And How Fermentation Breaks Down Your Fear Into Freedom

I remember that last November day perfectly. It was freezing cold after the first snow had fallen in Tokyo in a long time while I was cuddling up nicely in my home.

My mind was racing between a hundred different things at the same time. Work had kept me pretty busy and the last thing I thought about was…

'Vzzzzzt!' 'Vzzzzzt!'

My mobile vibration signaled me: incoming message. The message was from 9 268 km away: My uncle had died.

Not that I was close to him, actually not at all. And I can’t explain why - but when the news broke I was so... emotional, shocked, moved. Thought of my aunt, how she had been with him all her life. Wondered how she’d cope without him. And how my three cousins would take it. How I’d not be at the funeral.

The fact is, I was so emotional that I honestly asked myself how I could justify being ‘over’-emotional. Having lived abroad for a while, I hadn’t seen my uncle in years and even back in Germany we’d only meet up at someone’s wedding - or funeral. It was sad news, and still is.

But was it the suddenness, that took me aback? You are right, now finish my sentence, please: The last thing I had thought about was: death. If so, by now the nature of death should’ve been burnt into my brain like a permanent reminder tattooed under my skin. Was it the circumstances? It was tragic that it happened when he was on his way home from a health check, and that he had to leave us “just for a rabbit running and getting entangled in his moped on a countryside road”. Underlying homesickness might have played into my emotions, too.

Still, I wouldn't buy it. I didn’t believe myself. Why was I being over-emotional?

Do you have a Magic Mentor?

Now, there are the lucky ones among us who are blessed with an exceptional person in their lives who won’t shy away from ANY topic. I call them Magic Mentors, because that’s what they truly are. This species is very rare, and it’s usually a witty, mind-blowingly wise person who accompanies you in your life as a point of reference, like the best friend you could ever have. This amazing being may be able to read your mind like a soulmate and being brutally honest, at times pissing you off, but just to have you appreciate the newly gained knowledge when you too arrived at the point of understanding. And thanks to that Magic Mentor, by shedding light on some dark spots in your mind, you are equipped for whatever may come.

Do you have anybody like that in your life? - No.

Then death is pretty sure not the topic you were chatting away about with your friends the other day - unless you’ve lost a loved one recently, and hence were forced to face the fundamental truth of life. As it happens, you have not talked that topic through in school enough, and maybe just touched upon it in some sort of religious study group - if you are a member.

Someone Has Passed, But Still You Don’t Know What Death Is

And after graduating from school, death definitely wouldn’t be hot topic number one on your list. Some of us have treated the topic in a religious context, but apart from the actual funeral/burial/cremation ceremony etc. we haven’t looked death in the eye, and we couldn’t specifically say we know a lot about our friend ‘death’. We even nickname him/her/it Mr. Black - and even that name won’t be heard often in neither our silent nor audible conversations.

Just Because Death Comes Uninvited, We Bullied Death Out of Our Every Day

Why is that? Because you and I, and all of us, we have robbed ourselves of power. The sort of power that grows from the seed of knowledge. We don’t talk about death, we consider death as ‘that guy who always shows up uninvited’. We connect death with pain. To us, death is sadness, death is tears. And the greatest enemy of our so desired ‘The Happy End’.

And here’s why: We don’t understand death, because we don’t make an effort to get to know death. And as long as death is a stranger: how can we then even accept it/him/her?

And I believe: That is exactly what you and I need to do: Accepting death!

If you give up your bias against death, you may become friends. Unlearn!
If you relearn what you know about death, you may really start to live.
If you understand death, it won’t be a stranger.
If you accept death, it won’t scare you any longer.
And if you are no longer scared, you will feel and be free.
I’m asking you: Who doesn’t want to be free?

“Accepting death will set you free, but first it will really piss you off.” - Mo Gawdat

Piss Me Off, Death

For death to really piss you and me off (because, remember, we want death to completely set us free later on), let’s invite fermentation into our lively round. Since we have a conversation with them, I’ll capitalize their ‘names’ from now on - just for showing some respect. Let me warn you right here and there: This may change your life - much for the better.

And as the ‘Fabulous Four’ - you, I, Death, Fermentation - we like to refer to us as a ‘Circle of Knowledge’. You know who you are (hopefully!), I do know myself - now let’s get to know the rest of the bunch:

What is death? And what is it not?

Please think about your answer, before you read on!

All your life you’ve thought or you’ve been told that Death is an event. When looking at time as a timeline, you’d usually mark an event with an ‘X’ or a ‘dot’ - a point interrupting that line. Since you’ve come to see birth as your starting event of life, Death would mark the end of your life on that timeline. And if we look up the definition of Death, we are told things like

“the end of life; the total and permanent cessation of all the vital functions of an organism.”

That brings us to the interesting question of: “What is life?”

According to our basic timeline principle, life would be just all that comes in between the two events of birth and Death. As a result we’d conclude: when life ends, Death begins.

Here’s where Fermentation disagrees:

“Death and I, we have something in common. We both need time.”

My Friend, You Are Dying As We Speak

More than 150 million cells, your body’s tiniest unit of life, will die within the next minutes - all over your body. 2 000 of them will be brain cells. And that will go on until the day what you have come to define as Death. The same goes for Fermentation: too often we tiptoe along the thin between ‘rotten’ and ‘fermented’?’. Time as well as our perception of whatever fermenting is, will decide, if we think of it as rotting (=decaying/dying) or fermenting (being broken down into its smaller parts for favored flavor, texture etc.).

Death is not an event, death is a process. (unlearning - partly done)
So Death is an integral part of our everyday living. (relearn - done)
Death is no longer a stranger. (understanding - partly done)

We’re not done yet, just only getting into it.

Death throws a statement into the round:

“Just like Fermentation, I like to change faces. Changing shapes is my second nature.”As Fermentation was featured in ‘Cured’, watch a persimmon fermenting in a sealed plastic bag, and you’ll see how Fermentation is always up for a new look.”

Time, to look into the mirror, grab your family album, or recall your memories: You started out in a womb. That version of you is gone forever = dead. Then you came out as a toddler, moved on as a tiny tot, made it through your kindergarten years, pubescented yourself through your teens, and so forth.

At the moment, you are an adult. And one day, this version of you will make space for your older grey-haired or bald self, or you will directly pass through the portal to your next version: deceased/dead. It’s similar to Thich Nhat Hanh’s (a Buddhist monk) words which gave me comfort in the past:

“Death is a very necessary condition of birth. With no death, there is no birth. They inter-are and happen in every moment to the experienced meditator. For instance a cloud may have died many times, into rain, streams, water. The cloud may want to wave to itself on earth! Rain is a continuation of the cloud. With a meditation practitioner nothing can hide itself. When I drink tea, its very pleasant to be aware I am drinking cloud.”

Death And Life Really Are Inseparable

Apart from him, biology confirms that if there was no Death, another species wouldn’t be able to live. So Death is necessary for life to be there. Death is looked upon from different perspectives all over the world, depending on one’s own culture and story. In some countries people mourn, in others they celebrate life. Mexicans remarkably celebrate not only for, but with the dead on the ‘Day of the Dead’.

Perspective Is a Good Keyword

Our attitude will change depending on our circumstances. If you fall terminally ill, you may start to become more welcoming to Death, than when it seems to disturb all your plans you’ve laid out so perfectly for your life. Apart from that, Death will come to all of us, it’s simply inevitable. Apart from that, death itself is not painful, the moments before what we refer to as our event of death, can be painful, though. Many after-life experiences report from a peaceful tunnel, light, garden and meeting loved ones again.

So could Death be something to look forward to?

Time and Death

Even though Lucy had some inspiring words to say on the connection between life-death-time, it’s Mo Gawdat who I consider to be a genius. After reading his life-changing happiness equation, I’m convinced it couldn’t have been said any better:

And here’s, where it gets complicated, since we need to dig deeper - just a little - into quantum theory. But remember, it will help us to no longer be scared of Death - and that would be a heavy weight from our shoulders, wouldn’t it?

Plus, Fermentation weighs in:

“When I was effervescing away the other day in my jar, I saw some straightforward Youtube Videos and Ted Talks - they definitely helped me understand Death’s point:

Life always is.
Our physical form decays, but we never really die.”

Thanks, Fermentation, sounds complicated, but let’s see what you’ve got here. You, my dear reader, are understandably still sceptic, since you may feel betrayed and hurt by death from the past and from all the horrible news every day - and all that got you to see Death as a terrifying contemporary. But today we can ask Death himself, face-to-face, about his/her/its interesting relationship to time.

Death explains:

“Guys, after all the crazy stories you’ve heard about me, my only chance for you to believe me is objectivity. So I’d like to bring in science because I like to support my statements with facts. And also, I really want you and me to be in peace, for once and for all.”

Death continues:

“I’ve structured my argument into several parts inspired by the big bang theory, quantum theory and the theory of relativity. Why? Because I need them to remind you of the reasons why you think of me the way you do.”

Why You Think of Death the Way You Do

I took Fermentation’s advice to heart and dug out some material well worth of your time.

STEP 1 will help you understand:

“When unobserved by life, the physical world ceases to exist.”

It’s about the famous ‘double-slit experiment’ in metaphysics. This experiment represents the only link between physics and life itself.

You are a life form. This experiment connects the existence of subatomic particles to the observation by you (or a life-form in general).
Simple: subatomic particles - photons, for example,- are shot at a wall through a barrier that has two slits side by side.
One single particle will pass through both slits at the same time, when no one is looking! At the same moment, the particle ceases to exist as its particle form, and becomes a probability wave function while passing. Each electron goes through each slit at the same time! One thing is at two places at the same time.
But, when someone’s looking, there’s no wave function and the particle stays just that: a particle. As a result it passes only through one slit!
So it looks as if simply observing makes the photon “choose” its form.

→ When no one’s looking, there’s no physical world! Remember ‘Inception’?

Here we go! - Watch VIDEO 1 - Dr Quantum - Double Slit Experiment, and move on to

STEP 2 and 3 which will help you understand:

`“Life always is.”`

In this experiment called ‘The Observer’s paradox/Heisenbergs uncertainty principle/Schrödinger’s cat’, a cat is placed into a steel chamber together with a device that contains a substance that might kill it.
The device is programmed so that it releases the possible poison at a random event we can’t control nor predict from outside the box.
As long as we can’t look inside, we don’t know what’s up with the cat.
It could be dead and alive. The cat is both dead and alive at the same time!
Only when we open to look inside/observe/measure, the cat becomes either dead or alive.
The observation creates the outcome, and the outcome doesn’t exist unless the measurement is made.
So that creates ideas from parallel universes or that each decision exists in all variations. A lot of ‘maybe’s’!
Watch VIDEO 2 - Dr Quantum and Entanglement
Watch VIDEO 3 - Schrödinger's cat: A thought experiment in quantum mechanics - Chad Orzel
(OPTIONAL - TO HELP YOU BETTER UNDERSTAND - VIDEOS 4 and 5):
VIDEO 4 - What is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? - Chad Orzel
If all this got you confused, I hope ‘Quantum Physics for 7 Year Olds | Dominic Walliman | TEDxEastVan’ does the trick - enjoy!

Fermentation:

“Ok, Death, so are you saying that you and life are just different makeovers of the same sort of thing, and that none of you is ever be seen without the other half? That kinda reminds me of Plato.”

Death:

“That’s it. We just are into versatile. Changing shapes is our thing. And if you think back of the ‘Big Bang’ - that’s where we all come from, as far as we know. So we’re all in the same boat, we’re all connected. Feel free to doubt me - I’m OK with that. But don’t forget to aim for objectivity. Einstein and friends have done some decent prep work for you there.”

VIDEO 6 - The Big Bang

Fermentation:

“Death, thanks for all that - a lot to take in, honestly.

But it does make sense. Our human friends here are really the only ones making such a big deal out of dying. If you look around nature, you’ll understand that dying is an integral part of everyday living. Me myself, in the limited words of humans I am death and life in one as well. I am killing while I’m giving birth. I’m transforming, or I have bacteria, yeasts and molds do that for me.

But the bottom line is: you humans are slightly opportunistic in this: if you like what you smell, you call it fermentation - and lucky as I am, you always have seen me in a positive light. But once you don’t like what you see or smell, then you give me a new name, even though I am just changing shape - so either you are unfair to Death, or you are unfair to me. We’d appreciate if you could be more consistent here.”

You and I:

“Thanks for your effort, Death and Fermentation. The thing is, for some reason we humans want things to last. We preserve, we have a hard time of letting go off things: that’s just not our strength. And after what you’ve told us - there’s a lot we need to think about. It would even mean that we need to make a confession to ourselves - that we just know that we don't know anything at all! Sokrates!

Actually, we even are trying to preserve ourselves. Take our physical death - now we don’t know what to call it anymore! We use coffins and caskets to slow down the microbial decomposition of our dead bodies. We embalm our dead with chemicals such as formaldehyde and alcohol that limit microbial growth and temporarily preserve flesh. The way our Egyptian ancestors “preserved” bodies which we know today as mummies, is bizarrely similar to some preservation techniques used for fish and bird meat from the pharaohs’ world: It involves disembowelment and salting which inhibits bacterial growth by limiting water activity. Are we, after all, also just meat, just flesh?

Despite of all our efforts to stop time (maybe our photographers come closest?), our planet is not full of billions of body piles. That means, the power of microbes will win in the end. So that makes me wonder, if after all we’ve heard today, funerals, burials, cremations are an illusion!”

Death comes in:

“And don’t forget that a lot of money is made with me. Apart from being judged, I am used by an industry worth multi-billions of dollars as a money-making machine! I find it ridiculous that people go so far that they even would have themselves frozen - in hope that some technology in future will beat life/death, and that they then can walk around as if nothing happened.”

You and I:

You have a point there. As it seems we humans take ourselves too seriously. From a purely scientific point of view, our human bodies are broken down into its smallest parts in time (that is also what fermentation does). To planet Earth we might just be another waste that needs to be disposed of - like the myriad of fellow life forms sharing time and space with us. And we are being recycled - soberly put.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

In respect of the diversity of all you readers out there and your beliefs, we don’t want to go into religion, this quote only is here to tell you about the origin of the above words. Some of us, while physically alive, are going to great lengths to live green, organic, sustainable - again, the desire to last. It is a paradox that when we die (at least in cultures we get embalmed or put into a coffin because these methods make it tougher for microbes to break us down), that we basically pollute our planet - even after our physical Death.

And as this way of thinking is bold, unfamiliar territory, to most of us Death is still everyone’s enemy - even though we would forever say “Gone to Soon”- being honest to ourselves. Our loved ones always go too soon, no matter when they go. Some of us have started to leave the comfort zone already and are going for ‘Live and Die Eco-Friendly’: The Green Burial. A green, or natural burial is a way of honoring the dead with minimal environmental impact.

“A push to strip away the trappings of the modern funeral industry and get back to basics. Dust to dust and all that jazz.”

Death:

“You humans really are funny. How quickly you forget that you change your attitude to me, when you need me. Once you're growing old faster than you can blink with your eye, or you are not as mobile as you want to be - you suddenly even invite me to the party.

I just remember this scientist recently who went all the way from Australia to Switzerland, just to control the timing of his physical death. Well, if you ask me, to me it doesn’t make any difference. Because as I said - you are dying just as you are reading this line. And you have been dying for the last 10, 15, 20, 30 or more years. So nothing new, really.”

Fermentation:

“I recommend you to just be more objective and take my approach. Why don’t you take the helping hand of science? Look, with science, you can distinguish clearly between rotting and fermenting. We are not exactly the same! But how many of you are aware of that? And the thing is, maybe you don’t want to clearly distinguish, because you can’t control it.

But are you sure?

You are living, aging and dying every day. You must have been pissed off with some parts here, especially in the beginning of our conversation. Truth hurts. But my advice would be: Embrace and accept my friend Death. He/She/It has been your friend for a long time already - without you even noticing. Once you accept Death, you are set free.

No more fears, because the microbes of knowledge have broken them down for you.
A life to the fullest, since with Death in your life, you are blessed with a life teacher as a precious addition to the circle of your friends.
No more pain and Death together, because Death itself is not painful as we’ve learnt.
No more illusions, since we have seen proof for life and Death always walking hand in hand.
Happiness and Death can actually go into one and the same sentence.
P.S. If you don’t believe me, ask Mo Gawdat. He answers you in full length in ‘Solve for Happy’. After all, he has lost his own son. Everyone should read this book.
And last, but definitely not least: You and I can add one more benefit to my list: I, Fermentation, can be your teacher on how to age gracefully (look waht Mr. Goodall's sweater says) and how to break down hard science into accessible, easy-to-use, day-to-day and practical life/death science.

Does Death/death still scare the microbes out of you?

Does living green also make you want to die green?

Do you see a connection between death and happiness? Share your thoughts, let’s talk and keep up the conversation.

Remember: Death is something that concerns you and me - all of us.

"L.I.P. - Life in Peace!"

(that is also one chapter title of Mo Gawdat’s book).

Me:

Now, sad news may still devastate me. But not permanently. And if I was in that old room back in winter today, I’d be in peace with the process of my uncle’s death right then, right there.

As it turns out, you and I have that Magic Mentor. His name is Death.

Content by Martina Hollweck.