“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
Kelvin H. Chin
Executive Director & Founder
Overcoming the Fear of Death Foundation
Kelvin founded this nonprofit to dedicate his efforts to helping people improve their quality of life through an approach that is based on understanding death more clearly and aligning that understanding more accurately with each of our respective belief systems — whatever they may be. By doing so, each person reduces or eliminates their fear of death — to free up otherwise wasted energy that can be refocused to better use in one’s daily life.
Unlike most who work in the area of fears around death and dying, Kelvin does not take a religious approach, nor a therapy approach. Instead, he takes an understanding approach clarifying misunderstandings about the fear of death (or thanatophobia), along with teaching techniques that reduce and balance neurophysiological imbalances in the blood chemistry by turning on the “opposite of the Fight or Flight switch” that exists in everyone.
Author of the bestselling book: “Overcoming the Fear of Death: Through Each of the 4 Main Belief Systems.”
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Kelvin is a frequent speaker at conferences, healthcare institutions, webinars and podcasts that both help audiences overcome their own fear of death and increase understanding about other people’s beliefs about death and dying.
Kelvin also helps people develop a more balanced, productive and enjoyable life by teaching people Turning Within Meditation. He has taught meditation worldwide to thousands in schools, businesses, the U.S. Army and at West Point. Click here: to learn more about Turning Within.
Kelvin has spoken at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, and has been on TV in China. His interview in “Business Insider” magazine has had more than 30,000 views and he has been interviewed on over 100 podcasts, some with as many as 125,000 views.
Kelvin has been a top Google search result for the words “fear of death,” which may be how you found us. This has led to international interest working now with clients from more than 70 countries — every continent except Antarctica.
Prior to starting this nonprofit, Kelvin taught many CLE and CEU seminars for the legal and healthcare industries, and was a state-certified Long Term Care Ombudsman for the California Department of Aging. He also co-founded the Center For Medical Ethics and Mediation, which offered trainings and seminars to healthcare institutions on how to more effectively prevent and resolve conflict in a facilitative and mediative manner. He is certified in grief work by the Grief Recovery Institute.
Kelvin has lived and worked in 7 countries. While at Dartmouth College, he studied at the Université de Strasbourg, France. He is a graduate of Dartmouth, Yale Graduate School and Boston College Law School. Kelvin also formerly held senior business executive roles at global law firms, and was a Vice President for the American Arbitration Association.
Kelvin lives in Los Angeles, California. He travels and teaches worldwide on the phone, videoconference, and in-person.
Kelvin’s Personal Story
“How I got started in helping others with death and dying issues...”
“My mom died suddenly when I was fairly young in my early 30’s. She was only in her mid-50’s, and still was vibrant, full of life. Her death shook me to my core.
At a check-up, her physician had found markers in her blood which caused him to investigate further. Bottom line: she had lung cancer that had already metastasized to her brain to such a degree that the oncologist told my dad, “There are so many tumors in her brain that it looks like raisin bread.” There were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of tumors. She died soon after that.
My mom chain smoked since she was 11 years old. I remember asking her when I was in college, “When did you start smoking?” I was 20 at the time and I thought 11 was young. But now that I have children of my own in their 20’s, I have a much deeper sensibility — and shock — about my mom’s chain smoking since age 11.
But her death was a watershed moment in my life. She was gone so quickly, in a matter of a few short months. And I hardly had time to say goodbye.
So, I started thinking more deeply about death and dying, and eventually started helping others — friends and colleagues — with their issues around the deaths of their loved ones. I did it after my daytime job, on the phone — nights and weekends. For free. But it helped me as much as it helped them.
And so, several years ago, I started this nonprofit to help others around the world, regardless of their beliefs, reduce their fears around death and dying so that they can live life more fully now.”