Death, Dying, and Mysticism The Ecstasy of the End

Contemporary society tends to conceal death and the dying process from public view, seeking to erase them from our consciousness. This attitude of denial stands in great contrast to the approach of the great spiritual traditions of humanity, for which the dying process was an integral and often crucial part of our own spiritual practice. This volume offers a sample of reflections from scholars and practitioners on the theme of death and dying from scholars and practitioners, ranging from the Christian tradition to Hinduism, Lacanian psychoanalysis, while also touching on the themes of the afterlife and near-death experiences.

Thomas Cattoi is Associate Professor of Christology and Cultures at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University, Graduate Theological Union, USA.

Christopher Moreman is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy, California State University, East Bay, USA.

Introduction: Ars Moriendi after Kant's Turn to the Subject; Thomas Cattoi
1. Lady Jacopa and Francis: Mysticism and The Management of Francis of Assisi's Deathbed Story; Darleen Pryds
2. Mystical Dying in Contemporary Autobiographies; Lucy Bregman
3. Traces of Resurrection: The Pattern of Simone Weil's Mysticism; Stuart Jesson
4. Thoreau's Religious Response to Death; Robert Michael Ruehl
5. You Create Your Own Reality: The Fallacy of Death in Jane Roberts' Seth Material; Cynthia A. Hogan
6. Symbolic Death of the Subject in the Structure of Jacques Lacan; Jin Sook Kim
7. Anomalous Experiences and the Bereavement Process; Callum E. Cooper, Chris A. Roe, and Graham Mitchell
8. Heaven is for Real and America's Fascination with Near-Death Experiences; Candy Guenther Brown
9. Mystical Knowledge and Near Death Experience; Lee Irwin
10. The Experience of Death as Non-Death; Jordan Paper
11. Death Visions of the Goddess Kali: The Bengali Shakta Corpse Ritual at the Burning Ground; June McDaniel
12. Samadhi as True Death in the Yogasutra; Lloyd W. Pflueger
13. At our end is the beginning: Death as the Liminal Real in the Art of Frida Kahlo; June-Ann Greeley
14. Modern Requiem Compositions and Musical Knowledge of Death and Afterlife; Martin J. Hoondert