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Death Literacy: Why it Matters

Some years ago I read the book Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. I often cringe when I remember the part where Gawande, who is a practicing MD, reports that during his entire tenure in medical school, he (and the other doctors around him) received little to no training in death and dying.

This stands as true to my own experience.

On multiple occasions, I have experienced death-illiterate doctors give dying patients false hope when it comes to how much time they have left. This sets the stage for shock and lack of preparedness on the part of the patient and their family, when the decline and death process happens much sooner than expected.

The dying person and their loved ones would likely have chosen to spend their limited time differently if they had been told the truth.

This experience, unfortunately, is as common as it is unconscionable.

Yet doctors are a product of their culture, just like the rest of us, and the entire modern allopathic industry is organized around keeping people alive at all costs. True to form, in most of Western culture, the topic of death often invokes discomfort and avoidance. We’ve built walls around the subject, treating it as something to be feared rather than a natural part of life.

Death is an invitation to keep your heart open

How did we get here? This wasn’t always the case.

Historically, our ancestors were intimately involved in the dying process, caring for their loved ones at home and participated actively in their transitions. Many traditional cultures around the world still maintain these practices. They embrace death openly, allowing all ages to witness and participate in death scenes, which fosters an early and deep understanding of life’s final chapter. 

These societies often honor death, maintaining connections with the deceased and integrating remembrance into daily life. Death is seen not as an end but as a continuation, a chapter to look forward to, perhaps with curiosity and even a sense of adventure. 

I hope you have access to some of that perspective and can call on it when you or a loved one reaches transition time! 

I look forward, in future newsletters, to exploring how other cultures engage with death and dying, as well as practices we can employ towards more death literacy.

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Author: Lee Warren

Lee Warren is a death and tantra educator, somatic guide, writer, mystic, and community builder.  Lee’s work delves into the intimate relationship between our physical existence and the mysteries of life and death. She teaches how embracing the certainty of our mortality can transform fear into profound gratitude and ecstatic embodiment.

Why do we want to be more embodiment? Because that’s where divine intelligence lives. Consciousness is in every cell of our being and it’s waiting to be enlivened. 

Her rich and varied experiences—from three decades of ecovillage living and the practice of sustainable agriculture to her devotional Tantric path—prime her for sharing the teachings of the life/death/life mysteries.

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Lee Warren

Death & Tantra Educator
End-of-Life Preparation Coach
Caregiver Support Ally

QueenofDeath.org

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