Death itself is no experience..dying and living can be. Experience is no measure of wisdom, wisdom is the intelligence to make the things you have learned count. One of the wisest people I ever met was a 7 year old child who discussed with me the death of thier pet without a tear they said 'It's still alive in here *pointed to head* maybe I will have to live twice as much' ...With so little experience they still worked out one of the most powerful truths of death.

Whoever laid claim that experienced years could bring reason to anybodies chaos but ones own? Is that the prick of sarcasm in my side, Ssecret? (or are you just pleased to see me) My humble experience dictates the search brings more questions and with that, more possibilities only. A swim through the rhetorical tides until you can swallow a revelation.

I imbibe pain like a desert, it makes it no less desolate. It helps make empathy an oasis of counted blessings though.

I find life a much harsher companion then deaths somniferous embrace.

I don't think in my case death would make much difference in that case..I've somnambulated my way through my life so far..death might increase my cerebral activity with the inclusion of bacteria and a nice wormery.

Fear weaves such subtle shrouds for the living. And death a hasty snack?

If a person with multiple personalities suffers brain damage or some such incident and a personality ceases to be..shouldn't there be a funeral? or do they wait till they're all dead and inscribe all the names on the gravestone?

Here lies (insert apt title) Born at 8, Died at 18, Shall be sadly missed by all those concerned. Necessary in life, necessary in death. What more could you want.

Im probably missing the point, but I don't consider reason, experience, and guidance equal to wisdom. Experience to me, if you gain, lose, or even have no effect can still bring reason and guidance to an audience. Why else do we listen to others problems on these forums. If the 7 year old did not have the experience of the loss of his poor pet he would not have shared his insight or wisdom with you, and wouldn't be sharing with us

ah, the ensuing antagonism between the rhetoric and philosophy. I suppose wen i said the pain of death, i meant my own pain of life subconsciously destrying me. of course im pleased to see you, youve been nice to me even since i came on.

that is one theory, but what of the theories that death is just a beginning...

as for the multiple personality dying through brain damage, it would not be noticed, for a true mp person they are not even aware of the other personalities...they were designed as a defense mechanism...

"so sure is death to the living, and sure is birth to dead."

-Baghavad Gita

Here's One, who has actually had a mental breakdown. I have chemical depression, it runs in the family, woo! In my freshman year of high school, in the first year, i was very seriously depressed and almost had a psychotic break. Then I stopped taking everything so seriously... and here I am today, almost entirely sane!

sounds good, but how did you avoid a break just by lightening your perepective?

The power of humour is greatly underestimated.

Yes you did..well maybe ..You see it is through the narration and the understanding of the 'Meaning' inate in experience that wisdom or lessons can be taught.

If the child had told me 'My pets dead..it's sad...but i'll be ok' it wouldn't have been any great revelation..however the child told me thier viewpoint and interpretation of what thier experience meant and this was what was worth so much.

If a man lives to be 6722 years old and is able to instantly recall everything that's ever happened to him it will give him an advantage in similair situations..If however he is intelligent enough to take all this 'knowledge' and form 'ideas' around it that can be applied to any new situations that arise..usualy by generalising the answeres to the questions his past has thrown at him then he will have a huge amount of 'wisdom'...this would be like the difference between having a photo album with dates and a photo album with a paragraph per photo explaining how it came about etc.

obviously having just 'knowledge' takes up less space than having to turn it into 'wisdom' which is why most don't bother. In my case my memory is too short for great knowledge but i keep a small pearl of wisdom at all times so I can throw it at any puzzling questions.

i try to keep it in a hardcovered black binder. seems papers continously dissappeear without my consent.

sorry soulful, lost my sense of humour long ago

Well the thing was, i took everything seriously. I mean on top of caring about all of the world's problems and allt he things that "REALLY MATTER" I cared about all the thigns that didn't. My popularity, my grades, what i wore, what i listenned to, who i hung out with, what people thought of me. Now I jsut dropped all that other crap. I care about people being all right, but not at my expense. I care about things turning out for the best for as many folks as possible, but I really don;t care how it happens.

I care about achieving some sort of spiritual height, but when it happens isn't real important. I only care about my health to the extnt that I'm nto eating junk and am able to enjoy my life. I care about causing as little damage to the balance of the world as I can.

Oh, come on Guy, slow self destruction is so much more interesting.


SSecret, irony is such a short skip to actual humour....well a short skip a half turn, two stumbles and a hammy death, really.

well i laughed at that, maybe im getting there

I'm only 16, so give me time.