Beyond Death: Does Consciousness Survive?

Death is a subject that touches humanity as a whole. Whether something lies beyond that which we ordinarily perceive is of interest to many people, not just psychiatrists. That is why this meeting was made open to any interested person, and in order to start to more fully explore this area, not all of our invited speakers were psychiatrists. We aimed to provide an atmosphere of exploration and critical thought, together with an evidence base, in preference to setting up a debate with its inevitable distinctions between ‘right ’ and ‘wrong’. Clearly there were more perspectives than could be adequately addressed on the day, and the discussion provided as many questions as it did answers. The meeting was able to bring about a dialogue between people and disciplines: psychiatry, psychotherapy, theology, mysticism, spirituality and science which, having studied the positive feedback from the 300 participants, seemed to provide a rich and inspiring matrix within which people could consider their own experiences. Relevance to psychiatry: Psychiatrists and other mental health professions work, amongst others, with people who are depressed and suicidal. This alienation and rejectedness has reached epidemic proportions in our society: ‘The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody’ Mother Theresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) from ‘The Observer’