Life And Death

Waking and lying in bed, we reflect. The organism regains consciousness. Neuronic interactions cause consciousness which ends temporarily in sleep and permanently at death. 

Fiction reflects life. Lives have turning points whether recognized or not. In Poul Anderson's A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows, Dominic Flandry's murdered fiancee, Kossara Vymezal, lies in state in St Clement's Cathedral on Dennitza. She believed. He does not. He asks her for a sign that she still exists. This makes him the first person to pray to St Kossara, later canonized by her fellow Orthochristians. Flandry hears only a priest chanting and does not interpret this as a sign. Brains/minds/souls process experiences differently. Some Dennitzans would feel their faith strengthened. Others would doubt. A Catholic colleague in Merseyside who had lost her young son was later asked about her faith and replied, "That's all gone now."

Any hypothetical greater consciousness observes Flandry and my former colleague with compassion.

Exercise: Find three more turning point moments in Poul Anderson's works.