Wednesday 2 November 2011

Alan Watts - Happy Death



“We need … an ‘Institution for Creative Dying’… or something like that.

In one department you can have a champagne cocktail party to die with. In another department you can have glorious religious rituals and priests and things like that. In another department you can have psychedelic drugs. In another department you can have special kinds of music. Anything...

All these arrangement will be provided in a hospital for delightful dying. That’s the thing – to go out with a bang instead of a whimper.“

5 comments:

  1. Brilliant. And so right - and easily possible to arrange. Dying as an event. Journey's end. Homecoming. Trumpet sounding for you on the other side, etc. And people to see it through with you, not just helpless bystanders staring at failure.

    This has made my day. Thank you. I'd never come across Alan Watts. I have now.

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  2. Is it me, or does Mr. Watts remind me of Eddie Izzard? Fantastic audio. :)

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    2. Absolutely, I agree. Listen to

      http://youtu.be/zBL5kJ-PfoI?t=1h

      from 1 hour in for about 30 seconds and compare with Eddie Izzard's evil giraffe impression :) It's so similar I wonder if Alan Watts was the inspiration for the evil giraffe...

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    3. About 1 minute and a half, actually, sorry.

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