The Facts of Death

A practical guide to death, this book compares the human being to a nut: the body is the outer shell, the soul or consciousness is the edible kernel. In Chapters 1 and 2, it explores the practical and philosophical issues raised by the questions 'What will we do with the shell?' and, 'Where is the nut gone?'

---

Since your death is a certainty, you might consider it prudent to find out a little bit about this important topic. This book is a practical guide to death. While it does not intend to be ghoulish, it pulls no punches. One writer put the two major problems raised by death rather succinctly. He compared the human being to a nut: the body is the outer shell, the soul or consciousness is the edible kernel. The practical and philosophical issues raised by the questions 'What will we do with the shell?' and, 'Where is the nut gone?' are explored in Chapters 1 and 2. You don't need to be a clairvoyant to find out what you're going to die from and when. Insurance companies routinely make such calculations on your behalf. Chapter 3 directs you to where you can get information to help work out the details of your own demise. Chapter four examines one of the main fears of death: does it hurt? Modern medical science is providing more and more people with advanced warning of their deaths. When the bad news is given, that person is said to by 'dying'. This terminal stage of existence is looked at in Chapter 5.
The prospect of being mistakenly pronounced dead and subsequently buried alive was an ancient fear. Chapter 6 examines the extent to which it may have occurred in the past and asks can this still happen. It looks in particular at the conundrum of how live organs may be harvested from a dead body. After all of that, it's time to make your death list: a check of the ten items that require attention, before it is too late. Chapter 8 takes a brief look at what the great writers, artists and philosophers thought about death; while Chapter 9 examines death resources on the world wide web. The final chapter gathers together the final words of some of the famous and infamous.