|
 Mellen-Thomas
Benedict has
some wonderful insights about dreams and the near-death
experience he had. He states, "When I recovered,
I was very surprised and yet very awed about what
had happened to me. At first all the memory of the
trip that I have now was not there. I kept slipping
out of this world and kept asking, "Am I alive?"
This world seemed more like a dream than that one.
Within three days, I was feeling normal again, clearer,
yet different than I had ever felt in my life. My
memory of the journey came back later ... What happens
when we dream? We are multi-dimensional beings.
We can access that through lucid dreaming. In fact,
this universe is God's dream. One of the things
that I saw is that we humans are a speck on a planet
that is a speck in a galaxy that is a speck. Those
are giant systems out there, and we are in sort
of an average system. But human beings are already
legendary throughout the cosmos of consciousness.
The little bitty human being of Earth/Gaia is legendary.
One of the things that we are legendary for is dreaming.
We are legendary dreamers. In fact, the whole cosmos
has been looking for the meaning of life, the meaning
of it all. And it was the little dreamer who came
up with the best answer ever. We dreamed it up.
So dreams are important."
| 1. The Dreaming
and Dreamtime |
"The
Dreaming"
is a common term within the creation narrative of
indigenous Australians
for a personal, or group, creation and for what
may be understood as the "timeless time"
of formative creation and perpetual creating. They
believe every person essentially exists eternally
in the Dreaming. This eternal part existed before
the life of the individual begins, and continues
to exist when the life of the individual ends. Both
before and after life, it is believed that this
spirit-child exists in the Dreaming and is only
initiated into life by being born through a mother.
It was believed that, before humans, animals, and
plants came into being, their "souls"
existed; they knew they would become physical, but
not when. And when that time came, all but one of
the "souls" became plants or animals,
with the last one becoming human and acting as a
custodian or guardian to the natural world around
them. These indigenous Australian societies share
the notion that human beings and society were created
in a distant time period referred to as the
Dreamtime
which the Aborigines considered sacred time. Simultaneously,
the Dreamtime refers to the realm of the spiritual,
which is coextensive with the time of creation.
As the name indicates, the Dreamtime realm can be
reached during dreams. Many of the rituals of Aboriginal
religion also link the everyday world of human existence
with the Dreamtime. As one might anticipate, at
death the true soul returns to the eternal Dreamtime
realm, where it had resided prior to birth.
 In
the Bible and other sacred scriptures, the term
"death" and "sleep"
are used interchangeably. Sleep has traditionally
been called "death's sister." The Bible
is filled with instances of people who are visited
in their dreams by heavenly figures to convey an
important message. In the Old Testament, Jacob had
a dream of a heavenly "stairway" on the
Earth which extended into heaven with angels ascending
and descending on it. Jacob's description of this "stairway"
could be a crude description of the NDE tunnel. "And
he dreamed, and behold a stairway set up on the
Earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and
behold the angels of God ascending and descending
on it." (Genesis
28:12) Scholars
believe that the
Book of Revelation
is an account of a dream or a series of dream by
John the Revelator. The reason it is believed to
be a dream is because the symbolism found in the
Book of Revelation is remarkably similar to the
prophetic dream symbology of the prophet Daniel
in the Book of Daniel.
 There is much evidence
that our dreams are actually out-of-body experiences
and journeys to other realms. In one study by consciousness
researcher
Dr. Charles Tart,
a test subject was documented to have left their
body during sleep in order to read a 5-digit number
from a remote location. The test subject was successful
in returning the correct number. The odds of correctly
guessing a random 5-digit number is 1 in 100,000.
Yale University Pediatric Cancer specialist
Dr. Diane Komp
reported that many dying children have near-death
experiences which often occurred during dreams.
One boy told Dr. Komp that Jesus had visited him
in a big yellow school bus and told him he would
die soon. The boy died as he predicted. Clear evidence
from sleep laboratories shows that we all dream
nightly. Our dream periods come in cycles, typically
about ninety minutes apart. Most dreams happen during
these times of unusual body and brain behavior called
REM - rapid eye movement. Of course, the mind is
active all night long, not just during REM periods.
Dreams usually happen about five or six times each
night and they range in length from just a few minutes
up to thirty minutes or more, with longer dreams
more likely near morning.
 Dream
symbolism is the universal archetypal language of
the soul according to
Carl Jung, MD,
the founder of analytical psychology and dream researcher,
was inspired tremendously by his own near-death
experience. During the early part of this century,
while psychologists such as Sigmund Freud and Carl
Jung were demonstrating the clinical importance
of dreams,
Edgar Cayce
was providing people with guidelines for what has
become one of the most practical approaches to dreams.
Much of the metaphysical information that Cayce
would discover during his out-of-body journeys dealt
with the subject of dreams and dream interpretation.
Perhaps one of the most important insights gained
from Cayce's revelations is the fact that each of
us is aware of much more about ourselves, our physical
bodies, our surroundings, even our lifestyles, at
subconscious levels than we realize when we're awake.
During the dream state,
our minds become open to many different levels of
our own unconscious where all of our previous conscious
experiences are stored. Also stored there is information
which rarely come to conscious awareness. The subconscious
mind has a remarkable talent for finding solutions
to problems. It can also assist us with self-evaluation
and providing practical guidance for any question
we may have. It even makes it possible for us to
have psychic experiences.
The Cayce material reveals
that dreams can diagnose the causes of our physical
illnesses, point out thoughts and emotions that
we haven't dealt with on a conscious level, and
suggest ways to improve our relationships with others.
While we dream, we can become aware of our entire
being -- physically, mentally, and spiritually.
The Cayce material shows that dreams are the easiest
and most natural way for us to contact our inner,
higher selves. According to Cayce, dreams are experiences
with our very soul - our subconscious mind. Because
dream symbolism is the language of the soul, it
pays for everyone to learn how to interpret their
dreams.
 The
following was dreamt by a dying woman in her hospital
room:
"A lit candle suddenly
appears on her window sill. The candle goes out.
A terrifying, suffocating blackness envelopes everything.
Then, the candle relights but on the other side
of the closed window."
The woman died shortly
after relating this dream to a nurse.
Tom Harpur,
the author of the book and documentary,
Life After Death,
discovered this true report while researching his
book on near-death experiences. He asks:
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What did the
dream mean? It must have been significant
because, after all, this was the last dream
the dying woman ever had - the final manifestation
of her unconscious mind in this world.
According to
the celebrated psychiatrist and dream analyst,
Marie Louise
Von Franz,
and based on her analysis of over 10,000
dreams of the dying, the meaning being communicated
is that the light of the individual, one
of the common metaphors for life that we've
heard so often, goes out at death but is
miraculously renewed on the other side.
In other words, the spirit seems to live
on. This dream then illustrates perfectly
a profound insight of the great psychoanalyst
and mentor of Dr. Von Franz, Carl Jung,
who has said:
| "The
unconscious psyche believes in a
life after death." |
According to Jung,
dream symbols which exist in the very depths
of the soul behave as if the psychic life
of the individual will continue. In Dr.
Von Franz' words:
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"These
symbols depict the end of bodily
life and the explicit continuation
of psychic life after death. In
other words, our last dreams prepare
us for death."
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The following dreams
provide strong circumstantial evidence that dreams
are actual experiences and journeys in the afterlife.
 One
of the strangest cases in the history of dream research
is described in the documentary,
The Secret World of Dreams.
It describes the amazing story of a woman named
Claire Sylvia. She was a professional dancer with
several modern dance companies. As the years passed,
Claire's health began to deteriorate. Claire Sylvia
had to undergo a heart and lung transplant. Soon
after the transplant, she began having strange and
incredibly vivid dreams about a young man she didn't
recognize. Eventually, Claire realized that the
young man in her dreams was the eighteen-year-old
organ donor whose heart and lungs resided in her
chest. Through her continuing dream contacts with
her donor, she learned a lot about him including
his name. She then decided to do the research to
find out if this "heavenly" information
was correct. Her research proved that it was indeed
correct. Claire then met the young man's grieving
family and shared with them the amazing story of
her contact with him from the Other Side through
her dreams. The following is the detailed account
of her story in her own words:
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"It
was getting more difficult for me to
walk upstairs. I was getting out of
breath on the dance floor which was
unusual for me. Every day I was able
to do less and less. I was going downhill
very quickly."
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Claire was suffering from
primary pulmonary hypertension, a deadly disease.
Her only hope for survival was a heart and lung
transplant.
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"My
mother was basically dying," says
Amara, "She prepared herself for
death and she was preparing me for her
death. She labored to get up in the
morning to go to the bathroom. Her breathing
was labored and I was afraid every morning
whether she would be alive or not.
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Then Claire's bizarre
dreams began to unfold.
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"I
started to have a series of dreams.
One dream was that I had the transplant
and I had to drink four glasses of milk
a day. At the time I questioned this,
I said, 'I wonder what this means? Where
does this four glasses of milk come
in at? I don't understand what this
means.'
"And
there was no explanation so I just let
it go. I lived each day with a thought
and a prayer that I would live till
the next day and that I would live to
see my daughter graduate from high school
which was about a year away."
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Finally, Claire's prayers
were answered.
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"The
phone rang and it was the transplant
coordinator. She very calmly said, 'We
officially got permission to do heart
and lung transplants and we have a donor
for you today.'
"I
was speechless. All I could say was,
'Oh my God. Oh my God!'"
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Within hours, Claire was
rushed into surgery. After a delicate three-hour
operation, Claire awoke.
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"I
knew that I would have to take an anti-rejection
drug, cyclosporine. They injected a
certain amount of this liquid into two
little cups of milk. Then at night,
I repeated this same process. I realized
that these were the four cups of milk
a day in my dream.
"At
first I didn't accept it, I kept saying, "I
must have gotten this information from
someplace."
"I
kept checking around and nobody told
me. Then I thought, 'This is bizarre.
I don't know why and I still don't.'"
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When Claire returned home,
another sequence of unexplained occurrences began.
Her taste in food changed dramatically.
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"I
had a thought one day, 'Why am I cutting
up green peppers and putting them into
my food?'
"I
used to hate them and I picked them
out. Several weeks after the transplant,
they told me I could drive by myself.
I got in my car and was driving around
and I had this yen to find a Kentucky
Fried Chicken place to have chicken
nuggets. This was something I just normally
don't ordinarily do."
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Just when Claire thought
her life couldn't get any stranger - it did - in
another mysterious dream.
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"I'm
in an open field and it's very light.
It's daytime and I'm in a playful relationship
with a young man whom I see clearly.
He is tall, has sandy colored hair and
his name is "Tim L". I come
back and say goodbye to him and as we
approach each other, we kiss, and as
we kiss, I feel as if I inhale him into
me. It's like taking this enormous breath.
And I know that he will be with me together
forever. But it also seemed that this
man in my dreams, whom I knew as Tim,
must be my donor.
"I
was very curious to find out who my
donor was because of all the things
that were happening to me and because
of the dreams I was having – and
the feeling of living with his presence."
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Claire became convinced
that her donor was trying to communicate with her.
She contacted the hospital but they informed her
that donor records were confidential. When all hope
seemed lost, her friend, Fred Stern, called to tell
her of a message he received in his own dream.
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"I
had a clear image of a dream,"
says Fred Stern, "that we had gone
to the basement of the public library
and had seen in the Portland newspaper
a story on either the third or fourth
page several days before her operation.
A story about the boy who was killed
and whom she had gotten her heart from."
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Claire and Stern made arrangements
to meet at the local library.
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"I
met Fred at the public library and we
looked at the papers the week preceding
my transplant. Sure enough, the day
before my transplant, as was in his
dream, the obituary of a young man who
was killed in a motorcycle accident.
He was 18 years old. His name was Tim
L. as it was in my dream. It felt like
my heart stopped beating for a moment.
I was standing up and I remember getting
kind of weak all over. My knees went
a little weak. It was a shock."
"It
was almost like magic," says Fred
Stern, "like some sense of knowing.
It is just wonderful to be a part of
it – this unfolding."
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It turned out that Tim L.
had died in a motorcycle accident shortly before
Claire's life saving surgery.
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"I
was shocked because now it became more
real. Now I had all the information.
I had the family's name. I had details.
This person really existed."
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Wanting to know more about
her donor, Claire wrote to Tim's family and made
arrangements to meet them.
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"I
was very excited," says Tim's sister,
Lee Ann, "and the whole family
was very excited to meet Claire. It
was like meeting my brother all over
again for the very first time –
seeing him alive again. Claire was very
warm towards us. She was loving. She
was loving like Tim was."
"There
was so much feeling that it was absolutely
exhausting."
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It was then that Claire
told Tim's family about her dream.
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Tim's sister replied, "My first
reaction to Claire's dream was one of
disbelief. I really didn't believe it
until she just started describing things
about my brother – like how he
was tall and wiry. She described him
almost to a T. She was getting the information
from her dream. She described how Tim
was loving and that he came to her and
wanted to be a friend. I just kind of
felt that, 'Yeah, that's what Tim would
do.'"
Claire told them, "When I met the
family, I was trying to corroborate
some of the things that had been happening
to me. I asked them if he happened to
like green peppers and they said, Oh,
yes, he used to love green peppers.
He'd fry them up with cabasa."
"They
told me his favorite food was chicken
nuggets and that he had apparently just
bought them before he died because they
had to pull them out of his motorcycle
jacket when they found him. When they
told me that I said, "Oh my God!""
Tim's sister Jackie stated, "Why
would she have a dream about her donor
unless God was trying to tell her in
a way who we were and trying to make
it easier for her to get to us so she
could see that there was good out of
everything she went through."
All the images that have come to me
since the transplant are, in and of
themselves, having to do with this new
part of me.
|
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Many
people reported they had been contacted by a deceased
loved one while they were sound asleep. Because
they didn't have any other name for their experience,
they usually called it a dream. However,
most quickly added, "But it just wasn't like
an ordinary dream."
We call these experiences
sleep-state
after-death communication (ADCs) and they are a very common type
of ADC.
The following dream ADCs are reprinted here by permission
from
Bill and Judy Guggenheim's
book,
Hello From Heaven.
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There are many significant
differences between an ordinary dream and a sleep-state
ADC. A dream is generally fragmented, jumbled, filled
with symbolism, and incomplete in various ways.
Though some are very intense emotionally, they typically
have a quality of unreality about them and are often
soon forgotten.
In contrast, sleep-state
ADCs feel like actual face-to-face visits with deceased
loved ones. They are much more orderly, colorful,
vivid, and memorable than most dreams. In fact,
some may be after-death visions that occur during
sleep.
The following reports
are examples of sleep-state ADCs in which a deceased
loved one broke into an ordinary dream.
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Robin is the director of
a child care center in Florida.
She had this timely visit
from her grandfather several
years after he died of a
heart attack in his 70's.
"I
was in my first year at
college, sleeping in my
dorm room. I was dreaming
about something when Grandpa
broke into my dream! He
was right there, and I could
smell his cologne and tobacco
and feel his warmth.
"He
seemed concerned and protective.
"He
said, 'Lock the windows!
Lock the windows! You're
supposed to remember to
take care of yourself! Lock
the windows!'
"It
was a definite warning.
"I
woke up startled and sat
up and looked around. My
room had one set of windows
that looked out onto a courtyard
and another set over by
the fire escape. So I got
up and locked all the windows.
"About
half an hour later, there
was a scream from the girl
in the room down the hall.
A man had come up the fire
escape and apparently had
tried my windows, and then
he had gone on to hers.
Later he was caught!
"Grandpa
appeared when support was
obviously needed. He proved
that he would be with me
forever."
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Ann is an art framer in
Maryland. She was 21 years
old when she was contacted
by her 18 year old brother,
Barry, who had died in a
motorcycle accident:
"After
Barry was killed, I was
feeling so angry and bitter
at the world. About a month
later, I had what I call
a dream, but it wasn't a
dream. It was like I was
talking to him face-to-face.
"I
was in the backyard at my
parents' cottage, and Barry
came walking towards me.
He was wearing jeans and
a flannel shirt - his usual
costume. His blond, curly
hair was full of light.
He looked beautiful.
"He
seemed very happy, content,
and full of love. He seemed
worldly, like he knew everything
- no doubts, no questions,
just full of confidence.
A beautiful light was behind
him and around him - a gorgeous,
warm light.
"I
said, 'Barry, what are you
doing here?'
"He
looked at me and said, 'I
came to tell you that everything
is all right.'
"I
asked, 'What do you mean?
Didn't it hurt when you
died?'
"Barry
said, 'It did for a minute.
It felt like a squeezing
sensation. Then I was riding
down a dark tunnel. And
all of a sudden, I came
into this beautiful, brilliant
white light.'
"He
kept smiling at me, and
I was feeling full of love
and light myself. It was
so intense!
"He
said, 'I just want to tell
you that I love you, Ann.'
"Then
he turned around and walked
away.
"I
immediately woke up, and
all the anger and frustration
I felt were gone. I really
believe Barry came to tell
me he was fine so that I
would be okay. I call it
a dream, for not being able
to give it another name.
But it really happened!"
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Greg is a 20 year old college
student in West Virginia.
He had this rendezvous with
his friend, Evan, who was
electrocuted in an industrial
accident at a construction
site at age 20:
"Evan
and I were best friends
for nine years. We did everything
together, except when we
were at school or working
or started going out with
girls.
"Two
nights after Evan died,
I had a dream. I was where
the road splits and facing
each other, and everything
was lifelike.
"We
were really excited about
seeing one another. Evan
was so happy and cheerful.
He appeared the same as
always and in good health.
He had a great big smile
on his face.
"I
asked him, 'What happened?'
"He
said, 'I was up putting
a light fixture on a twenty-foot
pole when I hit some electrical
wires. Something happened
and I started to fall.'
"He
put one hand vertically
and one hand horizontally
to show me how he fell.
"Evan
said he felt scared at that
moment, and then he felt
nothing else.
"He
said, 'I promise, I didn't
mean for that to happen.'
"He
also wanted to assure me
that he suffered none whatsoever
through that experience.
"He
told me he didn't want any
of us worrying about him
or being extremely sad that
he was gone because he was
in a great place. He was
well taken care of and very
happy, waiting for us to
join him someday. Then I
woke up.
"I
never had a dream like that
before. It was very special
to me that I was able to
communicate with Evan after
he died. It was like we
parted with the realization
that we will be back together
someday."
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Janet is a nurse in North
Dakota. She became a bereaved
mother when her 4 year old
son, Toby, died of a brain
hemorrhage:
"This
occurred approximately one
year after my son died.
I recall the dream as if
I had just had it last night.
I was standing on a river
bank and looking over at
Toby on the other side.
"His
side was a lush green with
beautiful trees. The water
was a beautiful blue, and
there were birds I could
hear. It was a paradise,
like the Garden of Eden.
Everything was so quiet
and peaceful.
"Toby
was standing in grass and
flowers up to his waist,
close to the edge of the
river. He was a little boy,
the same little guy that
I lost. He was wearing a
striped T-shirt and blue
jeans and was so very real
and happy.
"I
kept trying to get over
to Toby, but I couldn't.
He looked up at me and spoke
with such a calmness.
"He
said, 'No, Mom, you can't
come over here. I'm okay.
I'm fine. But you can't
come over here.'
"He
had to tell me that several
times because I wanted to
cross the river to be with
him.
"Toby
was calming me like an adult
would. I almost felt like
a child in comparison, as
if an older, wiser person
was talking to me. He was
telling me to settle down
and realize that his life
is good now. He gave me
the sense that he is at
peace and that he's where
he belongs.
"The
dreams seemed so real, as
real as life itself. When
I woke up, I felt crushed
that the dream was over.
And yet I felt so comforted
by it."
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Rosemarie is an administrative
assistant in North Carolina.
She had this enlightened
dream about 4 months after
her grandmother died of
cancer at age 66:
"One
night when I was sleeping,
I saw my grandmother - it
was like a beautiful dream.
She was right there with
me. It felt like we were
on another realm or in a
different dimension.
"I
only saw her face and shoulders
- she was very young and
beautiful. Grandma looked
like she was a girl in her
early twenties. I was surprised
she was so youthful, but
I recognized her instantly
as my grandmother. It was
like she could choose to
be whatever age suited her.
"As
she came closer, she was
glowing and radiating love.
I felt an energy and warmth
envelop me. It felt like
a very nice, tingling massage.
I was overcome with this
feeling of unconditional
love, like nothing I had
ever done was wrong.
"I
was telling her over and
over, 'I love you. I love
you. I love you.'
"She
was saying, 'I know you
do. I'm happy and I'm fine.
You don't have to worry
about me anymore. I'm in
heaven.'
"Grandma
affirmed there is a heaven,
and that no matter what
you've done, in God's eyes
you are forgiven. You are
pure, and you are loved
in the way only he could
love you. It touched me
so deeply that I knew it
was true.
"All
of a sudden, I realized
I was sitting up in bed
and Grandma was gone. But
I didn't grieve for her
after that at all."
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Gayle is an artist in North
Carolina. The ordinary dream
she was having was interrupted
by her 21 year old son,
Alex, who had drowned in
a boating accident:
"I
had been under a lot of
distress, as any mother
is with the loss of her
child. Two days after his
burial, I woke up around
5:00 in the morning. I couldn't
sleep and went into the
living room and sat down.
I keep praying, 'God, please!
I have to know where my
son is. I have to know if
he's okay.'
"I
felt impressed to go back
to bed, so I lay down and
fell asleep. I started dreaming
that I was in the kitchen
fixing breakfast for my
two younger sons - and Alex
walked in!
"I
realized he wasn't supposed
to be there. So I spoke
aloud and said, 'Alex is
here!'
"His
brothers looked at me like,
'What are you talking about?'
"Then
I realized they couldn't
see him - I was the only
one who could.
"Alex
had the most glorious smile
on his face. He had a glow,
a celestial radiance. His
expression was one of complete
peace, happiness, and contentment.
"I
walked up to him and said,
'Alex, you are with Jesus,
aren't you?'
"He
put his hands on my shoulders,
and I put my hands around
his waist, and he said,
'Yes, Mama.'
"Then
I woke up with the most
peaceful feeling because
I knew Alex was okay. I
know his spirit is with
God and that he is waiting
for the time the rest of
us will be with him."
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