Never Say Die: Why We Can’t Imagine Death

Jesse Bering on why so many of us think our minds continue on after we die; rather than being a by-product of religion or an emotional security blanket, such beliefs stem from the very nature of our consciousness.

And so person permanence may be the final cognitive hurdle that gets in the way of our effectively realizing the dead as they truly are—infinitely in situ, inanimate carbon residue. Instead it’s much more “natural” to imagine them as existing in some vague, unobservable locale, very much living their dead lives.