Thesis #11: Generally speaking, cultural narratives (narrative mythologies) are on one level fictional, since they promise something (immortality) which they cannot demonstrably deliver; however, when taken on faith, they are also potentially true in that each provides some functional easing of anxiety in the face of actual and symbolic threats. Human individual and social life without such cultural narratives would be unbearable and impossible.

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Revolutionizing Dementia Care reveals how people living with dementia can still live a full and meaningful life based on their abilities, not their disabilities. Innovative approaches in memory care communities have shown improvements in the well-being of residents as they’re included, engaged and supported in social gatherings, clubs and everyday activities. A revolution is here where people living with dementia get the individual heart-felt care they need.

From diagnosis to saying the long goodbye, caregivers share their diverse experiences of caring for loved ones in the world of dementia. Alzheimer’s is more than memory loss; it affects many generations and is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. Teepa Snow, Loretta Veney, Bob Schaefer and many more explain how they creatively navigate the frustrations, sorrows and complications of caring for a loved one who can no longer function safely on their own.

y name is Heather, I was born into a family that, at the time, was a MO Synod Lutheran (my father was an ordained minister and my mother was a K-5th grade teacher and was also very active with the church; whose father was a minister that also was a missionary in Brazil, was in a concentration camp for two years. We, as a family dealt with a lot of issues behind the scenes. A LOT BEHIND THE SCENES!!!

Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present consciousness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. As a renowned teacher of compassionate caregiving and the cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. In The Five Invitations, he distills the lessons gleaned over the course of his career, offering an evocative and stirring guide that points to a radical path to transformation.

hesis 10 – This urge for symbolic immortality is a key source of human creativity and life-affirming energies; it is the underlying function of human cultures, and especially religions, to serve as venues through which people achieve and maintain a sense of participation in symbolic immortality.

With aid in dying becoming an increasingly available and legal option for the terminally ill, conversations and decisions about end-of-life choices are more frequently an essential part of our healthcare landscape. However, those with severe dementia are not yet legally eligible for such aid. By examining the moving stories of those who have faced the abyss of long-term dementia, the author, a retired Episcopal priest, makes the case that dementia and Alzheimer’s patients should also have legal access to aid in dying.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

Thesis 10 – This urge for symbolic immortality is a key source of human creativity and life-affirming energies; it is the underlying function of human cultures, and especially religions, to serve as venues through which people achieve and maintain a sense of participation in symbolic immortality.

I want to ask you, what do you believe will happen in the afterlife? Are we as the human race going to be okay? Should I worry about what’s going to happen to me after death? My Girlfriend who believes in god but struggles with what to believe in exactly, is she going to be okay? I’m terrified right now, you seem to be one of the very few looking past religious Dogma. I need your help, just at least some insight into what I should be doing, praying for, anything.

verything is interrelated, and dynamic, in ceaseless change, and anything that seems unchanging is illusory. Those of us who are “good, civil and kind” must lean in to change history’s trajectory. God’s kingdom come!

Thesis #9 – Perhaps the most significant and ubiquitous anxiety-compensatory move is to transfer the urge for continued living from the physical realm to the symbolic realm; the organismic urge for continued living becomes channeled into the urge for immortality in the symbolic realm.

A sparrow was in her tree singing to the dawn. But before the song was complete, a spark somewhere flashed and a tree somewhere ignited. Because the forest was dry, the fire spread from tree to tree faster than though. The whole forest seemed to explode in flame.

This November 18th marks the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. The mass murder-suicide was the largest casualty of American citizens before 9/11.

With forty years since the Jonestown massacre, a more disturbing image of the Revered Jim Jones’s treatment toward his LGBTQ parishioners emerges.

Heart failure, accident, or murder? John Shuck interviews Hugh Turley about the mysterious death of Thomas Merton.

For years I have spoken out about how fishy the official story of Thomas Merton’s sudden death smelled to me.  I have also, over the years, met three CIA agents who were present in Southeast Asia at …

Seldom can one predict that a book will have an effect on history, but this is such a work. Merton’s many biographers and the American press now say unanimously that he died from accidental electrocution. From a careful examination of the official record, including crime scene photographs that the authors have found that the investigating police in Thailand never saw, and from reading the letters of witnesses, they have discovered that the accidental electrocution conclusion is totally false.