Dogma and hierarchy are endemic to such structures...indeed, such are the structures of any theocracy. — Dan Simmons

If one is to observe, M. Endymion, one must be in the proper place to observe.

“One of the few benefits of the fall of civilization as we know it,” he says, “is that there are private cellars with fine vintages everywhere one digs. It is not theft. It is archaeology.”

There are no ghosts, my love. Death is final. The soul is that ineffable combination of memory and personality which we carry through life...when life departs, the soul also dies. Except for what we leave in the memory of those who loved us.