Loving as if Immortal

The Outlier Sessions

Mario Martinez, PsyD

There are moments in human life when love seems to exceed the limits of time.

A conversation. A devotion. A loss.

A presence so meaningful that, for an instant, mortality no longer feels like the organizing principle of existence.

Centenarians often speak about love differently. Not sentimentally, but durationally. As something that expands the horizon of the self and alters the way the body inhabits time.

Perhaps mortality is not merely a limit, but the very condition that gives love its depth, urgency, and meaning. The gift of an imperfect world is that we are free to choose what we will love, protect, and become while we are here.

In this live session, We will explore one of the most transformative premises in in my model of cultural neuropsychology: the “as if” stance.

Within this framework, “as if” thinking is not denial or wishful fantasy. It is a disciplined cognitive and emotional orientation that allows human beings to move beyond culturally inherited limitations and inhabit possibilities unavailable within fear-based narratives of aging, endings, and finitude.

When we begin loving as if life were larger than mortality, the mind and body reorganize around different horizons of meaning. The brain temporarily suspends habitual constraints and gains access to emotional depth, resilience, creativity, and forms of existential courage often unavailable under conventional models of thought.

We integrate this perspective with philosopher Hans Vaihinger’s concept of “useful fictions” — interpretive premises that expand human possibility, coherence, and action within an imperfect world.

This session explores a provocative question:

What happens to human beings when they begin loving as if immortal?

Participants will explore:

• The psychology of endings and why fear of loss restricts the capacity to love fully

• How culturally conditioned perceptions shape emotional resilience and relational depth

• The “as if” premise as a transformative cognitive and emotional stance

• Why certain forms of love alter our experience of time, meaning, and embodiment

• The relationship between finitude, free will, and existential responsibility

• How centenarians often cultivate continuity of meaning even in the presence of loss and mortality

• The role of imagination, symbolic perception, and duration in expanding emotional life

• Practical ways to recognize and move beyond culturally inherited narratives of contraction and fear

This is a live philosophical and experiential inquiry into love, mortality, meaning, and the expansion of human duration.

Because of the limited spaces for these live sessions, registrations are non-refundable. Sessions are not recorded or offered for replay in order to preserve the privacy, presence, and confidentiality of the dialogue.