The coronavirus emergency has put many under house “arrests.” How are we experiencing this precautionary measure? Do we simply kill time, not to go crazy, or do we consider this moment of suspension as an opportunity, not to be wasted?
To give you an example, the other day I was on the phone with my mother. She told me she was tidying up his documents: all kinds of paperwork that had accumulated over time in drawers, boxes and closets. Speaking to my sister, she also confided to me that she was doing the same. Both claimed to experience great satisfaction in that exercise of “tidying up,” which until then they never found the time to start, let alone complete. The exercise involved viewing the accumulated documents, one by one, sometimes associated with memories and emotions, and for most of them letting them go, once and for all, i.e., eliminating them, thus creating more space. Not only more physical space, in drawers and closets, but also, and above all, more mental space.
After speaking with them, by association, it came back to me the experience of the so-called “life review,” which many people report having lived during a near-death experience. This involves reviving one’s past in an accelerated way, as in a film, not only in the form of images, but also of emotions and sensations. Many neuroscientists are confident that they will be able to explain these phenomena on a…
