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The Aging Spirit’s Guide

By John P. Schuster — 2018

The expert in the spiritual dimensions of aging and dying, Kathleen Dowling Singh, has herself died, in October 2017, in her early 70s, from a “form of cancer,” in her words, that she had not known about, or at least had not told people about. Kathleen was a psychopomp, a spirit guide to the underworld, the world of the dead. The Grace in Dying was her first book in the early '90s.

Read on www.psychologytoday.com

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Terminal Options for the Irreversibly Ill

My Feb. 5 column, “A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit,” prompted a deluge of information and requests for information on how people too sick to reap meaningful pleasure from life might be able to control their death.

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Alternatives for the Final Disposition

Though I wince at the redundancy, funeral “pre-planning” is a phenomenon receiving increased attention, and a growing number of Web-based guides tell how to go about it. As www.funerals.org puts it: “Funeral planning starts at home.

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What Death Teaches About Life: An Interview with Frank Ostaseski

Frank Ostaseski, an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and pioneer in end-of-life care, has accompanied over 1,000 people through their dying process.

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A Heartfelt Appeal for a Graceful Exit

Studies of dying patients who seek a hastened death have shown that their reasons often go beyond physical ones like intractable pain or emotional ones like feeling hopeless.

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What a Doctor Wishes Patients Knew About the End

Both providers and patients do have power to shape their experience together, especially if they take the time to have a few crucial conversations. In the spirit of palliation, here are a few things, as a physician, I wish I could share more often with patients and their caregivers.

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Living with the Dying

Frank Ostaseski is a tall, slim man with blue eyes that radiate calm. As director of the San Francisco Zen Center’s Hospice Program, he counsels the dying and their families, and teaches others to care for people with terminal illness.

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EXPLORE TOPIC

Facing Own Death