and knew him as a brilliant and caring doc. Yes, he was floating on a tide of happy hormones and having a lovely dream. It's comforting to know that's how we'll all fade on out, but yes, it's a function of a still living brain.

I'm surprised he didn't figure that part out, but I guess some folks out there really want to believe they can take their egos with them when they die.

And also if he really were dead, meaning brain dead, he would not be here to talk about it.

Personally, I find it quite enough that we find bliss at the end. Bliss for eternity would get dull. Bliss for a short time followed by oblivion sounds a lot better to me.

hoping for reincarnation. Being a badger would be a hoot, I think.

My mother was a firm believer in reincarnation and said on many occasions that she wanted to come back as a river otter since they didn't have many predators and always looked like they were getting a lot of fun out of life.

Six months after she died there was a brief squib on local news about how river otters had been spotted in northern NM for the first time in over 50 years.

Part of me will always hope she made it.