[This is an item of historical interest only - these courses are no longer being run.]
Barbara Rae of Petersfield in Hampshire is a remarkable woman, a philosopher who responded to her diagnosis of secondary breast cancer in 1995 by starting to offer death courses which encourage people to reflect on their mortality in a thoughtful, rational, non-religious way. At present she runs about five courses a year plus others for any groups who ask her. Thus she has run seminars at Bedales school, at the local sixth form college and at a local green group. The following are extracts from her course leaflet.
This day course proposes that it is right and reasonable to reflect on our own mortality and begin planning for dying and death. In the same way that many prepare for a 'good birth', there are ways of owning our death, making it more natural and eco-friendly.
The aim of the morning session is to ask questions about death in the form of a philosophical enquiry. Issues such as why we fear death, whether or not death gives meaning to life, and the nature of death itself are likely to fuel our discussion. All views are welcomed, respected and listened to in a true spirit of enquiry and caring for one another.
Dying well is the topic for the afternoon session, when the opportunity will be given to gain practical information about the choices open to you in planning your own dying and death. You may begin to take the inevitability of your own death seriously for the first time in your life. Putting ideas, wishes and messages down on paper may help. Many do not realise the choices available to them because of the hold of tradition on this subject.
This course is not recommended for the recently bereaved. Nor is it intended to be a forum where different religious views are propounded in any way. The recommended resource for the course is The New Natural Death Handbook.
This webpage forms part of the Global Ideas Bank (www.globalideasbank.org).
Book
Orders: To order the Natural Death and Woodland Burial book in
which this piece appears or any of the other books that make up the Global
Ideas Bank.
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