Death and you: a thought experiment

Consider this: billions of people have experienced death - and yet you haven't. 

But what if... you won't? What if this Universe is fine tuned for you?

You may have have lost loved ones - you know very well that death is real; no one to date has ever cheated it - no one born in the 19th century, for example, is still alive today. 

So here's a thought experiment.

Let's assume you're currently in reasonable health. The years are passing; but one day you read about a technology just around the corner that can actually reverse ageing. And indeed, ten years later, a treatment becomes available. Early adopters pay millions for the chance of becoming biologically younger. But then another 15 years into the future, the firms selling such treatment scale up, allowing them to cut the price so that most middle-income people can easily afford it. Margin times volume equals profit. Think about the ubiquity of the mobile phone; compare the price and the features of today's smartphone with one from 1997.

And so, you reach your 80th birthday, but your biological age is nearer to 60. Twenty years later, another spate of breakthroughs emerges onto the market. Suddenly the double-century becomes a possibility; you look at yourself in the mirror and you see someone in their early 50s. Yes, you could easily reach 200, you think - as long as you avoid accidents. 

OK - so perhaps you have an accident and you do die - then what? Mankind could be on the brink of being able to bring people back from the dead. Give it several more decades... You are returned to biological life. Who knows - in this Universe, made just for you, maybe you will live forever?

Me? I'm old fashioned - I have a rich experience of past-life flashbacks, almost daily, and from time to time dreams - which to me suggest that consciousness, as separate from the ego, can experience anomalous qualia memories (those moments when you are subjectively aware of experiencing a particular set of sensations). I had one a few minutes ago when I opened the front door to receive a faceful of damp air, above freezing, air that has heralded a thaw, a feeling a recall from a previous existence - America in the 1950s. Had one yesterday too, when reading about the early years of the RAND Corporation in the USA, the description of its moderne headquarters building triggered strong familiar and pleasant flashbacks as I was dropping off to sleep. A dream I had last Friday - a lake, mid- 1950s USA, night, I am trying to break into a Cessna floatplane moored to a pier, but I can't find the magneto switch I need to flip to start the engine. 

The consistency of such experiences - anomalous memories - I have written about on this blog for many years, and they give me a clue to what awaits me when my physical body expires. An upward spiral of understanding, life by life reaching ever-so-slightly closer towards unity in God.

This time last year:
We sleep, we dream - what's that all about?

This time six years ago:
Searching for growth

This time nine years ago:
The more it snows - a decent snowfall in Warsaw

This time ten years ago:
A Dream Too Far - short story

This time 11 years ago:
Compositions in white, blue and gold

This time 12 years ago:
Dobra and the road

This time 13 years ago:
Polish air force plane full of VIPs crashes on landing in bad weather