This intrigues me. What, exactly, did Saxys have to say about one's post-death experience? Where does that limit of a thousand years come from, and what did he imagine ended that?Saxys believed in life after death (though strictly speaking not in immortality; he estimated that one’s post-death experience would last less than a thousand years)
Quick Irreanism question re. immortality
Quick Irreanism question re. immortality
I notice that on the Irreanism Almeopedia page:
con quesa- firm believer in the right of Spanish cheese to be female if she so chooses
"There's nothing inherently different between knowing who Venusaur is and knowing who Lady Macbeth is" -Xephyr
"There's nothing inherently different between knowing who Venusaur is and knowing who Lady Macbeth is" -Xephyr
He figured that that was about the maximum a spirit would want to keep on going. He assumed that post-death experience took place in another realm, with a sort of body, and that there was some access to Almea (one could watch it, at least). He thought in fact that mass of flaids (and humans) would tire of existence in a hundred years; only a minority would hang on for a thousand. He offered such reasons as these:
* Boredom and the exhaustion of possibilities. Even if the afterlife was full of indulgence— parties, games, good food, sex— how long could you really enjoy these things? After awhile even perfection would become raspingly dull.
* Interest in family back on Almea would wane as relationships grew ever more distant. You could follow your grandchildren with fascination; not so the huge mass of distant relations a thousand years hence.
* Life in general in Almea would change too much: after a thousand years you'd barely recognize your home culture and even its language would be difficult.
* Flaidish (and human) loves and friendships are geared to lifetimes of decades at most. A marriage that is pleasant and satisfying for 60 years would be suffocating for 600. (An acerbic view, one might think, but even in earthly life Saxys was a hermit.)
Those most likely to last a thousand years, he maintained, were those already used to taking a long view: scholars, creative artists, Irreanist clerics. These had the strength of mind that could fill a millennium with vigor and the breadth that would remain interested in wide areas of life.
* Boredom and the exhaustion of possibilities. Even if the afterlife was full of indulgence— parties, games, good food, sex— how long could you really enjoy these things? After awhile even perfection would become raspingly dull.
* Interest in family back on Almea would wane as relationships grew ever more distant. You could follow your grandchildren with fascination; not so the huge mass of distant relations a thousand years hence.
* Life in general in Almea would change too much: after a thousand years you'd barely recognize your home culture and even its language would be difficult.
* Flaidish (and human) loves and friendships are geared to lifetimes of decades at most. A marriage that is pleasant and satisfying for 60 years would be suffocating for 600. (An acerbic view, one might think, but even in earthly life Saxys was a hermit.)
Those most likely to last a thousand years, he maintained, were those already used to taking a long view: scholars, creative artists, Irreanist clerics. These had the strength of mind that could fill a millennium with vigor and the breadth that would remain interested in wide areas of life.
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This brings another question : How does a spirit wane? How does it disband itself?zompist wrote:He figured that that was about the maximum a spirit would want to keep on going. He assumed that post-death experience took place in another realm, with a sort of body, and that there was some access to Almea (one could watch it, at least). He thought in fact that mass of flaids (and humans) would tire of existence in a hundred years; only a minority would hang on for a thousand. He offered such reasons as these:
[...]
Those most likely to last a thousand years, he maintained, were those already used to taking a long view: scholars, creative artists, Irreanist clerics. These had the strength of mind that could fill a millennium with vigor and the breadth that would remain interested in wide areas of life.
"Ez amnar o amnar e cauč."
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Fascinating.
It makes sense, too. Why would a spirit, upon the death of the body, be instantly liberated from all its earthly (almea-ly?) ties?
Are there any religions on Almea that preach reincarnation? After all, that is something that a couple billion people believe on earth, mostly in Asia.
I'm pretty sure the idea of a mortal spirit is a purely Almean notion. very unique! Those Flaids are so quirky in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
It makes sense, too. Why would a spirit, upon the death of the body, be instantly liberated from all its earthly (almea-ly?) ties?
Are there any religions on Almea that preach reincarnation? After all, that is something that a couple billion people believe on earth, mostly in Asia.
I'm pretty sure the idea of a mortal spirit is a purely Almean notion. very unique! Those Flaids are so quirky in a matter-of-fact kind of way.
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Iscun wrote: I'm pretty sure the idea of a mortal spirit is a purely Almean notion.
Hardly! It's very common on earth - either because the afterlife has no afterlife, or because souls gradually fade after death (either into nothingness or into a single spirit-being).
A famous example in Western philosophy is the early stoics, who believed that the world was periodically destroyed and reborn, and that the souls of sages could last after death until the next destruction of the earth, but not beyond that point.
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But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!
But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!