• Gone From My Sight The Dying Experience By Barbara Karnes
• Gone From My Sight The Dying Experience Free Online

In a recent conversation, a friend questioned if there is life after this lifetime. Religious traditions across the spectrum of East to West speak of the eternal soul. Personally, I do believe the spirit continues on, beyond this physical plane.

Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience (The Dying Experience) To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Read more Read less. We socialize over food. It would be intolerable for an A-type personality to be in bed for 3 months. Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience is well known in end of life education as 'The Little Blue Book.' This was the first, the primary source, and remains the most widely used patient/family booklet on the signs of approaching death. It also contains Henry Van Dyke.s poem about death. “Gone From My Sight is a gift to all those seeking to understand death and the dying process. It is a valuable resource to both hospice staff and those they serve. 'Gone From My Sight,' also known as the 'Parable of Immortality' and 'What Is Dying' is a poem (or prose poem) presumably written by the Rev. Beecher (1813–1903), cousin of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. At least three publications credit the poem to Luther Beecher in printings shortly after his death in 1904.

Doug Manning, the founder of the Insight Institute who brought Certified Celebrant training to the United States, comes from a background as a Baptist minister. He told a story of having a conversation with someone who didn’t believe in a life after this life. Manning’s reply: “Well, one of us will be very surprised when we get there.”

This poem, which I’ve heard at a number of funerals, appeared recently in a local obituary for a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer. It’s an apt metaphor for the concept of what happens when the physical body dies and the spirit departs this sphere of perception.

This reading has been attributed to both Henry Van Dyke, as A Parable of Immortality, and as What Is Dying? by Luther F. Beecher. There are only slight variations between these two versions.

Gone From My Sight The Dying Experience By Barbara Karnes

A Parable of Immortality

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch until at last she hangs
like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says,
“There she goes!”
Gone where?
Gone from my sight . . . that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment
when someone at my side says,
“There she goes!”
there are other eyes watching her coming . . .
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout . . .
“Here she comes!”

What Is Dying?

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze, and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to meet and mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, “There! She’s gone!”

Gone where? Gone from my sight — that is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of her destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There! She’s gone!” there are other eyes watching her coming; and other voices ready to take up the glad shout: “There she comes!”
And that is — “dying.”

Gone From My Sight The Dying Experience Free Online

You can get a free eBook with this reading. Celebrating Life: How To Create Meaningful Memorial Services with Templates and Tips can be downloaded through this link.