In essence, we set up our own future, based on what happens today. So, while specific outer meetings, accidents, conversations, and realizations occur while we are awake, a great deal of communication happens in dreams. It is said, teachers and angels watch our daily lives in the Realms of Heaven and set up our future based on what we need to learn and communicate this information in our dreams—whether we remember them or not.
According to Edgar Cayce, “Dreams are the safest path to spiritual growth.” Paul Solomon once said, “Dreams are the activity of the soul making a journal entry into the Book of Life.” Eastern mystics call this Book, the Akashic Record—the record of our thoughts and actions during our walk through Earth University. Every minute and every second of our lives are recorded on this Akashic “fabric of space and time.”
The theory goes something like this. Our brain in its thought process generates electrical impulses and transmits electrical impulses. Your physical body and mind live in an electrically charged atmosphere that is tenacious of equilibrium. Within that force field of thought, atoms and molecules are exchanging electrons and being created and reformed constantly, which means everything around you is in “flux.” Things that look solid to your touch, such as your body, the walls of your house, your clothes, or the floor, anything physical, are also in constant movement and in flux.
When you think, speak, move through your environment, because of this electro-magnetic flux, a record is made in the Book of Life of your thoughts and their impact on the physical environment around you.
Dream Tutorial: How to Remember Dreams
Most people go to sleep automatically, without forethought, rather than mindfully and with a purpose. Since we spend a full third of our lifetimes sleeping this means that a whole chunk of life goes by unconsciously, and we literally throw away a third of our lives.
However, the dream state is not oblivion, a period devoted solely to recharging our physical batteries. Rather, it holds important life lessons for every one of us, if we know how to use it. If we practice remembering dreams, we begin to open a doorway to our Inner Teacher, who will help us understand ourselves in a way we cannot access in our normal waking state.
If we prepare nightly for sleep, (this is not as easy as it sounds!) then we are prepared to learn the lessons invariably enshrined in dreams. It is important to go to sleep relaxed, and if you want answers from your Inner Teacher, it is important to formulate your questions clearly before drifting off to asleep. (Practical advice: Take a lined journal and penlight to bed with you. If you wake up in the middle of the night with a dream, keep your eyes closed, and write down key words without opening your eyes. (It can be done. Those key words will help you remember the rest of the dream in the morning.)
Also, you can set your alarm to wake at a specific period (or periods) during the night to capture any dream images you might otherwise forget. Until you learn to remain in that altered state of consciousness, it is important you do not open your eyes. Doing so will speed up your brain wave rhythms to Beta, 21-30 cps (cycles per second), the normal, waking state, and you will wipe out the dream images. (Note: falling back to sleep tends to be easy when young, more difficult with age, and everyone is different. Experiment!)
Conscientious dream explorers may soon learn to realize in mid-dream, “I am dreaming.” This is called lucid dreaming. It is a direct way to talk with your subconscious mind through dream images.
On January 30, 2015, I had a lucid dream where I am fighting off an attacker Kung Fu style with bamboo fighting sticks. I eventually wrestle him down to the ground, straddle him, and then begin strangling him about the neck with a string. I looked into the pupils of his eyes as the life ebbed from him. His pupils dilated as he approached death. I realized in the dream I was fighting and trying to kill myself, blaming it on the cancer. I gave up on strangling him and his pupils returned to normal. It was very, very real. ~Chronicle 596
With practice, you will soon be remembering several dreams a night. Your waking-state consciousness will evolve and change …and you will know it.
Remembering dreams is a way to learn how to listen; to access levels of your consciousness you normally ignore or cannot access. Dreamland is for most of us largely unexplored, unknown territory, our personal terra incognito, challenging because most of us go through our lives smugly self-assured that we already know our own minds. Dream recording teaches us otherwise, but patience is a prerequisite. It is not possible for us to run around all day disoriented, pre-occupied by worldly cares and barely semi-conscious and then expect to suddenly become spiritual in dreams.
Once we learn to remember dreams, we find ourselves most often dreaming in symbols, which include mother, father, family and friends, all of whom play symbolic as well as merely physical roles in our lives. The first rule of thumb about dream interpretation is that symbols in dreams are generally (but not always) about ourselves and symbolically reflect events which occurred the previous day or recently. This is why it is important to create a dream library of people we dream about and events. Assigning a unique attribute to each person helps us interpret what our subconscious mind is saying about us, and what God is trying to say to us about lessons we need to learn.
Even so, a time will come when you will recognize the difference between symbolic dreams about yourself versus dreams that are truly about someone else. Moreover, there are hundreds of common dream symbols and symbolic dream actions. This chapter is just a primer--a trailer to introduce the subject and its importance. Remember, dreams recapitulate and assess the actions of the last day(s) and lay out tomorrow’s lessons. The more familiar we become with the process, the more aware we become of the repetitious nature of the lessons.
From my personal experience, the more truthful we become, the less symbolic and the more real and lifelike our dreams become. I believe it is because we are learning to see things as they are. Even in the Afterlife, as we shall see, there is a temptation to lie, to fudge the truth, and even to avoid it altogether.
Remembering dreams is one thing. Interpreting dreams accurately is quite another. Our interpretation depends on the type of dream we have. Each dream is a different view of reality. The following are some of the most important and/or striking:
After-Death Communication (ADC) in Dreams
ADC DREAM: I am in the “Presidents Mansion” with Paul Solomon having a drink with him. We spoke about creating a Unified Mind, which creates the Shekinah light resting over the crown, like paintings that depict crowns of light over the apostles and Jesus. I told Paul you can’t teach a student how to do this, you can only prepare them as he had done. ~Chronicle 505
ADC DREAM: Walking upstairs, through an opening into a humble apartment. I was surprised to see a deceased friend, Thomas Keller lying casually on a big brown round beanbag. I said, ‘You’re alive! How can that be?’ He responded, ‘What’s the story about that?’—Like, why do people think I’m dead? Of course, I am alive! ~Chronicle 593
ADC DREAM: I saw my deceased Aunt June in the distance. She was standing among a few people I didn’t recognize. No words between us. Not close up like the rest of my deceased friends who have visited. I just knew it was she. ~Chronicle 782
A Pew Study in 2009 found 29% of Christians (and nearly three-in-ten Americans overall) said they have felt in touch with someone who has already died.1 Most of these ADCs happen in dreams. Communications from deceased loved ones (or with a powerful historical or spiritual entity) can be startling and sometimes life changing. Visitations from deceased family members, angels, Jesus Christ, or a Divine Being are not common, but they are common enough that Jody Long and Jeffery Long, M.D., have devoted their After Death Communication Research Foundation, ADCRF.org, to the subject. On the website, they provide extensive information and resources regarding after-death communication (ADC), bereavement, grief, life after death, and make available hundreds of testimonials of Afterlife communicati
ons that occur in dreams and sometimes the waking state.
In July 2013, when I first began writing The Dead Saints Chronicles, I had Kathy, a friend and former employee, begin setting up my own website www.deadsaintschronicles.com. (www.deadsaints.org in early 2016) Within days of setting up the website, she confided in me about a special experience where in a dream, she witnessed her ex-husband, Toby’s death—exactly at the moment it occurred. Even though they were divorced, she would visit him weekly to give him his insulin medication. She felt his death was her fault, since she had failed to visit him the day before to give it to him.
The passing of her ex-husband had been very traumatic. It triggered her fears about the Afterlife, and her belief in God. I told her a similar thing happened to me when Paul Solomon died in March 1994. He was in a lot of pain from pancreatitis and had been for months. He called me the evening before his death and asked me to visit him. Normally, I would have, but I knew his nephew and a nurse assistant were there to help him, and I was tired and really didn’t feel like going. I told him I would visit him the next day. Well, he died the next morning.
I never got the chance to say goodbye. “If I would’ve gone to see him, could I have been able to do anything at all to change what happened? I question myself about this over and over. I will never know.”
I told her, “Kathy, each of us has an appointed time to die. I believe it was Paul’s time to pass. I also believe it was Toby’s time to pass. The miracle is Toby reached out to you in your dream during his dying experience. You were able to be there for him in spirit. I know this was very traumatic for you, but in a way, I believe, it was a gift to help you understand death is not the end. God has a way of planning these things. He sent you a message. Toby is going to be okay.”
I could see through her tears she understood and my advice helped.
More ADC Dreams
Since my cancer diagnosis, my after-death communications have become more frequent. It seems my deceased friends and teachers are lining up to visit me. Most of my dream visitations are short, thirty-second clips, partly symbolic, mostly to say “we are thinking of you.” Deceased relatives I haven’t thought about in forty years are showing up.
I believe as we approach our appointed time, if we remember our dreams, these types of dreams occur more often.
On June 19, 2015, my stepfather, Ray, visited me the day after his death. Knowing his time was near, I’d been praying that while alive, he would help me put together his Memorial Service. At 3:00 am, Ray visited me in a vivid dream. A bright light illuminated the background behind his face. He was absolutely beaming and appeared thirty years younger. He had this message for me to deliver at his Memorial Service. “We all need to love one another more.”
Nine days later, on June 26, my Great Grandpa Sarge appeared in a dream. I hadn’t seen or thought of him since his death forty-years ago. He said the word Terrapin to me. I remembered him as broad chested and wearing a brown/white tweed sports jacket. (Mom verified this the following day). I saw him last in 1970. He died in 1983 seven years after his wife, Great Grandma Miller died. (She also appeared to me in January 2013, (an ADC Dream described in chapter 1, Premonitions). I do not ever remember dreaming of Great Grandpa Sarge before. When I woke up, I looked up the word Terrapin. It’s a small turtle living in the brackish water in Virginia back bays. I didn’t know if he meant I was going too slowly, as in turtle slow, or if he was telling me to pace myself. Evidently, the turtle wins the race, not the hare!
Strangely, three days after this dream, I opened my backdoor to my house, and not ten feet away on our lawn was a box turtle (not exactly a terrapin, but close enough!) staring at me! A very, very rare sight, as they are elusive creatures that usually stay hidden in the forest.
Related dreams kept coming. In mid-July 2015, I dreamed of an old Galapagos-sized tortoise, flailing on its back, unable to right itself. This was followed by a dream a few days later of a three-foot sized, bright yellow and green turtle, attempting to leave the shoreline and cross a river. I saw myself trying to hold back the heavy turtle from swimming to the other side of the river. This took a lot of effort.
The three dreams are part of the same theme. I am the turtle. The ADC dream of Great Grampa Sarge was telling me not to panic about finishing my book. Steady progress will win the race. The second dream of the flailing tortoise is true. My brain tumor is affecting my body. I am slowing down. The third dream indicates it’s taking a lot of effort to hold back my turtle from crossing the river, an approaching-death (ADD) symbol, discussed later in this chapter.
ADC Markers
There are several classic markers that can help determine if your ADC is real. They include:
• Knowledge you died, or believe you died
• Time Dilation. You believe you were in the Afterlife for a long period of time
• Visitation and communication from or with deceased relatives
• Perception of a barrier symbolized by a wall, river, gorge, gate, fence, etc.
• A brilliant, dazzling Light
• View of Heaven, Holy City, angels, deceased relatives, or a Being of Light
The reader should note many Dead Saints feel they have been gone for years or at a minimum a long time, but discover when they return to the body on Earth, only a few seconds or minutes have gone by. Robert recognizes this time dilation during his NDE:
Before I was sent back I asked how long was I here and is this how it would be like for everyone else. I was told I was there for 7-years. I was dead for 1 minute 47 seconds [107 seconds].2
Prophetic Dreams: Biblical Examples
History has numerous examples of prophetic dreams in the Bible. Joseph, one of the most famous dreamers in the Bible, recorded his dreams in Genesis 37:1-11. They showed through easily deciphered symbols that Joseph’s family would one day bow to him in respect. His brothers didn’t appreciate the dream and in their hatred sold Joseph into slavery. Eventually, Joseph ended up in prison in Egypt where he interpreted some dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker. Two years later, Pharaoh himself had a dream, which Joseph interpreted. This helped prepare Pharaoh to save the Egyptians and the Israelites from a horrible famine.
In Matthew 1:20 and 2:13, Joseph would have divorced Mary when he found out she was pregnant, but God sent an angel to him in a dream, convincing him the pregnancy was of God. Joseph went ahead with the marriage. After Jesus was born, God sent two more dreams, one to tell Joseph to take his family to Egypt so Herod could not kill Jesus and another to tell him Herod was dead and he could return home. In Matthew 2:12, the Magi who visited Jesus in Bethlehem, were warned in a dream they should not return to Herod and to depart home to their own country another way.
During Jesus’ trial, Pilate’s wife sent an urgent message to the governor encouraging him to free Jesus. Her message was prompted by a nightmare that convinced her Jesus was innocent and Pilate should have nothing to do with His case. (Matthew 27:19)
Modern Precognitive Dreams
In 1865, two weeks before he was shot dead, Abraham Lincoln had a dream about a funeral at the White House. In the dream, he asked someone who was in the casket and they replied, “The president of the United States.” He told his wife about the dream, but neither of them took it to heart. For on the night of his assassination, he gave his bodyguard the night off.
John Brooks, a back-up defender on the U.S team, was a long shot to enter the World Cup, but an injury to a teammate, Matt, changed all that a few weeks before the 2014 Soccer World Cup. In the 86th minute of play against Ghana, Brooks took a header from a corner kick and knocked it in. It was the game-winning goal against a team that had eliminated the United States in the last two World Cup tournaments. However, what is even more remarkable, Brooks had dreamed the completely unlikely scenario two nights before; “It’s unbelievable I had a dream about it,” Brooks said. “I told some teammates I woul
d score after the 80th minute and win the game and I did it–-in the 86th minute… and it [the dream] was also a header from a corner.”
“This was the first dream like that I’ve had. Hopefully it won’t be the last,” said Brooks. Skeptics will ascribe it to “extraordinary coincidence.” Others are at liberty to regard a premonition that came true exactly as dreamed, (and verified by teammates) as quite something else.
Precognitive Dreams or Visions of the Near Future Are Highly Accurate
I have discovered in my research about both my own precognitions and those recorded by Dead Saints, we are sometimes afforded a view into our personal future as a warning. They almost always concern ourselves, our children, or family…and, unfortunately, ominous premonitions usually are accurate—especially within a 3-year period.
Carl’s future son was foretold:
I was standing before Christ. The Light behind Him was so bright you could not look at Him with human eyes. He told me, ‘No you must return for this reason. You will have a son born unto you, (3 years later— to the very day—my son Julian was born).3
In Light and Death, One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences, Michael Sabom, M.D., writes of Lori’s premonition of her brain tumor, surgery, and NDE a year before it happened.4 At the time of her vision, she was perfectly healthy. Similar to my premonitions in chapter 1, Lori was “listening to her heart” and felt she was told, “Get your house in order or you shall surely die.” She and her husband prayed about it, and then promptly put it out of their mind. A year later, to their astonishment, everything occurred exactly as envisioned.
I had a waking (pre-brain cancer) premonition on May 16, 2012 with Soozi Holbeche, a good friend with decades of ILC5 teaching experience. Her lovely South African accent and humor won the hearts of many thousands around the world as she often co-taught ILC with Paul Solomon during his travels during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Soozi and I were having a casual conversation in the foyer of the A.R.E (Edgar Cayce Foundation) in Virginia Beach, when suddenly, without warning, I began sobbing. It was as if I had been punched. Tears running down my face, I blurted out, “I will never see you again.” Soozi was taken back. She just smiled at me, “David, of course, we will see each other again!” But I knew she was going to die. When she left the conference and traveled back to her home in South Africa, we stayed in close contact after my brain cancer surfaced in June 2013.
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 10