Have You Ever Seen A Dead Body

[Msterbeau]

Have you ever seen someone die?

Yesterday on my way back to Kentucky I saw the aftermath of a motorcycle accident on an off ramp. There was a body. I turned off my music and spent the next 10 minutes contemplating what I'd seen and generally trying to have some reverence for the life that was no more. On a trip to Montreal about 6 years ago, I saw the immediate aftermath of a another horrible accident. I saw one body near a car. Very dead. My ex saw another nearby. We both watched a woman get killed by an out of control race car. That image is imprinted in my brain forever, I suspect.

Anyone else have the unfortunate opportunity to witness something like this?

[GOREgeouslyDecorated]

I used to pick up dead people and take them to the funeral home and prepped them for embalming - then I saw a body immideately after an acctudent in the middle of the road - cops and EMS havent even gotten there yet, but there were some people stopped - crazy shit I'd say

[Gauge]

nope, never. ive never been to a funeral. . .never past a fatal accident. . .nothing like that. . .its caused me lots of problems to. i cant deal with death now, so if i was put in that situation i imagine it would be something similar to how i feel when im around dead animals. i get major panic attacks, pretty much cant deal with it at all. i dont really understand death i guess. (and i know this sounds off) its not natural to me for a body to not have energy in it. . .

[BrassFusion]

I don't believe I ever have. It says something about the state of our society that we're all so sensitive to death UNLESS it's in a hospital bed or a funeral home... some situation we're in "control" of.

[Msterbeau]

I was pretty calm, actually. Even watching the lady get hit by the car I didn't flip out. I think I shut down a bit in those situations. I also think if it was someone I knew and loved I would have an altogether different reaction.

[BrassFusion]

Not to say you wouldn't be calm, I'm sure I would be too. But I haven't ever witnessed it, and I'm 24... Americans can be so sheltered.

[kellygrrrrrl]

I have not witnessed such a thing......

But long ago a friend of mine told me to check out a website called "rotten.com"...laughing......

I checked it out, and haven't returned since. Seeing even those things on a screen is something I cannot stomach.

Some of those images are still implanted in my brain.

I agree that we have become desensitized to some of these things as if they are just normal occurances.

Which is unfortunate...

It was someones life. Someones loved one, a mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, friend, co-worker, cousin, aunt, uncle...etc....

Not just some dead guy...ja know?

[BrassFusion]

Hmm... actually, I'd say it's more like we're surprisingly OVERSENSITIVE.

[phee]

A couple times... once in highschool when odims showed me where he worked (crematory) and later in college when I saw a dead body right off of campus after it had been hit by a car...

[kellygrrrrrl]

Shoot Brass....

Do I gotta get all overly wordy here?

I don't mean we should mourn over these people we don't know......

I don't.

Death IS a normal occurance.

But it does occure to me that these folks are real people with famlies and stuff.

And thus I feel a tad of sadness....

Not overly sensitive.

[bean]

  kellygrrrrrl said:

I have not witnessed such a thing......

But long ago a friend of mine told me to check out a website called "rotten.com"...laughing......

I checked it out, and haven't returned since. Seeing even those things on a screen is something I cannot stomach.

Some of those images are still implanted in my brain.

I agree that we have become desensitized to some of these things as if they are just normal occurances.

Which is unfortunate...

It was someones life. Someones loved one, a mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, friend, co-worker, cousin, aunt, uncle...etc....

Not just some dead guy...ja know?

I was referred to rotten.com too a long time ago. Sick, sick things. I don't know how people can find that funny. It's disturbing.

I've seen someone shoot himself in the head and die, and I watched someone die of a drug overdose. It's very strange to watch. An eerie feeling takes over - I'm not even sure how to describe it. A few minutes ago, that person was alive, performing all the functions of a living person, and they next, they are dead. Nothing - blank, empty. I had nightmares for a long time after both incidences, though the gunshot was much worse - more gruesome.

[Guest Megalicious]

Unfortunately, yes I have. I have seen ppl I love like brothers die right in front of my face. It's haunting and not something I care to think about.....

[BrassFusion]

It's good to be sympathetic, and Kel, I don't think you're "overly" sensitive. I'm just surprised we're as sensitive as we are in this society.

Or maybe I'm projecting. Because by my beliefs, a body is just a machine and death is what happens when the fueling and maintenance systems become worn beyond repair. I don't feel anything when I see a car that'll never start again, and I kinda feel like I *should* feel the same way about a human corpse.

Not that I do.

But I guess it'll be possible someday to keep our consciousness alive indefinitely while replacing parts and systems just like on a car.

[Brenda Starrr]

I have seen quite a few ACCIDENTS that resulted in death.

[Hellion]

Twenty years ago I saw what was left of someone after being run over,appearently the pedestrian was drunk and walked out in front of traffic,what a mess!

[JaneDead]

i have never seen anyone die like what is being described up there ^

i did however watch and feel my dad die in the hospital. i was laying my head on his chest as he took his last breath. i felt him die in every sense of the word. i felt his energy leave him, i felt him physically die, i felt a part of me die and i'd rather see a dozen accidents than feel that way again.

[GOREgeouslyDecorated]

  kellygrrrrrl said:

I have not witnessed such a thing......

But long ago a friend of mine told me to check out a website called "rotten.com"...laughing......

I checked it out, and haven't returned since. Seeing even those things on a screen is something I cannot stomach.

Some of those images are still implanted in my brain.

I agree that we have become desensitized to some of these things as if they are just normal occurances.

Which is unfortunate...

It was someones life. Someones loved one, a mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, friend, co-worker, cousin, aunt, uncle...etc....

Not just some dead guy...ja know?

I love Rotten.com - I think I'm gonna go look at it right now

[pomba gira]

  kellygrrrrrl said:

I have not witnessed such a thing......

But long ago a friend of mine told me to check out a website called "rotten.com"...laughing......

I checked it out, and haven't returned since. Seeing even those things on a screen is something I cannot stomach.

Some of those images are still implanted in my brain.

I agree that we have become desensitized to some of these things as if they are just normal occurances.

Which is unfortunate...

It was someones life. Someones loved one, a mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, friend, co-worker, cousin, aunt, uncle...etc....

Not just some dead guy...ja know?

"These things" ARE normal occurrences. People die every day. People die in violent, gruesome, and horrific ways every day, and have done since there were people. We just happen to live in a society that views death as somehow wrong and unnatural in itself... maybe because we have control over so many aspects of life that people did not in the past, so we deeply resent the things we still have no control over. And maybe because our spiritual beliefs are too weak to let us accept death as more than just an ignominious ending. Which is not to say that we shouldn't have a sense of awe or loss in the face of death- just that we should remember death is a normal and necessary part of the cycle of life and not some horrible misfunction of cosmic justice.

I do believe we would have more... what... respect for death if we had more exposure to the realities of death as presented on Rotten.com. What desensitizes us is the sanitized version of death presented on TV & movies, where victims of violence die instantly with minimal struggle, and victims of disease look like... well... actors with a team of makeup artists standing right next to them.

As for me, my only hands-on encounter with human death was when my great-aunt passed last summer. I wasn't with her at the time of her transition, but got there a few minutes later. I closed her eyes, washed her, put clean clothes on her, and fixed up the bed so she would look nice when the rest of the family got there. She was a woman of great elegance & would've hated for anyone to see her sprawled out on the bed with jumpstart leads plastered on her chest & her gown cut up & covered w/the stuff she coughed up while dying. So washing her body was very comforting for me... it was one last thing I could do for this person who took care of me my whole life.

[odims_sphere]

  GOREgeouslyDecorated said:

I used to pick up dead people and take them to the funeral home and prepped them for embalming - then I saw a body immideately after an acctudent in the middle of the road - cops and EMS havent even gotten there yet, but there were some people stopped - crazy shit I'd say

Wow you and I shoulda got together cuz I used to pick them up from the funeral homes and bring them to the cemetary for cremation. I also tickled a dead lady's foot once, she didn't laugh

[Steven]

  BrassFusion said:

It's good to be sympathetic, and Kel, I don't think you're "overly" sensitive. I'm just surprised we're as sensitive as we are in this society.

Or maybe I'm projecting. Because by my beliefs, a body is just a machine and death is what happens when the fueling and maintenance systems become worn beyond repair. I don't feel anything when I see a car that'll never start again, and I kinda feel like I *should* feel the same way about a human corpse.

Not that I do.

But I guess it'll be possible someday to keep our consciousness alive indefinitely while replacing parts and systems just like on a car.

this in due time, may change Love.

[Steven]

I saw Laura's mom a few minutes after she died....her mouth was open and it looked and felt like her soul slipped up and outward.....

I saw the empty space in the street where my friend Vick was run over and killed a few months after he and I rode the greyhound Bus from Los Angeles to San Fransisco as teens with little money and lots of pot....

I've seen a man die from a self inflicted shot to the head after his friends asked me to pray for him on his deathbed at the hospital

I've seen my one time mentor eatin up from cancer in an old dirty VA Hospital, and the next day he was gone.

I've seen a little old lady I was very fond of die in her hospital bed, also from cancer. She kissed me on the lips once and told me I was "so cool" and I did not see it coming and she made me cry when she said that to me.

[Msterbeau]

As tough as it is to watch a human die, it can be equally tough to watch the life of a pet or some other living creature go, too. It was not easy to say "yes" when the vet asked if I wanted to hold my cat Tasha while she put her to sleep. To hold and comfort her while she breathed her last .... Another memory that will not likely ever go away.

[Rayne]

yes, and it never fades.

and i've also done the same with a few of my dogs Marc it never gets easier.

[Guest Megalicious]

  JaneDead said:

i have never seen anyone die like what is being described up there ^

i did however watch and feel my dad die in the hospital. i was laying my head on his chest as he took his last breath. i felt him die in every sense of the word. i felt his energy leave him, i felt him physically die, i felt a part of me die and i'd rather see a dozen accidents than feel that way again.

I'm so sorry

[ManicQueen]

One too many times.