DEATH AND THE DYING PROCESS: What We Need to Know as We Face the End of Life, Mary Ann Melpolder

An Evening With...

In this evening’s program we will explore important aspects of death and the dying process. Some of these experiences were well-known by previous generations far more intimately familiar with death than we are today, while other aspects of death and dying are now being discovered through modern-day research in the fields of consciousness and thanatology.  Topics will include the psychological and spiritual tasks faced by the dying, end-of-life experiences such as nearing-death awareness, death-bed visions and dreams, and terminal lucidity, and the changes in consciousness one undergoes during the death process.  Understanding these phenomena will help each of us prepare for our own death as well as effectively support others as they die.

Mary Ann Melpolder has had a life-long interest in death, bereavement, and the survival of consciousness.  She holds Master's degrees in Thanatology from Hood College and in American Studies with a focus on warfare from the University of Maryland.  She served for two years as a hospice volunteer with Montgomery Hospice working with the dying and their families.  She is a member of the Association for Death, Education, and Counseling, and the International Association of Near-Death Studies.