Is there an art to dying? And if there is, what can we do to achieve a good death? We have few special rituals to prepare for death, or to mark it, and we often fail to help the dying prepare for death. "The Art of Dying" contains accounts by the dying, and those who have been with the dying in their final hours, which help us to understand that death is a process. The experiences suggest that we are looked after throughout the transition from life to death, and taken on a journey into love and light by loved ones who come back to take us. Other accounts are from people who have been emotionally close to someone and who, unaware that the person they love is dying, experience a sudden strong sense of their presence or an intimation of their death. Rational, scientific explanations for these experiences are hard to find, and it is almost impossible, in the face of them, to sustain the current scientific view that our consciousness is entirely brain-based, and that it is extinguished at the moment our brain ceases to function. The world is more highly interconnected and more complex than the simple mechanical model we have followed for so long. The evidence suggests we are more than brain function, and that something - soul or spirit or consciousness - will continue in some form or another for a while at least. We can ensure a "good death" for ourselves and help those we love achieve it too. "The Art of Dying" demonstrates that we can face death with a peaceful and untroubled mind; that death is not a lonely or a fearful journey, but an intensely hopeful one.
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."..interesting because a contemporary issue is taken and dealt with sensitively...The book's purposes are extensive, including academic, personal interest or within a hospice setting where death is ever-present. It refers to other books throughout which makes it all the more effective for which-ever of the above it's utilized. Moreover, despite the fact that the topics within the book are personal, they are weighed up with both empathy and impartiality, identifying with believers and non-believers alike." De Numine, Autumn 2009--,
About the Author
Dr Peter Fenwick is an internationally renowned neuropsychiatrist and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He is Britain's leading clinical authority on near-death experiences and is president of the British branch of The International Association for Near-Death Studies. He also holds appointments at the Maudsley Hospital, the John Radcliffe Hospital, and the Broadmoor Special Hospital for Violent Offenders. Elizabeth Fenwick has written a number of books on health and family issues. She has produced books on pregnancy and child care, worked as an agony aunt advising on sexual problems on radio and in Company magazine and has been involved in sex education in two London schools. She also worked for three years as a counsellor for Childline.
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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The more I think about this book the more surprised I am about it. It must have taken substantial courage to write it. It really isnt what I expected to read from a neuro-psychiatrist and I would love to know how it was received by the authors peers in the Royal College of Psychiatrists. If you've come to this book because someone you love is dying I hope you find it as comforting as I did. There is a lot of literature, some very old and some recent, that explains in quite clear terms our true nature as spirits but much of it feels hard to believe, in fact 'too good to be true' to our 21st century reductionist minds. This book starts to build a bridge based on real experience within the Hospice movement. I've recently experienced the Hospice environment when my Dad died. The difference between the hospital ward he was in and the Hospice was night and day. It's horribly ironic that we expect people to get better in the nightmare wards of our hospitals where people are stacked up like cattle, surrounded by technology and fed drugs and that when it's time to die we take them to the most wonderfully serene caring place. Rather than pump billions into NHS IT systems it would serve us all much better if we insisted that NHS leaders and managers spent a couple of months a year working in Hospices. Then at some point the penny might drop ~(sorry about the soapbox). This book takes a first step away from 'science knows all' and bravely asks some fundamental questions about who we are and what happens when we die. If you're search has brought you this far I would certainly recommend it.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very carefully researched and well-written book, that brings to light the "folk myths" of ordinary common-sense people, and explores them in a rigorous way to challenge the materialist view of consciousness. The main part of the book provides evidence from first-person reliable accounts, while the last few chapters draw out learnings. The chapter on consciousness was particularly good, giving all current views and their limitations, and then suggesting a model that would explain the accounts collected. It is also useful in bringing the universal process of dying out into the open and suggesting that we all nee to prepare ourselves for this inevitable event that can come at any time, and that there is a process and that it need not be feared. Should be required reading for all working in the area of health - especially doctors and nurses - but also all (like me) who are interested in the issue of "consciousness" and who know people who have had a NDE (near death experience), that has brought them great insights, yet they cannot explain what happened from a scientific (materialist) perspective. The book adds to the growing need for science to move to a more holistic viewpoint, that includes qualities as well as quantities.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Dying is the only guarantee that we have in life and this gives an interesting perspective on what people think about death and their associated stories/dreams and experiences of being with loved ones at that precise moment. Very thought provoking and moving.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
the art of dying
This is a very interesting book, based on a systematic inquiry in the UK, Ireland and Holland.
There has much been written on Near Death Experiences. Read more
There has much been written on Near Death Experiences. Read more
Published 5 months ago by jart voortman
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Art of Dying
This is an excellent book if you want to get insight into death and how different people approach it.
The Art of Dying
The Art of Dying
Published 18 months ago by Me
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughts on the Art of Dying.
Having read many other books on this subject it is good to find one written by a person in the medical world. Read more
Published 18 months ago by John Hardaker
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing
Peter Fenwick is a Neuropsychiatrist and is considered to the leading British clinical authority on the process of dying including end of life experiences, actual death experiences... Read more
Published on 9 July 2008 by Terry Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Art (or Science?) of Dying.
A fascinating book which contains much persuasive anecdotal material. Unfortunately in Chapter 11 the authors feel they have to deal with the question of paradigm shift in the... Read more
Published on 5 July 2008 by Mr. B. J. Cleary
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