Planetary Hospice: Rebirthing Planet Earth, By Zhiwa Woodbury

Planetary Hospice: Rebirthing Planet Earth, By Zhiwa Woodbury

The pace of climate change continues to accelerate, and it now appears inevitable that the Great Anthropocentric Extinction currently unfolding will include the end of life as we know it. Characterizing this ‘Great Dying’ as equivalent to a terminal diagnosis for the human race, and assuming an ecopsychological perspective that sees a close relationship between planetary health and mental health, the author applies the stages of grief to this Great Dying, exploring connections retroactively and prospectively between societal mental health trends in the U.S., our awareness of the severity of the threat we pose to the planet, and the stages of grieving the loss of life, and questions the role mental health professionals should play in this context. Looking ahead from this same perspective, the author asks if it is possible to alleviate the pain and suffering that will be associated with the widespread extinctions, mass mortality, and forced migrations that are anticipated by scientific experts as a result of climate disruptions, beginning with the idea of what a “good death” would look like in relation to the end of life as we know it, applying principles from hospice and palliative care. Finally, he offers a hopeful vision that, with an expanding planetary hospice movement and appropriate containing myths, it might be possible to re-cast this Great Dying as a difficult, but spiritually progressive, death/rebirth experience for homo sapiens.

Robert David's Steele's Stunning Review Of "Collapsing Consciously"

Robert David's Steele's Stunning Review Of "Collapsing Consciously"

This is a 6 star book (my top 10% across the 98 categories in which I read), and I consider it a book to be stunningly effective. At the age of 61 with no pensions on top of a rich life, I have found myself in unemployment over several years, and as this book so powerfully suggests, this may have been the best possible state for me at this point in time. I specifically recommend the book as a gift for any unemployed person, but I also consider it essential reading for any entering class of college students.

Hope Dies Last: Thom Hartmann Comments On His Interviews With Guy McPherson And Michael Mann

Hope Dies Last: Thom Hartmann Comments On His Interviews With Guy McPherson And Michael Mann

Think of it this way. An old and very dear friend of mine died a few months ago of cancer, and made the mistake of never believing seriously that his end was coming, and thus went out basically screaming, “No!!” It wasn’t pretty; he was so angry his wife had to have him taken out to hospice. On the other hand, my dad, who died of the same type of cancer, was ready for it, embraced it, and died at home surrounded by family. While the very end was rough, he had a pretty good last year experiencing life, family, and love while waiting for the cancer to take him down.

Mad Hominem: Why Hatred Of The Human Species Is Not Helpful, By Carolyn Baker

Mad Hominem: Why Hatred Of The Human Species Is Not Helpful, By Carolyn Baker

In some sense it is much easier to be kind to other species because they are the innocent ones. They have not left the planet in shambles. It is much more challenging to be kind to humans—the perpetrators, the plunderers we may despise but which some part of us has the capacity to become. The human species is far more connected than it is divided. I speak not in platitudes but rather in terms of the hard science of quantum physics, and I heartily recommend Paul Levy’s recent article “Quantum Physics: The Physics Of Dreaming, Part 1.” John Archibald Wheeler, theoretical physicist and colleague of Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr stated that, “Nothing is more important about quantum physics than this: it has destroyed the concept of the world as ‘sitting out there’.” In fact, there is no “you” and “me.” Yes, you have a body separate from mine, and you live in another place on the planet, but we are interdependently connected.

In Praise Of Manners, By Francis Weller

In Praise Of Manners, By Francis Weller

Why do grief work? So that we can register the sorrows of the planet and we do whatever we can, whatever we are obligated to do morally and spiritually, to try to prepare whatever is coming, so that they have a better chance to survive and continue. They have a right to that.

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Time: Part 5: Shamans, Midwives, And Hospice Workers, By Dianne Monroe

Edge-Dwelling: A Social Ecology For Our Time: Part 5: Shamans, Midwives, And Hospice Workers, By Dianne Monroe

Beyond the edge where what we know and don’t know meets lies the Unknown (with a capital U). It’s a wild place that stretches the capacity of our human consciousness. This edge space is inhabited by a very particular kind of Edge-Dweller – those willing to hold the hugeness of even our ability to know, the horizon of human consciousness.