“To everything there is a season: a time to be born, a time to die; a time to laugh, a time to mourn.”

These words express the age-old Biblical teaching that death is inherently part of life. We live, love, celebrate, die and mourn; this is the nature of the human condition. Though we fear our own mortality and cringe in discomfort at the idea of physical demise, in reality we often find that talking honestly about death can be freeing and healing. In addition, there are many ritual practices connected with dying, burial and mourning which many people are unaware. For example, within Judaism there are a plethora of traditions on vidui, hevra kaddisha, shiva, kaddish, yizkor and yahrzeit – age old traditions which can be helpful for those dealing with death and loss.

As an aging population confronts the reality of death and mortality, there is need for both professionals and lay people to learn spiritual wisdom and practical resources for dealing with illness, aging, death, loss, as well as rituals for passing and remembering, final directives, etc. In addition, many are thirsty to understand the mysteries of death and the world beyond. In our time there is a growing fascinating with ideas of life after death, near-death experiences, reincarnation, spirit possession and past lives.

As a bereavement psychotherapist and a scholar who has studied death and dying in the great religions of the world, I offer a wide variety of Death Awareness Education Workshops for public and professional audiences. Short and long-term death awareness programs can be designed to focus on:

• specific rituals of dying and death, grief and mourning
• traditional and mystical views of the afterlife
• application of spiritual ideas of the afterlife in working with the dying and bereaved
• providing an environment in which each individual can explore personal questions and concerns about the human encounter with death.

See also www.daatinstitute.net