Books
on Death and Dying

I have personally found that when we live a life from fullness, matters of death and dying find their natural place in the order of living and loving. Thus, when changes come knocking on our door, or when we are ready to play a bigger game in life, we can be better prepared.

This book explores the opportunities inherent in opening ourselves up to the new vistas, which expected or unexpected change can bring to us.

We are taken on a journey into our very own fullness through a number of aspects: art, poetry, breathing and pleasure exercises, thought provoking concepts and perspectives, inspirational quotes, and much more.

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This book presents an inspirational journey of light and hope through comforting words and gentle images to a place where earthly hurts are left behind.

"I was so attracted by the book's cover that I opened the book and began to read it. I had been agonizing over my father's illness and knew it was a matter of time before I would be faced with his death. As I continued to read "the next place" while standing in the bookstore, I began to feel peace I had thought would never return. Each page was so beautifully illustrated and each phrase so comforting. I bought the book.

I read it to my family as we were gathered around my father's bed, just minutes after his death. I also read it during his funeral mass. It said all that needed saying because dad was, at last, "perfect".

I have sent "the next place", in lieu of flowers, to friends who have lost loved ones. The reaction is always hugs, tears and gratitude."

Anonymous Review by a customer on www.amazon.com

This book is a great book for beginners in the art of dying to get their toes wet in a light hearted easy manner.

"Dosa, a geriatrician with a strong aversion to cats, tells the endearing story of Oscar the cat, the aloof resident at a nursing home who only spends time with people who are about to die.

Despite hearing numerous stories about Oscar's uncanny ability to predict when a patient's time is nearing, Dosa, ever the scientist, remains skeptical. Slowly, he starts to concede that there may be something special about Oscar..."

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Both authors were hospice nurses for 20 plus years and have a wealth of stories to share about these special communications from the dying.

This is beautifully written and very inspiring book about the kinds of messages the dying might tell us using their own kind of languaging. For example, a man who loves to sail might ask us to get the map. The all important map. Don't you know? It's in the drawer over there.

Or a soccer player might draw a playing field with an arrow pointing outside the field. Getting ready to leave the playing field.

If you want a really good book on death in general, and the medical side of dying specifically, I highly recommend Sherwin Nuland's "How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter".

Nuland, a retired doctor, first describes in lay person's terms, how people who have come down with diseases like AIDS, Alzheimers, cancer etc, actually die. What happens in our bodies that leads to them shutting down.

In the second part of his book he takes a critical look at Western medicine and its approach to dying. He then offers his take on how to best serve those of us who are approaching death.

A both worthwhile and informative read.

Kathleen Dowling Singh is a transpersonal psychologist bringing together a variety of paradigms (Sufi, Hindu, and Western medicine) to offer her insights into the various stages of dying with a special emphasis on the spiritual aspects. To me she has taken Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross's research and refined it into a more cohesive system in this inspiring book on death.

Her language reaches from the clinical to the intellectual through the emotional all the way into the mystical. To me she has an amazing ability of bringing together all these various ways to perceive the world of death and dying.

I keep checking back to her book, whenever I need a fresh insight.

Socrates believed that we should "always be occupied in the practice of dying" in order to appreciate our living.

So imagine that you only have one year left to live. What would you do differently?

For one year Stephen Levine (also the author of "Who Dies?") consciously chose activities, relationships, and spiritual practices that reflected life's urgency rather than life's complacency. From his experience comes this year-long program of strategies and guided meditations to help us feel satiated when our numbers come up. Lessons include "Gratitude," "Disposing of the Corpse," "Finding the Lotus Before Winter," and "Beyond the House of Death."

What an opportunity to explore death and dying before we actually have to deal with it.

Here is a very passionate approach to using ancient yogic traditions to prepare ourselves to the task of dying well.

Anya Foos-Graber makes a convincing case for taking the time to practice certain meditation techniques while we are still alive. Thus we have the ability to stay present in the final moments of our lives even when circumstances are not as peaceful and serene as we would have liked.

A very practical and well researched book.

I love reading Ira Byock's book on death and dying.

He has been a hospice physician for many years, if not decades and has the ability to write about his experiences with the dying in a way to touches me.

In this book he offers his take of what we can do to feel complete at the end of our lives. He has come up with 5 questions to ask ourselves and our loved ones in order to find closure.

Interestingly, we don't only need to make use of these questions at the end of our lives. They make for better living at any point of while we are alive.

This book on death offers a study of how to die well displays uncommon vitality. Byock, president elect of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Care, is a gifted storyteller. Beginning with his own father's terminal illness, he details without scientific cant the process of decline that awaits most of us.

The case studies, which form the humanistic soul of this work, never devolve into the maudlin or saccharine. Life on the edge of the great crossing is explored in all its sadness and pathos, but Byock also makes room for wisdom, hope and even the joy of final understanding. He demonstrates how the physical pain and emotional despair of the dying may be handled.

Sushila Blackman narrates the death stories of over 100 Tibetan, Hindu, and Zen masters, ancient and modern. The striking element in these accounts is a sense of being fully prepared to meet death. I loved to read about the ease gracing these deaths.

Sushila Blackman herself grappled with lung cancer and came to peace with her own fears about death as she compiled this book, completed only a few months before she died. As Blackman notes, the Judaeo-Christian perspective of death is not represented here, but this little book fills a demand for inspirational insights about death and Eastern spirituality.

"This beautiful little book is a gem. It contributes to our understanding that we are truly timeless." —Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Share the Care is based on the true life personal experiences of the authors and 10 other women who came together to help care for a terminally ill friend.

Although they were mostly strangers to each other, they stayed together for three and a half years developing a unique system of caregiving as well as deep friendships that have lasted over time.

This book is full of practical suggestions on how to organize a group of people willing to care for someone in need of help.

www.ShareTheCare.org

It's no news that as American life expectancy increases, the fate of our elderly is in our hands. In her latest volume, editor McLeod, who was nominated for a Pulitzer for her book "Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal", makes a strong case that caregiving also resides in our souls.

The encyclopedic companion to the PBS special And Thou Shalt Honor reinforces Mcleod's positive theme: "Caregiving truly is a spiritual practice, a nonlinear path with heart"; "Caregiving has heart and meaning because it changes us for the better"; and "caring for a loved one ennobles every life it touches."

Throughout this comprehensive and compassionate but unsentimental resource book, actual caregivers tell their stories, acknowledging their vast range of experiences and emotional reactions alongside a gamut of action plans, checklists, as well as medical and support networking information.

More than 54 million Americans are caring for loved ones; they need look no further than McCleod's manual for openhearted encouragement and a plethora of practical information.

Revealing a forgotten truth in the present day, this account illuminates the crumbling political and economic structures of the West, shedding light on an ongoing and arduous search for a sense of purpose.

Recounting a true story, this exploration tells of a wandering Mongol shaman who made a dramatic appearance around the Mediterranean centuries before the time of Christ. Highlighting how this nomad came as an envoy on a mission of purification, this study records how he met with a man who became tremendously influential in Western science, philosophy, culture, and religion: Pythagoras.

The essence of Western civilization is said to have originated from this meeting and this examination argues that today’s conflicts and tensions have stemmed from taking this monumental occasion for granted, forgetting that there must be a greater meaning to life than everyday efforts and struggles. Reflecting on a time when Eastern and Western cultures were one, this evocation contends that there is still a common spiritual heritage to all civilizations.

A unique collaboration between the author and archaeologists, historians, and shamans from around the world, this document has the potential to change the future for all.