Is there an art to dying? & if there is what can we do to achieve a good death? We have few special rituals to prepare for death or to mark it & we often fail to help the dying prepare for death. The Art of Dying" contains accounts by the dying & those who have been with the dying in their final hours which help us to understand that death is a process. The experiences suggest that we are looked after throughout the transition from life to death & taken on a journey into love & light by loved ones who come back to take us. Other accounts are from people who have been emotionally close to someone & who unaware that the person they love is dying experience a sudden strong sense of their presence or an intimation of their death. Rational scientific explanations for these experiences are hard to find & it is almost impossible in the face of them to sustain the current scientific view that our consciousness is entirely brain-based & that it is extinguished at the moment our brain ceases to function. The world is more highly interconnected & more complex than the simple mechanical model we have followed for so long. The evidence suggests we are more than brain function & that something
- soul or spirit or consciousness
- will continue in some form or another for a while at least. We can ensure a "good death" for ourselves & help those we love achieve it too. " The Art of Dying" demonstrates that we can face death with a peaceful & untroubled mind; that death is not a lonely or a fearful journey but an intensely hopeful one."