Sandman and Hob Gadling - Immortality, Collective Memory, and Zone 2

I have often wondered what it would mean to live forever.
At first, it seems tempting: never to lose, never to end. But soon comes the weight — watching the world change, losing people, carrying memories that never fade.
In Sandman, Hob Gadling is this immortal human. He crosses centuries, meeting Morpheus every hundred years, as they reflect on what it means to continue.

The Original Paradigm: Memory as Immortality

For Indigenous peoples, immortality was not living endlessly but belonging to collective memory.
Each life left traces in the territory, in rituals, in shared stories. Continuity did not lie in the isolated individual but in the common flow that preserved names, gestures, and teachings.
Through this lens, Hob Gadling is not only a man who does not die: he is a metaphor of permanence when memory finds its place in the collective.

The avatar Iam reminds us: “It is not the body that lives forever, but what inscribes itself in the common.”

The Old World’s Domestication

The Old World domesticated immortality in two ways:

• Through religion, promising it as reward or punishment.
  
  

• Through science and economy, turning longevity into a market: formulas, technologies, fantasies of defeating death.
  
  

Hob Gadling becomes a mirror of this domestication: his immortality does not bring automatic glory, but solitude, wars, and losses. It is only through encounters — especially with Morpheus — that his endless life gains meaning.

Sleep Science and Evidence

Hob Gadling’s story can be linked to the functions of N2 sleep, crucial for memory and learning:

• N2 is marked by sleep spindles and K-complexes, fundamental for consolidating memory.
  
  

• Research shows spindles act as a “bridge” between hippocampus and cortex, turning recent experiences into lasting memory.
  
  

• More than storing information, N2 integrates memories into collective narratives.
  
  

Like Hob, our real “immortality” lies not in a body that continues indefinitely, but in shared memories that inscribe us in the collective.

Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3

• Zone 1: immortality seen as individual desire, fear of death, and rejection of limits.
  
  

• Zone 2: immortality as collective memory, continuity through the common.
  
  

• Zone 3: immortality domesticated as religious dogma or market product.
  
  

Hob’s journey shows a movement out of Zone 1 (the selfish impulse never to die) and Zone 3 (fantasies of eternal power), toward Zone 2: the immortality that makes sense only when rooted in belonging.

Synthesis

Hob Gadling, in Sandman, is not just a fantastic figure: he is metaphor of our relationship with time, death, and memory.

• In original paradigms, immortality was inscription in the collective.
  
  

• In the Old World, it was domesticated as dogma and market.
  
  

• In science, N2 sleep shows how we consolidate memories that go beyond the individual.
  
  

• In our framework, true permanence lies in Zone 2: what lives on in collective memory, more than in an isolated body.
  
  

Or, as the avatar Iam concludes:
“To live forever is not to never die. It is to remain inscribed in what we share.”

Adultization FALAN LatBrain SfN 2025

Suggested References:

• Graeber, D. & Wengrow, D. (2021). The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
  
  

• Diekelmann, S. & Born, J. (2010). The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
  
  

• Iber, C. et al. (2007). The AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events.
  
  

PIX, DREX Cidadão e Créditos Carbono – “Zona 2 dos Sonhos”

Sandman Decolonial - O Corpo, os Sonhos e os Sambaquis

Eu, Sandman - Quando a Gramática dos Sonhos encontra os Eus Tensionais

Sandman e as Fases do Sono - uma Ampliação Científica

La Felicidad Ya Vivía Aquí – Joinville - SC Más de 10.000 Años de Presencia

Happiness Already Lived Here – Joinville - SC Over 10,000 Years of Presence

Sandman and Dream as Perpetual - Damasian Consciousness and the Integration of Zones

Sandman y el Sueño como Perpetuo - Conciencia Damasiana e Integración de las Zonas

Sandman e o Sonho como Perpétuo - Consciência Damasiana e Integração das Zonas

Sandman and the Lost Destinies - Identity, Ego, and Tonic REM

Sandman y los Destinos Perdidos - Identidad, Ego y el REM Tónico

Sandman e os Destinos Perdidos - Identidade, Ego e o REM Tônico

Sandman and the Cats of Dreams - Narrative, Phasic REM, and Zone 2

Sandman y los Gatos de los Sueños - Narrativa, REM Fásico y Zona 2

Sandman e os Gatos dos Sonhos - Narrativa, REM Fásico e Zona 2

Sandman and Hob Gadling - Immortality, Collective Memory, and Zone 2

Sandman y Hob Gadling - Inmortalidad, Memoria Colectiva y Zona 2

Sandman e Hob Gadling - Imortalidade, Memória Coletiva e Zona 2

Sandman and Desire - Reward, Dopamine, and Consciousness in Zone 1

Sandman y Deseo - Recompensa, Dopamina y la Conciencia en la Zona 1

Sandman e Desejo - Recompensa, Dopamina e a Consciência na Zona 1

Sandman and the Game with Lucifer - Existential Metabolism in Deep Sleep (N3)

Sandman y el Juego con Lucifer - Metabolismo Existencial en el Sueño Profundo (N3)

Sandman e o Jogo com Lúcifer - Metabolismo Existencial no Sono Profundo (N3)

Sandman and the Sister Death - Tonic REM, Body-Territory, and Pei Utupe

Sandman y la Hermana Muerte - REM Tónico, Cuerpo-Territorio y Pei Utupe

Sandman e a Irmã Morte - REM Tônico, Corpo-Território e Pei Utupe

Sandman and the Corinthian - Nightmares, Collective Fear, and Fragmented Sleep

Sandman e o Coríntio - Pesadelos, Medo Coletivo e Sono Fragmentado

Sandman y las Herramientas de Morfeo - Yelmo, Arena, Rubí y los Yoes Tensionales

Sandman and Morpheus’s Tools - Helm, Sand, Ruby, and the Tensional Selves

Sandman e as Ferramentas de Morfeu - Elmo, Areia, Rubi e os Eus Tensionais

Sandman and the Restoration of the Dreaming - From Zone 2 to the N1 Threshold

Sandman y la Restauración del Sueño - De la Zona 2 al Umbral N1

Sandman e a Restauração do Sonhar - Da Zona 2 ao Limiar N1 do Sono

Sandman y el Cautiverio de Morfeo - El Secuestro de la Conciencia en la Zona 3

Sandman and the Captivity of Morpheus - The Hijacking of Consciousness in Zone 3

Sandman e o Cativeiro de Morfeu - O Sequestro da Consciência na Zona 3

Sandman and the Personification of Dreams - Consciousness, the Damasian Mind, and Belonging

Sandman y la Personificación de los Sueños - Conciencia, Mente Damasiana y Pertenencia

Sandman e a Personificação dos Sonhos - Consciência, Mente Damasiana e Pertencimento

Corpo Fechado para Adultização

A Felicidade Já Morava Aqui – Joinville, 10.000 Anos de Presença

Sistema Presidiário Brasileiro – Sem Pertencimento. Sem Justiça. Sem correção

Despertar do Coma

Consciência é Referência em Movimento

Como Configurar Meu Pertencimento

Fones de Ouvido e Pertencimento

Pérdida del Pertenecimiento en la Zona 3 - Adultización

Adultización

Adultization

Adultização

A verdadeira espiritualidade  Nunca saiu da floresta

#SleepResearch
#N1
#N2
#N3
#TonicREM
#FasicREM
#Decolonial
#Neuroscience
#PIX
#DREX
#DREXcidadão
#CBDCdeVarejo
#CréditoCarbono
#Zone123
#PeiUtupe
#WakeUp
#TruthNow