Posts on ‘after-life’

“Overcoming death”

22 Jun 2010

Dear Gloria,
Thanks for your reflections on Charles’ blog entry “Sad – ha ha”. May I respond….
In my own comments on this blog entry I was talking about overcoming death itself – not our fear of it.
For the vast majority, claiming to have overcome the fear of it would be a pure lie. If we could [...]

Understanding DeathMatters better

14 Jun 2010

I’m stimulated to this post by Charles Cowling’s review of DeathMatters on his Good Funeral Guide Blog.
Charles, I’m pleased that you seem to have mostly understood what I’m aiming at with DeathMatters – reawakening an awareness of death as a way of living better and remembering better. (But you should also have specified “living more [...]

The myth of progress and the reality of death

5 Jun 2010

“How did we get to this stage?” – a comment on my last blog (Death matters – no kidding!) from Charles of The Good Funeral Guide, whose excellent blog I often visit.
Indeed, how did we get to the point that one actually has to be reminded that death still matters?
This is obviously a complex question, [...]

Death matters – no kidding!

1 Jun 2010

What a sign of the times,  that giving this name to my blog should not be ridiculous!
For what could have been more obvious in every other epoch of history that death mattered! Of all things. That it mattered as much as being born, as getting married, as choosing a career, as making a living. In [...]

Death as Liberation

23 Feb 2010

In my humble opinion, this famous contemporary vision of death’s “value” mostly misses the mark.
But with a minor correction, it gains profound new meaning. From the soul’s perspective, death can be seen as a liberation – hence its pricelessness.

On Dying – “At the Customs House”

28 Jan 2010

What follows is perhaps the best contemporary speculation on the awesome passage from Life to Death – by Ernst Jünger, from his “Das Abenteuerliche Herz” (The Adventurous Heart”). My own unofficial translation. Enjoy…!
“Death resembles a foreign continent about which no-one who travels there can send back reports. Its secrets engage us so intensely that its [...]

Cremation and Embalming – body or soul?

17 Dec 2009

Obviously death always includes the material need to deal with the dead body. But how this is done – with what accompanying beliefs, ulterior purposes, everything beyond the actual physical disposal – is where the question of “body or soul”, of material or spiritual, becomes relevant.
If the material disposal element is always present, what of [...]

Michael Jackson’s “green” funeral

12 Dec 2009

That motorcade, that gold casket, all that incredible media and popular interest in this prominent funerals. Where was the environment in all of this? And why was everyone so fascinated by it all, especially Americans who are so afraid of anything to do with death?
In the microcosm of burial and cemeteries, more immediate and personally [...]

Room for every hope!

12 Dec 2009

BBC World Radio surprised me with a call today, inviting me to take part in a broadcast debate on the “Tina Turner -esque funeral” trend in Britain. I learned from the journalist thatan uproar had been stimulated by an Anglican vicar (Revd. Fr. Edward Tomlinson SSC of Saint Barnabas Church) speaking frankly about the – [...]

Purpose of cemeteries? To defeat death of course!

12 Dec 2009

This blog is an answer to James Leedam of Native Woodland Natural Burial Sites. Thanks James for opening this conversation up!
I’ve given some time to this response, please take your time reading it.
HOW LONG SHOULD A MEMORIAL LAST?
As long as possible, without getting too technical and reducing the question to a number of [...]


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