In this Award-Winning Book You Will Discover Insights about Coping with Life's Most Feared Mystery
This book will help anyone who is interested in learning more about death, coping with a loss, approaching death, or explaining death to a child. It is an exploratory journey that includes multiple viewpoints, including Steve Jobs's embrace of his death, Ray Kurzweil's striving for immortality, and Joseph Campbell's view of death as the "ornament of life." The book looks at death from the perspectives of atheists, Christians, and Tibetan Buddhists, among many others. Interestingly, it considers the often unexplored aspects such as the curious relationship between death and ayahuasca. It is a guidebook, offering insights and comfort on a topic that many find frightening or macabre.
The author grew up with a skeleton in his living room, and surrounded by other symbols of death. His unusual upbringing makes him uniquely qualified to serve as guide. As you join him in discovering more about death, you will find yourself enjoying a fuller life.Highlights of what you will learn...
- Theories from Great Contemporary Minds
- Spiritual Insights
- Scientific Discoveries
- Personal Reflections
Reviews
"In Loren Mayshark's
Death: An Exploration: Learning to Embrace Life's Most Feared Mystery, he writes, 'experiencing death has dragged me into emotional pits and has also compelled me to deep contemplation. This journey has filled me with wonderment as well as remorse.' I found those sentences to be humble ones which transmit the abstract premise of his book into something we can explore in a concrete way. His narrative voice is at the same time both scholarly and personal. It lets the reader join him in trying to figure out what this concept of death is. His observations emerge out of his curious youth, grow to an adolescent's pondering, and then further mature with the wise citations of well-researched information from philosophers, scientists, and other distinguished thinkers.
The author makes no definite assertions in his book, allowing the reader to stay open to nuance. Like Mayshark, we are all immature in answering death's puzzling question." -Peter Hamilton, author of
The Devil Hates a Coward "In
Death: An Exploration: Learning to Embrace Life's Most Feared Mystery, Loren Mayshark shares his personal inquiry of what death is or could be in the stories of others as they faced the inevitable and find solace in religion, science, nature, spiritual guidance. But the exploration doesn't stop there. While knowing and understanding death often remains a conundrum, this exploratory primer suggests what is separate can be whole; what defines death, defines life.
Death: An Exploration: Learning to Embrace Life's Most Feared Mystery is a terrific read for those embarking on their pursuit of the illusive, the contrary, the inescapable: death... and life."
-Linda A. Lavid, author of
The Dying Of Ed MeesAbout the AuthorLoren Mayshark was fortunate to have parents who offered him opportunities to see the world and introduce him to many exciting places which instilled in him a passion for travel. As his wanderlust grew, he journeyed to more than thirty US states and at least as many foreign countries while visiting four continents. After college, he supported his itinerant lifestyle by working dozens of jobs including: golf caddy, travel writer, construction worker, fireworks salesman, substitute teacher, and vineyard laborer. Predominantly his jobs have been in the restaurant industry. He cut his teeth as a server, Maître D, and bartender at San Francisco's historic Fisherman's Grotto #9, the original restaurant on the Fisherman's Wharf. While working with a colorful crew of primarily Mexican and Chinese co-workers, he gained a passion for Spanish and spent several months wandering through South America. While living in New York City he attended both the famed Gotham Writers Workshop and the prestigious New York Writers Workshop where he was inspired to assiduously learn the craft of writing. He is a regular contributor to
Can the Man(cantheman.com), an alternative media resource focused on social justice, and
The Jovial Journey (thejovialjourney.com), a website dedicated to food, drink, and travel. He has written for
The Permaculture Research Institute and
Uisio among other prominent outlets. He received a B.A. in World History from Manhattanville College in 2004 while minoring in World Religions. He attended the M.A. History program at Hunter College in Manhattan. You can keep up with him on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/LorenMayshark
