If You Don’t Die Before You Die, You Die When You Die
“If you don’t die before you die, you die when you die”. These are dramatic and deep philosophical words by Johann von Goethe, a German poet from the 19th century.
Lately, in science, there have been major discoveries around the actual possibility of living much longer: 150, 200, 250 years. Even the discussion of immortality isn’t a taboo any longer in the scientific community, where they found the reason why our bodies die. In short, it is because our cells stop replicating due to a process that limits the number of replications.
Scientists managed to manipulate this process in mice in order to enable many more replications, which expanded the animals’ life span dramatically. And of course, you can guess where this is going…
Today, it is more likely than not that science will find the life extension formula. If and when that is available, it will be the business of the century.
Those who will have the money to get access to a cell behavior altering drug like that will remain in their bodies another 50 or 100 years, and they will be valuable tax paying and law abiding members of the system we have built and succumbed to.
Death of the ego or personal transformation
What Goethe is pointing is not physical but psychological death: the death of our deeply rooted belief of who we are. He means what others call “the death of the ego” or “becoming someone else” or simply “personal transformation”.
Depending on the intensity and duration of suffering (physically, emotionally or mentally), a person may long for release through switching the light of life off. The thought of reincarnation may give hope that this is only temporary, and with a fresh start in a new body, things may go better next time.
What if this “reset” can be done without the drastic means of ending the life of the body? That is what Goethe is referring to in “to die before you die”.
This principle is not unfamiliar to us. We all do this dying whenever we cause a change, from moving homes to exiting and entering new relationships, to selling our car and buying a new one, a new job etc. These are all small deaths. They reset a part of our lives and we feel the freshness of the New for a while.
Rebirth and reset
But only few begin to suspect that the real deal would be to reset the root of who we believe to be. The “you” we believe to be usually remains un-reset, and that, for me, is the real aging: aging as in never resetting yourself. Living with the same you year after year, decade after decade, and in the future maybe century after century.
All spiritual traditions have at their core the mystery of death and rebirth. Psychologists refer to this innate desire as “the death wish” and volumes have been written by philosophers about it.
When I was 16 years old and was hit by my first “spiritual crisis” (nb: there are typically two in the lifespan of a human being), I wanted to die. I was deeply unhappy, desperate and didn’t see a future that would attract me. Hope was entirely absent.
In this time of existential desperation, my first teacher appeared: Dr. Manfred Weisbart, a psychologist and early founder of Munich’s fragile spiritual awakening in the late 70s. He led me to the crossroad of choice: life or death? As you see, I chose life. But not out of fear or just like that, no – it was a choice based on a promise to myself which gave my “new” life its meaning and started the journey that still continues today.
The quantum leap
Today, this process of dying and rebirthing is well known and named “the quantum leap”; a sub-atomic phenomenon of particles disappearing on the spot and appearing at another spot with no time in between. Leaving the old personality definition of yourself and appearing into a new possibility, stepping into a new definition of being yourself, is the amazing challenge we can choose today. I developed the Rebirth Retreat to provide this possibility.
I would go as far as saying that this rebirth or “reset” is a vital frequent practice that everyone should incorporate into their lives. Just as the snake sheds its skin and the lizard lets go of its tail, we can let go of our fixed beliefs of who we are.
Since this isn’t a familiar process for most of us, we do need a bit of guidance and support to do this quantum leap. If you are ready, come to Crete to the REBIRTH RETREAT and experience the relief of disappearing and the ecstasy of appearing.
Rebirthing yourself into the next version of YOU.
With love, ❤ Marc Steinberg