Does Dementia affect the soul?

[lozz]

I hope this is the right place for this, if not please feel free to move it Mod's :)

I sat a course on Dementia this week and i must say it was extremely interesting . Especially finding out how all the different sections/lobes of the brain control the physical and theoretical functions.

The lecturer informed us that the health authorities are bringing in new legislation, that will make it compulsory for people like myself that care for people with Dementia , to hold a certificate in Dementia awareness. This is important and necessary as they have projected a substantial increase in Dementia over the next 10 years. (this is apparently due to people living longer and having less children so more money is being moved to the older generations and the ailments they will suffer. (this on its own is a whole other discussion)

There is no effective cure to Dementia even though doctors persist in prescribing named drugs that dont help the problem but bring many worse side effects to sufferers. its a sad problem.....(doctors simply go through the list of drugs with trial and error, but studies have shown these drugs to have no positive effect)

There are many aspects that i found incredible and frustrating but what hit me most is when your suffering Dementia, and your braincells are dieing making it harder for you to convey your feelings, how does this affect your soul? if at all...

After all these people are still going through there life experience as we are but with the slowly increasing disconnection with the world that they are in how does this effect the really person inside that?

I feel i need to understand this better so i can help them the best way i can.

Any theories and in site is gratefully accepted :)

[particlezen]

I hope this is the right place for this, if not please feel free to move it Mod's :)

I sat a course on Dementia this week and i must say it was extremely interesting . Especially finding out how all the different sections/lobes of the brain control the physical and theoretical functions.

The lecturer informed us that the health authorities are bringing in new legislation, that will make it compulsory for people like myself that care for people with Dementia , to hold a certificate in Dementia awareness. This is important and necessary as they have projected a substantial increase in Dementia over the next 10 years. (this is apparently due to people living longer and having less children so more money is being moved to the older generations and the ailments they will suffer. (this on its own is a whole other discussion)

There is no effective cure to Dementia even though doctors persist in prescribing named drugs that dont help the problem but bring many worse side effects to sufferers. its a sad problem.....(doctors simply go through the list of drugs with trial and error, but studies have shown these drugs to have no positive effect)

There are many aspects that i found incredible and frustrating but what hit me most is when your suffering Dementia, and your braincells are dieing making it harder for you to convey your feelings, how does this affect your soul? if at all...

After all these people are still going through there life experience as we are but with the slowly increasing disconnection with the world that they are in how does this effect the really person inside that?

I feel i need to understand this better so i can help them the best way i can.

Any theories and in site is gratefully accepted :)

I also experienced this idealogical quandry whilst working on an Organic assessment ward.

The dissolution of memory and personality in dementia challenges our perceptions of identity and self. We are literally composed of memories, experiences, dreams...

However, these things are the product of the brain, body and biological function.

Dualist/Cartesian perspectives on mind-body separation view the soul as something entirely unconnected... so whilst someone with dementia may lose their cognitive function, their ability to process, express or react to the sensory environment, their "soul", or essence of being is unaffected because what we perceive as our identity is merely a product of bodily awareness, a personality construct.

You would not, for instance, consider a new-born baby to be soulless simply because they have no memories, experiences or personality.

Someone with dementia is effectively regressing to this child-like "empty" state of sensory awareness.

[lozz]

Thank you for that great response particlezen :)

Your last two sentences struck me most and yes you are right, you certainly wouldn't consider someone that was detached from the sensory world or with undeveloped sensory connections to be any less soulful than those fully connected...

So in retrospect, is the process of disconnecting infact a freeing of the soul to some degree?

...it can be painfully difficult to communicate and interpret the feelings of someone with developed dementia... It's almost like needing to learn a new language...

[merlincove]

Hi Lozz

Well, what a great question :-) and very thought provoking.

unlike yourself and particlezen i have no professional links with those who suffer from dimentia.

i don't actually see how there could be a cogniscant link between soul and a collapse of understanding within the physical realm, as the two are very seperate - as has been said.

The internal fire that drives us, the energy we call the soul, would not be affected by an arm amputation or any other physical dissability, and if we are to look at the brain as a physical concept of the human body then i feel the soul would not be affected by activities, or a lack of activity in that section of the physicality.

When we look at an amputees arura, for instance, we can see that the missing physical representation remains inatct on an energetic level - the aura will still have an arm despite the physical arm not being there.

i feel that the power of soul will remain in the same way and will be unafected by any issues within physicality.

i know this is perhaps an airy fairy response, given that you work in the medical field.

My patrner had a friend who resently passed with dementia, although he passed because of a number of strokes, he had been admited into hospital many months earlier with early signs of dementia. I find that i often work with spirit and one day sensed his energy in our shop, he presented himself to me as an elderly gentleman, his eyes were bright and he was full of smiles. i had never met him in life, and Karen said that he didn't believe in life after death, that he was a 'this is all there is' believer, and his message proved to Karen that he was very much 'there' and that he was happy to be - he showed no signs of dimentia and was as bright as a button :-)

It was a lovelly experience for both myself and Karen, and i hope you don't mind me posting it here for you?

i hope it helps?

[ustane]

Hi Lozz

My mother has dementia and regresses to places she lived in as a child and has spoken of her mother asking where she is even though she passed on before I was born. The dying brain cells are part of the body-computer that is breaking down and would not affect the consciousness which is Infinite Awareness. Sometimes she is very lucid and spot-on and capable of a deep conversation with me about right-brained big issues and can show intuition/knowing, other times she will ask the same question over and over and lose the plot. I think dementia has been created and orchestrated, it makes a lot of money via the care home costs and the drugs, it suppresses consciousness. The drugs won't help, and aluminium, fluoride, mercury etc I think they're causing it and as you say there has been an increase in dementia. The Soul is Infinite Awareness, not affected by dementia which is coming from a damage body-computer, but that Infinite Awareness finds it harder to express itself in its impaired computer vehicle

[hagbard_celine]

Hi Lozz

My mother has dementia and regresses to places she lived in as a child and has spoken of her mother asking where she is even though she passed on before I was born. The dying brain cells are part of the body-computer that is breaking down and would not affect the consciousness which is Infinite Awareness. Sometimes she is very lucid and spot-on and capable of a deep conversation with me about right-brained big issues and can show intuition/knowing, other times she will ask the same question over and over and lose the plot. I think dementia has been created and orchestrated, it makes a lot of money via the care home costs and the drugs, it suppresses consciousness. The drugs won't help, and aluminium, fluoride, mercury etc I think they're causing it and as you say there has been an increase in dementia. The Soul is Infinite Awareness, not affected by dementia which is coming from a damage body-computer, but that Infinite Awareness finds it harder to express itself in its impaired computer vehicle

I've often wondered if the geriatric dementia state, which all nearly modern people suffer if they live to a suffient age, is a natural part of the human condition. In the past people's lifespans were shorter, but we lived far more active lives, well into old age and did not age significantly until the last few years of our lives. Are we being embalmed alive by pharmaceutials?:confused: It's certainly true that in the last decade of our lives we tend to consume many times the amount of phamraceutical drugs that we do in the entire rest of our lives years. I'm certainly not suggesting involuntary euthaniasia, but I do wonder of humans are being kept alive to unaturally long lifespans to provide a market for pharmaceutical corporations, or even other more sinister agendas like medical experimentation. All the time you hear the fallacy of how a nations health is judged by how long its average lifespan is:confused:.

[ustane]

I've often wondered if the geriatric dementia state, which all nearly modern people suffer if they live to a suffient age, is a natural part of the human condition. In the past people's lifespans were shorter, but we lived far more active lives, well into old age and did not age significantly until the last few years of our lives. Are we being embalmed alive by pharmaceutials?:confused: It's certainly true that in the last decade of our lives we tend to consume many times the amount of phamraceutical drugs that we do in the entire rest of our lives years. I'm certainly not suggesting involuntary euthaniasia, but I do wonder of humans are being kept alive to unaturally long lifespans to provide a market for pharmaceutical corporations, or even other more sinister agendas like medical experimentation. All the time you hear the fallacy of how a nations health is judged by how long its average lifespan is:confused:.

Yes, it would appear to me we are being preserved alive by pharmaceuticals, maybe to provide Big Pharma's market but I think it is for something more unnatural. Perhaps experimentation (you've got cloning); but more to hold us trapped in frail bodies and to generate struggle and fear and be held in a cycle of bondage to the matrix.

[hagbard_celine]

Yes, it would appear to me we are being preserved alive by pharmaceuticals, maybe to provide Big Pharma's market but I think it is for something more unnatural. Perhaps experimentation (you've got cloning); but more to hold us trapped in frail bodies and to generate struggle and fear and be held in a cycle of bondage to the matrix.


Good point:cool:. Yes, the more we can be tortured while we're contained in our physical bodies the less likely we will escape when we're fianlly released. This is also why they don't "take people out" who threaten the system, like David.

[merlincove]

Nice post hagbard, and i think nails have been hit well and trully on their heads :-)

blessings to you :-)

[aee02]

I'm so glad someone posted about this in the medical and spiritual perspectives. My Granny of whom I was very close to passed away this year. She was 93 and had dementia. It was so hard to watch her deteriorate over the years. She would recognize me but I could see the fear in her eyes as she was lost.

My curisosity is about the soul after death. I have an interest in NDE's. I have heard where people who could not walk or could not see etc. had these perceived functions after death.

I don't have any claim to psychic abilities but I have noticed with working with older folks volunteering in my community that I have become more sensitive. I have been in the presence of some who passed and each experience is different. When my Granny passed I felt like she "lingered" for a while. I wondered if it was because of the dementia or if I misunderstood because I was so close to it.

I also want to say thanks to the folks who work with the older generations. I think about the people who looked after my Granny and I am just so blessed there are caring people out there called to it. Thank you.

[xpleet]

Host-consciousnesses (spirits) are like captives to the physical mind/body. All senses of the body are like a downgrade of what you have in the astral-state.
Although the programming you catch on through your whole life leave an immediate imprint after death (you will be the same person) all these physical limitations no longer apply.
Whatever you couldn't do in your physical state you will be able to if you just 'will' yourself to.
It is a big problem that people from this horrible society often don't realize when they are dead and remain for centuries in their immediate state of mind before death.

[lostinstrangeworld]

In regards to the first post, apparently not, according to Juliet Nightingale who runs this radio show:

http://www.towardthelight.org/

[hagbard_celine]

In regards to the first post, apparently not, according to Juliet Nightingale who runs this radio show:

http://www.towardthelight.org/

She's brilliant.:) I love her shows.

What a strange accent she has; I can't place it.:confused:

[hagbard_celine]

Nice post hagbard, and i think nails have been hit well and trully on their heads :-)

blessings to you :-)

Thanks, Merlincove. You too.:)

[lostinstrangeworld]

She's brilliant.:) I love her shows.

What a strange accent she has; I can't place it.:confused:

She's a very kind lady too.

[hagbard_celine]

She's a very kind lady too.

Yeah, she wrote back to me when I told her about Jacob's Ladder.

[lozz]

I'm stunned and brought to tears here just reading all your great replies.

Thank you to those that felt comfortable to share their feelings and experiences :)

I was lead into the field of caring through my life experience and not by career choice and i cant help but feel the people in my care are like a second family to me and the majority of the people i work with too. It's an interesting observation that the vast majority of people that are in the care profession that I've encountered have lost significant people in their lives and most often their Mothers, as i have, as well as my Father and step Father.

aee02, i'm so sorry for your loss *sympathetic hug*. As you have experienced the difference in each passing so have I, and its quite amazing to be a part of this process when its a natural one.

I was once blessed with the gift of witnessing the soul leaving a gentleman and this was proven to me because i then saw it re enter him again. It sounds fantastical but i don't mean i "saw" with my eyes but i saw the effect the absences of his essence had on his body and then it was re affirmed by how his whole body and feeling around him changed when he effectively re entered my good friend. I feel this was a gift just for me to help me understand. And i must tell you it was a serene and peaceful thing but proved to me the complete separate nature of the body and soul.


My patrner had a friend who resently passed with dementia, although he passed because of a number of strokes, he had been admited into hospital many months earlier with early signs of dementia. I find that i often work with spirit and one day sensed his energy in our shop, he presented himself to me as an elderly gentleman, his eyes were bright and he was full of smiles. i had never met him in life, and Karen said that he didn't believe in life after death, that he was a 'this is all there is' believer, and his message proved to Karen that he was very much 'there' and that he was happy to be - he showed no signs of dimentia and was as bright as a button :-)

It was a lovelly experience for both myself and Karen, and i hope you don't mind me posting it here for you?

i hope it helps?

Oh Merlincove, thank you for telling us this. Tell me at what stage was your partners friend when you had this experience?

I just want so much to communicate in the best way with these people. Their families rely on me and the other girls that work with me to do the best for their loved ones, and they come to us for support and expect us to have all the answers...I'm fully aware that every person is different and their passing experience and core essence is unique, but to help them have the fullest life experience to the end is whats important to me :)

Again thank you all so much for sharing and contributing X

[lozz]

In regards to the first post, apparently not, according to Juliet Nightingale who runs this radio show:

http://www.towardthelight.org/

Well well....

I've recently been told by a psychic that i will become a Reiki healer....as i'm a firm follower of the path thats placed before me and believer of the synchronicities that lead us forward i've been open minded to this and waiting for Reiki to step into my path :)

I've just clicked your link to have a look and there it is :) http://www.towardthelight.org/services/reikiremotehealing.html

Thank you for helping me to the next step x

[merlincove]

Well well....

I've recently been told by a psychic that i will become a Reiki healer....as i'm a firm follower of the path thats placed before me and believer of the synchronicities that lead us forward i've been open minded to this and waiting for Reiki to step into my path :)

I've just clicked your link to have a look and there it is :) http://www.towardthelight.org/services/reikiremotehealing.html

Thank you for helping me to the next step x



Go with Reiki Lozz, it is brilliant :-)




I'm stunned and brought to tears here just reading all your great replies.


Oh Merlincove, thank you for telling us this. Tell me at what stage was your partners friend when you had this experience?

I just want so much to communicate in the best way with these people. Their families rely on me and the other girls that work with me to do the best for their loved ones, and they come to us for support and expect us to have all the answers...I'm fully aware that every person is different and their passing experience and core essence is unique, but to help them have the fullest life experience to the end is whats important to me :)

Again thank you all so much for sharing and contributing X

Lozz i am not sure i understand fully what you are asking; in life Karen's friend was in the early stages of dementia, he was forgetting things like who he was and his way around, becoming increasingly unsure of the world around him. I feel that his strokes were a culmination of the stresses he was feeling, as well as other factors.

When i had the experience of meeting with him, he had been passed for only a few weeks, his energy was almost playfull - like a child with an adult body, there was a carefree attitude there, almost like he was enjoying exploring, enjoying having energy, enjoying being free of being lost and being free to just 'be'. He said to me, 'tell everyone, life is too short, don't waste time worrying, enjoy it, enjoy life.' And i am thankfull to him for bringing me that simple message, and allowing me to see him in that way.

i think in one respect that for me was a very similar learning experience as the one you mentioned. Spirit has a way of nudging us when we begin to doubt ourselves, and i feel that there was a nudge here for me, just as there was a nudge from your friend to you :-)

[lozz]

Sorry Merlincove, i got the impression from what you said that the friend came to you when they were still alive but suffering from dementia....i guess that would be amazing proof of the soul being separate and unsuppressed by the brains degeneration....

I found something yesterday that may be of help to others feeling like me...the film Iris. It's a true story of Iris Murdoch, she was an acclaimed thinker and writer and she suffered with Alzheimer's. It had me gripped as i related to the steps she went through and the feelings of the family and loved ones around her through her life.

I great help and amazing film: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(2001_film)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e3/Iris_poster.jpg/200px-Iris_poster.jpg