8 Circuit Model: Circuit 1 MEGAPOST: Physical, Bio-Survival, Security, Fight-or-Flight, Fear, Terrorism, Politics, Death

I will do a series on the 8 Circuit Model (not daily though), I thought it might help beginners to the model understand each circuit a little better. I've also found that re-reading and learning other interpretations by people always help me to understand it a little broader and better, so it can only help. I recommend the books Prometheus Rising and Angel Tech to learn more about the model, this webpage and its many links will help you too. Also check out this post with an audio series on youtube covering all 8 circuits.

What is the 8 Circuit Model, a model to help us de-droid-ify: "To understand neurological space, Dr. Leary assumes that the nervous system consists of eight potential circuits, or "gears," or mini-brains. Four of these brains are in the usually active left lobe and are concerned with our terrestrial survival; four are extraterrestrial, reside in the "silent" or inactive right lobe, and are for use in our future evolution. This explains why the right lobe is usually inactive at this stage of our development, and why it becomes active when the person ingests psychedelics (or engages in other right lobe activating practices.)" Robert Anton Wilson

It helps us to understand human behaviour (our own and that of others), increasing understanding and tolerance. It helps us understand the mechanics of belief. If every human being was educated about this psychological model the corrupt political system that runs on emotional bias, propaganda, lies and half-truths would collapse in a heartbeat and we could evolve towards a system that is beneficial for all, instead of just the politicians and their cronies.

short Circuit 1 summary by RAW

"This invertebrate brain was the first to evolve (2 to 3 million years ago) and is the first activated when a human infant is born. It programs perception onto an either-or grid divided into nurturing-helpful Things (which it approaches) and noxious-dangerous Things (which it flees, or attacks). The imprinting of this circuit sets up the basic attitude of trust or suspicion which will ever after trigger approach or avoidance."

Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning (learning occurring at a particular age or a particular life stage) that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior. It was first used to describe situations in which an animal or person learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject.

Neophilic: exploring, healthier
Winner Script: I will live forever or die trying!

"Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying. Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd."
Robert Anton Wilson 5 days before his death

"I've seen Tim Leary twice recently and he remains a marvel - absolutely the funniest and happiest dying man I ever saw. This, I think, is only partially due to his high hopes on the cryonic gamble (having his head preserved for future identity reconstruction). Partly, I think it's just Tim. Either he was born with special genes or he has learned to use LSD more positively than any other researcher, criminal or heretic on the planet. (In the dark ages, like now, `researcher, criminal or heretic' all mean roughly the same.) He stayed high and happy all through his prison years, too. In both prison and dying, he has cheered me up more than I have cheered him up." Robert Anton Wilson

Leary was on his death bed with friends surrounding him, to withstand the pain and be able to enjoy his company and vice versa, there was a tank of nitrous oxide which he inhaled with a balloon, injections of Dilaudid, doses of hallucinogens, various vials of white powder, a pack of Benson & Hedges and a daily highball. "I'm an Irishman," he declared. "I can handle my liquor! Whaddaya got?"

Leary's death was videotaped for posterity at his request, capturing his final words. During his final moments, he said, "Why not?" to his son Zachary. He uttered the phrase repeatedly, in different intonations, and died soon after. Zachary Leary found his fathers last words "beautiful." Leary's final moments also appear in the documentary, "Timothy Leary's Dead."

"Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, no, no he's outside looking in"
Moody Blues - Legend of a Mind

The opposite attitude:
Neophobic: insecure, dogmatic (even when shifting), sicker
Loser Script: I don't know how to defend myself...

note: reimprint via yoga (silent meditation practice in the same pose daily creates a more neophilic attitude, so does hatha yoga), martial arts. Bio-Energetic Breathwork aka Rebirthing, and the Isolation sensory-deprivation floatation tank are worth investigating too.

"There is nothing permanent or compulsive in your system except what you believe to be so."
Moshe Feldenkrais

Circuit 1 sheet
Leary: Biosurvival.
Gurdjieff: Movement
Freud: Oral
Jung: Sensation
Berne: Natural
Sagan: Reptile
Piaget: Sensorimotor
Roddenberry: Scotty
Imprint sites: Limbic
Intelligence: Physical
Medium: The Organism (the body)
Education: Passivity, Safety and Nourishment
Chakra: Muladhara Root chakra
Element: Earth
Day: Monday (Moon Goddess, Mother)

FIRST CIRCUIT: BIOSURVIVAL-SECURITY TRANCE by Antero Alli
Preoccupies itself with physical safety and biological survival. Revolves around basic security needs and the warm, buzzy nodding sensations of infant bliss and being taken care of at the most primary levels of existence: food, shelter and enough sleep. When frustrated or over-emphasized the search for security intensifies, becomes an obsession and finally an addiction. Security Addiction expresses the lowest energy state of all trances. When the needs of this center are fulfilled, one lives with the knowledge of being a "survivor" with some ability to stabilize and secure others.
SECURITY CATALYSTS: Food, water, shelter, sleep, maternal lactation, Valium, 3-6 hrs. of television, Prozac, all sedatives, nicotine, most pain-killers, PCP, morphine and heroin. Any drug acting on the breathing mechanism of the brain stem by slowing it down and, by overdose, stopping it entirely.
OVERDOSE SYMPTOMS: Survival anxiety. The fear of: dying, of living, of eating (bolemia & anorexia), of chaos and of dirt. Obesity and malnurtrition.

"Physical intelligence naturally avoids what is toxic and approaches what is nourishing. It is only by being out of touch with our basic instincts taht this natural tendency is reversed; we avoid nourishment and are attracted to the toxic. There is nothing particularly 'WRONG' with this until we fail to see the long-term implications of self-destructive tendencies. Physical intelligence is sharpened through hunger, ask any dancer. There is a saying in Zen which demonstrates this kind of body wisdom: 'Eat when you are hungry, sleep when you are tired and wake up when you stop dreaming.' What could be more simple?" Antero Alli

It loosely corresponds to the Root Chakra:
related to instinct, security, survival and also to basic human potentiality.

Evolutionary this is the first state of consciousness
it can be likened to the first uni-cellular & invertebrate life on this planet



"Few of our ancestors were perfect ladies or gentlement; the majority of them were not even mammals." Robert Anton Wilson

Carl Sagan called it the Reptile stage



evolutionary in humans this is the state babies are in untill their brain grows to facilitate more states of consciousness



Freud called it the Oral stage.

"Any mammal hooks the bio-survival circuit to the first imprinted bio-survival object: the teat. Bio-survival and orality are deeply blended in all mammals, including domesticated primates (humans)." Robert Anton Wilson

"This is why, despite the Cancer Terror, people still smoke cigarettes... Others chew gum (spearmint, juicy fruit, even sugar-free: something for every taste), bite their fingernails, gnaw their knuckles, scrunch pencil stubs, eat more than they need (Potato chips, anyone? A Mars bar maybe? pretzels, peanuts, cashews, do you want the cheese and crackers with your beer, mac? And do try the canapes, Mrs. Miller). Some chew their lips, gobble tranks and uppers, even munch their mustaches. What goes on in the bedroom is known to the Kinsey Institute and anyone who has seen a porn film.

How important is this oral imprinting? We read of a baby giraffe whose mother was accidentally killed by a jeep immediately after birth. The neonate, following hard-wired genetic programs, "imprinted" the first object that roughly fit the giraffe archetype - the jeep itself. He followed the machine around, vocalized to it, attempted to suckle from it, and, when adult, tried to mate with it." RAW

We can even hilariously apply Gene Roddenberry's original Star Trek characters to the first four circuits of consciousness. For the first, it is Scotty the engineer. Taking care of the physical stuff! The 'body' and 'survival' of the Enterprise.

Circuit 1 consciousness is one-dimensional

Because we have not evolved quite mentally as we have technologically, and our upbringing, surroundings, education and media have a profound impact on our development, as a result:

"In 1968, a US Public Health survey showed that 85% of the population had one or more symptoms that we would call bad first-circuit imprinting or conditioning. These symptoms included dizzy spells, heart palpitations, wet palms and frequent nightmares. This means that 85 out of the next 100 people you meet should be regarded as, more or less, "the Walking Wounded."

This is the first level of meaning in our brutal, cynical propositino that most people are almost as mechanical as sci-fi robots. A man or woman entering a new situation with the anxiety chemicals of a frightened infant coursing through the brain stem is not going to be able to observe, judge, or decide anything very accurately.

And this is why Gurdjieff said, in his own jargon, that people are asleep and having nightmares.

"FAIRNESS? DECENCY? HOW CAN YOU EXPECT FAIRNESS OR DECENCY ON A PLANET OF SLEEPING PEOPLE?" Gurdjieff

The first circuit is the Bio-Survival circuit: Fight-or-Flight



"When the bio-survival circuit flashes danger,
all other mental activity ceases."
Robert Anton Wilson

They buy and sell your fears. They make a killing.

Newsflash: Fear and hate are not the answer to any problem!

"Terrorism is the best political weapon
for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death."
Adolf Hitler...

"Jingoism, racism, fear, religious fundamentalism: these are the ways of appealing to people if you're trying to organize a mass base of support for policies that are really intended to crush them." Noam Chomsky

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."
George Washington

That is why fear is used every day in the media. Fear of terrorists (trained by the governments that make you fear them), immigrants (people who want to the shitty jobs you wouldn't go near), paedophiles (elite child sex networks anyone?), muslim fundamentalists (not all muslims are fundamentalists), rogue nations (like the US and Great Britain :p), etc. get the point?

"The more you can increase fear of drugs and crime, welfare mothers, immigrants and aliens - the more you control all the people." Noam Chomsky

So politicians are trying to scare you of terrorists, who could be and strike anywhere, anytime. About dealing with that, Bush: "I encourage you all to go shopping more."
There are mountains of evidence that the official versions of the biggest terrorist attacks in history are the craziest conspiracy theories out there. And that they were not done by the ones accused but were executed and/or allowed to go on by the country's own governments are easily dismissed thanks to the convincing authority-figure the government, mainstream media and 'scientists' are to people. This strategy is called a False Flag Operation, Problem Reaction Solution.

"Beware the leader who bangs the drum of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor. For patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and patriotism, will offer up all of their rights to the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Julius Caesar."

For instance, it is seen as inconceivable that the Bush administration would be able to stage 9/11 because they handled the wars and Katrina so poorly. "It required planning" said leftist gatekeeper Bill Maher. How ridiculous, because that then means they believe a few muslims out of a cave could do it better than the most wealthy, most powerful organization of humans ever on this planet, if anyone is able to pull off such a stunt, it is the US government or elements within it.

"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." Bertrand Russell

It is ignored that the war in Iraq wasn't supposed to end quickly, otherwise the military industrial complex and the oil industry would not profit as much as they do now (billions, billions go missing even, billions.). Confirmation bias quickly takes care of little bits of otherwise convincing evidence to an open mind. For instance this 'Osama' in the middle above is the one of the video that claimed 9/11. Too bad he doesn't even look like him, but hey, he has a beard and a turban! More pics: 1, 2. In the below pic: Videos 1, 2 and 4 show the real bin Laden, video 3 shows the "lucky find" 9/11 Bin Laden.



The War on Terror too is now a lucrative never-ending military industrial complex operation.

About Katrina: I invoke the great George Carlin: "These rich cocksuckers don't give a fuck about you. At all. At all. At all."

We are faced by a group of people who use fear to make even more money and increase their power, which means decreasing our power by taking civil liberties.

"The terrorists hate us for our freeDUMB." George W. Bush

In essense, the politicians of the entire Western World are themselves the Terrorists. Using terror to achieve a political goal, is terrorism.

Terrorism: the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear

Sounds like the agenda of the entire Western political world to me.

"We will find that we will not be able to find and kill the last terrorist, because, well, he is a metaphor. And you can't kill a metaphor, you can only turn it into a cliché." Sherman Alexie

"If the masses rule, man is controlled by ignorance.
If the church rules, he is conrolled by superstition.
If the state rules, he is controlled by fear.
Before people can live in harmony & understanding,
ignorance needs to change in wisdom."
Manly P. Hall

More than 1 million American people are now on the Terrorist Watchlist of the US.
How many of those do you think are just people who Question their Government?

* Terror refers to a pronounced state of fear - which usually occurs before the state of horror - when someone becomes overwhelmed with a sense of immediate danger. Also, it can be caused by perceiving the (possibly extreme) phobia. As a consequence, terror overwhelms the person to the point of making irrational choices and non-typical behavior.

As RAW says, all other mental activity ceases, try to think about that next time a politician or the media tries to scare you. If they manage in scaring you, it'll be hard to think about it...

The next administration in the US will be little different from Bush. Both Obama and McCain of the one party system unwaveringly support Israel, will not negociate with Hamas, have threatened Iran and Pakistan, do not intend to restore civil liberties, will stay in Iraq (Obama is NOT an anti-war candidate, he has said that the 'green zone' must be maintained in Iraq).

The police's actions against protestors have been outrageous this year at the Democratic and Republican conventions. These men who are "just following orders" (sound familiar) are rounding up journalists, protestors who are merely filming or taking pictures, without just cause.

Also, there is not much to fear while in riot gear (rhymes).
Here is the new Peruvian riot gear. Were the abs really necessary? Dudes you forgot the nipples! But their circuit 1 sense of safety is ensured.
Protesting, it's just un-american! But don't fear, or Hunter will laugh at you from beyond the grave. To overcome this you must start with the right attitude: We, the people, are the power elite, and don't you forget it!

"We are turning into a nation of whimpering slaves to fear - fear of war, fear of poverty, fear of random terrorism, fear of getting down-sized or fired because of the plunging economy, fear of getting evicted for bad debts, or suddenly getting locked up in a military detention camp on vague charges of being a terrorist sympathizer." Hunter S. Thompson

And in the "counterculture" - how much of it is engineered as well? - counterculture is another form of culture, it is also manipulated, sombunall people involved are also 'victims' of group think: Fear fascism and the rising police state, aliens, reptilians, nanotech, biotech, chemtrails, health issues. You can easily spot the value of a counterculture representative by the amount of fearmongering as opposed to the amount of informing they do, though it doesn't automatically mean they are counter-intelligence, ignorance is much underestimated.

* Paranoia is a term used to describe a psychosis of fear, described as a heightened perception of being persecuted, false or otherwise. This degree of fear often indicates that one has changed their normal behavior in radical ways, and may have become extremely compulsive. Sometimes, the result of extreme paranoia is a phobia.
Tip: Don't attribute too much value to your interpretations and assumptions, you can have suspicions (interpretations) but that doesn't mean you have to believe and/or fear them. Metanoia is the art of perceiving many (possibly contradicting) possibilities and interpretations, while keeping a positive, healthy explorative and solution-oriented attitude. (Spread information, find the others. Be mindful and fun doing it. Nobody likes to listen to a grouch, nobody likes to be 'rudely woken'.)

That being said, paranoia is grossly misunderstood and misused, anyone who sees through the sham of politics for instance is called paranoid by those who don't. Not believing an official explanation is not paranoia, investigating conspiracy research is not paranoia. Looking beyond what you're presented is not paranoia. It's called intelligence and finding out for yourself, instead of letting your opinions be dictated to you (wether that be from authorities, media, researchers or whoever.)

From V for Vendetta:
"Fear became the ultimate tool of this government."

"I want this country to stand on the edge of oblivion!
I WANT EVERYONE TO REMEMBER WHY THEY NEED US!"
(Do you realize when you are Double Crossed?)
Want to hear a speech?

Boysetsfire - Walk Astray

Where were you the day they stole our innocence?
And arranged a sacrifice for everyone in town.
Drove the words yet to be written underground
To save the money on the kerosene they need.
Were you awake or were you sleeping?
Or just too afraid to disagree?

Well I don't wanna sing about freedom anymore.
I wanna see it! I wanna feel it!
I wanna know that it still sits beyond the lies that we've been told
beyond the wars that keep our families from home,
I know that there's a way.
Dear God, let there be a way
to change the path we're on
..and believe in a better day.

Our dreams are their worst nightmares, these songs a call to arms
we can dance on the graves that held us, we can change the course of time
Stand up and fight, save yourself, strike, the time is now

You and me, we are more like sheep, (more like sheep)
forced to march crippled feet to the slaughter

I'll stand on principle, banner lifted and a fist raised high
Filthy soul with a patriot heart, dancing rhythms in a world apart

But you and me, we can live like thieves
on the dreams that we stole from their fears

Casting pearls before swine, hanging dead on the vine
Can we strive to be so much more than this?

You and me, we are more like sheep
forced to march crippled feet to the slaughter

Economic Slavery?

"As civilization has advanced. The pack-bond (the tribe, the extended family) has been broken. This is the root of the widely diagnosed "anomie" or "alienation" or "existential anguish" about which so many social critics have written so eloquently. What has happened is that the conditioning of the bio-survival bond to the gene-pool has been replaced by a conditioning of bio-survival drives to hook onto the peculiar tickets which we call "money".

Concretely, a modern man or woman doesn't look for bio-survival security in the gene-pool, the pack, the extended family. Bio-Surivval depends on getting the tickets. "You can't live without money." If the tickets are withdrawn, acute bio-survival anxiety appears at once." RAW

We fear what we do not understand.

"People are so fearful of the unknown... 'Whatever it is, I'm against it.'"
Eckhart Tolle

"Response-Ability... the ability to respond creatively to the unknown."
Antero Alli

"Power rests on the kind of knowledge one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our encounter with the Unknown." Don Juan (Carlos Castaneda)

Faithless: "Fear is a Weapon of Mass Destruction"

Faithless - Mass Destruction

Whether long range weapon or suicide bomber
Wicked mind is a weapon of mass destruction
Whether you're Soaraway Sun or BBC 1
Misinformation is a weapon of mass destruct
You coulda Caucasian or a poor Asian
Racism is a weapon of mass destruction
Whether inflation or globalization
Fear is a weapon of mass destruction

Even though I'm only a kid. Certain things can't be hid.

Whether Halliburton, Enron or anyone
Greed is a weapon of mass destruction
We need to find the courage, overcome
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction (x3)

We taking sides like a politician
And if i get friction we get to fighting.
I'll defend my dad he's the best of all men
and whatever he's doing he's doing the right thing.
It's frightening, but it makes me mad,
Why do all of these people seem to hate my dad?

My story stops here, lets be clear.
This scenario is happening everywhere.
And you ain't going to nirvana (near-vana) or far-vana,
you're coming right back here to live out your karma.

With even more drama than previously, seriously.
Just how many centuries have we been
waiting for someone else to make us free?

And we refuse to see that people overseas suffer just like we: Bad leadership and ego's unfettered and free Who feed on the people they're supposed to lead
I don't need good people to pray and wait
For the lord to make it all straight.
There's only now, do it right.
'Cos I don't want your daddy, leaving home tonight

Whether Halliburton Enron or anyone
Greed is a weapon of mass destruction
We need to find the courage, overcome
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction
Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction

"More oneness, less categories.
Open hearts, no strategies.
Decisions based upon faith and not fear.
People live right now and right here.
I want the wisdom that wise men revere. I want more."
Faithless

Death from fear: Scared to Death.

Research conducted at the University of California, San Diego and published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that deaths attributed to heart mortality increase under psychological stress, particularly terror. Otherwise healthy people have been known to be "scared to death," that is, to suddenly die under extreme fear or emotional trauma. People of all ages have died from fright brought on by everything from earthquakes to amusement-park rides.


Guns N' Roses - Civil War

What we have here... is failure to communicate

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
(From Frank Herbert's Dune)

"Fear is the Path to the Dark side.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate... leads to suffering!"
Yoda.

"The soul should know whither it is going and whence it came, what is good for it and what is evil, what it seeks and what it avoids, and what is that Reason which distinguishes between the desirable and the undesirable, and thereby tames the madness of our desires and calms the violence of our fears."
Seneca

"And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Marianne Williamson

There is no love in fear.
<->
Perfect love casteth out fear!

Fear takes the shape we're willing to give it!
Let's light a candle in our hearts, make it gleam. Try to enjoy the moment!
Mind Game

"The only thing to fear is fear itself." FDR

Both institutions, government and religion, use fear and greed to repress your animality. They don't change it. If you are caught, the government will send you to jail to be punished. If you are not caught, then the religions will send you to hell to suffer..." Osho

Wavy Gravy once asked a Zen Roshi, "What happens after death?"
The Roshi replied, " I don't know."
Wavy protested, " But you're a Zen Master!"
"Yes," the Roshi admitted, " but I'm not a dead Zen Master."

Remember the beginning of the post with RAW & Leary's approaches to death?

Since we are talking about the Bio-Survival circuit,
let's end this post with some more about
DEATH

- believe nothing -

"There is no death. Death is a Circuit Three symbol for fear. When the body stops functioning, consciousness advances to the nervous system where it belonged all the time. When the nervous system stops functioning then, consciousness goes home - via the neuron cell - to the DNA genetic code where it belongs." Timothy Leary

"I saw 'death' as an illusion, an intellectual symbol for fear,
social control and oppression." Antero Alli (full quote here.)

Blue Oyster Cult: Don't Fear the Reaper (Stephen King The Stand vid)

All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain...
we can be like they are
Come on baby... don't fear the reaper
Baby take my hand... don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly... don't fear the reaper
Baby I'm your man...

In my most profound psylocybin mushroom trip, I died and saw death
He wasn't a scary appearance with a scythe
but an old distinguished man in suit with a pair of scissors
He smiled at me
and waved his scissors as in "not your time yet"

"Here's my point folks, in the blink of an eye: we can have Heaven on Earth - it's a choice, that's all it is... You can look through the eyes of fear, you can look through the eyes of love, it's the only two ways to look. The eyes of fear is insanity, it's not really there, the eyes of love are the only real eyes. Bing. Go. Bing fucking go. Heaven on Earth right now if you want it. Right now. It's a choice! To look through the eyes of love instead of the eyes of fear, just once."
Bill Hicks

"The only effort of any intelligent person in this world ought to be to know something which cannot be destroyed by death."
Buddha

Socrates

"To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?"

"If a man has trained himself throughout his life to live in a state as close as possible to death, would it not be ridiculous for him to be distressed when death comes to him?"

"Death may be the greatest of all human blessings."
Socrates

"I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time."
Walt Whitman
aka Kenny, the Buddhist South Parkian

"Humans need fantasy to be human, to be the place where the fallen angel meets the rising ape."
Death in The Hogfather
(Terry Pratchet's Discworld)

"Cowards die many times before their deaths. The valiant never taste of death but once." William Shakespeare

"Now now, dear man, this is not the time to be making enemies." Voltaire
(on his death bed when a priest asked him to 'renounce satan')

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death. Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves." Bill Hicks

"If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can conceive yourself." Alan Watts

"Life without the courage for death is slavery." Seneca

"Death is not the worst that can happen to men." Plato

"How about no longer being masochistic
How about remembering your divinity
How about unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How about not equating death with stopping"
Alanis

"Across every threshold the skeleton form of Death throws his fearsome shadow. Old or young, well or ill, rich or poor, all, all alike must pass out into that shadow and throughout the ages has sounded the piteous cry for a solution of the riddle of life - the riddle of death."
Max Heindel