact number is not known. They vary in size depending on their function but have an average size of 20-30 micrometers.     

Cells are basically mini factories; they take material from surroundings and convert it into energy; create new materials (genetic information); create structures like bones and muscles; and also replicate themselves. Thus they take part in managing every aspect of the body function.

Cells also have memory which they acquire through the system of epigenome, and it can be conjectured that the combined memories of all cells form the part of body memory.  Some of the cells also have long term memory. There have been many instances where organ transplantation has resulted in change of behavior in organ receiver. Scientists speculate that this could only happen due to body memory embedded in the organ.

For smooth running of the body cells communicate with each other. Communication among them takes place mostly by chemical means (by exchange of molecules). This exchange of molecules produces bio-photons as a byproduct of chemical reaction and helps the cells to communicate photonically. Photonic communication is the fastest way for the cells to communicate with each other and with other parts of the body.   

Cells communicate to help in growth, development, differentiation, etc. and also to transmit danger signals (during certain cell death). Besides they also communicate to activate the immune defense system when injury or infection takes place.

This reaction by cells to danger sometimes results in producing inflammation and pain. Inflammation helps in the healing process but sometimes it goes out of hand (nobody knows why) and this leads to runaway events like cancer and tumor formation and other situations where cell production gets out of control.  Thus, the pain in the body is an outcome of the inflammation caused by cell death.    

Emotional pain during death comes from losing form and memories and physical pain comes from the inflammation in the body. The pain and fear of death is therefore inevitable, but is it possible to minimize it? Painless death takes place when it is sudden. For e.g. during sleep, due to accident, by heart failure, etc., etc. Most of the time natural death is not painless. If by some means death can become painless then people may not be afraid of it.  

Tomes have been written in philosophical and spiritual literature all over the world and in different civilization on how to reduce this pain.  In fact Sidhartha became Gautam Buddha when he saw an old man dying and resolved to discover the process by which this pain could be reduced or removed. This is how he discovered the "Middle Path". 

Development of pain reduction technologies        

Most of the pain signals from the body reach the brain through the spinal cord. Ancient yogis knew how to stop these signals reaching the brain by the practice of Kundalini Yoga. It is a very difficult procedure but the possibility exists. Pain reducing agents or opioids do the same thing quite easily in modern medicine! However. opioids have serious side effects and a large number of deaths occur because of their overdosage.

The greatest effort of mankind in future should be in scientifically developing pain reduction technologies and systems which are easy on the body and with very few side effects. This will have a far-reaching effect on the physical and mental well-being of mankind. Unfortunately, because of greed, big pharma companies all over the world are putting very little resources in this area.  

NDE episodes reduces fears of death

Fear of death has also been drastically reduced in people who have experienced near death experience (NDE). NDE seems to happen when a person is declared clinically dead but after some time returns to life. Quite a number of people during the NDE episode have also reported that their whole life flashes by and almost all their past actions become visible. In a majority of cases tremendous change in attitude towards life and death takes place after their NDE episode. They consider dying as a pleasurable experience and are not afraid of death anymore. 

Thus if we think of death as a part of continuum (as evidenced from NDE episodes) where part of our memories get reincarnated then we may be less afraid of death. However, reincarnation is by chance as Sage Patanjali has stated and could be in any form. When that happens, our memory processing (depending upon which form we are incarnated into) may be disrupted. That could also be the cause of fear of the unknown after death.

It is also a sobering thought to ponder that nobody knows what happens to our memories after death. Mostly are speculations. Many deep discussions in Indian philosophical systems therefore veer towards instructing people to live a good life since they cannot provide a satisfactory answer to this conundrum.

The reality unfortunately is to reduce the pain of death by consuming pain relievers and reduce emotional pain by living a good and emotionally satisfying life. One possibility is to live in harmony with nature and all the surrounding forces.

One of the strongest forces surrounding us is gravity.  Our body and mind can interact with the earth’s magnetic and gravity fields. If right from childhood, we are taught meditation and Sanyam then it can help us in tuning our bodies to these fields and create calmness and happiness in us so that death may not be fearful and painful. This process will also make us live sustainably in this world. We can then rightly be called Earth People. Our memories after death which will remain attached to the gravity field of earth will then guide us to a brighter future.                  

(The writer, an IIT and US-educated Indian engineer,  a 2022 Padma Shri award winner, is the Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, Phaltan, Maharashtra. He can be reached at anilrajvanshi50@gmail.com)