Are you familiar with Stephen Jenkinson, a retired Canadian palliative care practitioner who is traveling about speaking about death and how our culture is 1) death-phobic and 2) bereft of elders. His claim is age doesn't confer elderhood automatically, rather it's a learned skill presumably from other elders.
The experience that he commonly saw on people's deathbed was a terrorizing fear of ceasing to exist. He reports that many people at their end had to be drugged up to a point of half-consciousness to escape that all-consuming dread.
One of Jenkinson's issues with current popular thought is the pervasive theme of limitlessness. If I understand him correctly, he chafes at the idea that we continue on after death, that it's a transition. I think I get what he's going at, but esoteric philosophy teaches that some part of us does indeed carry on beyond incarnation.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on this as you (JMG) used to worked with elderly people. I'd also like to hear from others what they think of this one aspect of Jenkinson's observations.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2025-01-13 05:15 pm (UTC)Are you familiar with Stephen Jenkinson, a retired Canadian palliative care practitioner who is traveling about speaking about death and how our culture is 1) death-phobic and 2) bereft of elders. His claim is age doesn't confer elderhood automatically, rather it's a learned skill presumably from other elders.
The experience that he commonly saw on people's deathbed was a terrorizing fear of ceasing to exist. He reports that many people at their end had to be drugged up to a point of half-consciousness to escape that all-consuming dread.
One of Jenkinson's issues with current popular thought is the pervasive theme of limitlessness. If I understand him correctly, he chafes at the idea that we continue on after death, that it's a transition. I think I get what he's going at, but esoteric philosophy teaches that some part of us does indeed carry on beyond incarnation.
I'm curious what your thoughts are on this as you (JMG) used to worked with elderly people. I'd also like to hear from others what they think of this one aspect of Jenkinson's observations.