/// STORY

"What a beautiful, abstract dream!" he thought, "the colours, views, amazing melodies and all those pretty ladies!". All of what he is experiencing is just beyond anything he could have ever imagined. It is like a little utopian world inside his head, created just for him! What a saddening thought it is, though: Vibrant memories from dreams manifest in his brain just to vanish after a couple hours of being awake and in the end they were never even real in the first place. Still, those imaginary universes the brain creates are important to him. Even though he will not remember them, they are his nice little escape from the often sad reality he lives in. Life is short and while he did appreciate it, he thinks that it was too short. His brain created the most beautiful world he has ever seen just to cover up the sad reality of his death. Will there be anything after death? Does it all go black? Questions he will not be able to answer. His brain is the only familiar place he has right now. Whatever comes next is neither up to him, nor his imagination. This. This is the sad reality. That people don't appreciate life enough and forget how short it really is. Whatever it is that he will experience now, his brain cannot control it. This is not just a dream. The feeling he is experiencing - his death - this is what is beyond imagination. ///

A while back a man died while being hooked up to an EEG. This is a machine that can read waves the brain transmits. His unfortunate death was recorded on accident as it happened while he was in surgery and there is also a similar case where a mans death occurred while he was inside a full body MRI. That gave us insight about what happens to the brain after death and we were able to determine that the waves the brain transmits during death are similar to the ones it does when asleep and dreaming. There are many speculations to what actually goes on inside ones head when they are dying. For example.: When you fell on your face as a child, it hurt. Your brain remembered that and you eventually found a solution to (mostly) avoid the fall. You block it with your hands. Now, every time you fall, you are going to remember to block the fall with your hands. Your brain will always search for a solution to your current problem inside your memories. It is thought that this is the same with ones death, only, that the brain will not find a solution because it has never experienced such an event before. Therefore, the brain goes through everything, your entire life, to search for something that will keep you alive. This is thought to be what people describe as the "light at the end of the tunnel" and it is also where the saying "life flashing before my eyes" came from - people that got near to death described their experience like this. Basically, it is a short dream where you re-experience your entire life as your brain tries to save you.

I created a little story based off of those theories and wrote the music to it. It is my own little interpretation of death and how it can be both so beautiful and yet insanely devastating. But don't let this get you down. Life is what you make it and you shouldn't let this control it. I know it can be a depressing thought but you only get to live once. Make the most out of it, I believe in you that you can do it.

* Especially when you lose someone in your life, don't let that take over. I recently lost someone too and I lost balance. Grief is okay and nobody in their right mind will hold you accountable for that. But remember:

"One lives, rivers flow. One dies, rivers flow." - Life goes on.

I know this has been depressing to read and I am sorry if it was a little extreme, but I find this topic important. That being said: if you need "help", if you know what I mean, there is always some available. Suicidal Hotlines work 24/7. You are not alone.

illustrations by Athena

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mossiestgecko

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ath3nabobeana