Section 7 - Heart and Soul (One Will Burn)
| Ware o yobu |
A voice calls me |
| Koe ya ukiyo no |
a sudden winter shower |
| Kata shigure |
in this floating world. |
(1)
Performance is a rehearsal for death – the numerous death scenes in Shakespeare’s theatre were to encourage the audience members to remember their death and prepare for a glorious end. Death rituals of the pre industrial age were stretched out and people surrounded themselves with images of those who have gone before. The dead were often incorporated in family portraits.
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The two worlds tend to be used with connotations of a strong contrast, as between the positive and negative of an electrical current, between black and white or good and evil. Post-Reformation emblematic images….are, however, intended to present life and death as part of a single cultural process, not as opposing values in a crude binary model of the human condition. (2)
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Prior to appearing by the bridge, the lead in Noh – known as the shi’te or "doer" – stays in the kagami-no-ma, the "Mirror Room". No mere backstage dressing room, the room is conceived as a holy ceremonial space where the ghost of the person to be performed possesses the shi’te as he dons the mask at the mirror. That’s what the room is for. Or conversely, the ghost of the dead is made to move into the borrowed worldly body of the shi’te via the mask. (3) |
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Travelling between the two worlds of life and death – forwards and backwards. The ghost in the machine – we are machines – machines of our DNA and our selfish genes. Our ancestors speaking through the veins - calling us back to the earth and pushing us forward to the stars.
The research into the phenomena of the Near Death Experience (NDE) (4) – has reached scientific credence. After Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation when patients have technicallly suffered Myocardial Infarction (clinical death) one theory holds that NDE might be a changing state of consciousness (transcendence), in which identity, cognition, and emotion function independently from the unconscious body, but retain the possibility of non-sensory perception.
Outerbody
Shamanic
Yogic
Sophistic
Dark play
So in your state of suspended animation – as your body lies lifeless your soul travels towards – no surely it can’t be they are dead how can I see – but no they wave to me I am going to join them – you feel warmth – you reach out – there is an intense light…
A flash bulb goes off...