Dying Your Way

In this final episode of the Dying Your Way Encore Series, Claire O’Berry revisits her powerful conversation with Michele Neff Hernandez, founder of Soaring Spirits International and author of Different After You: Rediscovering Yourself and Healing after Grief or Trauma.

Michele’s life changed in 2005 when her husband, Phillip, was killed in a cycling accident. Suddenly widowed at 35 and raising a blended family of six children, Michele began searching for other widowed people who could help her understand what life after such a devastating loss might look like. That search became the foundation for Soaring Spirits International, a global organization offering peer support, resources, and community for people who have experienced the death of a spouse or partner.

In this conversation, Claire and Michele explore grief, trauma, widowhood, complicated grief, community support, and the importance of allowing ourselves to be changed by loss. Michele also shares her memorable fishbowl analogy, a practical way to think about boundaries, support, judgment, and whose opinions truly deserve space in our lives.

This episode is for anyone who is widowed, anyone supporting someone after the death of a spouse or partner, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of grief that does not fit neatly into society’s expectations.

Learn more:
Dying Your Way: https://dyingyourway.com
Soaring Spirits International: https://soaringspirits.org
Michele Neff Hernandez: https://michelleneffhernandez.com
Different After You: https://shop.soaringspirits.org/products/autographed-copy-of-different-after-you-rediscovering-yourself-and-healing-after-grief-and-trauma

 

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• 💻 Website: https://dyingyourway.com

• 📧 Contact: [email protected]

• 📱 Instagram: @dyingyourway

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In this Encore episode of the Dying Your Way podcast, Claire O’Berry revisits her first conversation with Toni Reilly, regression specialist and founder of the Toni Reilly Institute. Together they explore what regression work is, how it can include past-life recall and the space “in between lives,” and why many people report feeling calmer and less fearful about death afterward.

This conversation touches on the universal fear of dying, the grief and anxiety that can arise as we face mortality, and how curiosity—rather than rigid belief—can soften fear. Toni shares how regression is experienced as a deeply personal inner knowing, and why people often come away feeling lighter, clearer, and more at peace.

Learn more about Toni’s work: https://tonireillyinstitute.com/
Explore Dying Your Way: https://dyingyourway.com/

📬 Connect with Us:

• 💻 Website: https://dyingyourway.com

• 📧 Contact: [email protected]

• 📱 Instagram: @dyingyourway

• 🗣️ Leave a comment, submit a topic, or tell us your story!

🙏 Support the Podcast:

• ✅ Subscribe — It’s free!

• 💬 Leave a review or comment

• 🔗 Share this episode with someone who needs it

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In this Encore episode of the Dying Your Way podcast, Claire O’Berry speaks with Julie Ryan, a former medical device entrepreneur and inventor who now works as a medical intuitive and psychic.

Julie shares the framework she calls the 12 transitions, describing what she believes happens as a person approaches death from the spiritual side of the equation. Claire and Julie explore the parallels between birth and death, the comfort many people report from end-of-life visions, and why Julie believes no one dies alone.

They also discuss grief and guilt, especially for families whose loved ones died during the COVID era, and Julie explains her weekly call-in show and podcast, Ask Julie Ryan, where listeners can ask questions about end-of-life experiences, healing, and the afterlife.

Episode page:
https://dyingyourway.com/podcast-item/julie-ryan-12-transition-phases-end-of-life/

Julie Ryan:
https://askjulieryan.com/

 

📬 Connect with Us:

• 💻 Website: https://dyingyourway.com

• 📧 Contact: [email protected]

• 📱 Instagram: @dyingyourway

• 🗣️ Leave a comment, submit a topic, or tell us your story!

🙏 Support the Podcast:

• ✅ Subscribe — It’s free!

• 💬 Leave a review or comment

• 🔗 Share this episode with someone who needs it

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In this Encore episode of the Dying Your Way podcast, Claire O’Berry reconnects with Carlos Pomeda, a yoga teacher and practitioner of more than 40 years, and a scholar of Sanskrit and religious studies.

This conversation is personal for Claire. In 2004, she and her mother took a course taught by Carlos called Karma, Death, and Dying, before her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. That teaching became a steady foundation through years of caregiving, and now, sixteen years later, the conversation continues.

Together, they explore how cultural denial shapes our relationship with death, why acceptance can ease emotional suffering, and how meditation supports a shift from body-based identity toward inner awareness. Carlos also shares his perspective on karma, prana (vital energy), ritual, and “unfinished business,” along with research threads that many find compelling, including near-death experiences, hospice visions, and children’s reports of past-life memory.

This is a thoughtful, grounding episode for anyone facing illness, grief, caregiving, or the simple human question of how to die well.

Learn more about Carlos: pomeda.com

📬 Connect with Us:

• 💻 Website: https://dyingyourway.com

• 📧 Contact: [email protected]

• 📱 Instagram: @dyingyourway

• 🗣️ Leave a comment, submit a topic, or tell us your story!

🙏 Support the Podcast:

• ✅ Subscribe — It’s free!

• 💬 Leave a review or comment

• 🔗 Share this episode with someone who needs it

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In this Encore episode, Claire O’Berry speaks with Judith Schwartz, former Clinical Director of End of Life Choices New York, about VSED: Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking.

This conversation offers a grounded look at what VSED involves, what supports are essential for comfort and safety, and why some people explore VSED when other end-of-life options are not available or accessible. Judith also discusses advance directive considerations, including documents designed to guide feeding decisions if a person later loses capacity.

Resources mentioned

• End of Life Choices New York: VSED information and education
  
  

• Dementia Advance Directive and “Minimal Comfort Feeding” option
  
  

• Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate, Widely Available Option for Hastening Death (Oxford University Press), edited by Timothy E. Quill, Paul T. Menzel, Thaddeus Pope, and Judith Schwarz
  
  

Listener care note: This episode discusses end-of-life decision-making. If you feel distressed or at risk, please pause and contact local crisis supports or emergency services.

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In this Encore episode (recorded in 2020), Claire O’Berry speaks with Stephen Jenkinson about what we have lost culturally around dying, and what it might mean to recover death wisdom as a shared, communal responsibility.

Together, they explore why older and vulnerable people are so easily dismissed, the difference between a “personalized” death and a communal one, and why the work of dying asks more of us than a preference list. Stephen also reflects on fear, medicalized dying, and the long shadow a death-phobic culture casts over how we live.

Mentioned and recommended: Orphan Wisdom and the Orphan Wisdom School, Stephen’s home for teaching and writing.

For your next listen: “Matrimony, Patrimony & the Village We Need” (Claire’s more recent conversation with Stephen).

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In this Encore episode of the Dying Your Way podcast, Claire O’Berry revisits a conversation with Dr. Marjorie Woollacott, world-renowned neuroscientist, tenured professor at the University of Oregon, and author of Infinite Awareness: The Awakening of the Scientific Mind.

While Dr. Woollacott’s early academic work focused on rehabilitation neuroscience, her current work explores consciousness research and end-of-life phenomena that challenge strictly materialist assumptions, including near-death experiences, terminal lucidity, and the dreams and visions many hospice patients report near the end of life.

This conversation invites listeners to set aside fixed beliefs about both science and religion and to listen with curiosity to the research, the clinical implications, and the human stories that continue to emerge.

In this episode, we explore:

• Consciousness and the brain, including the “filter” hypothesis
  
  

• A near-death experience account that raises clinically relevant questions
  
  

• Terminal lucidity and why it matters for dementia, coma, and stroke care
  
  

• End-of-life dreams and visions, and what they may mean for comfort and fear reduction
  
  

• The implications for carers and clinicians supporting people who appear unresponsive
  
  

Links and resources mentioned in the episode are included below.

https://marjoriewoollacott.com/

https://dyingyourway.com/

https://galileocommission.org/

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In this Encore episode, Claire O’Berry speaks with Australian filmmaker Molly Reynolds, director of My Name Is Gulpilil, a documentary shaped around the final chapter of iconic actor and dancer David Gulpilil’s life.

Together, Claire and Molly explore what David’s story reveals about mortality, culture, identity, and the deep human longing to return to our roots at the end of life. The conversation moves through Aboriginal perspectives on Country and kinship, the complexities of care and access, and the way film can hold both beauty and hard truth.

Claire is resharing this conversation after recently watching Journey Home, David Gulpilil (narrated by Hugh Jackman), which tells David’s story of returning home and last wishes being honored.

In this episode

• My Name Is Gulpilil and David’s life on screen and off
  
  

• Country, belonging, and the importance of being laid to rest on ancestral land
  
  

• How care systems can help, and how they can miss cultural realities
  
  

• The role of story, art, and memory in preparing for death
  
  

Mentioned

• My Name Is Gulpilil (Molly Reynolds)
  
  

• Journey Home, David Gulpilil (narrated by Hugh Jackman)
  
  

• Films connected to David’s career and collaborations, including Walkabout, Storm Boy, The Tracker, Ten Canoes, Charlie’s Country, and Another Country

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In this Encore Series episode, recorded in 2020 during the height of COVID, Claire O’Berry and Terry Mepham speak with Dr. Peter Fenwick and his wife, Elizabeth Fenwick, from Scotland.

Peter Fenwick, a renowned neuropsychiatrist and researcher, is widely known for his work exploring near-death experiences and what they may reveal about consciousness, dying, and the human experience at the end of life. Elizabeth Fenwick, a writer and long-time collaborator, brings clarity, warmth, and grounded insight to the conversation. Together, they authored The Art of Dying, the book at the heart of this episode.

This conversation is also a living legacy. Peter died in November 2024, and we offer love and condolences to Elizabeth and to all who are missing him.

In this episode, we explore:

• What first drew Peter into near-death experience research, and what changed his scepticism

• Deathbed visitors, end-of-life visions, and why they may matter deeply to the dying

• The role of curiosity as a powerful antidote to fear

• What preparation could look like, including repairing relationships and releasing old regrets

• Why death literacy may deserve a stronger place in medical education and community care

Key moments include Peter’s simple invitation: “If you’re going to die, be curious,” and the reminder that we often talk about death as someone else’s story, not our own.

Subscribe, share, and join us as we continue building death literacy from diagnosis through grief and bereavement.

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As the holidays approach, many people feel the quiet resurgence of grief — memories growing louder, empty chairs at the table, and the tender ache of “what ifs” and “if onlys.” In this rerun episode, we revisit Claire’s conversation with Ken Ross, son of Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and Founder of the EKR Foundation.

Together, they explore the true scope of Elisabeth’s pioneering work — beyond the five stages — into palliative care, hospice development worldwide, grief education, and her extraordinary legacy as a voice for the dying and those who love them.

This episode is a grounding, compassionate companion for anyone navigating grief during the holiday season.

In this episode:

• The real meaning behind the “five stages”

• Why Elisabeth stopped teaching the stages — and how media distorted them

• Her role in building hospices around the world

• Cultural barriers to palliative care and global end-of-life access

• Personal stories from Ken’s life with his mother

• How the EKR Foundation continues her mission today

If this conversation brings you comfort, please subscribe for free on YouTube, Apple, or Spotify — and share it with someone who may need a gentle resource this season.

Holiday Blessings from Dying Your Way — may you feel loved, supported, and never alone on your path.

Learn more or enroll: https://www.dyingyourway.com/eol-training
Contact Claire: [email protected]

📬 Connect with Us:

• 💻 Website: https://dyingyourway.com

• 📧 Contact: [email protected]

• 📱 Instagram: @dyingyourway

• 🗣️ Leave a comment, submit a topic, or tell us your story!

🙏 Support the Podcast:

• ✅ Subscribe — It’s free!

• 💬 Leave a review or comment

• 🔗 Share this episode with someone who needs it

• 👍 Hit that like button to help others find this space

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.