Sheldon Solomon - Afraid of the Dark: Humanity at the Crossroads
Posted by Jon Underwood on Dec. 11, 2013, 9:15 p.m. 2 comments
This is the second video I have posted from Prof. Sheldon Solomon this week. I have just discovered his work and am bowled over by it. Prof. Solomon has spent decades studying the effects of human awareness of death on thoughts, feelings, and behavior. His insights are both acadmically robust and blindingly powerful for those of us interested in this field. And he seems like a really nice guy!
Comments
I'm with you, Jon; he's amazing! I'm so glad you discovered him!
Posted by Anonymous
I couldn't agree with you more.
An obvious point would be that we live in a culture that doesn't even discuss death.
Why isn't death treated the same way birth is? "Baby Showers" into "Passing Showers", Tiffany monogrammed silver "Departure" Mugs, advertising not heartbroken gloomy descendants but peaceful graceful "Passage Facilitators"?
More and more folks in my age range are signing up for what used to be the Hemlock Society, planning overdoses, etc. And really - my issue with the end of my life which could be at any moment is not that I am no longer in existence but utterly about bodily fluids, what is considered to be disgusting, smelly, gross, and of course PAIN. Happy to die but I don't want disgusting and pain.
And I think we have been terribly exploited by those in control of our culture to be kept in the dark and as frightened as possible about death.
Hospice rules, until we come up with the right to end our own lives the way we want.
Posted by Marcella