Do You See Dead People?
If So, You Need to Take a Break
I see dead people.
Remember that line from the movie The Sixth Sense? Yeah, the little boy that has an ability to see dead people who are walking amongst the living finally tells his shrink why he’s so weird. Oh, and these dead people weren’t zombies trying to eat him. Oh, no. They were dead people who’d experienced trauma of some sort in their lives and weren’t able to die in peace.
I see dead people.
Wouldn’t that make anyone weird?
I mean if you saw dead people walking down the street, sitting on the bus, even in your house at night, wouldn’t you be acting a little different than the rest of your friends. Not that you wouldn’t prefer to be drinking lattes and watching influencers on your smart phone just like everyone else, but how could you if whenever you turned the corner, there was another dead person?
Yeah, it would be impossible.
Are you a person who sees dead people? Do you get up in the morning, put on your glasses, open the blinds to the window, and see dead people? Is your mind wired with a sixth sense that not only recognizes injustices, pain and suffering, corruptions, lies, social ills, and impending disasters but also feels the pain in your own body that these everyday situations cause so many people?
Do you seem a little weird to your latte-sipping friends?
I’m not a trained psychologist. I simply register high on the empathy scale. I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember, even as a child. I’ve also been puzzled by it all. I started noticing at a young age how indifferent some people were about the suffering of others. I watched the bully-on-the-playground scenario play out in front of me and was stunned that so few seemed willing to protect the victim. Later, my suspicions that some of us had more empathy than others was confirmed by the professionals. They’re still studying this human phenomenon. Why do some people feel the pain of others while others rarely if ever do?
We’re not all alike.
There wasn’t one cookie cutter used to stamp out an endless series of humans. Our cultures may tell us that we all need to be alike, but we’re not. Some of us are more empathetic. Some of us are apathetic. And some of us are sociopaths.
Some of us see dead people.
We’re intuitive, super sensitive, and register high on the empathy scale. We feel the pain of others in our own bodies. We can’t easily put them out of our minds and get on with our day. Suffering and injustices keep us awake at night. We are known to stand up to the bullies even at our own peril.
Some people are endowed with a smidgeon of empathy. Enough to recognize the suffering that is close to home and be bothered by it.
However, not quite enough to see dead people. That’s why they can remain mostly apathetic. They sit on the fence when called upon to lend a hand. You can’t trust them to have your back even when you’re fighting for a cause that might benefit them. When push comes to shove, they might even cast their lot with the sociopath since they tend to keep track of which side their bread is buttered on.
What about the sociopath?
Ahhh, the sociopath. Where would we be without the sociopaths who have little if any concern about how anyone else feels? They’re very low or entirely void of empathy. In fact, they sometimes go after empaths. Empaths have been ostracized, traumatized, even martyred down through the ages by none other than sociopaths. Apaths sat on the fence watching sociopaths put the rope around the empath’s neck. Apaths weren’t about to risk their own necks. Sociopaths aren’t influenced by the suffering of others because they’re incapable of feeling someone else’s pain. That gives them a social advantage, because they don’t stop to think about how their needs may interfere the needs of others.
Many leaders are sociopaths often with seductive personalities.
Do you see dead people?
If so, here’s a word of advice. You need to take better care of yourself. The world is full of injustices and pain and suffering. There are legions of dead people walking amongst us. They remind us of how unfair life can be. We want to help and if we can’t help, then we become depressed. The sight of so many dead people is deeply disturbing.
It’ll drain you after a while.
The world is a better place because of empaths. No question about it. It often takes an empath to stand up to a sociopath. Without empaths it would be a world without hope. But we must take care of ourselves.
We must show ourselves the same degree of concern and caring that we offer to the world at large.
It’s ok to not listen to the news or read the newspaper. It’s even ok to refuse to listen to your friend’s troubles, your coworkers’ problems, and your family’s worries.
You can take a day off from trying to fix the world.
You must take a day off or else you’ll drown in the abyss that humanity calls normal life. It’ll be too much for you. It’ll take a toll on your health, mentally and physically. Do you hear me?
Yes, but I see dead people, you remind me.
I know. I know. You’ll always see dead people. That’s how you’re wired. But you must take a break from trying to save the dead people. What the world needs now is more empaths not less.
We can’t afford to lose you simply because you didn’t take better care of yourself.
And trust me when I say, only you can take care of you. The apath will not do it for you unless it’s convenient and sociopaths definitely won’t. It’s gotta be you.
Otherwise, you’ll become just another dead person walking amongst the living.
Teresa is a retired educator, author, world traveler, and professional myth buster. You can find her books on Amazon.
