Life, according to Charles Darwin, came about by random chance and developed gradually by a series of non-random processes. For those unfamiliar with this theory, it's called the theory of evolution and natural selection. It's a fitting theory on life, widely accepted by the scientific community (vulgarly rejected by other communities) and makes perfect logical sense of death. By logical, I mean, it necessarily follows that if life came about randomly, then it should also end randomly.
I'm sure anyone reading this will agree that it's not uncommon to find a grieving friend, family member, or even stranger exalting happiness as an end to all ends, recognizing the impossibility of knowing when someone will die. There is very little reason to believe life does not end randomly and the evidence for such randomness is overwhelming.
Yet, there's always the possibility that death, life, and the external world are connected in such a manner that makes it possible for non-random deaths to exist. Our social structure has advanced to a point where we have a science of many various aspects of society. There are regularities in society that are understood through economics and sociology, for example, that seem to be the result of random social constructs. They began as such and evolved to a point where they are no longer this.
Perhaps we are functionally connected to our externalities in varying mental degrees? Perhaps we are endowed with various mental functions that make it easier to preserve ourselves or the people we love (who also are around to help preserve us). Are there regularities in human mental activity that make us mindful of oncoming death? Have we been inculcated by nature with the ability to have various oncoming death premonitions of ourselves and of other people?1
Let me clarify my position by giving you some examples of human predisposition to self preservation. Some people fear height, other people fear certain types of living conditions. Some animals have certain instincts that help them avert situations that are not in their favor. Black bears and loud noises come to mind, cats and water, certain types of smells repel us. Why? It's a natural predisposition to avoiding deathly experiences. Phobias, do this as well, they are distinct features of our own fear of external objects and conditions. Darwinian Theory makes a good case for this, it makes it clear how we are apt to preserve ourselves, consciously and unconsciously, and it's apparent by our psychology. I beg the question in these instances, are we, by non-random chance mindful of the multivariate conditions of pre-fatal conditions or environments? If you think about medicine, you find people have become excellent at predicting death in order to avert it. Why have we evolved to such a point that we can compute the chance of death? To what extent does our mind consciously predict death through the senses and to what extent does it unconsciously predict death?
In our dreams we may be able to predict death by the different types of indicators our minds imbibe. I'll give you one example of a dream an associate of mine had after experiencing a number of urgent phone calls one night. He missed the calls, realized that it had been missed seven times. On that night he dreamt about a relative dying. He noticed that he'd never dreamt like this prior to this dream and noticed its oddness.
On the next day, he was called by a relative and given the news of death. Perhaps the sheer randomness of his dream led to the unconscious non-random premonition of such a death? I say, perhaps.
On a more mythical level, spiritual experiences tell the story of death premonitions. Jesus of Nazareth, in the bible, is said to have felt his death coming on. To what extent was this common sense and to what extent was this a natural predisposition or instinct to death? To what extent was he conscious or unconscious? Are they both connected?
If we accept the tenets of psychology and evolution then it should not be difficult to see how we may be wired in a way that predisposes us to a consciousness of various patterns in the trials of self-preservation. Perhaps evolutionary psychology can assist me in my hypothesis, but if we are social creatures, then shouldn't we be endowed with a capacity to, at least, experience the oncoming death of other people just as in ourselves? This question, I think, requires a careful study. Perhaps a science of pre-fatal psychology is in line? Perhaps it may be more physical and more neurological? I argue, let us not underestimate anything.
1 There are various epistemological problems here which I am addressing for that specific purpose. I sense certain difficulties arise when I speak of causal relations or unaccountable mental conditions. For the sake of intellectual progress, however, the show will go on.
