Beyond Binary Thinking: Enhancing Our Understanding of Biomechanical Death

Our world appears to be approaching some type of event horizon. If you watch television at all, then you're aware of the chaos that seems to unfold at every turn, and the damage we seem to be doing is irreversible.   Curiously, however, if you engage in any conversation about this at all, no matter how polarized or politically charged it might be, you will likely find that the person you speak with agrees with you on at least this most fundamental level - we're headed for some type of disaster or calamity, and we need to do something now. And yet no one, not even allies in this process, can seem to agree on what to do to stop it.   There are various implements in this collision course we're on, of course:  climate change, poverty, war, terrorism, and many, many more.   To name all the bad actors in this scene would take too much time.    We're trying to solve problems after all.  If we could just pinpoint ONE single source of all this, we can make headway toward a solution that will benefit us all, right?  We believe that if we can name the baddest actor in the scene, and fight against that, we will right all the wrongs and magically resolve all of our problems.  But this either/or and good/bad thinking is likely one of a great many launchpads that propelled us toward this oncoming event horizon in the first place.    This binary view of the world - the view of us as separate from them - has created a veil through which we can no longer see. It clouds all our judgements, and inhibits our ability to solve problems.  It even governs how we view death and dying.  And if we have ever needed to look at death differently, the time to do so is now. We must move beyond binary thinking if we are to see death, our selves, and our world, in a way that opens  our minds and hearts to the possibility of more. 

Ironically, our binary thinking is well-defined in modern science.  Articles have been written about it, and I found at least one source that mentions it from a critique/critical review aspect, and then proceeds to engage in it directly!  In the article I linked here, the the abstract describes binary thinking as a "pervasive, anti-intellectual framing" present in American public thought and discourse.  I doubt it's solely in America, though we certainly have plenty of it, but notice the use of the word "anti-intellectual" in there.   Immediately, by the use of this word, the reader is made to believe that if you engage in binary thinking, you're not intelligent!  This, of course, is an inaccurate view, but this provides an ideal example of what I'm referring to here.   

We use the same binary thought patterns when we refer to death and dying.  I've already written about how our language influences our thinking when it comes to biomechanical death processes, so naturally when we see the words "dying" or "death" or other words that we commonly associate with these processes such as "cancer" or "terminal" our binary thought patterns are immediately engaged.  We adopt sadness or fear, or worse: we give up!   Trapped in the cycle of loss, we experience the heaviness of grief, often before the death process ever even truly begins.    Our time is precious! It shouldn't be spent on hopeless cycles of despair.    Our thinking has us convinced that we are powerless; that this horrible end is something we must accept, that there is nothing we can do but face the inevitability that everything we ever love or want to protect will ultimately just end. 

If we want new experiences, our binary thought patterns must expand

To be sure, this dichotomy of thought often serves us:  to lie down in a road full of oncoming traffic is bad.  To share a meal with a loved one is good.   To take unnecessary risks is bad. To receive a gift from family is good.   Smoking is bad for you.   Eating broccoli is good.  We can think of many many ways in which our binary thinking serves us.  It can serve as a protective mechanism in many situations, and has likely helped propel us forward on the evolutionary scale since it has greatly enhanced our ability to decide on fitness payoffs for reproductive purposes.  Binary thinking has saved our lives!

But now, we're here.  And if we're to evolve beyond our current limitations - limitations which have heretofore been assets - we have to change. And this means adapting our ways of thinking to include previously unconsidered or ignored paradigms that may help us overcome our current deficits. With regards to biomechanical death, our current paradigm no longer serves us:   it no longer allows us to experience the fullness of life - and that fullness necessarily includes the ending as well. 

Our future, whatever it holds, commands us to reimagine our relationship with death. It calls us to a more developed standard: one where we no longer see death as an "end" or a terminatio of anything at all - but where we instead view is much like we would other milestones in our journey: like a wedding, or an anniversary, or taking on a new job, or receiving a promotion.  Because if we are honest with ourselves, we don't know the outcomes of these examples either: what if you marry the wrong person?  What if this is your last anniversary? What if that new job you accepted is terrible?  There is no guarantee. We have to lay aside the thinking that tells us that uncertainty means something bad:  it may, in fact, lead to the best experiences we've ever had.   Our binary thinking keeps us in the dark.  It's time now to put it aside and reinvent our relationship with our planet, our people and ourselves.