WHO WE ARE
The United States continues to be one of the front runners in medical advancements and prolonging life. However, an unintended consequence has arisen; we have developed an unhealthy relationship with death. Death is still considered taboo in most social circles. It is clinical, where this sacred act of transition often happens in a hospital. We have built a culture that a home death means something scary happens to future occupants in a horror film. Parents are quick to hush a curious child when death questions are asked. Worst of all, death has often caused a divide in families.
We simply do not give people enough space to grieve.
What if we can reshape one of the scariest parts of life, how we view and treat death? Welcome to the Death Positive Society, a place where humans come together and get comfortable with death. We are not here to sell another book, product, or service but instead to promote the idea that death is not taboo. We aim to connect humans with good information as there are many good resources already available.
Evaluating our individual mortality is an integral part of a healthy life. How do we get comfortable with death? We discuss death with family, friends, future friends, and end-of-life professionals. Sometimes we sit in silence with death. We ask questions. We take field trips.
Finally, a huge thanks to the founder of the Death Positive Movement, Caitlin Doughty, and her colleagues over at the Order of the Good Death, for starting the movement. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for your bravery to “be better” and challenge the status quo years ago.
MISSION
Getting comfortable with death to embrace life, together.
VISION
This is the place to bring people together and build a community that “looks at life through the lens of death”. What does that mean? It means we acknowledge that one day we will die. We sit with the emotions that arise from the thought; process the negative, work toward acceptance, build a death plan, and then live life. One day, when it’s our time, we know we lived our best life and are at peace.
The process of reconciling our death gives us the confidence to navigate life with love and empathy. Two things our world desperately needs in the twenty-first century.
VALUES
We aim to create safe spaces
Death is a vulnerable topic. To address this, we ask all who join us to try their best to be honest and show compassion toward others. If you attend an in-person event, we ask you to help maintain a place of confidentiality and respect others’ vulnerability.
We welcome diversity
Death touches us all at some point, no one gets to escape it. Therefore, all humans are welcome here as they process their individual mortality. Come as you are.
We promote a “good death”
We believe it is a basic human right for an individual to define what a “good death” means for themselves, and to have one. We empower good deaths by access to information.
We do NOT condone violence
We do not promote or condone violence, harm to self, or harm to others. Quite the opposite, the Death Positive Society aims to remove “scary” associations from death.