Dissertation:
Esoteric Insights to Death: Comparing Clinical and Esoteric Explanations of the Dying Process
Katherine James Klemstine, 2006

Abstract

In providing hospice care to the terminally ill, often it is not simply a matter of medicating patients’ pain symptoms that completely addresses the issues of their suffering. Frequently it is necessary to view patients’ distress from the perspective of spiritual care. The project entitled “Esoteric Insights to Death: Comparing Clinical and Esoteric Explanations of the Dying Process” includes a workshop designed to provide an esoteric explanation of dying for clinical and spiritual care providers of hospice patients. The goal is to help clinical care providers identify the spiritual stages of dying and facilitate communication with the spiritual care-givers. This project is significant because it offers a common language for clinical care staff, spiritual care providers, and their terminally ill patients. The purpose is to improve assessment of the spiritual care needs of the dying person. A comparison of the esoteric teachings of death and dying to the medical model provides an opportunity for both clinical and spiritual care staff members to gain new insights enabling all concerned to form a more effective team as they strive to prepare terminally ill patients for a more peaceful death. In addition, such a model could prove beneficial, not only to the terminally ill patients, but also to the primary care providers, family members, and others involved with the patient’s well-being.

Back to Grad School Abstracts page