4-11 Apr 1998 CONSCIOUS LIVING – CONSCIOUS DYING

Presenters: Phyllida Templeton, Patch Adams, Judith Marten-Meynell, Shin-ichiro Terayama Focalisers: Cally Miller, Barbara Faro

This post endeavours to give you a flavour of the preparations, the actual conference and its impact on the Community for years to come.

Conference group

CLCD conference group 1998 photo Barbara Vincent

Conscious Living Conscious Dying conference group 1998 – Cally Miller, Susan Miles, Joycelin Dawes, Mo Willet, Judith Berry, Cornelia Featherstone, Barbara Faro (photo Barbara Vincent)

Many conferences were held not only by dedicated focalisers but by a group of members working with them. This was also the case for Conscious Living Conscious Dying. However this time the group consisted largely of members of the ‘wider’ Community rather than the Findhorn Foundation. The Findhorn Bay Holistic Health Centre had been set up a few years before, and a movement away from the ‘working community’ towards a ‘cradle to grave community’ had begun.  In 1996, with a group of volunteers, we had been able to support Joanie Hartnell-Beavis with care in her bungalow during her final months. Some of those volunteers became part of the conference group.

The announcement in  Network News Issue 13 October 1997 

CONSCIOUS LIVING, CONSCIOUS DYING

SPRING CONFERENCE 4-11 APRIL 1998

In the slipstream of the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Mother Theresa it feels timely to tell you a little about our unusual Spring 1998 Conference.

As we let go of the millennium and move towards the new and exciting possibilities of the 21st century it is a good time to review how consciously we live and how consciously we accept death as a natural part of living. The theme of the Conference has been in the air for some time and was recently highlighted, as we cared for a beloved elderly member during her dying process, a couple with a stillborn baby, and a number of people who had been diagnosed with potentially life-threatening illnesses within our community.

Accepting that death is as natural as birth and as inevitable, conference speakers will present a variety of views drawn from their own professional and personal experiences. We will be encouraged to accept that we can choose to “live” until the moment we die-whatever our circumstances.

Speakers include Phyllis Crystal, therapist and author of Cutting the Ties that Bind; Dr Patch Adams, MD, clown and social activist of the Gesundheit Institute; and our own Dr Cornelia Featherstone. Joan Halifax, medical anthropologist, Buddhist priest and co-founder of the project on Being with Dying will also be here, as will Cheryl Daniels Shohan from the Dr Gerald G Jampolsky Centre for Attitudinal Healing that cares for people with catastrophic illnesses.

There will be a more detailed article in January’s Network News.

 

Article in Network News January 1998

The conference

Sadly we have not yet found any contemporary reports of the conference. Perhaps one of our readers can add something from their own files – if that is you – please leave a Comment below or Contact Us.

The presenters came together several times during the week. The featured image and the one below show them alongside the conference group and facilitators:

Conscious Living Conscious Dying conference presenters 1998

During the Sherry Hour at Cluny, one presenter gave each participant the lovely gift of a bag showing a radiant sun. It was made in an arts project for homeless children she was involved with in the USA. Several members of the conference group still have that bag and cherish it as a memento.

 

Conscious Living Conscious Dying conference conference group 1998

Conscious Living Conscious Dying conference conference group 1998 Joycelin Dawes, Judith Berry, Mo Willet, Susan Miles, Cally Miller, Barbara Faro, Cornelia Featherstone

After the conference

This conference had a significant impact on the Community, both in the practical implementations as well as in education.

  • A few months after the conference a Community member, Winnie, was cared for in her own home in her final days. Fay Blackburn described her experience of that time in a chapter entitled Winnie in Growing People, edited by Kay Kay, 2001. From then on the Community developed an increasing sense of ease and competence in may aspects of end-of-life, be that care in the community, end-of-life planning or creating our own green burial ground.
  • Three members of the early Caring Community Circle – Judith Berry, Barbara Faro, and Fay Blackburn – were inspired to set up the Alanna Trust.
    Over the next decade, the Alanna Trust offered death and dying education within the community. This was led, to a large degree, by Phyllida Anam-Aire, who was trained by and was a former colleague of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross.
    Phyllida also brought a unique perspective informed by Celtic death traditions.
    The Trust created workshops for both members and the public, including a comprehensive 20-day residential course, “Death: The Final Healing” based on Kübler-Ross’s work. Shorter workshops tackled various themes: managing unfinished business, confronting one’s own mortality, navigating the stages of dying, supporting loved ones through their final journey, and coping with grief and bereavement.