Alternatives to involuntary Death
Timothy Leary
Ronin Publishing
(Print and Ebook available)
Death
is the ultimate taboo. We are happy to
discuss sex, our private relationships, politics and social issues but when the
subject of death is brought up friends and family go quiet, it is also a good
way to bring an active dinner party to an immediate end, it is a true
conversation killer.
Leary,
celebrated sixties counter culture figure, father of psychedelics and exponent
of cyberculture, gives us a different perspective on this significant subject.
He explains how a society which is based on collectivism and a fear of
individualism uses the fear of death as a means of control. In our modern world
religion certainly plays its part; if you do not behave in this way or that and
donate and support their “pyramid insurance” scheme, you will not make it to a
specific afterlife location. Worse, you may even end up in a place of eternal
punishment. These models of control are based on removing the right of an
individual to makes decisions about the use of their own mind and body. These
battlegrounds tend to be found in such arenas as cognitive liberty (i.e. the
use of drugs), sex and death.
In
this fascinating work, edited by Beverly Potter and published by Ronin
Publishing, Leary argues for taking active control of our own personal death
process. The book is nicely published, well-illustrated and packed with pithy
and significant quotes from a variety of authors.
Leary
states by discussing the way in which we are disempowered by religion and not
allowed to control our own death and then discusses ways in which we can gain
control through a variety of means. Leary is not only a humanist but someone
who believes in an open exploration of any subject. Accordingly he takes a
scientific approach to the subject but offers a wide range of alternatives.
Since
science has not, as yet, developed the means to extend life indefinitely some
of the solutions offered include: Life extension diets and drugs, life
extending lifestyle changes, cryonic suspension, mummification and various
others. He also discusses options currently at the edge of modern science
including uploading our memories to a computer network, into a cyborg or having
ourselves cloned.
Leary
also discusses pre-death preparation, preparing our own funeral, recording life
stories and the use of various techniques to stimulate the death transition.
There
is also an interesting section on Andy Warhol and his choice of cryonic
suspension. There are various methods including whole body or just suspending
the head.
This
is an excellent volume which takes a pro-active approach to death. While modern
man has taken control of many aspects of his life, it seems death is the final
frontier and Leary, once again, had admirably led the way.
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