DO YOU SLEEP LIKE A MEDIEVAL PERSON?

This may be a bit to the left or right of our subject but since so many of us have some form of sleep insomnia and there are so very may treatments for it, well, I've wondered if our notion that to keep our healthy we need 8 or more hours of uninterrupted sleep a night is just wrong!  Our ancestors may not have had the lifestyle or expectation that they would sleep the whole night through.  Perhaps it's not in our genetics to sleep all those hours.  Maybe some food or conversation or changing watch was the ideal. The term Biphasic Sleep means that a person sleeps, wakes up, and goes back to sleep. 

BBC FUTURE : MEDIEVAL SLEEP by Zaria Gorvett

Fascinating article from the BBC Future citing the work of Roger Ekrirch, a professor-researcher at Virginia Tech.

EXCERPTS:  For a start, first sleeps are mentioned in one of the most famous works of medieval literature, Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (written between 1387 and 1400), which is presented as a storytelling contest between a group of pilgrims.  They're also included in the poet William Baldwin's Beware The Cat (1561) - a satirical book considered by some to be the first ever novel, which centers around a man who learns to understand the language of a group of terrifying supernatural cats, one of whom, Moue-slayer, is on trial for promiscuity.

But that's just the beginning.  Ekirch found casual references to the system of twice-sleeping in every conceivable form, with hundreds of letters, diaries, medical textbooks, philosophical writings, newspaper articles and plays.

The practice even made it into ballads...

... Ekrirch wonders if today people might remember fewer dreams than our ancestors did, because it's less common to wake up in the middle of the night...

STOP GIVING AWAY YOUR DNA : AN OPINION BY NICK ESPINOSNA : ADVOCATING FOR DNA PRIVACY and QUESTIONS CELL PHONE DATA ?

Nick isn't the only person who has concerns that the privacy aspects of giving over your DNA need to be addressed.  

READ THE FINE PRINT before you take a DNA test.

DNA taken because of an arrest, even if that arrest proves to be an error, charges are dropped?

I think we all feel justice is served when DNA is used to locate a serial killer or a person on death row is released because the criminal who actually committed the crime is found... However, all you need to be falsely accused is to be in the wrong place at the right time.  I've been following the Murder of four college students who attended University of Idaho which happened November 13, 2022.  One neighbor who agreed to speak to the media soon had on-line crime speculations that he was the murderer.  So after three or four interviews, he went to the police station and gave over his DNA to eliminate himself as a suspect.  I feel certain that many people would prefer not to even chance talking to the media for reasons like this. Espinosa asks what about if you are on your cell phone within a mile area of a murder?

It's true that cell phones on you on the move keep pinging the towers and can be used to follow your moves.  For the person who gets lost on a hike, this can be a life saver, but really, the younger generations have no idea what PRIVACY actually feels like. Those of us who had it, or far more of it, are also having a more difficult time finding those precious moments in which we can be truly alone with ourselves and our thoughts.

SEEING THE UNSEEN : RAYMOND MOODY and THE PSYCHOMANTEUM : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

SEEING THE UNSEEN : THE HISTORY OF USING CLEAR DEPTH GAZING FOR AFTER DEATH COMMUNICATION

Dr. Raymond Moody is famous for his lifes' work on the dying and the dead.  He focused as a psychiatrist on those who could not let go of grief and who wish to communicate with a loved one who has passed on.

I once attended a grief support group and found myself to be one of the least grief-stricken among the others. Perhaps it was because I had accepted that the person who died would die, though I didn't think so young. Several in the group had lost the person they had long been married to and were having a difficult time adjusting, though no one there wanted that person to be in any more physical pain. There was one woman though who had a father who had commit suicide.  He had long been troubled and she was an adult who had never been close with her father.  Soon enough I learned that this woman would show up late, though she'd call to say she was on her way, and as soon as she walked in, she got everyone attention.  Though she might appear with a smile, she would seemingly go into a deep depression in front of us.  I'll admit that I began to suspect that she needed to be in psychiatric care and that this support group was just not enough for her. It was run by a well meaning woman who was very religious and who said she'd had some training.  I felt that this woman showing up late was an attention grab.  Perhaps she would not let go her grief, and depression was something she had inherited. I thought of that experience as I watched this film/

A psychomanteum is a special room, pitch black and fitted with mirrors and a comfortable chair, where people can go to see their dead loved ones.  It sounds spooky.  It comes from the ancient Greeks who had a pilgrimage site where they went through a ritual to prepare them for the experience.  Moody takes you to the archaeological site and explains what happens.

It is helpful psychologically to have the experience, which is not guaranteed.  Still, some people report what I'll call a manifestation.  Clouds, mist, images, sometimes a sound.  (No one reports having an actual conversation.)  Moody does not explain in this film how or why this works for some,only that it can be healing.

I found this all quite interesting and think you will too.

I understand there is a book with the same title that tells you how to build your own psychomanteum.

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THE LIGHT BEYOND - RAYMOND MOODY on NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES and SHARED DEATH EXPERIENCES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

THE LIGHT BEYOND - RAYMOND MOODY on NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES and SHARED DEATH EXPERIENCES : ANCESTRY WORSHIP GENEALOGY FILM REVIEW

At this time of year, the fall, we traditionally have festivals, rituals, religious events, and private prayers for the dead. So many people wish they had just a little more time with someone who was dying, so they could communicate more.  The work of Raymond Moody, a psychiatrist, on death and dying made him famous beginning back in the 1970's and opened the investigation.  From THE LIGHT BEYOND, we learn NOT TO BE AFRAID OF DEATH.

I think it's human nature to be afraid but Moody says even his own two failed suicide attempts became blessings in his life. And no, he did not make these attempts as a scientific experiment.

Whatever the culture or religious tradition, a person who almost died, or who was declared dead but revived, reports the same things of NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE.

1) Looking down from above at one's own physical body and understanding by hearing the doctor or nurse say that they have died.

2) Experiencing a tunnel or passageway and coming into a warm and loving light. To feel almost absorbed in peace and love and being welcomed by those who have previously died.

3) An increase in light.  Then, being surrounded by what could best be described by a holographic or 3D experience of every action they have done in your life.  The person feels the experience that they gave others.  The happiness or the pain.

4) What happens next I'll call "the reason for returning to earthly life."

There are four possible experiences reported.

You find yourself instantly back in your body. OR

Someone in that place tells you that you have to go back.  It is not your time. There is more for you to do. OR

You are given a choice. Some people say they did not want to come back but they knew they had to, for the sake of raising their children or some other important task.  OR

You beg and plead to come back.  Moody says this is rare.  They told God they had to come back.

Therefore, I would say that we do have Free Will or Choice, most of the time.

When people come back, they often change their values.  They know they must learn to love. They report no longer fearing death.  They say it's just another state of reality. 

But perhaps what is most exceptionally interesting is that there are people who were there at the death bed who are not ill, not dying, but report A SHARED DEATH EXPERIENCE.  People report experiences such as seeing the room filled with light.  They see apparitions of death relatives - perhaps the welcome committee. Some people say that the room itself seemed to change as if they were instead in some sort of altered or different geometry.  Some of those who are there at the death bed report co-living the life review experience.  Now, this is important, they may experience these things even if they don't personally know the dying person.  Some doctors and nurses report having such an experience!

You have to see this video to see the image of a ball of light that appeared and was photographed when a person died.

You'll want to watch this DVD at this time when death is so much on our minds.

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