I was listening to a podcast on The New York Times regarding people in the last throes of dementia suddenly becoming lucid for short periods. These lucid moments are called Paradoxical or Terminal lucidity. Folks who have not spoken for months or years suddenly speak lucidly, and the speech indicates they have been following conversations around them. The phenomenon does not last, but where does it come from? If all personhood comes from our brain, and, absent a soul, our brain is nonfunctional, we are lost as individuals. Recent scientific studies on Terminal Lucidity have suggested that the Mind may be distinct from the brain. A hypothesis is that the Mind is energy that resides in the body. There are untold documented occurrences where a person has died and then been revived. The Mind was active during death and has specific memories of the event between life and death.

You see, we develop scientific explanations for what we do not fully understand. We instinctively believe we have a soul and spirit. We know because we know. We understand there is more to life than the body. People who have died and come back speak comfortingly of the pleasant surroundings they experienced and the loved ones they saw. Rather than fearing or dreading death, they look upon it as a peaceful, welcoming transition.

There is more that we do not know than what we know. We have taken the physical, the temporal, the corporal surrounding us to explain the spiritual.

‘Well, I saw Neva J last night standing at the foot of my bed,’ Billy B said. ‘She smiled and told me to be sure to wear my hat when I went out into the cold, as a lot of heat in the body escapes through the head,’ Billy B winked. ‘She said she likes her new home, and she and Aunt Wanda Vema and Guelda visit Grandma A every Monday night just as they did so many years ago,’ Billy B mused. ‘She noted that they all missed me reciting the Night Before Christmas,’ Billy B laughed. ‘You know when we first moved to Eldorado, Neva J and I went to Grandma A’s house every Monday night to visit with her and Aunt Wanda Vema and Guelda while I often performed for them,’ Billy B continued. ‘Neva J apologized for being somewhat distant in the last years of her life, saying she was not herself,’ Billy B recounted. ‘Neva J had Alzheimer’s disease in the last years of her life,’ Billy B whispered.

‘Don’t fear, I am on a dark journey walking in the winter woods. I do not talk much anymore; I can not find the words, but oh my, I do think of many. I hear you when you laugh and chat with me; I remember the old days when we ran and played. When I sleep, I visit with old friends. They tell me to not fear the dark woods; there is a door at the end of the woods leading to a bright sunlit day.’