Was lost from the philosophy boards for a bit...
I want to go back to your question, Seeker, about how do we cope with the intermediary phase. My way to go through life is that I will never truly die. In either memory or through my actions I have already affected the years to come in hopefully some beneficiary way. One good deed can change someone else that day and thenceforth affect everyone else down their lines.
And I happen to agree with NotMVH, that which makes us human is that which we should be embracing instead of creating it as a taboo, which is why we can never really know our selves until we experience it. I too do not use drugs because that is a path that I don't find interesting and wasteful to my own being. Same with alcohol, I won't drink as an adult. Mainly because I find fire much more interesting than watching alcohol wasted for inebriation.
EDIT: in case someone thought the loop-hole, I also am against senseless violence and murder of others. In fact, if you are hurting or using another person in a way that they are not aware of, that's wrong on every level of my book. I have my limits to my acceptance and virtue, however. I have my side of illness, as some in here might remember my first thread:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=82233. I still believe in these things, and they are definite in my mind.