A journey through 20,000 years of history and myth in search of the answer to a single question: Do animals have souls?
Anyone who has ever mourned the loss of a cherished pet has wondered about the animal soul. Do animals survive the death of the body, or are they doomed to disappear completely when they leave this world behind? Both scientists and religious authorities have long scoffed at the idea of animals in heaven. Yet the question endures. In this wise, immensely readable book, Ptolemy Tompkins embarks on a quest for the answer--taking us on a top-speed tour of the history of the animal soul.
Equally at home with mainstream and alternative spiritual philosophies, Tompkins takes us from the savannas of Africa to the earth's first cities to the early days of the great faith traditions of both East and West. Along the way, he shows that, despite what many of us have been taught, the world's various spiritual traditions all have profoundly meaningful things to say about the animal soul, if we simply know where to look. Rescuing these ancient insights and blending them with vivid stories about animals today--from a dwarf rabbit named Angus to a manatee named Moose to a black bear named Little Bit--"The Divine Life of Animals" paints a gloriously inclusive picture of the cosmos as a place made up of both matter and spirit, in which animals are every bit as important, spiritually speaking, as the humans with whom they share the world. Though it is startlingly original, "The Divine Life of Animals" also feels strangely and instantly familiar, for it reveals truths that many of us have held in our hearts already, waiting only for someone to give fresh voice to one of the oldest and most trustworthy intuitions we possess.
The "Divine Life of Animals" offers a compelling and timeless vision of the relationship between humans and animals that will have you looking at the animals in your life with new eyes.

"From the Hardcover edition."

In "Death with Dignity," Robert Orfali makes a compelling case for legalized physician-assisted dying. Using the latest data from Oregon and the Netherlands, he puts a fresh new slant on perennial debate topics such as "slippery slopes," "the integrity of medicine," and "sanctity of life."His engaging writing style brings clarity to these issues. The content is thought-provoking; the arguments are well-researched, air-tight, and original.

This extraordinary book provides an in-depth look at how we die in America today. It examines the shortcomings of our end-of-life system. You'll learn about terminal torture in hospital ICUs and about the alternatives: hospice and palliative care. With laser-sharp focus, Orfali scrutinizes the good, the bad, and the ugly. He provides an insightful critique of the practice of palliative sedation. The book makes a strong case that assisted dying complements hospice. By providing both, Oregon now has the best palliative-care system in America. Reading this book, above all, may help you or someone you care about navigate this strange landscape we call "end of life." It can be your gentle and informed guide to "a good death" in the age of hospice and high-tech medical intervention.

Robert Orfali, the guru of client/server systems in the early days of Silicon Valley, co-authored three best-selling books that demystified the complexity of these mission-critical systems and made them understandable to a whole new generation of programmers. The books sold over a million copies. In this book, Robert uses his analytical skills to deconstruct the most complex system he has yet encountered: our modern end-of-life system. He wrote this book after helping his soulmate and coauthor, Jeri, navigate her death from ovarian cancer in 2009. The deep emotions Robert felt allowed him to look at how we die from a different perspective, another angle. Robert also wrote "Grieving a Soulmate."

Now available in paperback -- Jan Hatanaka's powerful, life-enhancing book on how six people, encountering significant adversity, made a conscious choice to work to build a life of meaning.

Using six stories from her casebook as a therapist, Hatanaka explores and illustrates the complex relationships that exist between death and grief and the path that can lead to reconciling that grief.

Included in her stories is her own heart-wrenching and dramatic experience following a major health crisis. Hatanaka draws on her personal, clinical, and academic experience as she takes the reader through the Greif Reconciliation Process, describing the actual steps taken by people who manage to build a life of meaning in the face of significant adversity.

"The Choice" is brilliant in its simple, gentle, and profound exploration of the reality of suffering as part of the human experience. It exposes the hope that can be hidden in affliction.

"The Choice" will be of great help to those currently in the grips of personal adversity; the loved ones of those who are suffering; and health-care professionals, including medical practitioners, counsellors, therapists, and spiritual advisors.

About the Author

Dr. Jan Hatanaka's approach to grief and reconciliation is informed by: her personal experience; her extensive academic research on the universality of grief and loss; and her in-depth discussions with hundreds of individuals willing to recount their personal stories. The founder of Grief Reconciliation International Inc., she holds positions at York University, Toronto, in the Department of Nursing, the Religious Studies program, and the York Institute for Health Research. She has a B.Sc. in nursing from the University of Ottawa, a Master's degree in education and counseling psychology from the University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Wales.

From the Author

I wrote "The Choice" to introduce a process and a language that I hoped would help those who had made a choice to work toward greater understanding and wisdom concerning the reconciliation of grief in their lives.

We grieve in response to the loss of someone or something that we hold dear. While this response may manifest itself in many different ways, this book serves to illustrate the many common themes that surface in stories told by individuals relaying their personal experience in working to reconcile grief. I am pleased that this book is serving as a practical guide to those seeking help and those seeking to help others.

From the Back Cover

A dramatic, challenging, and liberating book that introduces the choice we all must make when faced with adversity &#8212 a book that traces the intense struggles and triumphs of those who have learned to reconcile grief in their lives, including, in this book: The author herself, who survived a major challenge to her health An up-and-coming student, whose fall on a football field renders him a paraplegic and takes him to the edge of suicide An MBA graduate, who discovers that unresolved grief in his family two generations back is threatening his marriage today A mother of two young children, who experiences a terrorism threat and can't reconnect with her family and colleagues A retired boxer, who faces the toughest bout of all when given the news that his condition is inoperable A woman entering her senior years who is emerging from a deep well of depression over the loss of her twenty-year-old son

Are you ready to discover what lies beyond the ordinary experience of grief?

Sacred Grief offers an intriguing exploration of the far-reaching rippleeffect of our present-day opinions about surviving grief's emotionalroller-coaster and the unnecessary suffering our judgments unconsciouslypromote. You'll find comfort in discovering that there's anotherdimension to this universal experience--a dimension that fosters trust, kindness and compassion, peacefully heals, and steadfastly moves youtowards your soul's deepest desires and dreams.
Praise for Sacred Grief
"Because we will all have the experience, Sacred Grief is a compellingguide for everyone searching for the sweetness in life's great passages."
--Gregg Braden, author, "The Divine Matrix" and "The God Code"
"Sacred Grief is a holy handbook for gleaning the gifts of the journeycalled grief."
--Mary Manin Morrissey, Co-founder, Association for Global New Thought
"Sacred Grief is a welcome departure from the conventional advice about'surviving' grief."
--Jill Carroll, Ph.D., Executive Director, Boniuk Center for the Study andAdvancement of Religious Tolerance, Rice University
"I highly recommend this book to anyone that has experienced any type of loss in their livesand is willing to look at the loss through a different set of eyes. Tessman, in Sacred Grief, willlead the reader to a place of compassion for oneself, create a relationship with his/her own grief, and ultimately create a place of understanding and a healed soul."
--Irene Watson, Managing Editor, Reader Views
Learn more about this book at www.SacredGrief.com
Another great self-help book from Loving Healing press www.LovingHealing.com
SEL010000 Self-Help: Death, Grief, Bereavement
FAM014000 Family & Relationships: Death, Grief, Bereavement
SOC036000 Social Science: Death & Dying

"Is there any hope that we may ever know what death is? Since it is a problem of knowing, we need to find the epistemological devices that will lead us to coming closer to it. I think this paper has something to tell on the matter something useful and perhaps significant. My own way of being convinced of this is to be found in the liberation my theory brought me, I was freed from having to carry the tension the problem had generated in me."-Caleb Gattegno

This book is the first and only comprehensive work designed and written for organizations that may face the daunting task of notifying and supporting families if a person dies, is seriously injured or is missing. The book is highly useful for companies, government agencies, police and fire departments, schools and universities, hospitals, clergy, social workers and even as a supplement for military service notification teams. In their research, the authors found that most organizations are ill-prepared to competently and compassionately carry out this sad but important responsibility. Most people don't like to talk about the subject. That's natural and understandable. What is neither understandable nor acceptable is an organization ignoring or paying little attention to the potential of such an event. How bad news is delivered and received can have a deep and enduring impact on both the organization's messenger, the organization itself and the loved ones. The consequences can be devastating or can serve as the beginning of a healthy grieving process. This book is full of useful tools and tips that will help your organization and its people prepare for a potential event, which in turn will make notification less difficult, expedite the notification process, reduce anxiety and stress, prepare for the unexpected, minimize hurtful and costly mistakes and protect an organization's reputation. We encourage you to take advantage of the wealth of information in this book so that if and when the time comes, you and your organization can handle this tough duty skillfully and with care.

On a blustery night, detectives from the Massachusetts State Police knocked on Amy Gleason's door. Gleason, along with fellow nurse Kim Hoy, had helped a patient deal with pain and suffering at the end of her life. Now the patient was dead, and the two nurses were being investigated for murder. Both believed they had done the right thing, but they had no idea what it would cost them. In this captivating and powerful true story, Dr. Lewis M. Cohen uses the experiences of Gleason, Hoy, and the nursing assistant who accused them of murder to explore what happens when decisions about end-of-life care shift from the hospital to the courtroom and the church. Tracing this issue from the uproar over Terri Schiavo's feeding tube to the controversial figure of Jack Kevorkian, and to the legitimate threat of serial killer medical professionals, Cohen goes behind the scenes on both sides of this debate. He examines how advances in modern medicine have given us tremendous tools for prolonging life but have also forced us to address how we treat patients who are dying and suffering.

Containing Eleven Addresses Delivered Before The General Assembly Of The Presbyterian Church In The United States, At Charlotte, N.C., In May, 1897. In Commemoration Of The Two Hundred And Fiftieth Anniversary Of The Westminster Assembly, And Of The Formation Of The Westminster Standards.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner comes a fast-paced and astonishing scientific adventure story: has the long-sought secret of eternal youth at last been found?

In recent years, the dream of eternal youth has started to look like more than just a dream. In the twentieth century alone, life expectancy increased by more than thirty years--almost as much time as humans have gained in the whole span of human existence. Today a motley array of scientists, researchers, and entrepreneurs believe that another, bigger leap is at hand--that human immortality is not only possible, but attainable in our own time. Is there genius or folly in the dreams of these charismatic but eccentric thinkers?

In Long for This World, Jonathan Weiner, a natural storyteller and an intrepid reporter with a gift for making cutting-edge science understandable, takes the reader on a whirlwind intellectual quest to find out. From Berkeley to the Bronx, from Cambridge University to Dante's tomb in Ravenna, Weiner meets the leading intellectuals in the field and delves into the mind-blowing science behind the latest research. He traces the centuries-old, fascinating history of the quest for longevity in art, science, and literature, from Gilgamesh to Shakespeare, Doctor Faustus to "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

And he tells the dramatic story of how aging could be conquered once and for all, focusing on the ideas of those who believe aging is a curable disease. Chief among them is the extraordinary Aubrey de Grey, a garrulous Englishman who bears more than a passing resemblance to Methuselah (at 969 years, the oldest man in the Bible) and who is perhaps immortality's most radical and engaging true believer.

A rollicking scientific adventure story in the grand manner of Oliver Sacks, Long for This World is science writing of the highest order and with the highest stakes. Could we live forever? And if we could...would we want to?

1933. The object of these notes is to show the origin and development of the practice of the separation of the body at death into two or more parts, and to suggest the circumstances which lead to the special treatment of the heart, for which, hitherto, reasons apparently not quite adequate have been advanced.

WINNER 2011 BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING When Plato was asked to sum up his life's work, he simply stated, "Practice dying." Last Acts of Kindness allows a glimpse into this practice through the stories of those who have lived and died among us. In these chronicles of a midwife to the dying, Judith Redwing Keyssar speaks eloquently and from her heart about her extensive experience in the field of palliative care-providing nursing expertise along with emotional and spiritual guidance and support. Her stories describe people she has eased in their dying processes in hospitals, residential facilities and in their homes. Keyssar offers us lessons to help navigate this complicated and inevitable journey. She encourages us to examine our personal relationships to impermanence and to consider the changes needed in our healthcare system to better serve us all at the end of life.

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

A GOOD GOODBYE: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don't Plan to Die provides the information, inspiration and tools to plan and implement creative, meaningful and memorable end-of-life rituals for people and pets. Just as talking about sex won't make you pregnant, talking about funerals won't make you dead - and your family will benefit from the conversation. Learn how to save money, reduce family conflict, and avoid stress at a time of grief.

Sacred Grief offers an intriguing exploration of the far-reaching ripple effect of our present-day opinions about surviving grief's emotional roller-coaster and the unnecessary suffering our judgments unconsciously promote. You'll find comfort in discovering that there's another dimension to this universal experience--a dimension that fosters trust, kindness and compassion, peacefully heals, and steadfastly moves you towards your soul's deepest desires and dreams.
Praise for Sacred Grief
"Because we will all have the experience, Sacred Grief is a compelling guide for everyone searching for the sweetness in life's great passages."
--Gregg Braden, author, "The Divine Matrix" and "The God Code"
"Sacred Grief is a holy handbook for gleaning the gifts of the journey called grief."
--Mary Manin Morrissey, Co-founder, Association for Global New Thought
"Sacred Grief is a welcome departure from the conventional advice about 'surviving' grief."
--Jill Carroll, Ph.D., Executive Director, Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, Rice University
Learn more about this book at www.SacredGrief.com
Another great self-help book from Loving Healing press www.LovingHealing.com

1933. The object of these notes is to show the origin and development of the practice of the separation of the body at death into two or more parts, and to suggest the circumstances which lead to the special treatment of the heart, for which, hitherto, reasons apparently not quite adequate have been advanced.