11/8 Book Launch: 'An Insistence on Life: Releasing Fear of Death to Fully Live' at National Arts Club in New York

Book Launch and reception of "An Insistence on Life: Releasing Fear of Death to Fully Live" by Jane Gignoux, real-life stories on how accepting death transforms life at the National Arts Club in New York, New York. The book ties with growing Death Cafes - a global movement NOW spreading in US, where everyday people gather to discuss death releasing the major fear to live a more fulfilling and happier life. The book launch will be happening this Friday on November 8, 2013 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, with a special presentation at 7 PM. Musical artists Majorie Lipari and Barry Keating, who were featured in the books providing their testament of moving from fear to living life, will be special guests.

The book, An Insistence on Life, reflects major paradigm shift in America for releasing the fear of death via more open discussions occurring in homes, cafes, churches and various venues across the nation.

An Instence on Life was just released on AMAZON and recieved FIVE STARS by noted reviewer Tim Lawson.

Why all this fuss over a very modest book of stories about a bunch of people one's never heard of? Why indeed. Three things:

For centuries humans have been socialized to fear death. Fear is a highly effective tool for controlling behavior.
The stories in An Insistence on Life are about people who released that fear.
The thread that connects these poignant stories to the major concerns of everyday life is our relationship to Death and its partner, Life. As the Hausa people of western Africa express it, "Life and Death are merely two faces of the Creator."

Just about everyone today agrees that, no matter where we focus our attention, we recognize life on planet Earth is seriously out of balance and unsustainable. People typically point their finger at the "other guy" to blame. Thus the age-old win/lose game is fed and continues to thrive. There is a growing international grassroots movement, however, that indicates many people are fed up with win/lose game-playing and the taboo against acknowledging Death as an integral partner of Life.

Exercising their innate curiosity-the one force that overrides fear- they are eagerly attending Death Cafés. These are open, unstructured conversations whose purpose is "to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their precious and finite lives."

If we humans are ever going to dig ourselves out of the bottomless pit of unsustainability we have created, one thing we need to release is our basic fear of death. As Cornel West said during the Interdependence Movement event in New York City on September 11, 2011, "Our obsession with the material world and 'success' is based on fear of death."

The stories in An Insistence on Life show the way and give witness that we can transform even deeply ingrained programming, release that fear to live together sustainably, respecting our diversity.

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