Edge of Life

We are addressing a fundamental aspect of human existence, the end of life and the impact of living in a death-denying culture. Even if we are struck by an illness that allocates the time in front of us, we have a remarkable capacity in Western culture to delay, imagining there will be time for all that needs to be said and done before death appears on the horizon. Often though, we miss the moment and our loved ones suffer. The theatre of our life may find us seated in a corner still trying to learn new lines when the final curtain falls. Words are left unsaid and the resolving of life’s narrative remains incomplete. Our film follows two Dr’s using psychedelics to assist patients in palliative care but the use of these medicines provokes far deeper questions about consciousness and existence and leads us to a re-connection with Indigenous knowledge holders whose relationship to death is not based on fear but offers instead an expansive sense of the nature of reality.

Our aim with ‘Edge of Life’ is to change the paradigm of end of life care from medicalised and impersonal to heartfelt and spiritual in support of both patients and their families.

Lynette has a long-standing interest in how we best manage end-of-life. Her AACTA award-winning documentary Tender was created to support the emergence of Australia’s first not-for-profit funeral company and Tender Funerals now an Australia-wide social enterprise. This film carries the same ambition, to shift our culture from a largely death-denying one towards one that can approach death as the positive resolution of a life. The use of psychedelics in palliative care provides the perfect avenue to do this. As a direct outcome of our work we’d like to support the use of psychedelics beyond the ‘mental health’ pathology and towards a renewed sense of our place in the world and to set the example of Indigenous knowledge keepers of these traditions being consulted, respected and acknowledged for sharing their long-held knowledge of the use of these medicines towards a better end-of-life.

Lynette has been in conversation with Dr Marg Ross and Justin Dwyer since their psilocybin trial was first announced. Their working relationship is a strong one, she worked with them to create a VR response for patients and families isolated from one another in palliative care during Covid. She has a long-standing relationship with the Yawanawa communities in Brazil as her XR work Awavena was filmed in the Yawanawa community of Mutum at the invitation of their Chief Tashka Yawanawa and that relationship is on-going with the XR work Awavena continuing to be shown around the world. She has worked with Mayan artist Sergio Petch Cetz for several years now as he paints the Mayan understanding of end-of-life and her relationship with author Dr Chris Kerr, Director of Buffalo Hospice in New York includes audio interviews and a presentation at Vivid, 2022. All these relationships are long-standing, and based on genuine trust and respect.

To reclaim presence, for ourselves and our loved ones, when death is on the horizon and reframe the experience, not as a failure of medicine but as a potential moment of spiritual significance. To encourage the newly emerging psychedelic-assisted therapy clinics to engage with and honour the traditional knowledge keepers of these ‘medicines’ and to encourage the establishment of ‘best-practice’ clinics to be set up in the country now that we have changed the legislation regarding their use.