What underpins the foundationally similar views upon death in mythologies?
Our peer-group discussion first explored the interconnective views on death between Hindu, Chinese, Muslim, and Greek mythologies. All 4 mythologies have the same foundation that after death, you either go to heaven or hell, however, key differences and similarities arise upon 3 interconnected concepts: afterlife, reincarnation, and the separation of the soul from the body. The concept of the afterlife exists within all 4 mythologies with the similarity that each of them recognizes that the soul leaves the body, which helps show that the human/animal body is merely a borrowed vessel within which we reside.
As mentioned by group members, in Muslim and Greek mythology respectively there exists an “angel of death that takes away the individual’s soul,” and “the soul is separated from the body and transported to the entrance of the underworld” after which Charon transports them to Hades for judgement. Both Chinese and Hindu mythologies, respectively, also have this soul transportation through Hun/Po and being caught by Yama’s noose, but have the additional element of reincarnation. As mentioned by a group member, the Meng Po Tang in Chinese myths are the “[tears shed by a person and drank to remove all memories of the past life] and start the samsara of the next life,” while in Hindu mythology, Yama causes rebirth if a mix of good and bad deeds are committed.
Diving deeper, we realize that Chinese mythology does not have a concept of freedom from rebirth and continues the cyclical nature forever which is in line with their views upon time being cyclical as well. In contrast, the main concept of Hindu life is to attain moksha or freedom from rebirth with reincarnation serving as a tool to help the reborn entity to only perform good deeds in life so that Yama can judge him to finally reach heaven/Svarga and eventually attain moksha.
The judgement of Yama can serve as a powerful message for humans as evident in one creative way India is dealing with lockdown restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic. Police officers in India are dressing up as Yama to prevent people from breaking the rules regarding lockdown and social distancing. The inherent fear of possibly facing a cruel judgement from Yama after they die allows for each individual to question their decisions and hopefully make the ethical choice of staying inside. The knowledge of Yama was spread orally and through writing, which over time gained more credence due to Yama being used to teach the importance of wearing helmets on motorcycles in India. This credence from oral teachings can be applied to more than gods in mythologies; it can apply to ritualistic body practices.
Are your mind and/or body influenced by beliefs?
Our group lastly examined the statement of body practices as an extension of mythic narratives, specifically the Kapsiki healing rituals, known as kwankwerekwe and bloodletting. In kwankwerekwe, frogs are removed from an individual’s belly by a healer as stated in Chapter 8. Masters of Healing of the book The Forge and the Funeral: The Smith in Kapsiki/Higi Culture by Walter E.A. van Beek. In the book, it was performed on a young boy by a female healer. The process took 2 weeks (with 3 extractions per day) before the boy recovered. Furthermore, bloodletting is used to ail a moderate, but persistent fever by piercing the skin of the sufferer’s back, lighting leaves in a glass, and applying the leaves to their back to extract “black blood.”
Our group’s individual thoughts all came to a consensus on the fact that these rituals did not truly heal the person, but instead, the patients healed due to a combination of psychological and neurological factors of hormones and placebo, respectively. In the first example of kwankwerekwe, the boy has complete belief in the healer and began to believe that he was healing due to her methods, even though his body may have been healing on its own. This links to the idea of placebo where patients perceive their condition improving and encourages the body’s release of hormones along with other psychological chemical processes in relieving their pain, without having any impact on the disease or illness itself. This is supported by the fact that the boy took 2 weeks to recover, meaning the ritual was not very effective.
The second example of bloodletting is very similar, in which the person being operated own is healing on their own with bloodletting possibly hindering their recovery from fever by puncturing their back and forcing the blood to help seal the wound and fight the fever at the same time. Moreover, the “black blood” could simply be the mix of blackness from the burnt leaves and the red blood from the pierced skin.
Ultimately, both examples lead to more sessions of each practice which leads to increasing the validity of the healers in society when the patient is healed, regardless of whether the method worked or not. This would lead to the chain reaction of the patient gratefully informing others of the ritualistic body practices working and creating an endless cycle of affirmation in untested mythical rituals in Kapsiki society while disregarding scientific evidence.
A similar healing body practice exists in real-life with Japan’s rubbing tradition using the statue of a “healing Buddha.” Parts of the healing Buddha statue known as Yakushi are rubbed, and then the person suffering from the illness for example a headache rubs the same part on their body in hopes of healing. Sometimes people rub the statue itself on the part of their body suffering from the illness. While the impact of this rubbing practice on their illness has no scientific basis, the belief in the fact that it works under the pretense of a placebo eventually leads to the person healing and warranting the rubbing practice as a success.
Ultimately, from the above analyses, duality can be noted between the concept of death in mythologies and the body practices used in mythical narratives to extend the life and evade death. As humans, we are fascinated by death and its aftermath, but ironically, we scramble to ail any illness/disease or slight bodily inconvenience that could lead to death. This leaves us with one option; exercise our creative mind to create several visions of our views on death that is solidified repeatedly from oral teachings of myths while also finding both untested ritualistic and scientific methods to avoid death.
References
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