I recently had an unfortunate experience related to leaving one of my two hospice jobs. Revisiting my resume, I noticed how much it skewed toward a career focused on spirituality, religion and ministry. My three academic degrees are all rooted in religious studies, and my adjunct teaching jobs are at two seminaries and a Catholic university. This was by design of course, because my intention was to become a hospice chaplain. But in the last few years I've focused more on teaching than hospice work, and I often get responses from university hiring managers suggesting that I seek employment at bible colleges.

So I "secularized" my resume by adding a new credential, and I just completed a certificate in Trauma-Informed Clinical Ppractice from the NYU School of Social Work. It's a fantastic program and although most of the material was review for me, I learned A LOT about trauma, especially in relation to social justice, immigration, racism and issues that relate to today's political climate.

Highly recommended for those of you seeking continuing education in this or a related field!

Dr. Terri Daniel, CT, FFGT

Clinical Chaplaincy, End-of-Life Educator

Bereavement and Trauma Support

office@deathgriefandbelief.com

END-OF-LIFE, AFTERLIFE AND BEREAVEMENT

Patients Recall Death Experiences

After Cardiac Arrest

Editor's note: This is an older article from 2023, but it's important to revisit Dr. Parnia's work, as it's vitally important to near-death studies.

"This is the finding of a study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in cooperation with 25 mostly U.S. and British hospitals, in which some survivors of cardiac arrest described lucid death experiences that occurred while they were seemingly unconscious. Despite immediate treatment, less than 10 percent of the 567 patients studied, who received CPR in the hospital, recovered sufficiently to be discharged. However, 4 in 10 of those that survived recalled some degree of consciousness during CPR not captured by standard measures." READ MORE...

Death Education for Teens

"It’s the class that every senior student at the Harley School wants to take.

'It’s honestly one of the reasons why my parents enrolled me here as a second grader,' student Zora Scannell-Rooks said.

'A lot of what I knew was that people wanted to take it because they had heard for so many years,' student Oscar Bernfield said.

'That really just showed how much this class meant to people,' student Margaret Kass said.

But a conversation that many people often avoid.

Now that I've started to sort of interact with death and hospice and the dying process in this way, it's not scary, Kass said. “And it can actually be really nice. Dying is about more than death itself. It's also about living.'”

Related story: Is Death the New Sex?

The Hidden Power of Grief Rituals

by Claire White, PhD

"In Tana Toraja, a mountainous region of Sulawesi, Indonesia, villagers pour massive resources into funeral rituals: lavish feasts, ornate effigies and prized water buffaloes for sacrifice. I witnessed this funeral ritual in 2024 while accompanying scholar Melanie Nyhof on her fieldwork. Families were expected to stage funerals that matched the social standing of the dead, even if it meant selling land, taking out loans or calling on distant kin for help.

In my own work of studying communal mourning rituals, I take part in ceremonies to see how they unfold." READ MORE...

SACRED ACTIVISM

"May This Moment Inspire Reflection, Kindness,

and the Courage to Carry Peace into Daily Life"

"The Lincoln Memorial has witnessed much over the past century – the Black opera singer Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, Richard Nixon’s late-night chat with anti-war demonstrators – but rarely a scene as colourful as on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

For 19 monks and Aloka, a rescue dog from India, it was an important stop on a 2,300-mile “Walk for Peace”, a self-described spiritual journey across nine states that had been cheered on by crowds of thousands... The message of peace and mutual understanding conveyed through their conduct, marked by humility and calm presence, has resonated with many people they encountered along the route … May their walk help sow the seeds of greater peace, understanding and compassion in the United States and beyond.” READ MORE...

RELIGION REPORT

Who Supports

Christian Nationalism?

"About half (46%) of Americans say they prefer a country with a wide variety of faiths. Nineteen percent strongly prefer to live with folks who follow the Christian religion. And the rest (34%) are in the middle, neither strongly agreeing nor strongly disagreeing, according to data from the Washington, D.C.-based Public Religion Research Institute’s American Values Survey." READ MORE...

If I Wasn't Methodist,

I Might be Buddhist

" Lately I’ve found myself checking in daily on the livestream of a group of Buddhist monks walking for peace across the United States. Since last fall... this little distraction has helped keep me spiritually sane. I’ve learned that “peace scrolling” the monks is healthier than doomscrolling the news, and that holiness of heart matters more than correctness of doctrine" READ MORE...

WORKSHOPS, CLASSES

AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Dreaming & Expressive Arts:

Attending to the Dreamworld
Online March 8 - 29

The Center for Dreaming Arts invites you into an intimate, embodied relationship with your inner world through the creative tending of dreams. Developed by dream researcher and expressive arts educator Lanie Bergin, this program offers virtual workshops and in-person community gatherings that draw from the same core principles, tools, and methods used throughout our Embodied Expressive Arts trainings.

We invite fellow dreamers to join our next cohort in a four-week online workshop entitled, Dreaming & Expressive Arts: Attending to the Dreamworld. The workshop begins on Sunday March 8, and meets on four Sundays through March 29.

OTHER STUFF

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