By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

 

ON 22 June 2025, I posted, “Einstein said, “… the distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion” with the caption: Quantum physics suggests that death may just be a transition to a more mysterious reality, that consciousness survives the death of the physical body.” This consciousness, other theorists believe, is an intrinsic quality of the soul, and that it is the soul’s way of expressing itself.

I say this not only as a consolation for myself but for others, especially poets, who under oppressive regimes, are exposed to the most hideous of possibilities, imprisonment and death. Such is the case of most militant poets, in Saudi Arabia, in Turkey, in Spain, and so many other countries. I have yet to learn of painters executed for their art.

Those in power, although not fully aware of its meaning and relevance, understand the impact of a poem on a volatile population. In 1937, over 100 Belarusian poets and intellectuals were executed in the Soviet Union as part of Stalin’s purge. A year before, in 1936, Federico Garcia Lorca was assassinated during the Spanish Civil War by forces loyal to Gen. Federico Franco.

In 2015, Ashraf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet was sentenced to death for apostasy in Saudi Arabia. In August 2022, following an international outcry, including petitions from fellow writers and poets, Fayadh was released, after eight years and eight months in prison.

Poets and writers were imprisoned or killed during the coup in Myanmar in 2021. If they were not murdered, they were flogged or imprisoned. In India for example, Parul Khakhar, the author of a viral poem “Shavahini Ganga” (Ganges, the Carrier of Corpses) about Narenda Modi’s handling of Covid-19 has been demonized.

Since only their bodies are dead and not their consciousness, they linger to inspire or maybe, take on another form to connect, through another human being, or some other form of life. Maybe a flower. Or a feather, or a butterfly.

I believe that my mother comes to me as a scent of jasmine, the kampupot type, whose vines she rolled to form a rose in her garden in Palacpalac. My father comes to me as a feather, coming out of nowhere, whenever I am on the verge of a critical decision or experiencing pain. I collected all these feathers in my wallet. The late poet Rogelio Mangahas believed that his son Tagum, flew as a yellow butterfly and lingered in their room, one week after his death.

So many others have experienced these lingering “consciousness”, that it is as if, as my good friend Daisy Langenegger said, on the death of her husband, “Walter is always here, like he did not leave us.”

As formulated in 1842 by Julius Robert von Mayer, James Prescott Joule and Hermann von Helmholtz, energy is constant. The Law of Conservation of Energy, a fundamental principle in physics, states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. Based on this, consciousness, as part of this constant energy, can never be destroyed, but can transform and make itself palpable to those gifted with openness and sensitivity.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments