You just died in a car wreck. A ghostly you, steps out of your dead body just like in those fancy Hollywood movies.
A welcoming light appears. You have two choices, you can step into the light, or roam around the earth and check shit out. You don’t know how, but you know for a fact that that light will always be there should you want it.
Unlike the Hollywood movies, there are no Whoopi Goldbergs in this hypothetical. No matter how hard you try, you will NEVER be able to react with the living. And they in return, will be completely unaware of your existence. The only special power you have is the ability to 'teleport" to any location by simply thinking about it.
So how long before you get bored of being a silent observer of this secular world and step into the light?
Also, keep in mind, there are no other ghosts in this world for you to hang out with. So if your thinking about joining some sort of ghost club, you can forget it.
I voted wait a bit. Maybe not a long time, but there are places (and naked celebrities) I would like to at least see once. Surely being alone and unable to interact will get old eventually, but having the light available indefinitely makes waiting a no brainer.
I have a hard enough time caring that much about the world now, while I’m still in it. I’d be much more interested in whatever new experience (which, incidentally, I don’t believe in at this point) might be on the other side of that “light”. So I voted to go right away.
Roddy
A thousand years? A million? I’m not sure, but it would be a long time. I already act like an outside observer a large amount of the time, and like it.
The hardest part would be giving up books/the internet/etc. But I think that would be made up by being able to see things that no person has ever seen before. Mountains that no one has climbed. Caves that no one has explored. Ocean bottoms.
Hey, can I teleport to Mars, or am I limited to Earth?
A universe with no Whoopi Goldberg is a universe of which I want no part!
I’d hang around. Not for very long I imagine; lack of any interaction would get old really quickly.
I imagine I’d catch a few Broadway shows, visit Machu Picchu, some things like that. Then it’s off to the light!
By the by, in this hypothetical, do we know what’s on the other side of ‘the light’? Not that I think it would make much of a difference to me. If it’s oblivion, I might stay on Earth a while longer, but even then I’d get tired of being alone eventually.
I don’t believe in “the light,” so I’m sticking around on this earth (or other planets around other stars?) as long as I can enjoy it. And I think that’ll be a long, long time.
I’d def hang around for a bit. I wouldn’t want to hang round my family as I wouldn’t want to watch how they dealt with my death. No option would be good viewing.
I also don’t know what’s behind the light. It could be a mythical heaven, it could be hell, it could be the doorway to a vast soul incinerator that reduces you to component atoms and spits them back out to be mingled with others or anywhere in between.
So I’d hang around for a while, check out all the places I never got to visit, observe, see if I could develop some form of telekinesis even just enough to give the shits to people I didn’t like.
When I got bored of that, I’d head off into the light and see what was next if anything.
I voted other. I think I’d want to hang around for years at least. Watch my children and grandchildren grow up. Go all the places I never had time, money or energy to go to while I was alive. Much like real immortality, it would eventually get old and then into the light to see what’s on the other side.
ETA: I swear nothing was there after Eonwe when I started typing.
As stated elsewhere, my big fear of death is not knowing how things turn out. As long as I could go anywhere, I’d certainly hang around, maybe for thousands of years or longer. I could watch the latest movies and TV shows, sporting events (live, and not have to pay), if I played my cards right I could read books. If we’re limited to the Earth, there’d be plenty to keep me busy for a very long time. If we could leave Earth, then all bets are off (although travel times would suck, having to walk to Mars or worse).
This is especially true if I know that “the Light” is actually heavenly comfort for eternity - I get to hang around, see how things go, and then still get “paradise” at the end of the ride? Sign me up.
