WHAT DO YOU THINK?

What does it mean to be human? How are you being differentiated from being a human and an animal.

We usually think of it as feeling, remembering, growing, and changing. Our memories shape how we see the world and how we see ourselves. But what if something happened that should change everything—like dying/on the verge of dying—and you came back, but you don’t really think about it? Would that make you less human?

Imagine this: for a moment, your heart stops. The world fades out. Then you wake up, alive again. People around you tell you what happened, how close it was. You know you almost died—but you don’t feel like you did. There’s no memory, no vision, no tunnel of light, no sense of transformation. You’re the same person you were the day before.

So what does that mean?

If you don’t remember dying/almost dying, it’s just another blank space—like a dream you forgot. You’re still you. You still laugh, still cry, still wonder about what it all means. Maybe that’s enough.

But maybe it also raises a strange question: if something as huge as death doesn’t change you, does that mean your sense of “you” is more fragile—or more solid—than you thought?

In the end, not thinking about death doesn’t make you less human or it does.

It just reminds us how much of being human depends on memory, on story, on the meaning we attach to what happens. Without that, we’re just left with the mystery of being here again—and trying to make sense of it all.