Death & The Afterlife
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My first major experience with death occurred some years ago when my father passed away, It forced me to deeply examine my core spiritual beliefs and got me thinking about my own mortality. That led me to search out topics in disparate such as quantum physics, consciousness, the afterlife, and ultimately eternity. Over the years, as I learned more about the history, mythology, psychology, and cultural expressions associated with these fields of thought, I found that my own anxiety and fears about dying subsided and were replaced with a feeling of calm resolve for what can't be avoided, and a sense of spiritual curiosity for what lies beyond the boundaries of human comprehension. To my great surprise, I discovered that the more I actually knew about the act of dying--and what lies beyond--the greater I was able to appreciate the life I experience in each passing moment. I hope that the same can be true for you.
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featured
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THE DENIAL OF DEATH
By Ernest Becker Preview | Author Site
I was first exposed to Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Dental of Death in a college class in comparative religion. It blew me away. Becker tells us that the basic motivation for human behavior is our biological need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death. Human beings are naturally anxious because we are ultimately helpless and abandoned in a world where we are fated to die. “This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression—and with all this yet to die.”
By Ernest Becker Preview | Author Site
I was first exposed to Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Dental of Death in a college class in comparative religion. It blew me away. Becker tells us that the basic motivation for human behavior is our biological need to control our basic anxiety, to deny the terror of death. Human beings are naturally anxious because we are ultimately helpless and abandoned in a world where we are fated to die. “This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression—and with all this yet to die.”
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Before I Die I Want...TED: "In her New Orleans neighborhood, artist and TED Fellow Candy Chang turned an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard asking a fill-in-the-blank question: "Before I die I want to ___." Her neighbors' answers — surprising, poignant, funny — became an unexpected mirror for the community. (What's your answer?)"
Could Watching Videos Kill You?Independent: "The hours of inactivity that are required to watch a TV series can raise the risk of dying from a blood clot in the lungs. For every extra two hours of TV watching per day, the risk of fatal pulmonary embolism was increased by 40 per cent, the researchers found. Watching five or more hours to TV programs each day made people more than twice as likely to die than those watching less than 2.5 hours."
The Death ClassAmazon: "When nurse Norma Bowe decided to teach a course on death at a college in New Jersey, she never expected it to be popular. But year after year students crowd into her classroom, and the reason is clear: Norma’s “death class” is really about how to make the most of what poet Mary Oliver famously called our “one wild and precious life.”
The Order of the Good DeathSite: The Order is about making death a part of your life. Staring down your death fears—whether it be your own death, the death of those you love, the pain of dying, the afterlife (or lack thereof), grief, corpses, bodily decomposition, or all of the above. Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety of modern culture is not.
The 4 Stories We Tell OurselvesTED: Philosopher Stephen Cave begins with a dark but compelling question: When did you first realize you were going to die? And even more interesting: Why do we humans so often resist the inevitability of death? Cave explores four narratives — common across civilizations — that we tell ourselves "in order to help us manage the terror of death."
A Certain Kind of DeathYouTube: Unblinking and unsettling, this documentary lays bare a mysterious process that goes on all around us - what happens to people who die with no next of kin. Dead bodies in various stages of decomposition are seen, but not played for shock factor. Instead, you learn a little about each person, both what they were before death and what will happen to them afterward. They are followed from the discovery of the body to the final disposition of the remains, and each step in between.
Hellbound?Site: For many people, belief in hell as a place of eternal torment for the wicked is an indisputable tenet of Christian orthodoxy. In their view, rejecting or modifying this belief is tantamount to rejecting Christianity, itself. But a growing number of believers disagree. They argue that we can have a loving God or we can have eternal hell, but we can’t have both.
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National Resources
Aging With Dignity
Aging with Dignity publishes Five Wishes, an easy-to-use legal document that helps adults of all ages plan for the care they want in case they become seriously ill.
www.agingwithdignity.org
Caring Connections
Caring Connections is a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It is a national consumer engagement to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Caring Connections provides a variety of free resources on end-of life issues.
www.caringinfo.org
Compassion & Choices
Compassion & Choices is a nonprofit organization that provides support, education, and advocacy to improve care and expand choice at the end of life.
www.compassionandchoices.org
Hospice Foundation of America
The Hospice Foundation of America exists to help those who cope personally or professionally with terminal illness, death, and the process of grief and bereavement.
www.hospicefoundation.org
National Funeral Directors Association’s (NFDA) Funeral Service Consumer Assistance Program
The NFDA Funeral Service Program is dedicated to helping consumers make informed decisions about funeral service and funeral service providers. It also designed to help consumers understand the grieving process and address concerns about funeral service expenses. The service also helps consumers find the information they need to celebrate a loved one’s life in the most meaningful and personal way. The Funeral Service Help Line can be accessed by calling 800-228-6332.
www.nfda.org
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end of life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones.
www.nhpco.org
Aging with Dignity publishes Five Wishes, an easy-to-use legal document that helps adults of all ages plan for the care they want in case they become seriously ill.
www.agingwithdignity.org
Caring Connections
Caring Connections is a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It is a national consumer engagement to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Caring Connections provides a variety of free resources on end-of life issues.
www.caringinfo.org
Compassion & Choices
Compassion & Choices is a nonprofit organization that provides support, education, and advocacy to improve care and expand choice at the end of life.
www.compassionandchoices.org
Hospice Foundation of America
The Hospice Foundation of America exists to help those who cope personally or professionally with terminal illness, death, and the process of grief and bereavement.
www.hospicefoundation.org
National Funeral Directors Association’s (NFDA) Funeral Service Consumer Assistance Program
The NFDA Funeral Service Program is dedicated to helping consumers make informed decisions about funeral service and funeral service providers. It also designed to help consumers understand the grieving process and address concerns about funeral service expenses. The service also helps consumers find the information they need to celebrate a loved one’s life in the most meaningful and personal way. The Funeral Service Help Line can be accessed by calling 800-228-6332.
www.nfda.org
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end of life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones.
www.nhpco.org
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