Illustration
I don't usually comment on the illustration, but this one is a bit unusual. I asked the AI to give me a picture of karma that looked warm and positive – for some reason, the AI seemed to do quite creepy-looking pictures whenever I asked for something spiritual. This is what it came up with.

It seems to be a Wheel of Karma, divided into four middle sections – I saw the four central sections as Past Causes, Present Effects, Present Causes, and Future Effects. There are four red petals (?) coming from each wheel section, making eight sections overall. Perhaps the eight principles of Hindu philosophy – action, duty, faith, knowledge, meditation, non-duality, soul, and Nirvana.

The centre of the Wheel could be seen as Atma, Divinity, or Universal Order; the little swirl inside perhaps a symbol of eternity? Could the surrounding yellow petals be the many lives the soul might lead – each one separate, and yet each tied to the Soul, to Divinity, to Karma?

The Wheel is over mountains, possibly a symbol of the sacred and the eternal – and also the constant striving of the soul upwards. The orange and gold sky the colours of transformation and divine consciousness. Is the sun rising or setting in the picture? Maybe it doesn't matter, as birth and death become one. The Wheel turns, and this too shall pass.

It certainly offers plenty to think about.

Quote
The quote is from the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, mentioned in Chapter 6. I wanted a quote which suggested the concept of our actions in life having consequences through eternity, like karma. However, this isn't exactly what Marcus Aurelius meant.

I had a different quote there before with the same message, from a Christian writer, but doing the annotations has given me a chance to think more deeply about the original story.

Food
Another scene about food, in which Noel informs Julian that new arrivals may eat as much food as they want at the Waystation, without ever feeling uncomfortably full. To Noel's astonishment, Julian says that he actually gets full very quickly in the Afterlife, and only needs a little food. He attributes this to still getting used to being dead.

This is taken straight from the film Defending Your Life, where Julia takes full advantage of being able to eat as much of her favourite foods as she likes. Daniel, however, cannot bring himself to do this, and eats sparingly, as he did on Earth. The film makes it clear that this is because he is afraid of life, and all the pleasures it has to offer. In contrast, Julian is physically incapable of eating very much, and isn't embarrassed or disgusted by how others eat.

I did steer away from the fact that in the film, food in the Afterlife is specifically said not to make you gain weight. I did not feel comfortable with drawing a strong connection between food and weight gain, and thought it would be obvious anyway that there would be no capacity for gaining (or losing) weight in the Afterlife.

Loved Ones on Earth
Noel tells Julian that he asked Jeannie why he is not mourning for his loved ones in the Afterlife – in fact, he doesn't even miss them. When he thinks about his friends and family, all he feels is love and happiness that he got to spend his life with them, and great joy at the thought of seeing them again when they all (eventually) are reunited upon reaching Forward.

Jeannie explained to him that once he reached the Afterlife, all the bad feelings were taken away (I wonder if this happens at the House of Healing, or if it is instant at the moment you are helped out of your taxi?). It is for people on Earth to suffer grief when someone dies; the person who has passed on experiences only peace and happiness.

Apart from the injustice of suffering negative emotions both on Earth and in the Afterlife, Jeannie gives a practical reason for this as well. Once at the Waystation, the new arrivals must prepare for their assessment and get ready to "move on" to the next phase of their existence. They would not have a fair chance of doing this if they spent all their time weeping in mourning for those they left behind.

This explains why Noel seemed so upbeat when he talked about his family in the garden with Julian, and even told Julian he didn't need to feel sorry for Noel because he lost his mother only two years previously. Oddly, Julian is by no means so sanguine. Although he isn't crushed by grief and is generally calm and in control of himself, he does worry about his family, hates the thought he might not see them again for centuries, and feels guilty for leaving them.

I got this idea from the novel, The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis, which is also set in the Afterlife. He puts a slightly nasty spin on it which I found a bit upsetting – I must admit, C.S. Lewis' books about religion always make me feel hopelessly sinful and miserable. The trouble is, they are so well written and persuasive! I tried to make it a bit more positive.

I should mention that this is also a feature of the film, Defending Your Life – Julia, a loving mother, suffers no angst at leaving her two children behind. As in Between Life and Death, this is done in order for new arrivals to concentrate on their upcoming trial (or assessment, in my story). I did read C.S. Lewis before I saw the movie, but the two have somehow got conflated in my mind. Or maybe Albert Brooks read the same book?

The Last Assessment of the Day
Julian is told that he will be the last soul to see the judge on Assessment Day. Apart from the narrative possibilities involved, I was probably influenced by a nightmare I once had. 

I died in a plane crash and went to the afterlife, but before I could be assigned to Heaven or Hell, I had to line up in a huge crowded government office waiting to get my official papers stamped. The wait was interminable and the queue didn't seem to be moving an inch. After a while I realised that I was going to be there for eternity, and that this was indeed Hell after all. Cue the inevitable waking up screaming. Being forced to wait around all day is my idea of a tiny taste of Hell!  

The Hall of Mirrors

On his last night at the Waystation, Julian will be offered the chance to visit the Hall of Mirrors. If he believes he is going Back to Earth, Marcus advises him to choose the mirror which will show him his past lives. If he does so, the lessons from them will be imprinted on his soul, and although he will not consciously remember seeing them, it is hoped they will bring positive energy to his next life.

If, however, he believes he is going Sideways, Julian is advised to choose the mirror that will allow him to see his family on Earth again. This will serve as a reminder to him of the bond he has with his loved ones, and that he will be one day be reunited with them once they all go Forward.

This puts Julian in a quandary over which he should choose. He has been told to prepare himself for going Back to Earth. Yet at the same time, he has been urged to remain hopeful of being sent Sideways. He wonders whether he should choose faith or reason, the lady or the tiger?

"The Lady, of the Tiger?" is an 1882 short story by American writer Frank R. Stockton. In it, a king sends a man to trial by asking him to choose between two doors. Behind one is a beautiful lady, who the man must marry if he picks her door. Behind the other is a hungry tiger, who will bring death if his door is chosen.

The man on trial is the lover of the king's daughter, far below her in rank. The princess knows what is behind each door, but she also knows that the lady selected to be her lover's bride is an enemy of hers. She gestures to her lover which door to choose and he confidently follows her direction – but neither the man nor the reader knows what she signalled, for the author leaves it up to us to decide what was the likely outcome.

It's a story frequently chosen for anthologies and studied in school, where it serves as a useful springboard to debates about the probable ending. The phrase "the lady or the tiger" is a common signifier for an insoluble problem or unknowable dilemma. I've included this information because a reader asked about it.

The king in the story is often seen as symbolic of God or the Universe, which hands out our fate without knowing what we will choose – for the king himself does not know which door is which. As a possible lesson to Julian, the condemned man takes the door pointed out by the princess without hesitation, just as the newly arrived at the Waystation are told to put trust in their Case Worker.

Whether the man receives death or a beautiful bride, he has behaved with utter faith towards his beloved, and accepted her wishes, whatever they may be. He goes to his doom showing courage, just as Edith said that one must be prepared to go wherever one is sent, without any expectations.

Mandala Park
This is the park in the centre of the Waystation, which Marcus recommends to Julian as an excursion for his last full day there. It's vaguely based on all those many large urban parks in the middle of cities, such as Central Park in New York, Hyde Park in London, the Domain in Sydney, and so on. It is 1000 square acres, which is not that much bigger than Central Park, and about the same as all the green space in London if you squished it together. It's comparable in size to Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, or King's Park in Perth - a nice size for a park, I think.

As is becoming increasingly clear, I have no ability to imagine anything original, so I am not even surprised to learn there is a Mandala Park in Manila, the Philippines. It's not actually a park though, it's a shopping centre. The park bit means it has a big parking lot, I think. There are, of course, several parks around the world called Mandela Park, named after Nelson Mandela. I kept accidentally calling it Mandela Park, which the spellcheck happily accepted.

Characters

Chief Justice Dharmayama
The judge to whom Julian is assigned for his assessment. Marcus describes him as extremely intelligent and wise, but notes that his nickname is Karmageddon (Karma + Armageddon), because he has a preference for sending people back to Earth if they are "fifty-fifty". Julian wonders if he is a fifty-fifty case, but Marcus informs him he is more of a seventy-thirty – his chances of being sent Back to Earth are 70%, with a 30% chance of going Sideways, and no chance of going Forward.

The seventy-thirty comes straight from The Mighty Boosh, where one of Noel's characters is said to be a seventy-thirty split of man and fish.