Reiki Transitions and Cryonics

This morning over coffee, my wife handed me the Jan 25, 2010 issue of the New Yorker, and most specifically the article on "Cryonics" entitled "The Iceman" by Jill Lepore. She discusses an intriguing movement, but, I wish to limit my comments to a small portion, the chart of choices sent to her by an MIT Professor. It reflected on a scientific view, and I wanted to comment that there was another possibility.

The chart states simply:
Cryonics
Sign Up It works ---> Live; It doesn't work ---> Die, lose life insurance

And the alternate:

God Exists Pray Hard-----> Live; Doesn't Exist ----> Die
DoNothing/God Esists ---> Die ; Doesn't Exist-----> Die

How like a scientific perspective to ignore the spiritual aspect of Life!!

Let us consider another possibility - one Dies and one's Consciousness (or Spirit or Soul) Transitions - soars free from the mortal body, and perhaps has a rebirth. Not scientifically proveable you say? Yet, fascinatingly - almost all indigenous human cultures, as well as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism tned to believe as a continuation of consciousness after death.

On of the dangers of Cryonics not considered in the above graph, is the possibility (not to judge the science discussed in the specific article) that in fact it might "work," and prevent the "Transition" of a Consciousness in a frozen body for an indefinite period of time.

This is one of the major problems in "traditional" hospice that focuses on the "suffering" of the patient as they approach death. Pain can be relieved with medication, but the fear of death is another matter - staff can be separated from the patient by the clinical distinction "they" are dying, and "we" are continuing in this life. The patient then is left suffering essentially alone, even with people all around, and in a state of anxiety over the impending future.

Hospice that includes Reiki does not view "death" as a finality, and thus it is not to be feared. The patient is headed toward a journey, and while we are not taking on that journey now, we share that someday we will do so, we are tied in what the Dalai Lama refers to as the "interdependent nature of reality." A recognition of our connection with all Living Beings, a realization that life is more than the current physical reality, leads one to the effort of spreading ripples of compassion.

Hiroshi Doi Sensei writes that "Reiki does not oppose modern medical science nor does it replace it." Both Medical Science and Reiki are part of achieving a balance of health that includes mind and body.

It is this powerful ripple to integrate care in a holistic way, that we are seeing surging within Healthcare.

And so - without placing a judgement on the benefit to risk of cryonics, I ask simply that we consider all the options - that "trapping" a spirit for milennia within a frozen form may not be a benefit. And that death may not be the end of conciousness - the summation of all human spiritual wisdom may not be correct, but as well, it may not be wrong.

We see this futility broadly in the scientific approach near death. We continue to see some less enlightened oncologists continuing chemotherapy when it is not working. Now - when chemo works, it is a great and wonderful thing, and it should be tried for cancer patients. However, when it is not working, the nature of chemo is that it is a poison, which attacts both the cancer and the normal human cells, so that, if the cancer cells are resistant to it, it can only weaken the normal human cells in their natural battle to fight off the cancer.

Acknowledging people's own spiritual strength, and acknowledging the human connections that bind us, diminish suffering. We need sometimes to accept that there exists a greater force who makes the decisions about life and death, and that we can ease transition by not making it something to be feared.

The Dalai Lama wrote, "Just as the disease needs to be diagnosed, its cause eliminated, a healthy state achieved and the remedy implanted, so also should suffering, its causes, its cessation an the path be known, removed, attained and undertaken."

While we use medicine to prevent death whenever possible, to cure disease whenever possible, to relieve pain whenever possible, the synergy of renouncing fear and attaining connection with life around us is very powerful. To have hope for continued existence, i will not need to have my body frozen, or risk my Ki being held in stasis for millenia.