Impermanent Death

Nibuca at Mystic Chicanery mused on an interesting topic last week: impermanent death. I’ll wait for you to go read her premise and then come back to me…

…and we’re waiting, and we’re waiting…

Okay! Glad to have you back.

In WoW (and most games for that matter), death is not a permanent situation. At worst, it costs money and time, making it merely an annoyance that you’d rather avoid. However, the punishment for death is not so steep that you don’t try some stupid or fun things in-game once in a while just to see if you can do them. Or, if you’re me, you could simply be a klutz and walk right off of The Great Lift accidentally.

That was quite a trip, by the way. In mid-fall, it was actually kind of fun — like skydiving. But when I first stepped off, I remembered thinking, “Oh crap, this is not going to end well.” I got this horrible sinking feeling that said, with devastating certainty, “I’m not going to get out of this alive.” Adrenaline rushed through me and my brain raced to see if there was anything I could do to avoid death. Turns out, of course, I couldn’t. (Although, at least I gave my group a reason to laugh their heads off.) Eventually you accept the fact that you’re going to die and just wait it out.

After that fall, I began to wonder if that’s what really goes through your mind in a near-death (or actual death) situation in real life. Is there that sinking feeling of, “This isn’t going to end well,” where you can no longer deny that your life will end? As we walk around making mistakes in real life, most of us are in denial of facing the Ultimate Consequence of anything. This denial probably exists as a survival mechanism (no, I’m not punning) because if we were to go around convinced that we’re going to die all the time, we’d never leave the house. As a result, there is always some optimistic, arrogant part of our brains whispering, “There has to be a way out of this. I just need to figure it out.”

There are, actually, some religions that preach what amounts to an impermanent death. Christianity, Bhuddism, and some philosophical schools which bend in that direction also.

I wonder if it’s death that we’re really afraid of — or are we simply afraid pain and suffering we believe must go along with it? If death is impermanent does that take away the fear of the pain and suffering? For example, would more people jump off of buildings just to see what it was like — knowing that they could resurrect after dying — or would the simple fear of the pain of breaking all your bones and splatting on the pavement pretty much prevent people from doing that anyway? And what about people with suicidal impulses? The idea of impermanent death pretty much harshes any of their urges.

So those are my thoughts.  How do you, dear readers, think life would be life if death were impermanent?