Deathing: An Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life

By Anya Foos-Graber

Book Overview

Everyone who is born is someday going to die. Some of us will die peacefully in our sleep, some will die in accidents, and some as the result of diseases, cancer or AIDS. Because we do not usually know when we are going to die, most of us are frightened of death. We do not want to talk about it, do not want to face it, and we run from it as long as we can. And some of us die a lonely death--in a hospital, surrounded by strangers and white sheets, while family and loved ones are kept out of the room at the final moment. Anya Foos-Graber believes that death, like birth, should be a shining, light filled, conscious moment. Death is not a disease. It is the most natural passage we will make since birth. Looking at death before the time comes is like learning about natural childbirth before having a baby. Just as women are choosing to be conscious participants in the birth process, Foos-Graber feels that all of us should be conscious as well of our eventual death--that we should prepare for it the way the Tibetan Buddhists and American Indians used to do. The author calls this process of conscious preparation and practice deathing. The book presents two teaching stories, illustrating both a conscious death and an unconscious one. The second half of the book is a step-by-step manual, containing complete instruction and simple exercises--such as breathing, visualization, and the all important, "6th technique," or your chosen "Name and form of God" to which you direct your attention in life and the death transition. You can use the formless LIGHT itself as referent, an absence of any belief structure. A support person rather like the father's presence in natural childbirth can assist in the event of coma, or accident death. Other books have been written about grief, about wills, about taking care of your affairs. This is a book about taking care of yourself, and how to be helpful to someone you care for. Deathing has two aims: to make sure that the dying are comfortable and comforted as they die, and to help all of us prepare for the greatest adventure we will face since birth.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892540168
• ISBN13: 9780892540167
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Nicolas-Hays
• Length: 424 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Looking into Death's Face as a Friend

Written in 1984 when the conscious birth movement was gaining ground along with the conscious death movement, Anya Foos-Graber provided us with a vivid case study combined with a manual for preparing for our own death or being a loving and skillful companion for someone facing their death. Among the other books you might enjoy reading to amplify her essentialized manual, I'd suggest Sogyal Rinpoche's "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying." Her book, written before the publication of his, was not able to cite this in its bibliography. This is a useful book for changing cultural attitudes and metaphors of facing death more directly with less fear and more hope. --Janet Grace Riehl, Sightlines: A Poet's Diary

Deathing: an Intelligent Alternative for the Final Moments of Life

My father recently made his transition. I read many books about the deathing experience before he passed on, and this was my favorite one. It is very helpful for those in the place of giving care, and for understanding and preparing for our own journey.

I Would Liked To Have Heard About Paul Twitchell

How did Paul Twitchell die? Weren't you (Anya) with him? Why not tell this story of deathing? Confessions of a God Seeker by Ford Johnson also tells God-soul how to prepare for death or vice versa which is the same.

Conscious vs adventitious dying

I discovered this book 11 years after its publication. It should rank as important as "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying".But how we MODERNS learn about dying,either for our own or for our loved ones? This book gives a step by step instruction in a compassionate way. It integrated ancient wisdom,NDE research and conscious dying into a powerful experience! It is a joy to read. THANK YOU,ANYA.

A gift for the terminally ill and loved ones.

While I keep an extra copy of this book to give away if I learn someone is terminally ill, it is a good read for anyone. "On Death and Dying" (Elisabeth Kbler-Ross) offers seminal research on the pre-death experience. "Deathing" richly illustrates the soul's transition, what follows, how to prepare, and what to expect.The reader learns how traditional rituals were designed to help the soul in transition and how one can help a loved one at that milestone. I consider both books essential background for anyone who works with the terminally ill. Long herself an adept and teacher of out of body movement, Anya Foos-Graber brings the creativity of a novelist and deep, affirming, personal spiritual insight to this most important of topics.