“We’re all going to die. Yet a powerful death taboo prevents us from masterfully meeting this part of our life’s journey. It perpetuates fear and avoidance as our primary responses to death. As a result, too many of the 2.8 million Americans dying each year, and those who love and care for them, suffer through the experience emotionally isolated, frightened, ignorant of their options, and unprepared spiritually and practically. Many of us are coming away from a poignant experience around the death of a loved one believing that there must be a better way to approach death,” said Loretta Brown, host of The Original Loretta Brown Show, heard Thursdays at 8 a.m. and repeats Mondays at 6 a.m.

In his 1973 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker first spoke of the American Death Taboo, calling it the vital lie ̶̶ our refusal to acknowledge our own morality. The Death Taboo is at the core of the dualistic perspective through which we view birth as good and death as bad. Until we awaken from this collective delusion, how can we make peace with our mortality?

“Our culture fails to embrace the full depth and breadth of the human experience, leaving us ill-equipped for living and dying with profound authenticity and competence,” she said.

Making Peace with Death and Dying, A Practical Guide to Liberating Ourselves From the Death Taboo teaches readers to:

■ appreciate death as a natural last event in life, as well as a life-long companion

■ be of greater service to the dying

■ allow mortality to embolden them to live with greater purpose and passion

■ be more peaceful in the presence of death

■ approach death on one’s own terms with wisdom and competency

Judith Johnson is an educator whose mission is to help others master the art of being true to themselves. For over forty years, she has been studying and teaching the dynamics of how our beliefs inform our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as individuals and in our relationships, social order, culture, and institutions. Johnson’s work draws upon her own life lessons, wisdom teachings from around the world, doctoral degrees in social psychology and spiritual science, and her experience mentoring others.

Ordained as an interfaith minster in 1985, she serves as a chaplain at her local hospital and counsels the grieving. Johnson is the author of Writing Meaningful Wedding Vows and live in New York’s Hudson Valley.   Find out more about here at JudithJohnson.com

Loretta Brown, owner of Reiki Oasis, has been practicing and teaching Reiki Energy Medicine, sound healing, intuitive Guidance, past life regression, meditation and psychic development since 1995. Born as a sensitive, Loretta always felt at home among the concepts of angels, spirits, fairies, energies, vibration, sound, music, devas, goddesses and God. However, it took years for her to understand not everyone had these gifts, and to figure out how to use them to help others navigate their lives in a more positive way. Now, she is dedicated to helping everyone discover their own gifts, resonate from the very center of their Being and live the joy-filled life they were meant to live. Loretta has traveled the world extensively, teaching and performing internationally, has studied with great spiritual teachers, and has spent years chanting, searching for truths, visiting sacred sites and learning the great mysteries. Her joy is sharing as a Teacher, Channel and Healer so you can renew, refresh, and re-member who you really are and why you are on the planet at this time. Loretta also offers Crystal Bowl Healing Concerts, Loretta offers in person one-on-one sessions, as well as workshops, skype and phone sessions.

Find out more about her at www.reikioasis.com.