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Hello everybody,

I have a problem that REALLY troubles me. I guess I'm kind of weird, but I'm getting a little crazy I think. Anyway, everytime I eat meat I get this feeling that the animal, although dead, can still feel. That it still can feel pain, etc. but doesn't react. Do we know? Is it proven that once it's dead it's DEAD and it goes to heaven and the body is just left behind? Or does it die but somehow still live "inside?"

This is not a joke of some kind. I am fully serious. I feel almost sick when I eat meat because I don't want to harm the animal. It's sick how we murder so many snimals every day for our pleasure, and I feel so sorry for them. They do, after all, feel pain just like we do and I am so concerned that maybe they suffer when we eat them.

I don't know what to say, but I'm just wondering if anyone can comfort me on this issue. It is really troubling me.

Thank you.

Did you know that vegetables feel pain?

Not funny.

I agree. But anyway Bb, if it bothers you a lot, I can vouch for the safety and rewards of a
veg(etari)an diet! As for the actual issue of your post, I don't think there is any physical way that the dead animals can feel people eating them - after the pain of being slaughtered , they are at peace! But I know what you mean, it is kind of a creepy thought.

Trust me, that steak you are eating can feel no more pain. Don't become vegetarian, since the drawbacks are obvious. As to the slaughering of animals, it is the way nature intended it to be. Sure, now we have all of these produced and fancy foods, but way back then, it was either eat a tree (Or our modern vegetarian) or dine on some tasty meat. We are on top of the food chain, might as well take full advantage of it. Animals are not creatures such as ourselves, no matter how much the media or very sensitive people may say otherwise. Eat meat, and eat more meat. Nothing as tasty.

I've often wondered the same thing myself. Can the dead actually still feel physical sensations such as pain, etc? But then again, while your physical body may feel it, your soul will at least no longer be there, so it is then just an empty body that would be feeling the pain. But, you never know. I guess that we will have to wait to find out for ouselves when our own time comes.

How true. They are still alive and developing as we eat them, unlike slabs of meat.

BeePhlatMinor,

On the one hand, I want to find concrete, convincing "proofs" that your fears are unjustified. As I used to tell my kids when they worried and worried about something that didn't make sense from the outside, "the danger isn't real but the fear is".

However, as a former clinician - not to mention being a mom and fellow human being (not former!) - I know it can be risky to focus on merely trying to talk somebody out of their phobias (phobia = extreme irrational fear) or other signs of emotional unrest.

I can tell by your post, Internet and all, that you are very distressed, so I want to talk about that, if it's OK. I wonder if this dread you are experiencing came on suddenly (recently) or gradually,and if you can connect it to any other changes in your life.

Did anything happen recently that might be considered disturbing: a death in the family (or divorce), somebody becoming unemployed, or anything on-going which is maybe getting to you? Say, an abusive member of your family? Even just walking down the road and seeing a mutilated animal that was hit by a car?

Have you ever had other thoughts which disturbed you? Something you just kept mulling over and couldn't get out of your mind? Or is there anything else you are scared about right now? Even just being afraid you are going crazy, is pretty scary. How's your sleep? Nightmares?

Worrying about the kind of thing you described does not mean "you're crazy". But it does sound like something is going on besides the issue you "think you're worried about" - whether or not dead animals can feel the pain of having their bodies eaten.

Sometimes with this kind of problem, if you get your focus off one fear, another one can just pop up! It's called "free-floating anxiety" - kind of like a flame looking for a piece of dry wood.

Anyhow, I would feel better knowing you had somebody to talk to in person, or at least on the phone - not somebody your own age. Is there an adult you trust at school or at church that you might ask to talk to privately? It will take courage and maybe feeling foolish, but, hey - nobody ever died of embarrassment.

On the other hand, plenty of people have been harmed, by holding things inside through fear of being embarrassed. I know somebody, for example, who died in her early twenties of uterine cancer because she was too embarrassed to have a doctor examine her "down there".

There is something very comforting about reaching out on the Internet in all its anonymity, especially if you worry about something you find embarrassing to talk about. As a matter of fact, I am one of the few people, who does believe that it's not "just the 'Net" - in other words, that people can care about and help one another on the Internet.

But it's not the same as confiding in somebody around where you are. Could you check back in about this, please? Not that anybody here can do cyber-therapy, but it's a start.

It's good that you're reaching out about these scary thoughts! You're not alone.

Ariel

I couldn't have said it better myself!

I understand your problem Bb since I somtimes develop odd habits. In time I think about how foolish they are, and I laugh. Now let me assure you that the meat taken from a DEAD animal does NOT feel pain. Hence the word DEAD. DEAD meaning not alive!!!! Thus, a piece of steak does not feel pain.

Happy eating!

If God had meant for us to eat vegetables, he would have made them out of meat.

As for steak, just wipe its nose and bring it out. If it wiggles a little when I bite into it, that's ok.

If you sit around worrying if dead animals feel you eating them, I suggest you discuss this with your local mental health center. There may be a few other issues you need to address as well.

Did you know there are MILLIONS of animals slaughtered yearly by harvesting machines? And it's really PAINFUL.

ROFL!!!

quote:
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Originally posted by Larry:
If God had meant for us to eat vegetables, he would have made them out of meat.
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I'm sorry, but the logic escapes me... :rolleyes:

BbMinor,
I trust your question is a serious one, and I don't know if this helps, but as a former ICU nurse who has sat at the bedside of more than a few brain-dead individuals, I too wondered the same thing (albeit concerning humans), for a short time. But after observing patients' HR, EEG, BP, etc. tracings for hours on end and during different (sometimes uncomfortable/painful) procedures (e.g. needle pokes for blood sampling), and observing virtually no change in these same parameters (that are known to vary with such procedures), I am convinced the dead do not feel pain. Now, whether or not one's soul feels pain, emotional or otherwise, I will not speculate....

It's a joke. The whole thread is a joke.

BeePhlatMinor,

How old are you ?

The reason I am asking is that fears like the one you are experiencing now mean different things at different stages of life.

My youngest daughter (21 now) used to be terrified by whales when she was 10.

There are no whales around Paris (France), but the fear was vivid.

This fear stayed with her for years and somehow her mother and I felt that it meant something real that would go away one day if she could live with it as long as she felt it was there.

When she grew up, she began very adventurous and frightened us by going to Bosnia or working with the street children in India.

And she became a vegetarian.

Why do I tell you this ?

First to tell you that most of us have weird parts in ourselves.

Secondly to tell you that you have to decide if your ideas about the feelings of dead organisms make sense to the rational part of you.
And if they do not, you can decide either to live with a temporary irrational part that seems to be frightened or want to talk with a professional person that will help you just by taking seriously what you think and feel.

And you can talk to us.

Some of us will laugh (they usually are enormous meat eaters and will give you an enormous slap in the back that might make you feel better ...or worse), some of us will feel worried for you and all of us will try to help.

Scientific experiment:
amputate one of your digits(I know it hurts)then pickle it, season it, marinate it, dry it to make jerky, whatever you like...when you then decide to dine on the tasty morsel I can assure you, you WILL NOT feel it. And as Larry said, if it wiggles a little don't worry.

johnmoonlight

I think if you boned it out and fixed it like Sushi it would be better.

lb

LB great idea; I hadn't thought of that! You could even incorporate into a California roll...my mouth is watering.

I think BeePhlatt needs to spend some time in rural China or Ethiopia.

The vegetarians are/were just spoiled kids that are trying to make a statement. If they were hungry enough they would eat bugs, worms, or even raw meat to stay alive. Hunger has a way of compromising ones principles.

lb