April 13, 2025 /

The meaning of death

Death has always fascinated me, because of what comes after it, and because I’ve always known we don’t die when we die.  Similarly, I’ve always been fascinated by the meaning of death, which is possibly the same thing.

Pondering on this drew me to my bookshelves (which are replete with death and dying literature) and to Herman Feifel’s edited volume, The Meaning of Death (1959, McGraw-Hill Book Company).  In the preface Feifel writes, “There is no book on the American scene which offers a multi-faceted approach to its problems.”  65 years ago I would have agreed, but these days, and with the burgeoning growth of death literacy, I think the situation is otherwise.

Carl Jung wrote, “The birth of a human being is pregnant with meaning, why not death?”  Why not indeed.  Why don’t we think about death in this way, especially in the West?  And, what is attained with death?  Why are we born if only to die?  And so I am back at the beginning.  This preoccupation of mine is defined by what Viktor Frankl terms as the will-to-meaning, “the most human phenomenon of all”.  Something which I believe is entwined with the concept of what life is expecting from us.

Does death remind us of the importance of our lives, of how we want to live and for what purpose?  If death is a constant reminder of our mortality, does it by its very nature compel us to consider the meaning of how we live our lives?  Does the shock of its impact thrust us into an awareness of meaning, is this its purpose, and its necessity?

We need to know we die, as upsetting as that can be at times.  And we need to search for and find the meaning of our lives before time runs out.  We all have different ways of seeing the world as we do of experiencing our relationships with spirit, with the universe, with God.  Some believe we return to earthly existence, traversing an endless loop of dying and being reborn in pursuit of perfection of the self.  Some  believe at death we cease to exist.  While others like me believe we pass this way only once, so rendering time infinitely precious.

Michele T Knight Written by:

Dr Michele Knight is a Social Worker, Social Scientist, researcher and independent scholar. Her interest and research in the end-of-life has its origin in the lived experiences of her own bereavements, her near-death and shared-death events, the returning deceased and attitudinal responses to those experiences. Since 2006, she has been extensively involved in community development, support and advocacy in both a professional and community services/voluntary capacity in the areas of bereavement and grief, hospital pastoral care, and academic lecturing/tutoring. Her PhD, Ways of Being: The alchemy of bereavement and communique, explores the lived experience of bereavement, grief, spirituality and unsought encounters with the returning deceased.

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