Perhaps the first absolute given that we've ever learned is death. Fruit flies die in a matter of days, trees die in a matter of centuries; every little thing's got its own little lifespan, which is pretty insignificant in "eternity." Point is, everything dies eventually.
We like to call death so many different things, don't we? "Passing away", or "expiring", or "taking a dirt nap" — things like that. Sometimes it's to soften the truth, sometimes it's to sound poetic, and sometimes it's just gallows humor. My personal favorite is "dreamless sleep."
Before I go any further, I'll ask: did you know that long after the heart has stopped, activity can still be observed in the brain? The common definition of death describes it as the moment at which the heart stops. Going by that, you could say the brain still functions after death. Not indefinitely, but for a little.
So the question is: Is death truly dreamless?
What if, among the functions the brain still performs after death, dreaming is possible? In that case, we'd all have different "after lives". Some of us might have casual dreams, some of us might have weird, senseless dreams. It'd all be a matter of chance. That makes us the masters of our own fates, even after we're no longer able to decide. Who knows if the dream will end once the brain dies, even? Perhaps it won't. A single moment determines the rest of eternity.
And that's rather unfortunate, because if—when—our endless dreams turn into nightmares, there will be no waking up.
Written by JustAnotherScarecrow
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