Welcome to
The Afterlife Advocate
A Conversation
about Conscious Dying, Conscious Grieving
and the Journey of the Soul
Issue # 32 - August 2017
Published by The Afterlife Education Foundation,
producer of the Original Afterlife Conference
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Westminster, CO.
August 3-6
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S
an Francisco, CA.
Aug. 5
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Kansas City, MO.
August 26
TWO GRIEF WORKSHOPS
WITH TERRI DANIEL:
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A Busy Summer
Alas, this is not a picture of my garden, but I sure wish it was. When I get to the other side, I'll conjure up an environment that looks a lot like this one!
I've been way too busy here on earth lately to spend much time gardening. Plans are in the works for next year's Afterlife Conference (
Orlando, FL. Nov. 1-4, 2018 - save the date!), and for those of you interested in what I've been up to personally, here's an update:
1. I've begun working on my doctoral dissertation, tentatively titled,
Toxic Theology as a Contributing Factor in Complicated Mourning. If you have a story about how ingrained religious beliefs made your grief journey more difficult, email me.
2. As part of my research I came across an extraordinary little film called God on Trial. If you've ever pondered the questioned of why a "loving god" would allow so much suffering, this film explores that question brilliantly.
3. At this year's afterlife conference, filmmaker David Hinshaw interviewed several of our presenters for a documentary we're developing. For an overview of our vision for the future of death and afterlife awareness, take a peek at this interview. Use the password Terri.
4. I've got several interesting events coming up. In addition to the two mentioned in the column to your left (Kansas City and Colorado Springs), there will be two in California in the Spring; a grief retreat with Austyn Wells, and a Conscious Dying workshop. Details to come.
Rev. Terri Daniel, MA, CT
Founder, The Afterlife Conference
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Hospice Care for Pets
"I have to focus on the love.There's so much love in every appointment, every home that I visit. That's what gets me through. It is emotionally stressful, especially when there's children involved and they're reading letters and cards. It breaks my heart, but I do realize every patient leaves a legacy. Honestly, I'm only serving the best of the best in the area who want what is best for their pet. I am honored to be in the presence of such a union, such a bond.
"
READ MORE...
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Confessions of a Funeral Director
We are big fans of funeral director Caleb Wilde and his book
Confessions of a Funeral Director. In one of his recent blogs, he addressed the subject of religious taboos about cremation in the following article:
"This is what I was recently told by a Pastor who was scolding me for offering cremation to our customers. He was dead serious. I - as per my usual self - attempted to lighten the somber mood with a witty joke by saying that all the bodies I burn are dead, unlike the bodies of the heretics that the Church burned back in the day. The pastor didn't appreciate my wit.
"In a roundabout way, he may have been hoping he'd find me sympathetic to his anti-cremation stance. There's a number of funeral directors who conveniently, albeit privately, believe that cremation is wrong. Those private beliefs become public when their customers ask. See, cremation is much cheaper than embalming and cuts into the funeral home's bottom line and therefore the funeral director's pocket; couple that ulterior motive with the folk belief that cremation destroys God's creation and you have a recipe for an anti-cremation funeral director."
READ MORE...
You can view Caleb's TED talk
here.
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Science Catching Up to Spirit
We've just learned about a research paper published in
The Review of General Psychology
reporting on a study of people having what psychologists call "self-transcendent experiences." The researchers define these experiences as:
1. T
ransient moments when people feel lifted above the hustle and bustle of daily life.
2. Their sense of self fades away, and they feel connected to something bigger.
3. In such states, people typically report feelings of awe and rapture; of time stopping; and of feeling a sense of unity with other people, nature, God, or the universe.*
We're delighted to see the scientific and academic communities working to understand what mystics have known since the beginning of human history.... that consciousness exists outside the physical body. Kudos to the researchers who are bringing this awareness into the mainstream.
If you'd like to read the study, you can find it here:
HERE
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*Yaden, D. B., Haidt, J., Hood, R. W., Jr., Vago, D. R., & Newberg, A. B. (2017, May 1). The Varieties of Self-Transcendent Experience. Review of General Psychology. Advance online publication.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000102
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Reminder...
if you missed our
2017 conference,
you can watch it
online!
You'll get 15 hours of selected programming from the conference, which you can watch any time you like.
Click
HERE
for details.
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