Influence of spirituality over death attitudes

Bc. Monika Pavelková ABSTRACT The aim of the paper is to study closely the influence of spirituality on attitude towards death among people who find themselves in a situation of proximity to death. Due to the fact that spirituality proves to be a significant factor influencing the process of accepting death, increasing attention is paid nowadays to the spiritual component of personality and to saturation of its spiritual needs. Spirituality is understood in a broader sense as relation towards sanctity of either a religious or an irreligious person. Another aspect is the means by which the person comes to terms with own spirituality, whether it is intrinsic and becomes the goal of the person's life-long endeavour, or it can be described as extrinsic because it does not permeate his or her everyday reality. Spiritual orientation of a person is projected into his or her values and goals, it determines the way towards the meaning of life, which exceeds the person proper. V. E. Frankl speaks about reaching the meaning of life through self- transcendence by way of realization of values of creation, experiences and attitudes. A pronounced element of spirituality and attitude towards death is the belief in life after death, be it literal or symbolic, with reference to Terror Management Theory or Meaning Management..