Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying

On October 26, 2003, at age 33, the youngest of my four sons took his own life. I was in such pain I didn't think I could live through it until my sister recommended Who Dies? I have been reading it ever since. Each time I read chapter I am left feeling peacful and accepting . I remember to accept what is, to be present in the moment, and to recognize my pain, when it comes, as an opportunity to grow and come closer to truth. I am now buying copies for my other three sons. Thank you Stephen and Ondrea Levine.

If I could give this book 10 stars, I would. I love Stephen Levine's poetic writing style. It is simple and clear as well as calming. This book changed my ideas about what it means to live life to the fullest. The pain meditations in this book changed the way that I experience pain. I recommend Who Dies? to anyone interested in their inner life but especially to those who are in pain (physical or emotional), or whose lives are changing in challenging ways.

I have come through some very difficult few years of relationship changes in my life. What truly helped me was when I stopped searching in the obvious reltionship help areas and started searching for answers by studying the grieving process. I treat my "dis"-ease as a dying process. And I found the greatest empowerment in reading about terminal illness, and this dying process- ESPECIALLY Stephen Levine's "Who Dies"- Conscious Living, Conscious Dying. By accepting the process of grieving and really embracing it, I walked step by step, looped around, turned inside out, but somehow forward to a new perspective. Stephen's gentle guidance is the most helpful "self"-help (universal-help) book I have come across. Not only is ALL OK- he does not make it sappy, or overwhelming. It is not preachy or self-righteous. I came across it- an old edition- by accident in my small town bookstore, on a day when the tears would not stop. I have used the book not only for my own grieving process, but to understand and let go of one friend's suicide and my other friend's terminal disease. To those struggling, you may find some peaceful moments in Levine's pages. Best wishes.

This is a one of my all time favorite and life changing books. I happened upon it rather accidentally on my mother's shelf when I was trying to remind myself of elizibeth Kubler's Ross's stages of greif model for coming to terms with a loss. I was not experiencing a death of a person per se, more of a loss of my own identity. I was in my medical residency and feeling the weight of responsibility, I was losing some outmoded self within. The text would consistently have a profound impact on my thinking and subsequently my mood, as it would allow me to pay better attention to my thought process in any given moment, and pay attention to how automatic my thoughts are and in some ways following very predictable patterns which I later learned were not fixed but rather changeable.I read chapter 4 probably 2-3 dozen times, because each sentence, each paragraph carried great power which I could feel as the words lined up next to my own thoughts like training wheels next to a bike. There was a way that my entire thinking process became illuminated while reading the book, and it might last for a day or so and then I'd need to go back and do it all over again.

Who Dies? can be a difficult book. It delves into how we live our lives, what creates joy and what creates suffering and how to accept both. Taking responsiblity for ourselves and accepting the truth of pain in life is the first step towards happiness. Levine urges us to be present and thoughtful in our actions. Through painful self evaluation, one can find acceptance. As with most spiritual writing, the reader must be ready for the teaching to appreciate it. Read what rings true to you, what draws you in and you will have a better understanding of how to be close to your soul. Keep the book around, and you may find an openess to other chapters, as you make your way on the path of growth. Every time I read it, there is a new teaching that I am ready to hear. This book, though philosophical, is not dry. It contains Levine's profound personal stories which illustrate his points.