5 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 17.5 ms ] thread
Yngwie Malmsteen's "As Above, So Below" sings "I will never die, 'cos I will fly to the other side."

The Scorpion's song "We'll Burn The Sky" seems to have similar sentiments. It was written by Jimi Hendrix' girlfriend after his death. It doesn't really deny death, but sees it as a way to be back together with the deceased, in a way that resembles life.

The more I think of it, the more songs along these lines come to mind.

Weed is something that often makes me acutely aware of my mortality, and to an extent that is quite uncomfortable. I remember once in college, soon after my grandpa died, doing some edibles and kind of freaking out ruminating about the inescapability of mortality.

However, I think this strong gut feeling of finiteness is something that you can use to cultivate gratefulness and empathy. I attribute my staunch environmentalism and sometimes-dim view of human nature to this. We as humans love to congratulate ourselves on our cleverness and 'elevated' position in the world, yet we are singularly incapable of escaping suffering and death.

Often, when confronted with an instance of someone's hubris I wish I could say to them: "You know you're going to die, right? No really, you will die."

> Weed is something that often makes me acutely aware of my mortality, and to an extent that is quite uncomfortable.

I think this is also why some people report getting paranoid from ingesting marijuana. For whatever reason, being high on pot allows (forces?) you to look at death in a way that is far more serious and real than you normally would.

Whatever that mental block described in the article is, THC seems to be an antidote. And CBD provides a buffer or counter antidote to that, since generally the more CBD content that is included, the less of this mortality effect intrudes on an otherwise perfectly good buzz.

It can be quite comfortable and even joyful provided you don't go there and then dwell on it.

I've personally experienced this. I believe that I am somehow predisposed to recurrent feelings of death anxiety; panic episodes have plagued me since early high school.

Around that time, I first experienced a cannabis high. It was horrible. For whatever reason, I felt like time was skipping and my existential fear of death grew to never-before-seen levels. I vividly remember spending over an hour shaking, spilling my fear onto my dad. Even the thought makes me dissociate and feel panicky.

(Yes, I've seen a psychiatrist and become more able to control my response. My incompatible mindset, however, remains.)

I believe other people in my life are better at ignoring or denying these feelings. I'm curious if anyone shares my experience.

This is not a very scientific study. However, it seems to me that the conclusion is that our brain does not generate signals of surprise that it will die, but rather for others, perhaps because there is no "event" to generate surprise for. If you die, you die. We all know that. Someone else dying is surprising, to die ourselves is inevitable.