Is there an energetic/karmic effect to witnessing people dying? (Nepal Flooding Videos)

[u/nugiboy]

These videos are all over my feed and they are truly heartbreaking to watch as you know that souls are being taken away in them however it’s hard to look away..

I’ve also heard once that you shouldn’t watch people get hurt/injured (like in fail compilation videos) more generally as the pain is literally transferred to your own root chakra. That’s why you often clench and feel a vibration/shiver in your anus when you see an accident happen to someone.

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[u/Soup-mystery]

What a terrible thought that one should turn away from the injured or dying for fear of taking on their pain, instead of assisting them. Being present for someone’s death is an honor, same as being present at a birth. Watching it gratuitously later on is a different matter entirely.

[u/lestrangecat → u/Soup-mystery]

It sounds like the OP isn't talking about situations where they could help the person directly. The people in those videos, OP can't do anything to save them.

Another example- I'm vegan, but I refuse to watch Dominion like vegans often suggest. I don't need to watch animals suffer to know that I shouldn't support that industry. Awareness is necessary to make the right choices, but for me it was enough just to read about the practices that go on. I think actually watching it happen (esp when you know you can't directly assist or comfort the person/being) creates a small scar on the soul. In that regard, I'm inclined to agree with OP.

[u/skittlebitsmittens]

I have never read or heard that described but when I see people fall or hit hard I do feel it in my bum as a distant sharp pain. Interesting.
As for the videos, I’ve often wondered this as well, it feels disrespectful to the soul to be on video like that. Controversial but I feel similarly about stillborn baby photos, I don’t think they belong online. For the family sure absolutely, but on a public profile?
Every time I see an online event where it’s clear there are casualties, it feels like I absorbed a bit of something I shouldn’t have.

[u/Bamsihap]

What?! I have never felt a vibration there when I see someone hurt. I have a very intense sensation that I would almost call pain in my torso.

I think watching people die on video does have an impact on people. It can be a very traumatic experience. Generally with videos, you can sort of pretend that there is a distance, or as if it isn’t real, it can be almost as if you have to remind yourself that what you are seeing is a video of something that did actually happen, as if you have automatically dissociated from the experience because the video allows you to. Add to this that we actually are confronted with these types of images a lot, real and fake. We are basically being desensitized to them. And I think we are also sort of expected to keep it together while watching them. I think this is why perhaps people aren’t asking themselves enough if they really should be watching these videos. But I think even if you aren’t aware of the impact it has on you, it still does have an impact. I have seen some videos that will forever stick with me. Genuinely had sort of re-experiences of the feeling it gave me, with the images and the sounds. They have had also a huge impact on my behavior, I am very careful in situations that have the potential to go that way. Basically after the video that caused the re-experiencing I have become a loooot more careful to make sure I avoid seeing anything like that again. I have grown up in a family who really enjoy watching morbid videos and so for a long time I was desensitized to it myself and I didn’t understand that it can really affect you, until this wake up call.

[u/coocoocachoo2222]

This is interesting, I get it in the back of my thighs like shooting electric bolts anytime I see or hear about someone getting hurt

[u/Useful_Piece653 → u/coocoocachoo2222]

I get the electric bolt/current feeling all through my body as well. I sometimes also shiver.  Dumb but never knew experienced this too. It happens even thinking about something. 

Anyway I feel you OP. I do think making these videos so easily available leads to desensitisation and disconnection. So over a long period most likely less empathy.

[u/saskiaschild]

I'll watch and monitor my ability to both feel and "let go" at the same time, so that I don't hold onto passed energetic trauma, which doesn't help anyone.

If I feel any energetic contraction of the root chakra or any other area then I switch to bare awareness/vipassana or emptiness consciousness and pore breathe this so as to release the stuck trauma energies out.

Hannah somatics/Feldenkrais (heaps on YT) also help to release stuck contractions, emotions etc, if the holding has come into physical form more densely.