The Digital Delog
The Future of Technology beyond Death and Dying
In 1992 I spend 7 weeks in Dharmsala, in the Tibetan community in India. This is where I met Jhampa, a doktor in Tibetan Medicine. When I told him I was studying Chinese Medicine he said: “Because Tibetan Medicine is the mother of all Medicine, I think you should know about the source of it.” So for seven weeks he taught me about the Tibetan pulse diagnoses, so different then the pulsediagnoses I had learned in Chinese Medicine.
…And this is where I heard the word Delog for the first time
“Jhampa had just finished explaining how to diagnose the pulse of someone who is dying. He told me how to predict the death of somebody at a great distance and how to feel someone’s impending death in a pulse: in the harshness, the tempo, the squeezing out the last vestiges of the life force. He talked about the desperate attempt of blood to hold on to the veins of life, the division of that which was normally so interwoven. I could feel the tearing out of memories, of lessons lived, of food eaten, of flesh growing, while spirit was leaving the body. I could feel the desperation of the soul wanting to leave it all; the way he pictured it for me made it so palpable. I remember just trying to understand what he was saying and wondering if I would ever be able to feel the pulse that way myself. He changed the subject and started talking about Tibetan women who die, stay dead for a few days, and then come back and give reports from the other side. They consciously leave their bodies, accompanied by a guide.
“What did you say? Delog?”
“Yes, it literally means ‘returned from death’ in Tibetan.”
Fascinated, I looked at his face, covered with fine lines. He gestured how her body is carefully watched over by others. The body doesn’t decompose. There are no vital signs, no breath, no pulse, and no warmth for about five days.
“Like, er … really dead?” Saying it out loud felt ridiculous. You are either dead or not dead — not just a little bit dead or temporarily dead.
He nodded and told me in his broken English it would be announced weeks before, in dreams or meditations, so others could meditate alongside her. The delog is a messenger, bringing questions from the community to the other side to be able to report, to witness, bringing back important messages for family and the whole community, and getting a deeper understanding of death and dying. They roam around in the afterlife.
Bardo, the Tibetans call it, “the in- between state.” Bardo is the place where every desire, every pain, every wish, every power, and all the attachments to earth are experienced. It is the place of the great distraction. It is, where your soul lets go of the old attachments to earth and, your old identity, on your way to the pure, the crystalline realms.
Jhampa said that we all spend forty-nine days in Bardo — from the moment we leave our bodies at death until the moment we enter our new lives or the pure realms.
One moment, a delog encounters family and friends who have passed on. The next moment, she might endure the most hideous torments of hell. She might meet virtuous persons on their way to a pure realm or find herself in God’s realm. They seem like ordinary people in their daily lives, yet the experience is a sign of great realization. They have always had a background of great spiritual achievements in a past life or through their lineage.
“Always women?” I asked.
Jhampa paused, and his expression changed. I felt strange for a moment. It was as if he could see so much more. He answered that it was usually women because of different energetics.
“But it is not impossible for men,” he added. His eyes were resting in mine, and I sensed him penetrating a veil in me. It was like he was able to look straight into my future.
(excerpt from Forty-Nine Days, a Sensuous Journey in the Modern Afterlife, by Christel Janssen)
When my lover who had passed away started to communicate to me on my laptop from the afterlife, twelve years ago, I realized he was a Modern Delog. Using digital technology to communicate to me: my phone, my laptop, somebody elses computer… Instead of consciously leaving his body, Umberto just seemed to get kicked out of it. He walked around like Alice in Wonderland. Wondering over and over again ‘Why am I here?’ He was able to go wherever he put his attention. I was the witness on the other side through the window of my computerscreen. I could follow each move, in the handwritten letters that appeared on my computerscreen. And I was able to chat back to him.
He had all the characteristis of a Delog, to just name a few:
1. Delogs fall into a really deep coma, or die usually very suddenly
They fall into a coma, often overnight. Or they have a very high fever, a liver or kidney failure, cancer, or poisoning. It can be anything. Medicines usually don’t help; they just aggravate it. Then after the delogs die and return from death, everything appears to be normal. Umberto died and fell into a coma more then once, because of a heart attack, a kidney failure, a gall bladder operation, lungcancer… And after he returned his body was completely normal.
2. Delogs come back from death after a few days and their bodies are completely fine
Usually their ailments have been cured miraculously. There is no trace of the illness anymore. Because they get a deep insight how illness is created in the first place. ‘It is all about the journey of the spirit,’ Jhampa would say.
3. They roam around in the Afterlife, Bardo, the Tibetans call it
In a high pace, they move from one state to another, one moment receiving prophesies for the world, the next visiting certain places they have lived, then going through the most hideous torments of hell, and receiving a deep insight in how illness is created in the first place. I was the witness of his moves on my computer screen. One moment he would describe what I was doing or how I was feeling or even what people around me were thinking. The next moment he would be in a pure realm then next he would experience his inner demons, like real monsters.
4. It gets announced weeks before, in dreams, visions and meditations
And yes, it did with us too. In many ways it did get announced to both of us. six weeks, three weeks and a few days before it happened. I would love to dedicate a whole post to that.
5. The body of a Delog has no vital signs, no heartbeat, no breath, yet it doesn’t decompose
This was the most miraculous part of it. The one where doktors didn’t know what to do. Yet sometimes his body would react depending on what his being was going through. One time his brother who was in the hospital with Umberto’s physical body in a coma, described how blood was coming out of his mouth. This was right at the moment when Umberto was going ‘meeting his demons.’
6. Delogs are accompanied by a guide
Umberto described how immediately after his crossing a little girl appeared before him presenting herself as his guide. She explained why she was his guide and called herself Karen. She told about her last life in Minnesota, how she died as a seven year old and because of the grief of her parents she was not able to move on and decided to become Umberto’s guide. In a later stage she got replaced by another guide. Interestingly enough she showed herself to both of us about two weeks before he died, in a photograph we took on his new phone. When he crossed over she immediately appeared before him, and took him by the hand to lead him around. He recognized her from the photo he reported to me on my computerscreen.
7. Delogs have prophesies
4 days before it happened, Umberto announced to me about a Hurricane about to hit New Orleans, and then it happened. He predicted two days, before it happened that there was going to be a lot of water on Kauai and that it would cause a disaster. Indeed a dam of a waterreservoir broke on Kauai and 8 houses disappeared into the ocean. He even predicted 10 years before it happened about a certain president and how he would make himself so believable, but cause all kind of disturbances… I didn’t take it seriously myself at that moment.
I am excited to think, and feel into the the future of Digital Delogs. They will be providing a multidimensional perspective on life. Even beyond our biggest fear: death. It will create a whole new perspective on our human struggles, on disease, on health, on our interconnectedness and on where we are all heading. And all of this right through our devices!
Christel Janssen is the author of “Forty-Nine Days, a Sensuous Journey in the Modern Afterlife”. You can find her at: christeljanssen.com or spontaneousmovement.com
