D For example, he can imagine his friend Ginger who lives in New Orleans, and in his “mind’s eye” he can see her “walking her poodle or playfully bickering with her husband.” Our brains get so good at this, says Bering, that when people die, it’s hard for us to get used to the fact that they no longer exist at all. “We can’t simply switch off our person-permanence thinking just because someone has died.”

For example, he can imagine his friend Ginger who lives in New Orleans, and in his “mind’s eye” he can see her “walking her poodle or playfully bickering with her husband.” Our brains get so good at this, says Bering, that when people die, it’s hard for us to get used to the fact that they no longer exist at all. “We can’t simply switch off our person-permanence thinking just because someone has died.”