An Experimental Phenomenology of Reaction to Death: A Case Study of Women of Mashhad City

The conflict between life and death, denial of death and the necessity of continuation of life have forced human beings to accept the death. As a result, human beings always move on the borderline between acceptance and denial of death. Moreover, what make death acceptable or deniable are socially constructed meanings of death, which are transferred to the society through various processes of learning. The results of experimental phenomenological analysis of reactions of eight women respondents of the city of Mashhad to death, who were selected with the maximum level of variation in their religiosity, show that first of all, the semantic units of reaction to death can be classified under three main themes, including “readiness for death”, “knowing the time of death” and “willing to die”, the three of which signify the more general meaning of the concept of “acceptance or denial of death”. Secondly, religious understandings have a profound impact on experience of reaction to death. Religious people are more inclined towards accepting the death while non-religious people are more inclined towards denying the death. Continuous thinking about the death, inclination towards knowing more about death and making the preparations for death are among the signifiers of acceptance of death among the religious respondents and substitution of thinking about the death, disinclination towards knowing about death and lack of preparation for the death among the non-religious respondents are clear connotations of marginalization and denial of the death.