META:. The Waking Dead

[JennyB]

Some thoughts arising from a misreading of "The Walking Dead" - brains in search of body instead of vice versa. WI dead personalities could (thanks to ASBs) infect the living, so that they could once again see the physical world through the eyes of their host while retaining full memory of their own past life. Think of it as YWUA in reverse, going from past to more recent past.

What historical characters you think would take this opportunity if it were offered? Where and when would they imagine they would have the greatest influence. Let's have a gap of at least 100 years between their death and reappearance, so that they don't just go round rewarding old friends and settling scores with old rivals. So, Napoleon yes, Adolf no.

[pyotr filipivich]

Post by JennyB
Some thoughts arising from a misreading of "The Walking Dead" - brains in search of body instead of vice versa. WI dead personalities could (thanks to ASBs) infect the living, so that they could once again see the physical world through the eyes of their host while retaining full memory of their own past life. Think of it as YWUA in reverse, going from past to more recent past.
What historical characters you think would take this opportunity if it were offered? Where and when would they imagine they would have the greatest influence. Let's have a gap of at least 100 years between their death and reappearance, so that they don't just go round rewarding old friends and settling scores with old rivals. So, Napoleon yes, Adolf no.

Ah, a flaw in the plan.

4 October 1669, Rembrandt van Rijn dies. A hundred years later,
August 5, 1769 - Carlo Bonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, have a son whom
they call Napoleone. The "ghost" of van Rijn takes over the child,
and the boy develops into one of the great painters of the late 18th
century, known for his treatment of light and shadow.

Harumpf - The Schicklgrubber's son is possessed by the spirit of
van Rijn, gets into art school, and the rest, as they say, is history.

[JennyB]

Well, I've often thought AH might have had a chance of becoming a scene-painter at the Vienna Opera, rising perhaps to Artistic Director :)

The question is, why would the spirit of van Rijn /want/ to infect either of these two?

Let's assume these spirits have no access to supernatural knowledge. In particular, they have no knowledge of the future. Their only awareness is through a host, and a spirit must work really hard to learn how to achieve any degree of control. Given that, infection might be common, but to no great effect. A spirit might at first welcome new experience of the world, but with only their hosts viewpoint and no way to alter it most would soon be quite literally bored out of (the host's) tiny mind.

So we are left with the spirits who stick around because they have unfinished business - something that they desperately still want to achieve in this world. If at first they become aware of a random host, then they are quickly going to wish they were in one of that hosts more congenial acquaintances.

Let's make that possible. Rembrandt, stuck with young Adolf, moves on to one of the dealers he tries to sell his daubs to. By the time he is able to take control of a host, the ghost on a mission will thus have a wide, if biased, knowledge of the contemporary world.

[pyotr filipivich]

Post by JennyB
Well, I've often thought AH might have had a chance of becoming a scene-painter at the Vienna Opera, rising perhaps to Artistic Director :)
The question is, why would the spirit of van Rijn /want/ to infect either of these two?

AH has some talent. And, in 18mumble mumble, who knew? Unless
the Spirits or the Alien Space Bats have precog.

The "reality" is that it is just as possible for the departed to
start butterfly the future away shortly after the first occurrence.

Post by JennyB
Let's assume these spirits have no access to supernatural knowledge. In particular, they have no knowledge of the future. Their only awareness is through a host, and a spirit must work really hard to learn how to achieve any degree of control. Given that, infection might be common, but to no great effect. A spirit might at first welcome new experience of the world, but with only their hosts viewpoint and no way to alter it most would soon be quite literally bored out of (the host's) tiny mind.
So we are left with the spirits who stick around because they have unfinished business - something that they desperately still want to achieve in this world. If at first they become aware of a random host, then they are quickly going to wish they were in one of that hosts more congenial acquaintances.
Let's make that possible. Rembrandt, stuck with young Adolf, moves on to one of the dealers he tries to sell his daubs to. By the time he is able to take control of a host, the ghost on a mission will thus have a wide, if biased, knowledge of the contemporary world.

And the Schicklegrubers are (for sake of argument) just the sort
of people the ghosts want to use.

[JennyB]

>Let's make that possible. Rembrandt, stuck with young Adolf, moves on to one of the dealers he tries to sell his daubs to. By the time he is able to take control of a host, the ghost on a mission will thus have a wide, if biased, knowledge of the contemporary world.
And the Schicklegrubers are (for sake of argument) just the sort
of people the ghosts want to use.

Yes, but unless you want to posit a supernatural world for which there can be no disproof then a ghost cannot be aware of wanting without a body in which to be aware. That's a bit chicken and egg, so I have to imagine that the first infection is purely random. From the ghost's point of view, they are suddenly looking at the world through the eyes of someone who will happen to be nearby 100 years in the future, and who is completely unaware of the ghost's presense.

Then there are several possibilities:

1 The ghost loses interest and turns off.
2 The ghost begins to understand what is happening, begins to take an interest in someone else and to wonder what it would be like to see the world through their eyes, and finds it can change hosts.
3 Perhaps after several changes of host, the ghost finds someone they want to possess. After some success in that direction they are no longer able to change hosts, and so must take their chances at another awakening in the far future when their host dies.

There is no grand overall plan. A ghost passes unbeknownst from friend to friend, student to master to visiting expert, following only their own needs and what they have learned about the new world along the way.

Rembrandt wakes in 1769, the same year in which Sir Joshua Reynolds was knighted. Some time later James Northcote, a student of Reynolds, begins to paint in a style inspired by the Old Master. How is it received?

Napoleon wakes in 1921. In his absence his offspring have proved a disappointment, and France has been invaded twice. If he could make a radio broadcast from the Eiffel tower, what would he say? Or perhaps he looks for opportunites in the political unrest of Germany. Napoleon in charge of Barbarossa - could he do any better?

Abraham Lincoln wakes in 1965, right in the middle of the Civil Rights Era. Interesting.

[Bradipus]

Post by JennyB
Some thoughts arising from a misreading of "The Walking Dead"
- brains in search of body instead of vice versa. WI dead
personalities could (thanks to ASBs) infect the living, so
that they could once again see the physical world through the
eyes of their host while retaining full memory of their own
past life. Think of it as YWUA in reverse, going from past to
more recent past.

Madness is the result.
If a "soul" or "mind" can only see through his/her host's eyes
and has no control on the host, then it's like being forced to
watch an everlasting BigBrother TV junk show.
No, please!
(maybe Hell is like that...)

With control possible, it's much better for the guest, and
madness for the host.

Post by JennyB
What historical characters you think would take this
opportunity if it were offered? Where and when would they
imagine they would have the greatest influence. Let's have a
gap of at least 100 years between their death and
reappearance, so that they don't just go round rewarding old
friends and settling scores with old rivals. So, Napoleon yes,
Adolf no.