Death, Dying, and Mysticism

Lucy Bregman, Temple University, USA Callum E. Cooper, University of Northampton, UK Chris A. Roe, University of Northampton, UK June-Ann Greeley, Sacred Heart University, USA Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University, USA Cynthia Hogan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA Martin Hoondert, Tilburg School of Humanities, The Netherlands Stuart Jesson, York St. John's University, USA Jin Sook Kim, Graduate Theological Union, USA June McDaniel, College of Charleston, USA Jordan Paper, York University in Toronto, Canada Lloyd W. Pflueger, Truman State University, USA Darleen Pryds, Franciscan School of Theology, USA Robert Michael Ruehl, Syracuse University, USA Juanita Ruys, University of Sydney, Australia Lee Irwin, College of Charleston, USA Graham Mitchell, University of Northampton, UK

"The book is an interesting and diverse collection of essays analyzing the relationship of mysticism and death in a variety of disciplines. ... presents a challenge to our contemporary hermeneutic of interpreting both mysticism and death as one dimensional and universal. Cattoi and Moreman's edited collection reminds the reader that the numinous can be encountered in many different shapes and forms-even, and especially, in encounters with dying and death." (Candi K. Cann, Omega, Vol. 73 (2), 2016) 'In this thoughtful, interdisciplinary, and integral compilation of essays, Cattoi and Moreman gracefully open our awareness to the mystical process of death and dying. Through so many perspectives, one grasps the spiritual evolution of the soul, with death and dying marking a final dissolution of egoic consciousness opening toward a 'boundless' dimension or unity consciousness and our original nature. Inspiring!' - Barbara Morrill, Chair, Integral Counseling Program, The California Institute of Integral Studies, USA 'Thomas Cattoi and Christopher Moreman have presented a striking overview of spiritual analyses and interpretations of the death and the dying process. While the diversity of the material in this volume is considerable, the unifying themes are the inevitability of death, even for those of us in contemporary culture who seek ways to deny it, and the ennobling capacity of the human spirit to embrace and sanctify life, even as it slips away, or perhaps, especially when it slips away.' Laura Weed, The College of Saint Rose, USA

• Introduction: Ars Moriendi after Kant's Turn to the Subject; Thomas Cattoi 1. Lady Jacopa and Francis: Mysticism and The Management of Francis of Assisi's Deathbed Story; Darleen Pryds 2. Mystical Dying in Contemporary Autobiographies; Lucy Bregman 3. Traces of Resurrection: The Pattern of Simone Weil's Mysticism; Stuart Jesson 4. Thoreau's Religious Response to Death; Robert Michael Ruehl 5. You Create Your Own Reality: The Fallacy of Death in Jane Roberts' Seth Material; Cynthia A. Hogan 6. Symbolic Death of the Subject in the Structure of Jacques Lacan; Jin Sook Kim 7. Anomalous Experiences and the Bereavement Process; Callum E. Cooper, Chris A. Roe, and Graham Mitchell 8. Heaven is for Real and America's Fascination with Near-Death Experiences; Candy Guenther Brown 9. Mystical Knowledge and Near Death Experience; Lee Irwin 10. The Experience of Death as Non-Death; Jordan Paper 11. Death Visions of the Goddess Kali: The Bengali Shakta Corpse Ritual at the Burning Ground; June McDaniel 12. Sam?dhi as True Death in the Yogas?tra; Lloyd W. Pflueger 13. At our end is the beginning: Death as the Liminal Real in the Art of Frida Kahlo; June-Ann Greeley 14. Modern Requiem Compositions and Musical Knowledge of Death and Afterlife; Martin J. Hoondert