Life On Purpose

Do you believe in life after death? Does consciousness exist outside our bodies? Does the language of the dying points the way to a transcendent world beyond our own? For this special Soul Series episode of Life on Purpose, my guest is author, linguist, educator, and poet Lisa Smartt who founded the Final Words Project, an ongoing study devoted to collecting and interpreting the mysterious language at the end of lives. Lisa joined me for an inspiring conversation about her new book, Words at the Threshold: What We Say as We’re Nearing Death (New World Library), in which she decodes the symbolism of those last words, showing how the language of the dying points the way to a transcendent world beyond our own. She shares the compelling language she has heard and the coherency that emerges in even the most puzzling phrases. She also provides tools for more meaningful communication with loved ones who are at the end of life. And we discuss her work with Dr. Raymond Moody, the pioneering researcher who coined th