A Sustained Discussion Project (2024-2025)

Led by SDP Visiting Fellow, Jack Crittenden

Overview

Death is an inevitable part of life and, yet, many people avoid talking or even thinking about it. What if we had a more robust practice of interrogating our understanding of death? How might we live, organize, and govern differently? This project takes on the taboo topic of death and the possibilities of life after death, not through religion, but by reviewing scientific evidence to support deeper discussion.

Many people are reluctant to think and talk about death, especially their own…and for good reason. Death brings the cessation of life, an end to all experiences with those we love, an end to all our thoughts and sensations, to all of our dreams.

We might push thoughts about death away, but knowing that we are going to die lurks in the shadows at the back of our minds. We might avoid talking and thinking about it, but the death of loved ones, friends, celebrities, and neighbors is a near-constant reminder. So, too, are graveyards, funeral homes, mausoleums, books, songs, films, documentaries, and almost everything in the news, especially obituaries. All of this can appear pretty grim.

Yet what if talking about death, especially our own, made us more aware of those experiences, dreams, thoughts, and sensations? What if talking about death made us even more appreciative of those who love us and whom we love?

In this discussion project, we examine together the possibilities of how discussing death and life after death can enhance our lives.

Exploratory Questions

In the first segment of our sustained discussion we shall explore our personal experiences and thoughts about death and life beyond:

  • Have you found yourself wanting to talk about death, but haven’t found anyone to talk to about it? Is there anyone you’d like to talk to about death?
  • Have you ever experienced a significant loss, and how did it impact your thoughts on death?
  • What is it like talking about death? Frightening? Therapeutic? Something else?
  • What role does death play in shaping how you live your life?

In the second segment of our sustained discussion we shall surround the area of concern by examining it from multiple dimensions:

  • How do you think our society views death? Why do you think death is a taboo subject in some cultures? Why are some cultures more open to discussing death? What role might media, the arts, or popular culture play in our ability to talk about death and dying? How might cultural shifts help us to talk about death in a more positive way?
  • How might legal structures (estate taxes, death certificates, etc.) reflect, codify, reinforce certain attitudes towards death?
  • How does religion and spirituality influence our understanding of death, dying, and life beyond? How might religion be both helpful and a hindrance to exploring death and dying?
  • What role does remembrance and legacy-building play in how we live and understand death?
  • What role has technology and medicine played in how we understand death and accept death? Or, extend life at all costs? What ethical concerns emerge for us when considering this topic?
  • How else might technology—cryonics, digital consciousness, AI—push the boundaries of life and death? How might AI and ideas about singularity enable us to live our physical lives forever?
  • How might our practices of caring for and, eventually, disposing of our dead impact our relationship with death? What does it mean to die with dignity? How might urbanization and environmental norms threaten our current practices? How might alternative practices impact our acceptance or understanding of death?
  • What other environmental challenges or changes might impact our relationships with death, dying, or life after?
  • How do we reconcile the tension between individual and collective death? While individuals may physically die, human civilization continues. What are the moral, philosophical, and other implications of this?

In the third segment, we shall investigate and discuss the scientific evidence for life after death. In 1974, cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker won the Pulitzer Prize for his book, The Denial of Death. In the book Becker documented that the main drive of people was to create something—children, reputation, a business, a building with your name on it—anything to outlive our deaths. But what if that is not how we outlive death?

Yes, cessation of life is one side of death, but only one side. It seems that with death also comes a surprise: Life continues after it. This surprise comes not from religion. It comes from science.

The scientific evidence from experiments and investigations into life after death indicates that individual consciousness survives physical or bodily death. How can that be? How can we know that? The only way is to review the evidence and talk about it with others. That will be another key component of this discussion project.

  • How do you distinguish between believing something and knowing something?
  • What could convince you that there is life after death?
  • How substantial is the scientific evidence for life after death? Could it be enough to diminish, even eliminate, the fear of dying?
  • If the evidence is substantial, why isn’t it widely publicized?
  • Should the possibility of life after death influence ethical decision-making in medicine and law?
  • If the scientific evidence holds up and were publicized, would that alter how we live, how we understand ourselves, and how we approach our individual physical lives? Would it alter how you live?
  • How might such evidence create a new values system that might alter our social, economic, and political imperatives, to say nothing of religion, metaphysics, and physics itself?
  • Would we have to rethink our understanding of nature, human nature, and the functioning of the universe itself?
  • How does our awareness of our mortality shape what we consider to be meaningful? Would removing death (via extended life or immortality) diminish life’s meaning, or enhance it?
  • In what ways might death be understood as a form of transformation, rather than simply an end? How could viewing death as a transition—whether biological, metaphysical, or energetic—expand or shift our perspectives on death? What new possibilities for understanding “life after” might emerge from this perspective, and how could it influence how we live or prepare for death?

Summary

Sometimes we think that much of what we do and say is not all that important in the grand scheme of things. Thinking and talking about death, however, always is, because regardless of status or privilege, whether you’re born high or low, whether you end up rich or poor, loved or scorned, funny or sour, clever or ignorant, death comes for us all. In this sustained discussion project, we shall talk not just about the inevitability of death and how best to live with that realization, but also about the real possibilities coming from scientific investigations that we live on after physical death.

Get Involved

To learn more about this project, please contact Jack Crittenden at [email protected].

Related Resources

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