The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D., is the woman who has transformed the way the world thinks about death and dying. Beginning with the groundbreaking publication of the classic psychological study On Death and Dying, through her many books and her years working with terminally ill children, AIDS patients and the elderly, Kubler-Ross has brought comfort and understanding to millions coping with their own deaths or the deaths of loved ones. Now, facing her own death at age seventy-one, this world-renowned healer tells the story of her life and explores her ultimate truth - death does not exist. Written frankly and with warmth, Kubler-Ross's memoir traces the intellectual and spiritual development of a destiny. "If I am opinionated and independent, " she writes, "if I am stuck in my ways, if I am a little off center, so what? That is me." Her trademark conviction, one that has taken on dogma, prejudice and skepticism, was present as a girl in Switzerland, where the young Elisabeth observed the injustices of the world and vowed to change them. From her work in war-ravaged Poland to her pioneering counseling of the terminally ill, to her legendary seminars on death and dying at the University of Chicago, to her eye-opening discussions with those who had been revived after death, each experience provided Kubler-Ross with a piece of the puzzle. In a culture determined to sweep death under a carpet and hide it there, Kubler-Ross consistently defied common wisdom to bring it into the light and hold it there for us to see and not be afraid. Driven by compassion, undeterred by obstacles, she shows the reader through the story of her remarkable life that free will is our greatest gift and that our goal is spiritual evolution.