Description
Conflict and Suffering as Instruments of Awakening
with Rev. David Maginley, MDiv, CSCP
As a near-death experiencer, 4X cancer survivor, author and hospital chaplain Rev. David Maginley, explores the soul’s homework through the wisdom of those who have stepped across the edge of mortality. In these chaotic times, understanding how conflict and suffering challenge ego self-preservation has never been more important. Engaging this wisely accelerates our awareness that we all emanate from Love. Our differences need not divide us!
The ego is such a convincing garment of identity! And nothing threatens it life conflict and suffering. How easily we believe everything we think. How often we are controlled by everything we feel. Yet those who’ve had a NDE know that ego identity is a necessary illusion, an aspect of the human experience. Their temporary transformation does not lead to enlightenment! But it does leave the indelible signature of the sacred upon our psyche.
David has been with hundreds as they’ve died, and will share insights on ego identity, how it fuels the present crisis, and the centrality of forgiveness and reconciliation in coming home to ourselves. One of the most difficult and central aspects of this is understanding the way conflict and suffering deconstruct ego identity in the reverse order that it was formed. And ego does not enjoy the process! Instinctive defence mechanisms kick in, and add fuel to the fire. This replays old injuries, triggering regret, shame, and frustration. What can we do?
David will explore concrete, simple strategies to restore connection and community, grounded in the wisdom of near-death experiences. We are all wired with this. Awakening it is the homework of the soul, now more than ever.
About David
Rev. David Maginley is an interfaith spiritual counselor at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and award-winning author of Beyond Surviving: Cancer and Your Spiritual Journey. David has also survived cancer four times, which resulted in a profound near-death experience and explorations in the nature of consciousness and the connection of body, mind and spirit. He knows what it’s like to have cancer from both sides of the hospital bed, and has a sense of this life from both sides of the veil.
David is ordained with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, a specialist with the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care, member of Canadian Association for Psychosocial Oncology, the International Association for Near-Death Studies, and is featured in the documentaries Here Right Now and When You Die.
He has presented internationally on the most difficult topics: suffering and meaning, grief and hope, death and dying and our connection to God through love.
More information can be found at davidmaginley.com
