to reroute any fears of his physical death. The idea that he will return as soon as he dies provides a certain degree of comfort to him. His dream dealing with the green Honda's highlights something that he overlooked when he originally used this idea to comfort himself. This is the idea that, depending on how good you are and how much of a good person you are determine how good your life will be the next time around. These inconsistencies may seem obvious from a removed perspective, however to someone who employs them as part of a psychological defense system against their death; these types of things don't come so clearly. These realizations made Carlos aware of many things he was doing wrong, as well as the idea that his essence, the impressions that he leaves on people, will always live on. That this is what's important to put out so that you can leave positive impressions, instead of negative ones. "I urged Carlos to differentiate between his core self, and other peripheral attributes or activities. Then he had to 'disidentify' with the non-core parts: they might represent what he liked, or did, or valued-but they were not him, not his central being. Carlos had been intrigued by this construct. Not only did it explain his defensiveness at work, but he could extend 'disidentification' model to pertain to his own body. In other words, even, though his body imperiled, he himself, his vital essence was intact. (85)" This is exactly what Kubler-Ross was talking about when she described the part of you that made an impression, that lived on, it was his essence.From this point on, Carlos became a different person. He realized that the things he was doing only served as a way to preoccupy his mind and settle his fears about death. He began to act as if every day were his last day alive and worked to better himself and to better the people around him, so that his essence would live, for generations to come, in a positive light. The reason h...
