A Business of Misery

Tip #8 | Believe What a Dying Soul Believes

This story is part of a new compilation I like to call 'Stories that gowell with lofi hip-hop,' so if you're interested, here is the stream I listenedto while writing this. 

Human ideas of death and the afterlife are really interesting when you work in the business of such things. So many human beings out there with so many different ideas of what happens upon death—no two of which are exactly the same. It makes the job of a grim reaper interesting to say the least.

Grim reapers don't take dead humans to heaven or hell, Valhalla, some rebirthing chamber for reincarnation, what have you. No, we don't really do anything in the grand scheme of things. We are not the bringers of death nor are we deciders of one's fate in the afterlife. Our singular purpose is to help a soul find closure so it may pass on from life and go wherever it goes. I think some reapers agree with the term Purgatory—that is, the souls we guide go for eternity to an empty plane of limbo.

Personally, I've never seen such a plane and I have no clue where the idea originated from, but it's basically treated as fact, so for the sake of simplicity, we'll leave it there. Grim reapers' ideas of the afterlife aren't what I'm concerned with here, anyway. What I believe doesn't matter for the job. Grim reapers aren't even supposed to believe in anything. Human beliefs: those are all that matter. Because when trying to help a soul find closure and guide it to wherever—"Purgatory"—it is our duty to take into consideration everything that makes a human who they are, and that includes beliefs.

For instance, many people around the world who practice the religion known as Islam believe that, upon death, the soul enters a sort of waiting period until Judgement Day and that their soul is taken by an angel of death. So, there a are two ways a grim reaper can go about guiding the soul of a Muslim: either do what most reapers do and just take the form of a loved one, a pet, a mentor, whatever, and use that display to rid the dead of their woes. Or take a form that is believable for an angel of death and bring harmony to the dead that way.

Both methods might sound pretty similar—either way you're using illusion to help someone get their final thoughts out and have them get over any remaining guilt they have from life. They are quite different, though. Following the latter option is probably easier. You have material to go from and if you do something not necessarily up to code with whatever the person is expecting, it's not a big deal because no one can truly know what's right and wrong in how death works.

The former, however, comes with some tricky bits. The form you take has to be pretty accurate to what the dead is familiar with. Taking the form of someone's mother who passed away before them means you, the grim reaper, need to act like that mother did when she was alive. Not to mention that there are lot more choices of the form to take when you're not going with a figure from the person's faith. Picking the right form to bring comfort to a passing soul is difficult. Luckily, grim reapers have eternity to get good at it.

How about another example? Some humans who practice religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, as well as several others, believe in a cycle of rebirth. In that case, there might not be a guiding figure that the soul expects to see, but you can still stray from the common method of using a familiar face. Sometimes a stranger is the most comforting sight upon death. For one, you don't have to worry about the dead getting confused or thinking that the form you're taking is someone who is dead. That becomes a concern when that form is of someone who, as far as the soul knows, was alive last time they checked. It can be a mess.

If a human's religion doesn't have a specific guide after death, it makes the job pretty easy. You can effectively be anyone you want to be without worrying about fulfilling that person's expectations. The same can be said about those who aren't religious. Maybe the form you take is meant to be an embodiment of the universe and you act neutral and like you don't care about life and death and whatnot (kind of like how grim reapers act by default anyway).

I should admit that I have my personal favorite beliefs that I like to play along with, many of which are not very popular anymore amongst humans, or have even died out entirely. In the region that humans call Scandinavia during the Black Plague, it was very fun to play into the beliefs of a black-cloaked elderly woman descending in the night wielding a rake, or better yet a broom. It really sold the reality of what was happening to the soul that was about to pass on.

Granted, doing so certainly caused fear in the heart of whoever could see me. The few times I did it, I had to spend however long it was calming them down and assuring them that death was not the end. That's where the rest of the Scandinavian belief system came into play with their multiple afterlives and whatnot, though that was also, more or less, around the end of said religion. Also interesting were the beliefs of the ancient people of Greece, for they didn't believe much happened after death, so taking a vague form was often the best choice—or again, the form of someone or something familiar to the dead.

Witnessing the changes in human beliefs as time passes has certainly been rewarding in the eyes of this curious reaper. I have yet to have the pleasure of doing so, but I would, at least once in my existence, like to guide the soul of a human living on some remote island somewhere, one so disconnected from the rest of humanity that their beliefs are completely different. I know there are reapers who have done just that, but not me.

Getting to explore the complexities of such a unique and small belief system would be so incredibly fascinating; I can only imagine how the report of such a human reads. Though, I cannot say that I am at all bored or dissatisfied with the beliefs that I embody in the modern age of humans. Beliefs are less diversified, yes, but because every human interprets the messages of their preachers and gods so differently, no two experiences are exactly the same.

Whenever I take on the form of a being of lore, I take great care in the appearance and demeanor of said being. My goal, our goal as grim reapers, after all, is to bring souls to rest before passing them on to the afterlife. I do not think that anybody, including we reapers, will ever know what truly happens after we guide a soul unto oblivion, but that is okay. I think it would distract us from our duties to the universe if such knowledge was granted to us.

So, on that note, I say goodbye. I wish I had more time to share the tales of my experiences of guiding souls, but time is something the universe does not waste, even when it comes to beings outside the physical realm.

I hope you continue to learn from the mistakes of those before you.