Dying, Death, And After Death For The Whole Person

Saying Good-bye with and to Mind, Body, Emotions, and Spirit

Over the past five years of my involvement with dying, death, and grief I have been blessed to also grow and evolve personally. I have had numerous experiences since taking the plunge into the taboo and forbidden world of death that have enriched my life and informed my ability to support others through this important time of end of life.

One such experience occurred this spring and has morphed into the Alive In Death training program. I happened to be at a sacred ceremony with two shaman friends of mine and several dear friends who have continually supported me in my work as a death educator. During the unfolding of the weekend retreat many of my earlier learnings were somehow focused through a magnifying glass much as I used to do as a child burning holes in newspaper by focusing the sun light into a tiny dot of brilliance.

As the experience continued to unravel and as I continued to open into the deeper awareness of what I was experiencing the coin that I had picked up May 5th, 1988 finally dropped! I got it so to speak!

We are a dynamic, an interdependent cluster of four main facets as is often spoken about by others. We have a mind, and we have emotions. We are in a body, and not of it – we are spirit. Each of these facets of us is dynamically linked to and continually affects each other. This is true in life and therefore true in dying and at death as well. We tend to die though, incomplete. In other words we drop a facet or two out of the dying and grieving processes.

When we leave a facet or two out the other two or three segments of us are negatively affected by the omission. If we ignore the spirit of us the mind, emotions and body miss out and there is a kind of spirit hangover. If we ignore the body by outsourcing dying and after death care, we have this kind of emotional constipation. So it goes.

However if our minds communicate what we feel drawn to say; if our emotions are authentic and fully expressed; if our bodies are actively involved in the dying and the after death care; and if we recognize all the way through it the spirit alive in all of use we can experience a full and completely satisfying good-bye with no leftovers that often become problematic as time goes on.

Dying, Death, and After Death for the Whole Person addresses the four facets of our being and provides a framework for the fulfillment of life’s relationships through a healthy, hands-on, and complete person farewell.