News from Terri Daniel and The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief

As promised in last month's "big reveal," this is the debut issue of the official newsletter for our new Conference on Death, Grief and Belief (formerly known as The Afterlife Conference).

We're in the process of planning the new conference, which we're hoping to schedule for July 2022 (locations are still being explored). We really value your feedback, so below you'll find a survey about your conference preferences, and if you fill it out, you'll get a special discount for the upcoming conference.

The mission of the new conference is to create a safe space for unpacking religious beliefs and spiritual concepts that can be disempowering and harmful when facing loss and grief. By deconstructing these doctrines, we can build a philosophical framework with no absolutism, where guilt and shame are not used to manipulate believers, and where leaders don’t claim certainty or spiritual authority.

Along with the new conference, we've also launched a new Facebook group, which you can find HERE. Come join us!

Rev. Dr. Terri Daniel, CT, CCTP

Founder, The Afterlife Conference

End-of-Life Advisor, Interfaith Chaplaincy, Bereavement and Trauma Support

Help us Plan the Next Conference!

To help us determine how to best serve our audience, we've developed a short survey that we hope you will consider filling out. We know it's a pain to fill out surveys, but we promise this one will be painless, and we really need your input!

Your answers will be anonymous, but if you choose to enter your name and email address, you'll be gifted with a discount to the new conference, which will be hybrid... partially live, partially livestreamed.

The survey will take only about two minutes complete. You can find it HERE. Thank you in advance for filling it out. Your response will help us create a relevant and practical event!

New Research on Varieties of

Near-Death Experiences and Out-of-Body Journeys

A 59-page report with the results and discussions related to Phase 1 of the NDE OBE Research Project was released on July 16, 2021. The purpose of this study is to identify and define differing types of perceived out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and to discover the differences and commonalities between them, focusing primarily on any possible catalysts, the event itself, and the process from beginning to end. Read the study HERE.

Phase Two of the study is currently underway, and the researchers are inviting anyone else who has ever had an OBE, whether self-induced or not self-induced, to participate. Interested parties are asked to fill out this online questionnaire.

The Biology of Grief

By By Ann Finkbeiner - From The New York Times - April 22, 2021

When someone you love dies, experts have a pretty good sense of the path that grief takes through the mind, but have only a general sense of how it progresses through the rest of the body. First is a shock in which you feel numb or intensely sad or angry or guilty or anxious or scatterbrained or not able to sleep or eat or any combination of the above. During those first weeks, people have increased heart rates, higher blood pressure and may be more likely to have heart attacks. Over their lifetimes, according to studies done mostly on bereaved spouses,they may have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease, infections, cancer and chronic diseases like diabetes. Within the first three months, research on bereaved parents and spouses shows that they are nearly two times more likely to die than those not bereaved, and after a year, they are 10 percent more likely to die. READ MORE

Grief Workshop with Dr. Terri Daniel

at The Omega Institute October 1-3

We are very excited to announce a unique workshop that will be held on the beautiful campus of The Omega Institute in update New York, October 1-3.

Dr. Terri Daniel joins Dr. Donna Holland Barnes, author of The Truth About Suicide, and Heather Stang, author of Mindfulness & Grief to present MAKING PEACE WITH LOSS, which will offer practical tools for tending to the pain of grief, creating a healthy space for mourning, and integrating losses into a new reality. CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS

The Problem With Research on Religious Beliefs

On July 9, 2021, an article appeared in the Australian Independent Media reporting on how census questions about religion are skewed to inflate the status of religious affiliation. Research methods on people’s religious belief have long been a hot topic in academic circles because the terms used in research instruments — such as religion, belief, faith and God — are not clearly defined, or defined at all. As a result, we have a skewed picture of religiosity in communities and in nations. READ MORE... (for a related article on U.S. church attendance, click HERE).

Suicide and the Bible

Contributed by Kevin Bradley of Final Exit Network

There is nothing in the Hebrew or Christian scriptures – which most Christians refer to as the Old Testament and New Testament – that explicitly says suicide is wrong. The biblical sources tell of seven people who had a hand in their own deaths. Here are their stories.

(1) The most recent biblical story of suicide is in the New Testament book of Matthew. One of Jesus’ original twelve disciples, Judas identified Jesus for the Jewish authorities with a kiss on the cheek in the Garden of Gethsemane, which ultimately led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Upon learning that Jesus was sentenced to a criminal’s death, Judas hanged himself.

(2) The first suicide reference in the Old Testament is Abimelech, son of Gideon. Gideon had many wives and at least one concubine slave, who was Abimelech’s mother. Abimelech secured the throne by killing all but one of his 71 brothers and half-brothers. After three years of Abimelech’s tyrannical rule, many of his subjects revolted in a civil war. In the final battle, the leaders of the city were in a tower, which Abimelech surrounded with the intention of burning it down. However, a woman in the tower heroically dropped a millstone on him, cracking his skull. Nearing death, he asked his armor bearer to kill him to avoid the disgrace of being killed by a woman. READ MORE...

Coming in November... The Beautiful Dying Expo

We are proud to support The Beautiful Dying Expo, a FREE virtual event where you can take actionable steps and gain the knowledge you need to plan your final celebration. Learn from experts in diverse fields related to death, dying and bereavement via live and recorded workshops. Register here.

We are still The Afterlife Conference,

but we are transitioning to becoming

The Conference on Death, Grief and Belief.

You can still find us in both places!

office@afterlifeconference.com

971-236-1541