American Author, Teacher and Poet. He was best known for his work on meditation, death and dying. Levine attended the University of Miami, publishing his first work, "A Resonance of Hope," in 1959. After working as an editor and writer in New York City, Levine was one of the founders of the San Francisco Oracle in 1966. He spent time helping the sick and dying, using meditation as a method of treatment; a program he shared with psychologist Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) and psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. The author of several books about dying, his best sellers "A Gradual Awakening" and "A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last" are considered classics in the field of conscious living and dying. He is also the co-author, with wife and spiritual partner, Ondrea Levine, of the acclaimed "To Love and Be Loved," and "Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying." Stephen and Ondrea also appeared in the 2007 documentary, "Meditate and Destroy," that focused on the life of their son, Noah Levine. For many years prior to his death, Stephen and Ondrea lived in near-seclusion in the mountains of Northern New Mexico, both experiencing significant health problems that prevented them from traveling and teaching. Although drawing upon the teachings of a variety of wisdom traditions, including Native American, Sufism and mystical interpretations of Christianity, Stephen's writing was most significantly informed by the teaching of the Theravada branch of Buddhism. Stephen and Ondrea's pioneering approach to working with the experience of grief enabled them to counsel concentration camp survivors and their children, Vietnam War veterans, and victims of sexual abuse. Although Stephen acknowledged that our experience of grief is usually most intense when a loved one dies, he also focused on the accumulative effects of the more subtle experiences of everyday grief of disappointment, disillusionment, and loss of trust and confidence.