The Grim Reaper and Death.

Become a producer and get your name mentioned on the show!

Sign up at www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com

 

The Grim Reaper

Nothing in life is guaranteed, except for death and taxes, as the old adage goes. We boldly circle April 15th  in red on our calendars so that it stands out like a swollen thumb. Of course, there is also the Internal Revenue Service here in the US, which has taken in over 3 trillion dollars in taxes from over 250 million taxpayers and felt that we aren’t paying enough and hired 87,000 more agents and gave them powers much like a government police force including lethal force. But we don’t need to be on that soap box today. 

 

What about death, though? The other certainty of being human is, for most of us, not quite as certain. Biologists define death as the complete cessation of all life processes, which eventually take place in all living organisms. Sadly, that description doesn't provide a clear picture. It doesn't describe what death feels like. How will you feel then? How will it look? What are our plans? Where are we headed?

 

The embodiment of death in a black robe and scythe in hand, the Grim Reaper, enters. We all know of this deity and its so-called motivations. It approaches everyone while watching for the last sand particle to fall, holding an hourglass in its hand. When that happens, it cuts the soul free with a razor-sharp slice that it has perfected over time. Although it may not be a pretty picture, it is distinct and obvious.

 

Putting a human face on the idea of death is ultimately the Grim Reaper's "job." But why did people feel the need to give the Grim Reaper such a gloomy appearance? Why not turn him into a welcoming and useful tour guide for the underworld? Why must he also be a man, for that matter?

 

We'll examine the Grim Reaper's history, the symbolism attached to his appearance, and how he's portrayed in other cultures. We'll also look at how the Reaper has been depicted in literature, film, and art. When we're done, you'll understand the identity of the Grim Reaper, his methods, and most crucially, the reason for his existence (should you see him prowling around your deathbed).

 

As Lewis Carroll once said, it's best to begin at the beginning. And for the Grim Reaper, the beginning can be found in the creation myths present in all cultures.

 

Death itself must exist before the Grim Reaper, a personification of death, can exist. Humans were initially formed as immortal creatures who descended from their level of perfection in almost all civilizations and religions. The Bible's most famous example is the story of Adam and Eve's fall. The Book of Genesis claims that God made Adam and Eve to care for the world He had made and to help populate it. The Garden of Eden was a paradise where the first man and woman resided. Adam was instructed by God to tend to the garden and gather fruit from all the trees, with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately, Eve was duped into eating the fruit by Satan, who was speaking via a serpent. She then gave Adam the fruit, who consumed it as well despite being aware that it was wrong. Adam and Eve died physically and spiritually as a result of defying God.

 

In other religions, people were formed as mortals who made valiant attempts to become immortal but failed. This tale is told in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh, a character from Mesopotamian literature, was the progeny of a goddess and a human ruler. Gilgamesh, however, was still a mortal being, just like his closest buddy Enkidu. When Enkidu passes away, the great hero is troubled by the idea of dying and embarks on a mission to become immortal. He meets Utnapishtim, a man who has been granted eternal life by the gods, during his travels. Gilgamesh is promised immortality by Utnapishtim if he can last a week without sleeping. Gilgamesh eventually nods off, but Utnapishtim still gives him a plant that can restore its owner's health. Any hopes Gilgamesh had of becoming eternal are dashed when the plant is devoured by a hungry snake on the way home.

 

Gilgamesh returns home in the mythology of Mesopotamia and joyfully accepts his life as a mortal man. But most people aren't that laid back. The thought of our own mortality disturbs us. Everything we accomplish is constantly plagued by the shadow of death. Research supports this. According to a 2022 survey, 20% of Americans over the age of 50 experience anxiety when they consider their afterlife. 53 percent of respondents think ghosts or spirits exist, and 73 percent think there is life after death.

 

Undoubtedly, and as it has been for thousands of years, what happens to us as we die, as well as what occurs after we die, is a huge issue. Humans use a tried-and-true strategy: they give death a form they are familiar with in order to make sense of dying and mortality. As a result, a vague, invisible phenomenon becomes a concrete, observable phenomenon. You can comprehend death if you see a familiar face in it. Better yet, if you can put your anxieties aside and perceive death as a kind, gentle face.

 

It can, of course, also go the other way. Looking at death might reveal a frightful countenance. The terrifying visage of the Grim Reaper arose following a particularly trying period in human history, as we'll discover in the following section.

 

Why not give death a kind face if you're going to give it a human one? The Greeks adopted that strategy and gave death the name Thanatos. Hypnos, the deity of sleep, and his twin brother Thanatos were both shown as attractive, young males. Thanatos is depicted in some images as having wings and a put out flame. He had the responsibility of going to Hades, the Greek underworld, with the deceased. There, Charon, the ferryman on the River Styx, would receive the souls from Thanatos. In this interpretation, death is lovely and beneficial rather than fearful and ugly.

 

There are also feminine variations of death. The Valkyries were depicted as stunning young women in Norse mythology who carried soldiers' souls to their afterlife as well as acting as messengers for Odin. In actuality, the word "Valkyries" refers to "slain's choosers." They would ride on winged horses during battle and pick intrepid soldiers to perish by scouting the battlefield. They would then deliver these spirits to Odin's realm, Valhalla. The valiant spirits were recruited to participate in the terrible struggle known as Ragnarok after they reached the afterlife.

 

The Valkyries are comparable to angels, who serve as a spiritual bridge between God and people. Angels provide messages to mankind or defend them in some myths. In other tales, they converse with the dead and torture the sinners. Many religions and civilizations feature the Angel of Death, a spirit that removes a person's soul from the body at the moment of death. In Judeo-Christian tradition, the archangels Michael and Gabriel have served as death angels. The Islamic Angel of Death known as Azrael can occasionally be seen as a terrifying ghost with eyes and tongues covering every inch of his body. Every soul in the world has a birth and a death recorded in a vast ledger that Azrael keeps updated.

 

By the Middle Ages, the Angel of Death had been conceptually ingrained in both European religion and culture. But in the latter half of the 14th century, an epidemic occurrence changed how the common person perceived and reacted to death. The plague of the Middle Ages, one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, was that occurrence. The initial plague outbreak claimed at least 25 million lives, while subsequent plague outbreaks that recurred for centuries resulted in millions more deaths [source: National Geographic]. Fear swept the entire continent: fear of death, fear of an unknown epidemic, fear of the agony of the disease's late stages, when the skin on a victim's extremities grew black and gangrenous. All activities were characterized by a morbid atmosphere, which also had an impact on the period's writers and painters.

 

Unsurprisingly, skeletons started to represent death in artwork at this time. In reality, the skeletal form of death was frequently depicted in a similar manner by painters. He was frequently pictured with a crossbow, dart, or other weapon. These tools would eventually give way to the scythe, a mowing instrument with a long, curved blade attached at an angle to a long handle. Many artworks depicted the hereafter chopping down souls like grain by swinging its scythe through a throng of humanity. A young woman would occasionally stand at the grave to serve as a reminder of the connection between life and death. The idea that death might communicate with the living and lure them into the hereafter was another prevalent one. Due of this, skeletons are depicted dancing and having fun with people from all walks of life in the Dance of Death, also known as Danse Macabre.

 

These post-plague images of death led to the creation of the Grim Reaper. We'll look at the significance of his form and physique on the following page.

 

The Grim Reaper is an incredibly symbolic figure. When he eventually arrives, the items he is carrying and even the clothes he is wearing will reveal something about his character and his objectives. Let's examine some of the symbolism one symbol at a time.

 

Skeletons and skulls. It was common to observe piles of decaying bodies as the disease spread through Europe and Asia. One in five Londoners perished during the Great Plague of London, which struck the city between 1665 and 1666 [source: National Geographic]. Given how common death and dying are, it is reasonable that artists and illustrators started to represent death in the form of a corpse or skeleton. The skeleton figure serves as a metaphor for the decomposition of human flesh—what remains after worms and maggots have done their dirty work. It also feeds into one of the biggest concerns that people have: the dread of annihilation.

 

Black cloak. Black has long been connected to loss and gloom. Funeral attendees dress in black, and black hearses are used to transport the deceased. Black, however, is frequently associated with bad energies. The Reaper exudes mystery and danger thanks to his dark cloak. The Reaper hides beneath the shadows of his cloak, playing off our fears of the unknown because the things we can't see worry us just as much as the things we can see.

 

Scythe. The Reaper is seen clutching arrows, darts, spears, or crossbows in early depictions. These are the tools he use to kill his victim. A scythe eventually took the place of these other tools of killing. A scythe was an implement used for cutting grass or reaping grain. It made sense for this symbol to be put to death in an agricultural community where harvesting in the fall signified the end of a year. Death harvests souls for their passage into the hereafter in a similar manner to how we harvest our crops.

 

Hourglass. Sand pours from the upper to bottom glass bulb of the traditional hourglass over the course of an hour. It has endured into the digital age as a reminder to be patient as our computer loads a Web page or executes a command because it is such a potent representation of time and how it passes. Additionally, the Grim Reaper holds an hourglass, reminding us that time is running out. Our time is up when the sand is gone. We can only pray that we have more time to live than an hour.

 

It was so common to see this representation of the Grim Reaper in religious writings. The Book of Revelation in the Bible provides the best illustration. Four horsemen appear in Revelation 6:1–8 to bring about tragedies signifying the end of the world. Pestilence, war, famine, and death are the four horsemen. Only Death is expressly mentioned out of the four. He is seated on a pale horse, which is frequently mistaken for pale green, the hue of illness and decay. Most often, Death is portrayed as the Reaper himself, with a grimacing skull and scythe in hand, ready for the gory labor that lies ahead.

 

The Grim Reaper is still a popular subject for writers today. We'll examine at a few instances of the Reaper in popular culture in the section that follows.

 

Without a doubt, the Grim Reaper makes a fantastic character, which explains why he has long been a part of myths and legends. One typical tale, known as the "cheating death" tale, describes a person who tries to deceive the Grim Reaper in order to avoid dying. A well-known illustration is "The Legend of Rabbi Ben Levi" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Death for the holy man in Longfellow's poem arrives with the somber proclamation, "Lo! the time approaches near/When thou must die." Can I hold the sword of death? the rabbi enquiries. The rabbi receives the weapon from Death, who hurriedly flees and hides until God can step in to save him. Ben Levi is not killed when God appears, but the rabbi is instructed to give the sword back to its rightful owner.

 

Other influential works, such the Danse Macabre, or Dance of Death, a sort of drama that appeared after the Black Death, have established our contemporary understanding of the Reaper. These plays were intended to help churchgoers accept the certainty of death. A victim's encounter with death, symbolized as a skeleton, was portrayed in the performance, which typically took place in a cemetery or churchyard. The victim makes various justifications for why his life should be saved, but these are rejected, and death eventually follows him away with an entourage of other skeletal creatures. Several German engravers, like Bernt Notke and Hans Holbein, found that the scenes from this play made for interesting themes. These artists' prints depicted dancing skeletons amid people from all social classes as a message that nobody, not even royalty, could avoid death.

 

Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" has had a similar impact on current culture. The 1957 movie is about Antonius Block, a knight who returns from the Crusades to discover that the disease has killed many of his countrymen. Max von Sydow plays Antonius Block in the role. Block is also awaited by Death, who is portrayed by Bengt Ekerot. Having reached a standstill, the knight challenges Death to a game of chess, which Block ultimately loses. The image of Ekerot's Death, a menacing white visage disguised beneath a black cloak, endures so vividly despite the story's unsettling nature.

 

The Grim Reaper also plays a key role in the following works:

 

• "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a song released by Blue Öyster Cult in 1976 and now regarded as a rock classic
• "Because I could not stop for Death," a poem by Emily Dickinson, in which the narrator shares a carriage ride with Death
• "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, in which the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, cloaked and skeletal, appears to show Scrooge how he will die
• The Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, which feature Death as an ally of mankind
• The Sandman by Neil Gaiman, a groundbreaking series of comic books in which Death appears as a girl
• "Death Takes a Holiday," a 1934 film about Death's decision to take a break from his normal business to see what it's like being mortal; a 1998 remake, "Meet Joe Black," starred Brad Pitt in the role of Death.
• "Scream," a 1996 homage to slasher flicks in which a murderous teen stalks his victims in a Reaper-like costume
• "Dead Like Me," a Showtime series that explores the lives (or afterlives) of a group of grim reapers who walk among the living

 

Whether he is funny or terrifying, a man or a woman, the Grim Reaper will probably always be a part of our pop culture diet. The Reaper will calmly wait in the shadows and come for each of us in the end, even if storytellers grow weary of dealing with death and dying.

 

Lastly, we thought since we are talking about the personification of death, we should also include some theories as to what happens after we die. Let’s see how many you, the listeners, agree with; and how many we think are stupid and illogical. Let's begin!

 

10. Excretion 

The idea that the universe is actually one enormous brain of a higher species has been around for many years. In certain containers, it might be one or more brains. This hypothesis states that the solar system is merely a brain cell. Humans are insignificant components of this cell as well. For that enormous brain, our thousands of millions of years of history occurred in a fraction of a second. Let's examine what it says on life after death. How are our own dead cells handled? They are discarded after being sloughed off. Similar things will happen to us if we are a small piece of a vast mind. That is, the universe will leave our consciousness where it dumps its waste when we pass away. Oh, how disgusting. I am aware that this notion is a little unusual and a little challenging to understand, but that is only because we do not fully understand it.

 

Just like that, my life became meaningless.

 

9. You enter the cosmic consciousness

 

Life: What is it? Knowing the answer to this question is crucial. We are conscious of our existence and are fully in charge of our own thinking. Only 20 watts of power are required for this by our brain. Most light bulbs use more electricity than that because this power is so low. Biologists are still unable to properly explain how our brain makes every decision so precisely. Our area of expertise is consciousness, but we do not understand its origin. And where does it go after we pass away? In accordance with Sir Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff's orchestrated objective reduction theory of the mind, coherent quantum processes in clusters of microtubules within brain neurons are biologically "orchestrated" to produce consciousness. You can imagine this universe as a sea of consciousness, according to this notion. Human mind originates from this place and travels back there once we die. Consciousness connects all things in the cosmos. You can think of it like this: If you think of the universe as a sea, then our consciousness would be a wave. It remains on the ground for some time before going back. The conclusion is that after we die, our consciousness returns to the universe, where it may remain eternally or it may temporarily inhabit another body.

 

Our consciousness is therefore deeply ingrained in the cosmos and is inherently perplexing.

 

8. Being Human Is just One Level

 

Reincarnation theory holds that after we die, our souls transfer into new bodies, giving rise to a subsequent birth. Dr. Ian Stevenson has studied incarnation and looked into countless instances of young people claiming to have lived before. He established the Division of Perceptual Studies at the University of Virginia and was an academic psychiatrist. He describes incarnation as the "survival of personality after death" at times. Along with genes and environment, he thinks it can provide a plausible justification for a variety of personality traits, including phobias. However, no one's allegations have been shown to be true. When this notion first emerged, little was understood about the universe's complexity and mysticism. Because of this, they only thought that our spirit may reincarnate in a different body on earth. What if your soul has a different physical body somewhere else in the universe? What if your spirit adopts a shape that we are unaware of rather than moving into a new body? This idea holds that our Souls or conscious entities can travel anyplace in the cosmos. This implies that you could once more be a person, a cool alien, a pointless insect, or something else else. In reality, we have no idea who or what we will be after we no longer exist as humans.

 

7. The Universe Ends

 

Can you demonstrate the reality of this world and the cosmos? The likelihood is that you will affirm and provide the objects and people in your environment with proof. However, according to the solipsistic hypothesis, there is nothing outside of your mind and brain. For you, what you see and hear is accurate, but you can never establish the veracity of the people in your immediate vicinity. Let's use GTA 5 as an example. When you are at a specific location in this game, everything around you is functional. There are other close residents there, so nothing strange is happening to you. What about the locations where you are not? Actually, those places didn't exist back then. According to this hypothesis, there is no other life in the cosmos besides you. Therefore, the universe stops existing after you pass away. That implies that every person you know and love likewise vanishes. Simply said, everything and everyone is a projection of your subconscious mind.

 

Therefore, take another look at the world and stop griping about pointless things. After all, you are the one who made it all.

 

6. Life Starts over again

 

I'm sure you've experienced this at least once in your life. that a location or person appears familiar to you, despite the fact that you've never been there or interacted with them before. This is known as déjà-vu. What if everything feels familiar? That implies that your life keeps repeating itself? Therefore, it appears that you may be familiar with that location or that individual. Two things could lead to this. First of all, your life is like a movie that never ends. Second: Although your life is repeated, you always have more influence over it. This reminds me a lot of the film Groundhog Day. Obviously, there are some significant differences; in this case, life restarts after death rather than after a day, and you have significantly less influence than in the film. Therefore, have luckier next time, bro. God knows how many times we are experiencing a life (which stinks) without even realizing it is a déjà-vu.

 

You have successfully entered a loop.

 

5. The Dreamer Wakes Up

 

It's entirely possible that our existence is nothing more than a creature's dream, despite the fact that this may sound like some made-up stories from the 1980s. You must have all had dreams. Only until we wake up do we know that dreams were just illusions. We become unable to distinguish between reality and dreams. Since dreams come from our own subconscious minds, their reality may or may not be in question. Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion author Gregg Levoy concurs. And some of the most well-known concepts in the modern world, including Google, the Theory of Relativity, the first periodic table, etc., had their origins in dreams. Thus, it is possible for dreams to be quite real. So it's possible that we wake up in the "actual" world after we pass away. very similar to Inception The subject of what occurs when a dreaming creature passes away now arises. For the time being, there is no clear response to this query. We have no idea if the person who is waking up from sleep is a soul, a human, or something else entirely.

 

4. You Get Re-programmed

 

This hypothesis proposes that our world is a computer simulation. The most prevalent option on this list is this. It's likely that you have heard of this before. Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher, made the initial suggestion in 2003. It contends that either all intelligent species perish before being able to produce an ancestor simulation or choose not to do so for some reason. Or perhaps we are merely acting out a simulation. In the event that we are simulations of our ancestors, our Consciousness is programmed. We play a very small part in the simulation. So, after erasing your memories, our programmer can transport us to a different space and time in the simulation when we pass away. They only need to make a few tweaks as they already have our base code. It is really difficult to foresee what those programmers will perform. They have a wide range of options at their disposal. What a blast?

 

3. Our Consciousness Is Unreal

 

The simulation hypothesis is also related to this notion. Avoid saying, "There are two theories on the same hypothesis." Theo Musk believes that the odds of us actually living in the "true" world are one billion to one. It is completely believable. This side, though, is substantially darker. As your "Consciousness" is merely programming, we lack our own free will. We appear to be operating according to a code. They are free to run or remove your code whenever they wish. They might have entered your code the last time you closed your eyes. While you slept last night, all of your memories were implanted in you. Even though it has only been a few hours, you suddenly believe you have been this person for years. They can also alter or remove your code the next time you go to bed. Depending on what they need, they could simply "remove" you from the simulation or completely change who you are. This reminds me a lot of Westworld. In this case, a fictitious universe is made, and characters are formed with certain duties allocated to them. We all contribute to some larger narratives. By simply adding new memories of a different location and possibly even time to the code, they can change the role of any person according to their needs. Everything you believe yourself to be is merely an illusion. Therefore, all that we are is a collection of 0s and 1s. And we carry out our pre-programmed actions.

 

We can at least be glad that our life, despite appearing to have no purpose, has helped our creators in some way. Or why did they even decide to make us?

 

2. Death Is An Illusion

 

Humans are the only animals on Earth with understanding of time, in contrast to other animals. We are aware that Time can only advance in units of days, months, or years. But is it really this time of day? The concept of time that we have today was developed by humans. Anything we believe about time could be incorrect. We think that time always flows like a river's stream. It is not required for the Universe to function in the same manner that we perceive time to function. Along with the present, the past and the future also exist in the cosmos, but we are not able to view them. Imagine that consciousness is the projecting light that causes us to see the film and that reality is a film strip. We are unable to notice the light unless a frame is placed in front of it. Its presence, however, cannot be disputed. The same principles govern Time and Reality. The past and future are not visible to us, but they coexist with the present. Three-dimensional space-time surrounds us and binds us. So how does this relate to death? You don't actually die. Death is just a fantasy. Because you are unable to exist in frames where you are dead, you must always exist in frames where you are living. Just that other people think you are dead because this does not hinder ‘their’ existence.

 

1. Anything is Possible

 

About what happens after death, we cannot be certain. The many-worlds interpretation hypothesis postulates that there are an almost unlimited number of realities. There are countless parallel universes, each containing every conceivable concept. There is a universe where you are a billionaire, Hillary won the election, and I am reading this essay you wrote. Therefore, in some universes, anything is conceivable after death. Reincarnation occurs in some universes, or heaven and hell exist in some as well. In some universes, after we pass away, we become zombies, whereas in others, we simply pass away. In some alternate universe, all of the aforementioned theories are plausible. We simply don't know what universe we reside in, or perhaps it hasn't been determined yet. You might pass away in the cosmos or theory you hold dear. According to the solipsism theory, your universe will come to an end when you pass away. Anything is possible, after all.