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Thread: A Graceful Death

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    United States Moderator Sue (Ayt)'s Avatar
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    Default A Graceful Death

    Reading of this very graceful death touched me. Not that famously known, but a prolific songwriter never-the-less, he died with great dignity, doing what he loved.
    RIP David Olney.

    Quote Respected American singer-songwriter David Olney said sorry to fans before he died during a performance in Florida. The 71-year-old was mid-song when he “stopped, apologised and shut his eyes”, said musician Amy Rigby, who was performing alongside him at the 30A Songwriters festival in Santa Rosa Beach.

    Rigby said: “He was very still, sitting upright with his guitar on, wearing the coolest hat and a beautiful rust suede jacket … I want the picture to be as graceful and dignified as it was, because it at first looked as if he was just taking a moment.”
    david-olney-acclaimed-us-songwriter-dies-on-stage-after-apologising-mid-song

    "We're all bozos on this bus"

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Thanks for sharing this Ayt. I've always thought one of the things the thoughtful person should hope for, and strive towards in life, is a good death.

    I once knew an amazing old man that the dear gentleman above reminded me of. KC was his name, easily the smartest person I ever knew, could do or fix anything, and if he didn't know how he damn well would figure it out lol!

    Thing is he never used his gift to enrich himself, quite the opposite actually. He always had a soft spot in his heart for the poorness and struggles of those around him, and would only ask for relative peanuts for his services as to not only help them out, but not add to their struggles. Because of this he himself had to scratch for a living, right up to the time cancer started getting to him....

    From time to time along the way,he would look me in the eye while fiddling with something or other in his garage, to say the only real thing he wanted out of life was to die in his home up there on that old hill top. That's all he really wanted.

    What little family he had around was more interested in his house than in him, and when I went to see him in the nursing home day after they forced him there, that brain of his already had big plans for me to help spring him from his new prison cell.

    With tears streaming down my face it broke my heart to have to gently tell him there was nothing I could do, it was out of my hands not being kin. In the time of his great need there was no one around to lend a helping hand, not even me. He stared off into space for a few seconds, regathered himself, looked at me and said "well I'll die then".

    And by God he did just that, they found him dead in his room before breakfast next morning. Mine was the last friendly face he ever saw....

    The choice of living or dying, and how it was to be done, was the last card he found himself holding, and he played it well getting back to topic. I loved that old man dearly, and it will always be an inspiration to me how he went out, with his head held high no matter the circumstance.

    He did it his way right up to the bitter end, and I hope and pray I'm up to doing the same when my number is up.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    My grandmother died when I was a teenager. She lived to be 92; was always cheerful, chuckling all day long. She was hardly ever idle, always helping out in a small farm we had back then. She loved to feed the chickens we had and gather the eggs. She was never sick that I recall. She was always active to the last day. So one summer morning we discovered that she had passed. I wish that I could pass on in my sleep when it's time for me as well.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Thank you for sharing that memory Gracy May. It gave me a lump in the throat and a tear in the eye...

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    I have every intention of ending my own life if I choose to. I would only choose to do that if I develop a diseased state that I don't want to experience to the end and feel their is no way to correct it. The other situation would be becoming too frail to care for myself. If I do choose to do that, I don't want it to be a desperate measure full of dread and fear, simply the decision that I am done here and my body is no longer able to continue in a way that makes it worth the effort to carry on. To me that would seem like being totally caught up in the web of the medical system and having to depend on them for all things physical. Having said that, I am taking responsibility for my health with the intention that this outcome will not occur.

    I find it terribly sad that their isn't a sure fired dignified way for people that no longer choose to live available to all. Certainly, it should not be a rash or emotional decision but one that is well contemplated and considered.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Quote Posted by peterpam (here)
    I have every intention of ending my own life if I choose to.
    This may be off-topic here, and absolutely no disrespect is intended to David Olney, the subject of this thread.

    Very briefly: 15 years ago I had a very good friend called Naveed Maqbool. He was a spiritually unique combination of an independent (Ron's Org) scientologist and a Sufi Master. He was originally from Pakistan, but had lived in London for many years. He was in his early 40s, in perfect health.

    He and I were engaged in a major project for 6 months that Naveed threw himself into. He told me it was his life's mission. When the project was finished, he held a party with his friends in London, telling them that he was going to leave his body that evening as his life's purpose was complete. (I was in Switzerland, so I wasn't there.)

    They weren't sure what to think — but when the end of the evening came, Naveed sat quietly in a chair, closed his eyes, and indeed, just left his body. That was the chosen end of his life.

    Last edited by Bill Ryan; 21st January 2020 at 18:51.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Stories like those above lead me to believe that choice and free will do indeed fully apply even as to our moment of death. I like to believe that, myself, and hope to orchestrate my own death, when the time comes, as one of grace and dignity.

    My Father-In-Law died instantly as on old man, helping out an even older man, to change his tire in a parking lot. It suited him very well, as he had been a "road warrior" truck driver all his working life, and could be counted on to stop for anyone he saw in trouble.

    Wasn't it in the Castaneda books where Don Juan and Don Genero(?) jumped off a cliff together and vanished in a flash of light as they left this life? (Long time since I read those books in the 70's, but somehow that part remains in my mind.)
    "We're all bozos on this bus"

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    In the year 2000, a friend of mine was talking about his grandmother, who was born in 1899 and was 101 years old. In spite of everything, she still lived alone in her own home and was functioning with a little help from her family. I said to my friend "just think, as of next January 1st, we will be able to say that she lived in the 19th, the 20th and the 21st centuries." Next time I saw him was in 2001, and he said that he related my idea to his grandmother and she loved the idea of living in three centuries. He also told me that on the morning of January 1st she got up, did a few things around the house, went back to bed and then passed peacefully in her sleep.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Quote Posted by Kryztian (here)
    In the year 2000, a friend of mine was talking about his grandmother, who was born in 1899 and was 101 years old. In spite of everything, she still lived alone in her own home and was functioning with a little help from her family. I said to my friend "just think, as of next January 1st, we will be able to say that she lived in the 19th, the 20th and the 21st centuries." Next time I saw him was in 2001, and he said that he related my idea to his grandmother and she loved the idea of living in three centuries. He also told me that on the morning of January 1st she got up, did a few things around the house, went back to bed and then passed peacefully in her sleep.
    Full body chills. And still full body chills...

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    A gentlemen whom I was very close too once told me he did not
    want to live beyond 70 years of age, he did not want to be waited on
    by others, he just wanted to move on out....he died the morning of 70th birthday.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    It would be good to be able to prepare for death, and to die while conscious. Then just after passing, being aware enough to choose the path you take in the after life. The concern here is not to be caught into an artificial soul recycling mechanism, such as going 'into the light'. To be able to choose your own destiny in the after life is an important issue, I feel.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Bill Ryan....re your friend Naveed. That is the most fabulous story! What an elegant death. Now I am so curious as to what was the project.
    I understand it may be confidential, but I ask anyway. Meryl.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Quote Posted by Meryl (here)
    Bill Ryan....re your friend Naveed. That is the most fabulous story! What an elegant death. Now I am so curious as to what was the project.
    I understand it may be confidential, but I ask anyway. Meryl.
    A little off-topic here, but he, I and a handful of others worked night and day for 6 months to digitize all the scientology materials and anonymously post them freely online.

    The Church of Scientology lawyers chased us all over the place, but each time they closed down a website, we launched a new one with a new host. Eventually all the cats were out the bag, and couldn't ever be put back in.

    Naveed had said for years that was his life's mission, and he got it all done.


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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Quote Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
    Quote Posted by peterpam (here)
    I have every intention of ending my own life if I choose to.
    This may be off-topic here, and absolutely no disrespect is intended to David Olney, the subject of this thread.

    Very briefly: 15 years ago I had a very good friend called Naveed Maqbool. He was a spiritually unique combination of an independent (Ron's Org) scientologist and a Sufi Master. He was originally from Pakistan, but had lived in London for many years. He was in his early 40s, in perfect health.

    He and I were engaged in a major project for 6 months that Naveed threw himself into. He told me it was his life's mission. When the project was finished, he held a party with his friends in London, telling them that he was going to leave his body that evening as his life's purpose was complete. (I was in Switzerland, so I wasn't there.)

    They weren't sure what to think — but when the end of the evening came, Naveed sat quietly in a chair, closed his eyes, and indeed, just left his body. That was the chosen end of his life.

    This sounds like mahasamadhi. The act of willfully removing the life force from the body. Paramahansa Yogananda and Baba Lokanath did this to name but a few.

    As a child, I was raised to firmly believe that the absolute greatest sin is taking your life. When I look at these most wonderful humans I see that a conscious decision to leave when finished with a life well lived seems a very complete and balanced thing to me. I may also be a bit jaded, as a nurse I have seen over and over what desperately clinging to life can result in.

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Quote Posted by peterpam (here)
    As a child, I was raised to firmly believe that the absolute greatest sin is taking your life. When I look at these most wonderful humans I see that a conscious decision to leave when finished with a life well lived seems a very complete and balanced thing to me. I may also be a bit jaded, as a nurse I have seen over and over what desperately clinging to life can result in.
    I'll bet you have seen the clinging over and over, let me guess not a pretty thing to watch....

    I tend to think that a deeply self aware person gets the sense of when "it's time to go".

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    The initial post and subject of this thread reminds me of a similar death onstage, and in this case musicians from all over were there for that special birthday show of his to celebrate his life.

    This was a musician I had seen in person many times, and a venue many of my most significant concert experiences occurred at.

    https://www.npr.org/sections/thereco...n-birthday-con

    Quote
    Colonel Bruce Hampton, guitarist and respected elder statesman of the jam-band community, died Monday night after collapsing on stage during the encore of his own birthday celebration. He was 70 years old.

    Hampton was close to wrapping up Hampton 70 — a birthday concert featuring members of Phish, Widespread Panic and Leftover Salmon, among others — when he collapsed on stage at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Hampton's death was confirmed in a statement from his family, shared by the Tedeschi Trucks Band.

    Former bandmate Jeff Mosier wrote on Facebook that he could "could have never imagined a more joyful departure."

    Hampton, born Gustav Berglund III, began his music career in the late '60s with the Hampton Grease Band, which toured with The Grateful Dead. In the early '90s, while leading the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Hampton was widely credited with helping inspire and foster a new wave of improvisational "jam band" artists — including Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews and Phish.

    Most recently, Hampton was leading a weekly residency at the Vista Room in Atlanta. "A Col. Bruce show brings a lot of joy and excitement," Vista Room co-owner Mike Rizzi told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "especially in the world we live in right now. You forget about things when you walk through the door."

    In Basically Frightened: The Musical Madness of Colonel Bruce Hampton, a 2012 documentary on Hampton, actor Billy Bob Thornton referred to Hampton as "the eighth wonder of the world."

    from another source

    Quote
    Jam scene patriarch Col. Bruce Hampton died on stage during the final moments of a benefit concert honoring his 70th birthday at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta on Monday night. Hampton passed out with nearly the entire all-star lineup for Hampton 70: A Celebration Of Col. Bruce Hampton surrounding him as the “Turn On Your Lovelight” finale was nearing a conclusion.

    News of Hampton’s death was confirmed by his family who provided the following statement:
    After collapsing on stage surrounded by his friends, family, fans and the people he loved Col. Bruce Hampton has passed away. The family is asking for respect and privacy at this difficult time.

    Many of Bruce’s musical friends and those he inspired gathered at the Fox on Monday for a benefit concert in honor of Hampton’s 70th birthday. John Popper, John Bell, Herring, Sipe, Jon Fishman, Duane Trucks, Rev. Jeff Mosier, Chuck Leavell and Warren Haynes were just a few of those who performed at the Fox. The concert featured over four hours of sensational performances and was just about to come to a conclusion when Bruce Hampton passed out. At first some of the musicians thought he was kidding around, but it soon became clear the situation was no joke.
    I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. - Robert Anton Wilson

    The present as you think of it, and in practical working terms, is that point at which you select your physical experience from all those events that could be materialized. - Seth (The Nature of Personal Reality - Session 656, Page 293)

    (avatar image: Brocken spectre, a wonderful phenomenon of nature I have experienced and a symbol for my aspirations.)

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    Default Re: A Graceful Death

    Quote Posted by peterpam (here)
    This sounds like mahasamadhi. The act of willfully removing the life force from the body. Paramahansa Yogananda and Baba Lokanath did this to name but a few.
    My wife and I (along with some of my wife's relatives) visited a famous monastery in Taiwan last year. This monastery offers free lunches to the public in a large dining hall supported by donations to the monastery. In sacred temple section of the monastery, there are several traditional statues of Buddhas and other Buddhist historical figures. Among these is what appears to be a statue of a monk sitting in meditation posture with a slight smile. The guide explained to us that that statue is not really a statue, it once was a real monk who had passed spontaneously during meditation, while smiling. After several weeks had gone by after his passing and the body had not decomposed or changed at all, the temple decided to clad his body in solid gold leaf and enshrine him in the sacred section of the temple. Due to the sacredness of the section, no photography was allowed. I have read stories of people doing this during meditation in various Buddhist literature, so I was in awe of actually seeing the physical evidence of this phenomena. Not only that, I somehow sensed that even though the monk has passed on, I felt some kind of peaceful energy emanating from his body.

    I believed I have witnessed evidence of both mahasamadhi and incorrupibility.

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