Dementia and contemplation of the Soul

a reply to: andy06shake

Much appreciated my friend...

I do what I can... fortunately I do have a rather unique ability that many people lack in my field... the ability to make people smile or even laugh

In most cases these people are basically dropped off and rarely visited by their families... which I hate but I do understand having to see the people you love in this state... Not even recognising them when they do actually come

Although when people do visit many times they will run into a worker that's having a bad day... which puts the visitor in an even worse mood... plus having to deal with the fact that they're visiting someone who is wasting away in the worse possible situation...

My job is to take care of people, but that doesn't only include my residents, but the people who come to visit them and the other people I work with as well...

I do my best to make people smile or laugh while they visit... try to keep things light, because they are rarely happy... its a very depressing situation they're dealing with

So a smile or a laugh goes a very long way when you do what I do

a reply to: Akragon

My wee Granny has lost it quite a bit, still knows who you are but has major psychosis regrading imaginary rats and their like. She still smiles when she see me! So i completely agree a smile goes a long way indeed!

I've been a speed freak/coke head in a previous life so i know what it's like to see thing that are not there.

Senility is a horrible disease and to be quite frankly most lightly preventable should they ever get their arse in gear regarding stem cell research and it like!

a reply to: andy06shake

If I thought she wouldn't fight me tooth and nail I would have brought her down to Central America with me the place I spend a good portion of each year at both for work and pleasure...err ...well they are kind of the same I am partners in a dive company.

For a third of the money I she could have her own cook full time house keeping/medical and doctors come to her. The people are nicer and more attentive..yup..I had checked into it last year. It is just a shame she has been convinced by FOX news that Central America is a war torn region always on the verge of collapse.

You know she used to be a hard line democrat but as she got sicker her whole mentality switched to the point she was just repeating everything from FOX. It is real strange how that sickness works. Now she doesn't remember long enough to repeat their talking points...she hates Obama though. It is sad but kinda funny because she thinks Obama changed the year with an executive order. It is just strange things like that that throw me off when talking to her.

a reply to: nOraKat

A very difficult question. Does the soul becomes weaker in people with dementia? I'm convinced the soul, just like the body has to become stronger by time. In other words you have to work on it. It's something the Egyptian priests already knew. Those priests had knowledge from an alien species that created us. A species that knew the soul had to grow to become strong enough to live further after death. I think the soul needs the body in some way or another but once grown I hope she never gets weaker but hides herself in a dark corner of our DNA to escape after death. But by the way: that's something you have to believe in.
(That soul and body some day in the future will be separated and transplanted, I 'm pretty sure off. That's not what you could call a belief to me.)

www.evawaseerst.be...

I believe that like someone in coma, the person is actually not sticking around for a great deal of it. That they come in and out connection to their body to still comfort family.

originally posted by: soulwaxer

originally posted by: Ismail

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Ismail

Why would it not?

No, that's not how it works.

You say that inside of me is some intangible, invisible "thing" that defines everything that I am, and that this "thing" exists irrespective of my physical body.

I say pics, or it didn't happen.

No offence intended, but that's like saying gravity doesn't exist because it's invisible.

And actually, in my view, consciousness is a lot like gravity, in the sense that it is non-local. The brain does not produce consciousness, but receives and transmits it much like a radio receives and transmits sound waves. The sound waves are not produced by the radio. A person with dementia is like a radio with a broken antenna. When you look at it this way, you will find that many mysteries suddenly make sense. This new paradigm is actually starting to penetrate into the scientific community.

soulwaxer

There are many here stating what they believe, but not one person addressed the question in the op.

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The question I have for the proponents who believe that the spirit or soul connects with the body, (like described above) - something like remote control from another realm:


If it is possible to have memory loss due to brain damage or disease (which tells me that memory and thus a 'self' is dependent upon the brain), then how can we reason that there can be some entity somewhere controlling this body?

What is a soul or a spirit without any memory of past experience? What sense of self can it have?

This is definitely thread worthy material. Brain damage has always been the easy way for me to see how the notion of a "soul" was pure garbage.

You don't even have to wait for it to manifest over many years. You can have a stroke, or get a concussion and never be the same individual. There's a report about a man who had a steel beam through his head and came back angry, and a completely different guy.

I've changed through life experience, I've changed rapidly through PTSD. There is no immaterial "soul" that makes any logical sense whatsoever. You have to live in lala land and choose to look the other way to keep such notions into adulthood.

a reply to: nOraKat

"What is a soul or a spirit without any memory of past experience? What sense of self can it have?

Possibly a sense of self that stretches beyond our 3 dimensional interpretation of reality? There is tell if something called your ashakic records this is where all past life and previous experiences and memorys are supposedly located pre/post incarnation.

Think of your current memories and experiences of this life as being stored on a USB flash drive(Your Brain). When this existence is over somehow all the data stored on your brain(USB flash drive) is transferred to a main drive, that being our ashakic records.

This is not as far out there as it sounds when one considers that energy never dies but only changes form.

Bearing in mind that i'm not claiming that this is the case just offering one possible explanation as to your question.

a reply to: andy06shake

My heart goes out to you buddy! My own Grandmother generally incorporates whatever she seems to view via mass media. Ok for me and you to witness their version of events, but for her its like being there.

Done a lot of mind bending chemicals in days past myself, old saying springs to mind. "If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you?”

Nietzsche wrong though, in my humble opinion we are more than the sum of our parts, individuality has its merit, however it may seem given the grand scale of infinity.

a reply to: pl3bscheese

This is definitely thread worthy material.
Brain damage has always been the easy way for me to see how the notion of a "soul" was pure garbage.

Maybe....but as a 51 year old who has recently been diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's it's not quite as cut and dry as you might think.....my short term memory is pretty well shot, but my long term memory is heightened to the point that I can remember actual conversations that hark back to my school days!

Brain damage might not necessarily mean that the brain has stopped functioning....it might just mean that it's functioning in a slightly different way

a reply to: Argyll

Sure, neural adaptation. Something is lost, and the brain attempts to rewire, strengthen current connections, form new ones... I have no problems seeing this, but don't think this negates the view I had.

Personality does change in many cases of late-stage alzheimers, serious strokes, and even mental illnesses. There's just too many instances where someones "core sense of self" as someone who believes in a soul might put it, is disrupted or lost altogether.

My father's short term is completely shot as well, though it's stress dependent. If he goes to work, he's basically alzhish, when he gets home and calms down, he can think a lot more clearly and recall better.

originally posted by: pl3bscheese
... There's a report about a man who had a steel beam through his head and came back angry, and a completely different guy.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: nOraKat


I have always wondered if the fact that dementia seems to affect people of greater years. People who are essentially preparing to depart this particular incarnation, in this timeline by way of death, are somehow privy to what's happening to their counterparts in alternate timelines hence the delusions, hallucinations and general confusion associated with said disease.

Probably a far more rational explanation involving the degeneration of our neural pathways but considering we cannot pinpoint the reason for these afflictions one has to wonder?

Having my beloved Grandmother going through this horrible condition, and watching her deteriorate, is hell. Your twist on it is interesting. Especially for my curious, seeking mind.