What 72% of Dying People See Right Before Death (And Why It Changes Everything) with Suzanne O'Brien • 406

Mind Love • Modern Mindfulness to Think, Feel, and Live Well

Melissa Monte | Conscious Coach

Mental Health, Mindfulness, Consciousness, Personal Growth, Spiritual Growth, Inspirational, Awakening, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, Education, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.9 • 897 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, you'll learn: How to shift from viewing death as a medical emergency to understanding it as a sacred human experience that can teach us everything about how to live fully The practical wisdom that people at the end of life consistently share about what truly matters and how to apply these insights before it's too late Why developing your own end-of-life plan isn't morbid but actually the most life-affirming thing you can do for yourself and your loved ones What if everything you've been taught about death is wrong? I was nineteen when I watched my father dying of cancer. His nickname had been Buff Bob, and now he looked like a child. Half the weight I was used to seeing, struggling to sip peach nectar from a can with a straw. I sat there watching this man who had been so strong become so fragile, and I had zero tools to process what was happening. My religious upbringing talked about heaven and hell, but it was full of holes and doubts that provided no comfort when I needed it most. So I just didn't know. And that not knowing made everything harder. That experience shaped me in ways I didn't understand for years. It wasn't just the grief. It was the complete lack of preparation, the feeling that we were all just fumbling through this massive moment without any roadmap or wisdom to guide us. We live in a culture that has made death the ultimate taboo. We push it into the shadows while desperately clinging to youth and pretending like our own mortality is somehow optional. Today our guest is Suzanne O'Brien, a former hospice and oncology nurse who has been with over a thousand people at the end of life. She's the founder of the Doula Givers Institute and author of "The Good Death," and she's dedicated her life to bringing back the sacredness of dying well. Links from the episode: Show Notes: mindlove.com/406 Join the Mind Love Collective Sign up for The Morning Mind Love for short daily notes to wake up inspired Support Mind Love Sponsors Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if everything we've been taught about death is wrong?
0:05.0	When I was 19, I watched my father dying of cancer,
0:10.0	and up until then, he had always been so strong, almost invincible in my mind.
0:15.0	His nickname was even Buff Bob, and now he sat in that hospital bed,
0:20.0	looking like a child. Half the weight I was
0:23.4	used to seeing, struggling to sip peach nectar from a can with a straw. And I sat there watching
0:30.5	this man who had been so strong, become so fragile. And I had zero tools to process what was happening. My religious upbringing
0:40.8	talked about heaven and hell, but by that point in my life, that idea was so full of holes and
0:47.1	doubts that it gave me really no comfort when I needed it most. So I just didn't know. And that not
0:53.9	knowing made everything harder. That experience
0:57.5	shaped me in ways I didn't understand for years. It wasn't just grief. It was this lack of preparation.
1:04.8	The feeling that we're all just fumbling through this massive moment without any roadmap or wisdom to guide us. We live in a
1:14.0	culture that's made death the ultimate taboo. We push it into the shadows while we desperately cling
1:21.6	to youth and we pretend like our own mortality is somehow optional with our aging creams and our Botox.
1:29.3	We're the first generation in human history to be this disconnected from death.
1:35.3	For thousands of years, dying happened at home, surrounded by family with rituals and respect.
1:42.3	Grandmothers passed down the wisdom of how to care for someone
1:46.2	at the end of life. Death was understood as this natural right of passage, not a failure
1:52.4	of modern medicine. And we've lost that. Completely. The stats almost make me uncomfortable.
2:00.1	Death anxiety is now the number one fear in our society.
2:04.2	We spend billions trying to avoid aging, avoiding conversations about end-of-life wishes,
2:10.6	avoiding the very thing that is guaranteed to happen to every single one of us.
	...

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