..........Conscious Dying

In the eighteenth century the examination of one's life in preparation for death was a well-accepted process among literate people, and much was written about dying well. I suspect we may need to get back to that notion.

Maturity - a better word for what I'm getting at than simply old age, which is merely chronological - is a good time for remembering, for mulling over one's earliest years, for reliving the days of wine and roses, for mourning once again the losses of people one loves and has loved. At a time when the days one has left "dwindle down to a precious few,"as the song says, it is good to put one's house of memories in order.

It need not be in the least morbid to dwell on these things from the past - nor need one begin to live there! In fact, if that is what begins to happen, it can to be taken as a signal that all is not right with one's self-image, and that attention needs to be paid to looking at the truths one may not have felt like acknowledging earlier in one's life.

If these truths are still too painful to be brought back out of the dark closet, then it is time to find a wise counselor to help alleviate that pain until the truth can be faced squarely, whatever it may be, and accepted into the entire span of one's life.

Earlier in life we think it perfectly sensible to invest our money to plan for the future. This is also an investment - in creating a good death for ourselves!

Another aspect of such euthanasy, the process I am recommending, is doing one's best to bring to a completion one's relationships with the members of one's family the members of one's family, so that one may die in peace and without the pain that so often accompanies an "unfinished" dying process - pain for oneself, and leaving pain behind one for others to undergo. So much energy seems to go into promoting the justice of one's point of view of old unfinished conflicts that their completion gets postponed until it is too late to focus on it, because of the pressure of the all-enveloping process of dying.

The best news about this process that I can pass on to you is how much easier and more pleasurable and exciting it is becoming to engage in the inner work I've been recommending. Almost anywhere you may be living in the United States - and in many, many places all over England and Europe - you can find inspired, tender-hearted people both will;ing and able to act as your "psychopomps" or guides through this shadowy kingdom of the inner self! Such programs are called, variously, Biosynthesis, Breathwork, Rebirthing, Motherwave,Feldenkreis, and so on. And, best of all, you don't have to be a new-ager or young to take on these life-enhancing experiences!

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