Don't you think having dementia or Alzheimer's is like being enlightened?

Deleted Account · Aug 20, 2021

TheWigglesSentToSpace said: ↑

Having dementia isn't being brain dead. It's just an inability to remember things. It has similarities to the state of enlightenment because of it's relationship to the past. In dementia, the past is often forgotten. In an awakened or enlightened state, the past while remembered, ceases to have any actionable power over the present. So yes the two states are different but they approach the same point. Dementia could be said to be a pathological approximation of the state of enlightenment.

In my own case my grandmother suffered from dementia for several years before she eventually passed on. While it was painful to see how she forgot about all of us, she actually became a kinder, more loving and more intensely alive person because of it. Before her dementia she was very opinionated and very bigoted. She was the kind of person that would yell at the tv all the time because she passionately hated this person or that person. There was a lot of poison there but when she had trouble remembering things that all disappeared. I don't think it was only because she forgot. I think it was because her state forced her to see beyond her conditioning and she realized that she was more than her mind, that she was the awareness behind that mind and that all the stuff she got so angry about didn't really matter in the end. So she was able to to let it all go.

I'm in no way saying having dementia is being enlightened. I'm just intrigued by the similarities. And I think having dementia can push you to an awakened state if you work with it.
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Honestly... I think you're heavily invested in this concept of being enlightened. Because while what you wrote sounds really beautiful...
People tend to be nicer when they're out of their mind.
As much as people can become angry and disconcerted when they have dementia... I'm sure they can also become more "positive" or "nicer." And yet the same can be said about people who are drunk or high.
And it would be nice to say that when I smoke weed I'm unplugged from the matrix and I'm "tapping into a higher level of consciousness"...
At the end of the day I'm just high.

It's unfortunate that it has to take being out of one's mind for some people (like myself) to be more overall pleasant people... but on the flipside she could have become worse. And if that were the case— would you be on here talking about enlightenment?

TheWigglesSentToSpace · Aug 21, 2021

determinedtoquit said: ↑

Honestly... I think you're heavily invested in this concept of being enlightened. Because while what you wrote sounds really beautiful...
People tend to be nicer when they're out of their mind.
As much as people can become angry and disconcerted when they have dementia... I'm sure they can also become more "positive" or "nicer." And yet the same can be said about people who are drunk or high.
And it would be nice to say that when I smoke weed I'm unplugged from the matrix and I'm "tapping into a higher level of consciousness"...
At the end of the day I'm just high.

It's unfortunate that it has to take being out of one's mind for some people (like myself) to be more overall pleasant people... but on the flipside she could have become worse. And if that were the case— would you be on here talking about enlightenment?
Click to expand...

I think it's a bit of a condemnation of our culture when you consider, as you said, that people are nicer when out of their minds. Maybe we all are out of our minds already we just think we are sane because it's an illness we all share.

It's true she could have become worse. Not denying it, though I have no personal experience with angry people with dementia. And no if she had stayed angry or got angrier I wouldn't have made this thread. But I think that dementia approximates enlightenment to an extent that makes it easier for people to open up to it if they are open to it. As you said, sometimes it takes a disaster to become a more pleasant person and dementia is a personal disaster that can do that. It all depends on how you respond to it.

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Don't you think having dementia or Alzheimer's is like being enlightened?

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