On death and inspiration

The word “inspire” means “to breathe in”. 

I became acutely aware of the literal meaning of the word when I read a safety warning about oxygen inspiration levels printed on the side of the incubator that was home to my daughter for the first days of her life. 

“Inspiration” is, literally, the process of drawing in energy through the breath.

I reflected on this word again last week at the funeral of a friend from university days. His death was a tragic case of someone with great talent and heart taken from life too young. 

But while people mourned this loss at his funeral, something else was very clear – people also felt inspired.

If there is one sentence in the Simunye Hypothesis that has attracted a lot of comment from friends and colleagues it is the statement that “death is the liberation of energy from form”. Many people seem to like this statement, take comfort from it and recognize that “death” is the counter-cycle to “life”, a process of organizing and maintaining energy within form.

David’s death seemed to unleash his own particular brand of energy over all who knew him.  People who breathed that in have become inspired by him.  


If this isn't an example of how one should properly understand "life after death", then I don’t know what is.  Click here if you need further explanation, Stephen Hawking.