Book: The stochastic man

No one sincerely and completely believes that he will die, whatever he thought. You can die out here, but you don't accept it at the cellular level of metabolism and cell division. Your heart stops beating at the age of thirty, and it knows that will never cease. Your body works like a three-shift factory, producing blood cells, lymph, semen, saliva, all just in time, and your body knows that it will always be. Your brain, which perceives itself as the center of a drama where the star is Lew Nichols, the whole universe, a huge collection of ownership, everything that happens, happens around YOU, to communicate with YOU, with YOU as the center and the axis around which everything revolves. And if you go to someone's wedding, then this scene is not called "the Wedding of dick and Judy", and "Lew Nichols on someone's wedding." And if a politician becomes President, it's not "Paul Quinn becomes President," and "Experience Lew Nichols on the occasion of the establishment of Paul Quinn President." And if the star explodes, then the title is not "the Formation of new stars" and "the universe Lew Nichols lost his star," and so forth. And so with every. Everyone is the hero of the vast drama of existence. Dick and Judy also perform the role of stars in their heads, and Paul Quinn, and each of you knows that if he dies, it goes out the whole universe, as the lights off. It's impossible. And so you are going to die. Are you sure you're - the exception.
Nobody genuinely and fully believes he's going to die, whatever he may think he thinks. You may accept it up here on top, but you don't accept it on the cellular level, down on the level of metabolism and mitosis. Your heart hasn't missed a beat in thirty-odd years and it knows it never will. Your body goes merrily along like a three-shift factory manufacturing corpuscles, lymph, semen, saliva, round the clock, and so far as your body knows it always will. And your brain, it perceives itself as the centre of a great drama whose star is Lew Nichols, the whole universe just a giant collection of props, everything that happens happening around you, in relation to you, with you as the pivot and fulcrum, and if you go to somebody's wedding the name of that scene isn't Dick and Judy Get Married, no, it's Lew Goes to Somebody's Wedding, and if a politician gets elected it isn't Paul Quinn Becomes President, it's Lew Experiences Paul Quinn Becoming President, and if a star explodes the headline isn't Betelgeuse Goes Nova but Lew's Universe Loses a Star, and so on, the same for everyone, everyone is the hero of the great drama of existence, Dick and Judy each in starring roles in their own heads, Paul Quinn, maybe even Betelgeuse, and each of you knows that if you were to die the whole universe would have to wink out like a switched-off light, and that isn ' t possible, so therefore you aren't going to die. You know You're the one exception.