Who Dies? was and continues to be a life changing book for many people. It served to open my eyes to the conscious death and dying movement with such pioneers as Ram Dass, Joan Halifax, Christine Longaker, EJ Gold, Robert Thurman, Therese Shroeder-Sheker, and, of course, the Dalai Lama and many other Tibetan Rinpoches.
The Art of Dying Conferences in NYC in the mid-late 1990s were seminal events. They brought many of these pioneers together. Thousands of people gathered to hear about an enlightened new approach to holistic hospice and enlightened dying. Hospice was blooming. New practices were happening every day.
It has continued. Hospice, though severely constrained by a ridiculous pricing model gains popularity one patient and family at a time. We now use terms in our day to day vocabulary (palliative care, mindfulness) that were new at that time.
Of course these conscious death and dying practices are ancient and well practiced by certain advanced civilizations. But they are unknown to us in the west, and slowly, slowly we reawaken to them…
