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1. Dreams and NDEs as Vivid, Immersive Experiences
Both dreams and NDEs can be characterized by vivid, immersive experiences that feel real to the individual:
(a) Dreams: Many dreams are extremely vivid and realistic, making it difficult for the dreamer to distinguish the dream from reality while in the dream state. Lucid dreams, in particular, heighten this sense of realism.
(b) NDEs: NDEs often feature otherworldly settings, such as traveling through tunnels, encountering bright lights, or experiencing heavenly landscapes. These experiences are often described as mystical, spiritual, or transcendent.
2. Norma H.’s Dream NDE
The following is Norma H’s dream NDE testimony sent to Kevin Williams by email.
Is it possible to have a near-death experience without being sick?
I had this experience in 1981 whilst taking a nap. My father, who died in 1979, called me back and it seemed as if he were right beside me and I fully expected to see him when I opened my eyes.
I passed slowly down a tunnel towards a beautiful golden glow, I didn’t pass anyone, but when I was halfway I could hear my Dad’s voice calling me and the voice got more and more urgent until it brought me right back.
My daughter said she came into the room and saw me sleeping and she said I had the most peaceful look on my face and looked completely relaxed. My daughter was 21 at the time.
From: Norma H. Lodmoor@aol.com
3. Kevin Williams’ Analysis
Yes, near-death-like experiences can be triggered by many ways other than death such as psychedelic drugs, extreme gravitational forces, traumatic stress, trance meditation, epileptic seizures, electrode stimulation to the brain, psychotic illness, dreams, religious ecstasy, astral projection, coma, after-death communication, death-bed visions, and even the controversial methods of sexual orgasm and even alien abduction.
A lot of people don’t realize that everyone has an out-of-body experience when they are in deep sleep and dreaming. Sleep has traditionally been called “death’s sister.” In the Bible and other sacred scriptures, the term “death” and “sleep” are used interchangeably. The Bible is filled with instances of people who are visited in their dreams by heavenly figures to pass on an important message. The Book of Revelation is actually the story of a dream or a series of dream by John of Patmos. The reason we know this is a dream is because dream symbols found in the Book of Revelation can be found in the prophetic dreams of the prophet Daniel in the Book of Daniel. Even without the dream symbolism from Daniel, the fact that the Book of Revelation is filled with symbolism is enough to prove it to be a dream. Dream symbolism is the language of the soul. And dreams are experiences in the afterlife.
Carl Jung, MD, who was the founder of analytical psychology and dream research, was inspired tremendously by his own near-death experience. It is evident that Jung’s experience with symbolism in his NDE was very influential in his formulation of his theory of dreams.
There are many reports of people having near-death experiences and contact with the Other Side through dreams. Besides the Biblical account just given, one of the most well-known cases in dream research is that of Claire Sylvia. Through a series of prophetic dreams, she correctly predicted events that would actually occur to her in the future concerning her heart-lung transplant and the donor. After her transplant, she would have dreams of a young man whom she understood to be her donor. She was able to describe him to a “T” and even receive his name from her dreams. Eventually, she tract the man’s family down and confirmed everything she learned in her dreams. You can read the whole account in this article.
You can read a near-death experience triggered within a dream in this article.
Edgar Cayce was a near-death experiencer who was skilled at dream interpretation. He interpreted the Book of Revelation to be a series of dreams concerning John’s out-of-body experience to heaven.
Bill and Judy Guggenheim (www.after-death.com) has done much research into after-death communications through dreams.
Also, here are some Google search results for “dream interpretation“.
When my mother died suddenly about two years ago, she interrupted my dreams about two days after her death to let me know that she was still alive. The moment I saw my mother in my dream, the dream immediately became a “lucid dream“. A lucid dream is a dream in which you are fully aware and can even control your dream. She gave me a message that led me to document a series of after-death communications my family had with my mother.
We spend roughly one third of our lifetime asleep, so there must be a very important evolutionary and spiritual reason for it. Dreams are our connection to where we came from and where we will return. It is where our higher self (spirit) can communicate with our subconscious mind (soul) in the language of dream symbols which the soul can understand even though the conscious mind may not.
