{"id":5422,"date":"2013-01-21T07:40:15","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T12:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=5422"},"modified":"2013-01-21T08:27:31","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T13:27:31","slug":"last-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/01\/last-words.html","title":{"rendered":"Last words"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I have always enjoyed reading the exit lines, great and otherwise, of the great and not-so-great, of those who seem ready for a new adventure and for those who resist or persist in their old ways to the dying breath, of those who welcome death, and those who fear or deny it. Last words are often not the most felicitous, but as Walt Whitman observed,\u00a0“they are valuable beyond measure to confirm and endorse the varied train, facts, theories and faith of the whole preceding life.”<\/p>\n

Here’s a selection of my favorites:<\/p>\n

Where is my clock? \u2013 Salvador Dali<\/p>\n

I\u2019m bored with it all. \u2013 Winston Churchill (before slipping into a coma; he died nine days later)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that\u2019s the record. \u2013 Dylan Thomas<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a hell of a lot of fun and I\u2019ve enjoyed every minute of it. \u2013 Errol Flynn<\/p>\n

Dammit. Don\u2019t you dare ask God to help me. \u2013 Joan Crawford<\/p>\n

Friends applaud, the comedy is finished. \u2013 Beethoven<\/p>\n

I want you to tell me the truth. Did Ernest [Hemingway] really like me? \u2013 Dorothy Parker<\/p>\n

It has all been very interesting.\u00a0<\/em>— <\/em>Lady Mary Wortley Montagu<\/p>\n

More light. \u2013 Goethe<\/p>\n

This is funny. \u2013 Doc Holliday, gunfighter and gambler.<\/p>\n

A dying man can do nothing easy. \u2013 Benjamin Franklin<\/p>\n

I scorn to answer you such a question. \u2013 Queen Elizabeth I (on being asked by Sir Robert Cecil on her deathbed if she had seen spirits)<\/p>\n

And in my dream an angel with white wings came to me, smiling. \u2013 Gauguin (last notes)<\/p>\n

Even in the valley of the shadow of death, two and two do not make six. \u2013 Tolstoy (on being urged on his deathbed to return to the Russian Orthodox church)<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t sleep. \u2013 James M. Barrie.<\/p>\n

I see black light. \u2013 Victor Hugo.<\/p>\n

Get my swan costume ready. \u2013 Anna Pavlova<\/p>\n

Farewell, my friends. I go to glory! – Isadora Duncan,<\/p>\n

This is no time to make new enemies. \u2013 Voltaire<\/p>\n

Dying is easy, comedy is hard. \u2013 George Bernard Shaw<\/p>\n

My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go. \u2013 Oscar Wilde<\/p>\n

I must go in. The fog is rising. \u2013 Emily Dickinson.<\/p>\n

Try to give back the divine in you to the divine in all. – Plotinus<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Turn up the lights. I don’t want to go home in the dark. – O.Henry<\/p>\n

Oh shit. \u2013 last words on a majority of flight recorders recovered after plane crashes.<\/p>\n

Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow. \u2013 Steve Jobs<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have a personal favorite that isn’t here? Please feel free to share in the Comments. If you could rehearse your own last words, what would they be?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have always enjoyed reading the exit lines, great and otherwise, of the great and not-so-great, of those who seem ready for a new adventure and for those who resist or persist in their old ways to the dying breath, of those who welcome death, and those who fear or deny it. Last words are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[1563,1561,1564,1560,1566,1565,1562],"class_list":["post-5422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-death-2","tag-deathbed-sayings","tag-dying","tag-famous-last-words","tag-last-words","tag-oscar-wilde","tag-steve-jobs","tag-walt-whitman"],"yoast_head":"\nLast words - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/01\/last-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Last words - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have always enjoyed reading the exit lines, great and otherwise, of the great and not-so-great, of those who seem ready for a new adventure and for those who resist or persist in their old ways to the dying breath, of those who welcome death, and those who fear or deny it. Last words are…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/01\/last-words.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T12:40:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-21T13:27:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2013\/01\/Istanbul-Haremk-exit1-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Last words - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2013\/01\/last-words.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Last words - Dream Gates","og_description":"I have always enjoyed reading the exit lines, great and otherwise, of the great and not-so-great, of those who seem ready for a new adventure and for those who resist or persist in their old ways to the dying breath, of those who welcome death, and those who fear or deny it. 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He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5422"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5427,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5422\/revisions\/5427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}