Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T15:30:13.814Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter Three - The First Challenge: Anticipating Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Allan Kellehear
Affiliation:
La Trobe University, Victoria
Get access

Summary

What produces more activity from a person: anticipation or ignorance? What produces greater anxiety in a person: anticipation or denial and ignorance? Can a people, any people, remain uninterested, complacent or passive in the face of a known threat that they have witnessed time and again? Does death move people?

The answer to all these questions is that death motivates and activates people like little else because historically biological death has been viewed as no death at all, but rather, the most complicated and challenging part of living. At this ‘end part’ of living, after biological death but before the prospect of annihilation of the self through subsequent trials or transformation, lies a dangerous period of testing. Although this ‘dying’ means there is no turning back it can also mean greater things for you and me. Certainly the dying person can expect to see things or have encounters that he or she will never have seen or encountered before in life. The great question confronting all who die, then, is how to maximise the conditions under which the dying might succeed in their challenging and often daunting otherworld tests.

This final single question creates the greatest human cycle of challenge and response in which anyone can participate.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×