Imagine to Remember

Grief technology promises a sort of death of death itself. The immortalizing of loved ones passed through artificial intelligence. Uploading a version of their consciousness into the ether. But with all things artificial intelligence produces it is at best a likeness, form without essence and always a poor substitute for the real thing. Aside from the obvious and terrifying ethical issues and real-life complications of grief tech, there are also the equally dangerous metaphysical consequences. In many ways modern people are a people unable to contend with death and the fact of our own mortality. 

We are losing touch with the rituals around grief. Communal rites, ceremonies that honour the life gone and pray for its safe passage into the next world; not just burying the body, but through the tradition of holding wake, funerary prayers and processions. In many cultures people continue to honour their dead and even commune with them or do acts of charity in their names long after their passing. Many people today are left alone with their mourning and all the books, podcasts and online forums, as helpful as they may be, cannot replace real support, support in body and spirit, support from community. There is no real time or space to give grief its fullest expression and so it remains only partially digested. There is a strong aversion to even talking about death in the culture but repression never really works as we intend. The energy must be given expression in one way or another. And maybe this explains our fascination with the macabre; zombies, ghosts, and our fascination with the paranormal and unsolved mysteries. 

Separation from the natural world means the loss of learning that can only come through immersion and connection. My mother, as a child, saw animals in all their stages and phases of life; injured, dead and dying, mating, giving birth, playing, and mourning. And so she had no illusions about the realities of life, the beautiful and the ugly, the pain and the joy. That does not mean it was always easy for a young girl to witness but it was necessary. It was part of growing up. Growing up is when adults no longer shield us from the harsh truths of the world, and let us bear witness to it in its fullness.

Modern people have completely fallen out of sync with the rhythms and cycles of nature and therefore with themselves, perpetually off beat and consistently missing the mark. Nature has become something we do or somewhere we go, something to covet, resulting in a sort of neurotic splitting of mind, body and soul. If there is no spiritual tradition to ground you, no hope of reunion with loved ones in a life to come, then the material reality of this life becomes everything and its value becomes inflated. Even small losses are unbearable, the appetite is never satiated and the soul is never at rest.