Hitting The "Pause" Button

We indulge in many activities in our daily lives. Some are just routine activities, some are downright unnecessary and could be dispensed with altogether, while some others are really very important indeed. At least considered important at that time, though we may laugh at them ourselves sometime later. Some of these activities are the ones that should be done at a stretch and completed once a beginning has been made. Or else, we may have to do them all over again from the beginning. Then there are some other activities that can be stopped at any stage, or some identifiable stage, and then can be continued later on from where they were left off. There may be many a trivial things that  may be found unnecessary later on and could be totally dispensed with or abandoned altogether on a review. 

The practice of stopping activities at some point and resuming from there later on has existed for a long long time, probably from the times man has started thinking rationally. However, advent of computers and watching recorded programs on television appears to have given a definite term for this. "To hit the "Pause" button" is a very popular usage in today's world. It is clearer than the term "To put on the back burner", since things put on the back burner continue to simmer, albeit low, and need to be attended to within a definite time frame, unless they are taken off once and for all. 

While all this is applicable for various activities in our lives, what about life itself? Can it be "paused" and restarted after sometime? It is a very interesting question indeed. We know about certain medical terms like "CPR". Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure that is used when someone's breathing or heartbeat stops. Definite steps are taken for chest compressions and rescue breaths to revive the person. But there are many examples when a person who is declared dead comes back to life and lives for quite sometime, and many times for several years. There are reports of dead bodies being carried for burial or cremation coming to life and making the people around run away in fear. Is it indeed a possibility of hitting a "pause button" for life itself? 

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The use of anaesthesia during surgical procedures cannot be called as hitting a pause button, as in such cases there is no real pause in the patient's life. The only result is that the patient on the operation table has a pause in his own knowledge of things that are happening to him as well as to others around him. A real pause is one where the person is actually certified as dead and yet resumes living after some time span. For the same reason, persons in coma for several months and years as well are not on a pause. 

There was a report of a brain surgery conducted in 2019 in Texas, USA where a patient was administered anaesthesia for a brain surgery. She was brought back to consciousness once the surgeons cut through her skull and reached the brain. She was given an iPad on which she could identify a number of colours, numbers, animals and other objects and answer the questions of the surgeons. Depending on the answers and if she made a mistake, surgeons would decide which areas of the brain are to be attended to during the surgery. This could be a hair raising experience for the readers, but it was live streamed on Facebook. Now there are many more reports of similar surgical interventions. But all these cannot be called as examples of hitting a "pause" button.

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The real hitting of "Pause" button in life are of those where the soul leaves the body, and being able to see things from a vantage point above, then travelling down a tunnel or a canyon undergoing a review of life sometimes, and sometimes accompanied by a guide. Such living or reliving of events from points of feeling both pain and joy they brought for others. Then the soul reenters the body and continues the journey of life in the same body from which it had moved away for a short span of time. 

Tales of such experiences are accepted by people who believe in the separation of soul and body, and also that soul is eternal, and it changes bodies from time to time. There have been many such stories we all have heard from time to time. There are indeed many examples where young boy or girl have claimed that their house is elsewhere, and when taken to those places as per description given by him, even recognised the relatives from the past lives. "Sonar Kella" (Golden Fort) is a 1971 mystery novel by noted Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray on such a subject. He also made a film based on this in 1974. The story revolves around a boy born in Bengal who claims his real house is in a place surrounded by Peacocks, Forts, and Camels. Finally the place he describes is identified as Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. "Reincarnation of Peter Proud" is a Hollywood movie made in 1975 on a similar theme of reincarnation. There are many Hindi films on the theme of reincarnation starting from "Madhumati" and "Karz", among others. 

Reincarnation is certainly different from hitting a "Pause", but is mentioned here as examples of believing in soul being eternal and taking many births. This is only to supplement the fact that during a "Pause" the soul leaves the body and reenters the same body after sometime. 

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Dr Raymond A Moody Jr is an American philosopher, psychiatrist and Physician who has done a lot of work on cases of "Pause" in life. His learning accomplishments are indeed remarkable. He got a PhD in Philosophy in 1969, studied Psychology later on and obtained a PhD in that subject as well. To add to these, he studied medicine and has a MS degree in medicine. His website lifeafterlife.com gives volumes of information about "Life after Life" or hitting a "Pause" in life. 

Dr Moody names such experiences as "NDE" or "Near Death Experience". He has visited a number of persons who had such experiences, interviewed them, made extensive notes and published many books, starting from "Life After Life" in 1975. It is said that he himself had such an experience in 1991. He is presently 80 years old and continues his work in this field. There are, of course, some controversies about his work.

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Life, Life after a pause in Life, and Life after Life are all very exciting subjeccts for those who are indeed interested in Life!