How is your ghost afterlife going?
Oh sorry to assume you’re a ghost. Zombie maybe?
How did you die?
just dropped dead
So… You got better?
in some ways yes, and other ways no
You and me both, brother, but mine was January, 2024.
Had my 2nd heart attack in an emergency room, in the middle of a snow and ice storm, as the power goes out.
“OK, you need a stent, but we can’t do that here, we have to get you to a different hospital and the ambulance can’t get here because of the snow and ice. It’s coming.”
Ambulance doesn’t come. I wake up at 6 AM and am fiddling with my phone, nurse comes in.
“Were you asleep about an hour ago?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Your heart stopped for 8 seconds.”
“. . . Um, ‘thank you’? I don’t know the correct response to ‘your heart stopped for 8 seconds’.”
I think the correct response is “oh, ok. Thanks for letting me know!”
Yeah, I have an implanted heart monitor now that talks to my phone, it sends a signal back to the docs if anything goes wrong.
My heart has stopped a couple other times, nothing as dramatic as 8 seconds, 4 or 5 seconds here and there. Doc says not to worry as long as it only happens when I’m sleeping and I’m like “Dude! How am I supposed to sleep now?”
crazy story. an EMT was telling me once how he came to an old guys house bc his wife called, and when he got there he was dead. bright him back with drugs and CPR.
How did the hospital staff handle explaining what happened?
they just wanted to give me brain deadening drugs and send me home bc by the time I got there I was fine
they don’t really care how something happens bc that’s not how they get paid.
Do you have more, less, or the same amount of existential dread since?
hmm, I’m not really happy with my life before or after, but I am less afraid of death, and as a result I have a lower toloramce for suffering, because suffering is much worse than death (for me)
Did you have a near-death experience or anything similar?
it was basically the same as your experience of the year 1392 ; its not like you can’t remember, or it was scary, or there was some glowing light.
for me ; it didn’t exist
Honestly sounds kinda nice as long as the going is peaceful. Like I’m not suicidal and I’m on an upswing right now but it still genuinely sounds nice. Thanks for sharing. Have a happy new year.
I don’t know that I’d describe it as nice, but it certainly seems silly to be literally afraid of nothing
I mean I think the fear of death is really a function of fear of the unknown. Like I know a person IRL who had a near-death experience where she died for a few minutes and she basically said the same thing, i.e. I have some evidence to back up my suspicion that it’s “nothing”, but I think that people practically being able to resuscitated is kinda recent in human history? So I absolutely do understand how people can be afraid of death when they have absolutely no evidence to suspect that there’s no afterlife or anything else we’ve conjectured about death.
Fear of death is a survival instinct first and foremost I think.
If you don’t care if you die, chance of dying grow. And, as you said, fear of the unknown adds to that.
I don’t believe in the afterlife, but some people have near death experience, some people don’t. Who’s right? We won’t know until it’s our turn to die.
So you had unfinished business?
apparently not since I can’t get a job 😑
Oh shit, at least you learned how to craft an epic comeback.
ha, certainly not epic…yet?
This is how come you’re back! You can’t become a ghost with un-begun business, this isn’t a Pratchett novel. Time to get some business started.
OK, what business?
You’re the one who died, make up some shit about what you saw, start a cult, sell a book, trick some fuckers. You’re not gonna have much unfinished business selling hotdogs and beers on the beach. Weirdest ghost ever, oooOOOooo, I need to finish pouring your caipirinhaaaaa
Maybe he accepted the money, brought it to a safe elsewhere but nearby, and was planning to make the hotdog only once he’s back at his hot dog booth? Your selling the hotdog is unfinished and as long as the customer doesn’t get their hotdog, you’re gonna stay a ghost.
wtf? This person could sell hotdogs on the beach and write a best seller about people they meet, or meet the executive director that’s going to make them a star. Even if not, who cares as long as they’re happy doing it and it pays the bills?
Okay so when is your resurrection party?
I think it was early April, I’ll let you organize the party 😉
It better have lots of chocolate, I wouldn’t bother organizing otherwise
What happened to cause the dieing?
brain electrical shortage
What do you mean you ‘died’? What actually happened, causing you to say that?
no breathing, no heartbeat, no movement, no brain activity, greying-blueing skin, for an extended period of time 😎
edit: oh and I dropped-dead from a standing position.
How’s the afterlife?
nonexistant
How would you rate being dead, out of 10?
null out of 10
😆 but like unironically how was it?
What purpose do you suppose I serve in your purgatory?
you “can” serve any purpose you want there
too late
