Sushila Blackman was a student of the Hindu master Swami Muktananda, and was present at his ashram in India during his death. A few months before she completed Graceful Exits, Blackman learned that she had advanced lung cancer. She died a month and a half after finishing the book.
The striking element in these accounts is a sense of being fully prepared to meet death. Blackman grappled with lung cancer and came to peace with her own fears about death as she compiled this book, completed only a few months before she died. --Library Journal Written in lucid prose, the book is a training manual for making graceful exits from this life. --Publishers Weekly Not since the ground-breaking work of Kubler-Ross on death and dying has there been such a much needed compilation of inspirational stories and examples of how to prepare oneself for the inevitable. --Midwestern Book Review This beautiful little book is a gem. It contributes to our understanding that we are truly timeless. --Deepak Chopra, M.D. A magical little volume. It reveals with simplicity and lucidity how wise and compassionate living leads to a wise and compassionate death. --Glenn H. Mullin, author of Death and Dying: The Tibetan Tradition