I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

Always think of each day of your life as your last, because someday it will be.

Alan woke up with a strange feeling that morning. He had the impression that time stood still for a few moments, so that he could get up and go to work. And that’s what he did…

On his way there, he could see that nobody seemed to notice him. People were passing by in a hurry. “Why is it that they don’t even look at me?” he wondered. But he could find no reply to that question. So, he decided to ignore it…

He couldn’t! He even tried to greet some of the people, but none of them seemed to care. He didn’t notice that he was walking faster and faster, as anger and confusion began to overwhelm him. He didn’t see the blue truck until it was too late. The sound of a brake, some screams and then silence…

He woke up. He knew he had been unconscious, but for how long? He looked around. There was no sign of the blue truck, the street or the people. He wasn’t anywhere in the city. He felt as if he was in the centre of an eternally unfolding Universe…

He tried to move, but he realized that he couldn’t feel his legs anymore. He himself had vanished. His eyes couldn’t see, his ears couldn’t hear, his hands couldn’t feel or touch anything. His first sensations were extremely dim and obscure. But he eventually began to understand the winding paths of the world that surrounded him. The delusive feelings made him wonder helplessly among the walls of possibilities and the pathways of thoughts.

Then a bright light appeared out of nowhere, followed by a deep voice that seemed to surround him.

“Welcome, Alan…” the voice said.

“Who are you? What is this place? Am I dead or something?”

“I’ll answer your questions one by one. First, I am everything, but you can refer to me as the Creator. Second, this is the Field of Eternal Thoughts. It is the place where I meet my visitors. And third, you are here because you ceased to exist in the physical realm. You are now just a mass of energetic bonds, linked together in such a way that they form the “person” you used to be.”

“And what is my purpose here?”

“You are here to think.”

“Think? About what?”

“Anything. You have all Eternity to do this.”

“What about you? When did you come here?”

“I was here before Time. And I will also remain here after the end of Time…”

“But isn’t this boring? I mean, you know everything about everything, but what can I think about? And that’s all one can do around here – think?”

“You can think about anything that interests you…”

“I’m really interested in getting out of here. Is this possible?”

“It is, if you want it to be…”

“Then I want to go back to the physical realm, or whatever you call it, and never return here again…”

“Are you really sure about this? Because this makes your energetic self disappear, thus making your return here impossible.”

“I’d pretty much rather have an ordinary life than spend all Eternity here…”

“Then so be it. You will continue your life in the physical realm, after which you will be transformed into a non-entity, therefore ceasing your existence…”

“That’s fair.”

It had only been a few days since Alan’s accident. When he regained consciousness, he discovered that he was lying on his back. “I must be in a hospital somewhere. My relatives are going to have a great surprise… They’re going to be so happy to see me wake up…” He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn’t see anything. “This is probably a temporary side-effect…” Alan thought.

He then checked to see if he could move his hands. And he could! “It feels so good to be able to move your hands again. This is definitely much better than just staying there and thinking. Life is great!” He then began to explore the place where he stood. He touched everything around him. Meanwhile, an eerie thought was materializing somewhere deep inside his mind… He checked to see if he was right. When he eventually regained his sight, the thought turned out to be a certainty: he was buried alive!…