Over the years I have often imagined death in relation to the cosmos. There is a sort of science fiction feel, perhaps a TV documentary on space, the stars, galaxies (Brian Cox sort of thing).

I envisage an imaginary observer travelling through the great rush of stars, planets that is part of the dynamic expanding universe after the Big Bang, coming towards us here on earth, then heading off away from us towards the outer edges of space and into infinity (or whatever is beyond the knowable universe, or knowable so far – we keep learning more and more about it all the time).

I have a vision of our spirits, as we age then die, travelling out with that outgoing rush of stars, until we finally become mere dots on outer space, then fade completely away. It’s a vivid feeling, and perhaps not so strange when we think that our atoms, the atoms of everything, are indestructible ultimately, and are just rearranged in the endless mutations and transformations of the universe. Have any of you had similar feelings?