Moving on

Life is never forgotten – people who had near death experiences tell me that their whole life flashed before them in still frames – all within seconds. Now, it is certainly not literally true, but it is still phenomenal.

Short detour: In a certain looking death, brain secretes hallucinating agents to relax you – which is what induces ‘out of body’ experiences among some survivors. I presume that if one is, say, falling off a cliff, only good memories will flash back.

I wonder what I will remember when I die of an accident (accidentally).

Coming back to the subject, moving on is hard because it, by its definition, applies to situation which arose strong emotional response and unexpected changes in stimuli. There is some confusion about the exact mechanism currently, but it is known that survivors of near death experience have flashbacks of traumatic incidents. “It has also been demonstrated that the nature of the flashbacks experienced by an individual are static in that they retain an identical form upon each intrusion. This occurs even when the individual has learned new information that directly contradicts the information retained in the intrusive memory.”

At least I know what I will remember if I survive an accident (theoretically).

By the way, a couple of marked changes in my behavior have caused alarm in my otherwise normal process of self-judgement. I find myself incapable of following logic to its end result while in a debate. I find myself mostly interested but unwilling to participate in such debates. May be it is a sign of maturity. “It was found that involuntary memories are usually derived from either stimuli (i.e. anything that causes a change in behaviour) that indicated the onset of a traumatic event, or from stimuli that hold intense emotional significance to the individual simply because these stimuli were closely associated with the trauma in terms of timing. These stimuli then become warning signals that if encountered again, serve to trigger a flashback.” You start reading Wikipedia to better cope with your problem and it scares you even further 🙁

But moving on is, while hard, not impossible. It depends on what you mean with ‘moving on’. It comes from within and nobody is there to help you – willingly or unwillingly. One wishes someone has an answer but cannot find anyone. In truth almost everyone has an answer – or they haven’t yet encountered the problem. The answer is the most private of all your thoughts, and yearning is the only way to learn it. You live and you learn, and if you are in pain, keep living – you will eventually learn.