Freeing Spirit: Life Epics and the Deindustrialization of Death

There is a disconnection in North American culture from the naturalness of death. This disconnection impedes the spiritual process undergone when dying. This spiritual process is necessary to fully complete the sacred journey of life. The denaturalization of death in North American culture is a direct result of the industrialization of life. The disassociation of death embedded in the psyches of North Americans manifests itself as a spiritual crisis, often arising during the dying trajectory. Hospitals, the institutions which carry the mandate of caring for the ill and dying in North American culture, are ill equipped to handle this crisis. Residential Hospices were created to provide viable alternatives to the dying, ensuring the priority of the spiritual and emotional care of their residents within their mandates. This paper explores Buddhist mindfulness practices, as well as aboriginal protocols, as ways to facilitate the spiritual crisis people often undergo when dying. Further, this paper suggests that Residential Hospices should go beyond facilitating spiritual needs of their residents and begin to proactively evoke spiritual transformations using Buddhist mindfulness practices and aboriginal protocols among its staff and members of their communities.