Death and Afterlife Final

Question 1

Grief

Answer 1

intense mental anguish, deep remorse, acute sorrow
-can cause physiological effects

Question 2

elements of religion in Klass’s discussion of grief

Answer 2

1) transcendent reality
2) a world view that gives meaning to all that is
3) community that validates all of above

Question 3

Grief Work Model (Freud)

Answer 3

-relationship is ended
-sever your bond/attachment
-“move on” (feel your emotions “work through”)
-closure

Question 4

Continuing Bonds Model (Klass)

Answer 4

-death ends a life, but not a relationship
-the dead still play a role in your life
-live in a world that’s different

Question 5

Task-Based Model (William Wordon)

Answer 5

1) accept the reality of the death
2) experience the pain of grief
3) adjust to an environment in which the deceased is absent
4) emotionally relocate the deceased and move on with life

Question 6

Types of Complicated Grief

Answer 6

1) Delayed/postponed
2) Distorted/Absent
3) Chronic

Question 7

Types of Disenfranchised Grief

Answer 7

1) relationship not recognized
2) loss is not recognized
3) griever is not recognized
4) death is too horrendous to talk about

Question 8

Bereavement

Answer 8

state of being deprived of something valuable or beloved (such as the loss of a loved one)

Question 9

Factors that Influence Bereavement

Answer 9

1) nature of the attachment
2) way the loss occurred
3) coping strategies bereaved has used previously
4) developmental situation of the bereaved
5) social support bereaved receives

Question 10

Mourning

Answer 10

expressions or actions of one who has suffered bereavement
-the symbols or conventional outward signs of grief for the dead
-period during which a death is grieved

Question 11

Solace

Answer 11

comfort/console a person in mourning
-mediums: assuring the living that their loved ones are well-placed in the postmortem bureaucracy
-rabbis: life itself is a reward from God, even if times are hard you can look forward to the “world to come”
-apparitions: the idea that the an aspect of the departed remain can be comforting

Question 12

Klass’ Path to Solace

Answer 12

1) linking objects- objects important to person so it has meaning
2) memories- reliving things
3) religious rituals
4) identification
Negative: waste a lot of time on superficial things that prolong rather than give comfort

Question 13

NDE

Answer 13

near death experience
-clinical death –> cardiopulmonary (presuppositions)
-assumes dualism
-Raymond Moody: Life After Death

Question 14

OBE

Answer 14

out of body experience

Question 15

Apparations

Answer 15

a ghost or ghostlike image of a person

Question 16

What is testable/veridical about NDEs

Answer 16

1) consistency and universality
2) their power to modify behavior
3) OBE’s paranormal aspect –> apparitions
researched by Carol Zaleski, Carol Becker

Question 17

Characteristics/Features of NDE’s

Answer 17

-tunnel light at end
-out of body experience (OBE)
-apparitions of the dead
-sense of peace/quiet
-life review
-immateriality
-loud noise
-boundary/border (beyond which you can’t return)
-hear someone pronounce your death
-warm presence (being of light)
-ineffability (metaphors)
-don’t want to come back
-conversion experience (life-changing/no longer fear death)

Question 18

Deja vu

Answer 18

that eerie sense that “I’ve experienced this before.” Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

Question 19

Xenoglossy

Answer 19

language learned spontaneously and without prior knowledge

Question 20

Cryptomnesia

Answer 20

a type of misattribution that occurs when a person thinks he or she has come up with a new idea, yet has only retrieved a stored idea and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source

Question 21

Past Life Regression

Answer 21

therapeutic approach that hypnotizes and supposedly age-regresses patients to a previous life to identify the source of a present-day problem

Question 22

Necromancy

Answer 22

the supposed practice of conjuring the dead in order for them to communicate with the living, especially in order to predict the future
-common in Middle East
-Hindus/Buddhists advise against it b/c distracts from enlightenment
-rabbis strictly against it and ancestral worship, ended up being accepted anyways

Question 23

Mysticism

Answer 23

A form of religious belief and practice involving sudden insight and intense experiences of God
-runs across cultures and religions, though it is often closely associated in people’s minds with the Eastern traditions, especially Buddhism

Question 24

Secularism

Answer 24

An indifference to religion and a belief that religion should be excluded from civic affairs and public education

Question 25

Undertaker

Answer 25

Funeral director, the one who arranges burials

Question 26

Embalming

Answer 26

the process of treating a body to keep it from decaying

Question 27

Cryonics

Answer 27

preserving a body by freezing it, immediately after death is declared, keeping it frozen until future time when medical science can allow for resuscitation of body and continued life

Question 28

Cremation

Answer 28

the act of burning the dead
-is particularly common in Japan/China where land for burial is very limited
-Agni (Hinduism): associated with the purification of the cremation rituals, as well as the fires of damnation
-Jews believed cremation hindered resurrection (tahara)

Question 29

Shrines

Answer 29

areas dedicated to the honor of gods and goddesses

Question 30

Memorials

Answer 30

object or building displayed in memory of person or event

Question 31

Sacred

Answer 31

the quality of being holy, worthy of respect and reverence

Question 32

Vernacular

Answer 32

the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.

Question 33

Holism

Answer 33

• need both body & “soul” to make you
• physical (bodily) existence: mummification, burial/rituals
• resurrection of the body

Question 34

Dualism

Answer 34

body & soul are separate from each other
- reincarnation

Question 35

Reincarnation

Answer 35

The rebirth of a soul in a new body
-In Hinduism and Buddhism, the process by which a soul is reborn continuously until it achieves perfect understanding

Question 36

Resurrection

Answer 36

The act of rising from the dead, coming back to life

Question 37

Purposes of/Historical Types of Funerals

Answer 37

-traditional: does not rely on support of funeral industry
-modern: complete with embalming, viewing, a church service, and burial; the norm in south and east US (involve funeral directors/medical industry)
-postmodern funerals: avoid religious tradition; increasingly common among professional, middle-class Anglo-Americans

Question 38

Funeral Rituals

Answer 38

1) opportunity to reintegrate & reaffirm community
2) allow expression & explanation of emotion
3) affirm value of deceased life
4) stimulate remembrance
5) provide support & structure

Question 39

Post-Modern Funerals

Answer 39

-immigrants: cultures
-non-christian traditions/religious pluralism
-“spiritual” vs religious
-secularism & individualism
-declaring community ties
(online, space, cryogenics, home funeral)

Question 40

Traditional Funerals

Answer 40

-puritans: predestination
-authority: clergy person, religious leader
-theological discourse

Question 41

Doughty and Cremation

Answer 41

-ancient Greeks, Romans, Hindus used alchemy of fire to consume the flesh and liberate the soul
-Porta-Pyre: open air cremation; Crestone; low-tech system built from cinderblocks with a grate laid on top; costs $500 donation (5% of traditional/modern)
-conventional (commercial) cremation: industrial furnace proposed in Italy to denounce burial as unhygenic and advocate switch to cremation
-modern cremation machines: 24,000lbs of steel, brick, concrete; $1000’s of natural gas a month; relegated to industrial zones; costs $8-10,000

Question 42

Examples of Public Grief/Remembrance

Answer 42

-personalized obituaries: increased length allows grieving loved ones to tell more about the deceased
-roadside memorials: illegal in most states b/c they’re hazardous but police sympathize and are lenient
-online memorials: keeps legacy of deceased alive

Question 43

similarities and differences across religious beliefs about the afterlife

Answer 43

EARLY RELIGIOUS THEMES
1) Fate: death- aspect of self subdivides from body
2) Shade
3) underworld- Hades(G)/ Sheol(J)/ Yellow Springs(Chinese)/ Field of Rushes(E)/ World of the Fathers(H)

MONOTHEISTIC/WESTERN
1) God’s sovereignty, stewardship, the self (God is authority, we carry out that authority)
2) compassion is golden rule

EASTERN
1) liberation
2) ahimsa: principle of non-violence (doing no harm)
3) dignity
4) reincarnation predominate in East (NOT western traditions)

JUDGEMENT
1) Egyptian book of the dead
2) Ghenna- hell for the wicked (J)
3) Bardo- transitional stage between death and rebirth (Chinese)

Question 44

religious views on end-of-life treatment decisions and forms of euthanasia

Answer 44

FORMS
-passive: allowing
-active: doing yourself
-involuntary: don’t want it
-voluntary: want it

VIEWS
-Buddhists/Christians/Jews/Islamics oppose physician-assisted & euthanasia, but allows that life need not be sustained at all costs when there is no hope for recovery
-Hindus believe prematurely ending a person’s life could negatively impact their karma, but if you have reached a stage in your life when you can no longer worship properly, you are justified in asking your doctor to hasten your death

Question 45

holism & dualism ESSAY:

Answer 45

RELIGION: (afterlife beliefs)
Holism
-(E, old J)mummies = continued existence of the spirit depends on continued existence of the body. og Jewish concept of resurrection stems from belief that soul and body forever interconnected
-(older J) Care for the body essential for the og Jews to prepare for coming resurrection
Dualism
-ancient Greeks believed it was possible for the soul to leave the body during life and travel outside the body
-(E) The idea of mummification was based on the notion that the spirit, ka, needed time to form a spiritual body and so the physical body would provide the home for the ka until the spiritual body was ready and it could leave; ba is the ghost or shade of the person and remains closely attached to the body and its tomb. In this way, it was possible to conceive of the dead as both residing with the stars, but also remaining within the tomb where they had been laid to rest
-(Modern J) Maimonides encouraged a dualistic view of humankind; “Matter is matter, spirit is spirit”; body travels among the various levels of reality; ignored notion of physical resurrection; Gehenna judgement underworld = dualistic notion of reward & punishment; soul thought to leave body in death and sleep (thank God for allowing soul to reunite and body to wake)
-(Christianity) believes in dualism, but this contradicts idea of physical resurrection of body
-OBE & NDE point to dualism
-reincarnation points to dualism
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FUNCTION (medical context)
H
-person is dead when vitals fail
D
-person is dead when brain functions fail b/c soul pertains to mind and when the mind is lost from the body the soul has left
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INFLUENCE (end-of-life decisions)
H
-preserve body
-make offerings to body
-wouldn’t want to be cremated
D
-Socrates’ argument “if you see a man resentful that he is going to die… he’s no lover of wisdom(mind) after all, but a lover of the body” (would not fear death)
-open to cremation and postmodern funeral concepts b/c they play into spirituality