{"id":6140,"date":"2014-12-17T04:39:32","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T09:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/?p=6140"},"modified":"2014-12-17T04:40:32","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T09:40:32","slug":"the-departed-are-dreaming-with-us-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2014\/12\/the-departed-are-dreaming-with-us-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The departed are dreaming with us"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

One of my driving purposes in writing The Dreamer\u2019s Book of the Dead <\/a><\/em>was to help \u00a0some of the many people in our society who are hungry <\/em>for confirmation that communication with the departed is not \u201cweird\u201d or \u201cunnatural\u201d, let alone impossible, and that it is possible to extend love and forgiveness and healing across the apparent barrier of death. We encounter our departed, especially in dreams, because they are still around (sometimes because they have unfinished business or are not actually aware they are dead); or because they come visiting; or because we travel, in dreams or visions, into astral realms where the departed are entirely at home.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that we dream of the dead; our departed are dreaming of us, and trying to reach us through dreams. Sometimes our departed return as counselors or \u201cfamily angels\u201d, as my father returned to me, many times, in the year after his death inAustraliain 1987, with loving messages and practical guidance for the family. Sometimes our departed need us to play guides, because they are confused or stuck between the worlds, clinging to old appetites and attachments \u2013 which can be extremely unhealthy for the living, who may pick up the feelings and addictions and even the past physical symptoms of the dead.<\/p>\n

One of the cruelest things that mainstream Western culture has done is to suggest that communication with the departed is either impossible or unnatural. \u00a0There is nothing spooky or \u201csupernatural\u201d involved, though these experiences take us into realms beyond physical reality. It is especially easy to meet our departed in dreams for three reasons:\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Our Departed are Still With Us<\/em><\/p>\n

Quite frequently dreams reveal that the departed are present because, quite simply, they never left. The departed may linger because they have unfinished business, or wish to act as guide and protector to the family, or are attached to people and places they loved in waking life, and this may be a perfectly happy situation for a year or two.<\/p>\n

But there comes a time when our departed need to move on, for their own growth, and so they do not become a psychic burden to the living. After death, we continue to be driven by our ruling interests, appetites and addictions. Some of those who have died but not truly \u201cpassed on\u201d continue to try to feed their cravings via the living.\u00a0 When the departed remain earthbound, the effects are unhealthy both for those who have died and those among the living to whom they are connected. When the dead are enmeshed with the living, the result is mutual confusion, loss of energy, and the transfer of addictions, obsessions and even physical ailments from the departed to the person whose energy field he or she is sharing.<\/p>\n

Helping the departed may involve a loving dialogue, a simple ritual of honoring and farewell, and invoking spiritual helpers. As we become active <\/em>dreamers, familiar with the geography of the afterlife, we may find we are called on to provide personal escort services and help to instruct some of our departed on their options on the other side. William Butler Yeats noted, with a poet\u2019s insight, that \u201cthe living can assist the imaginations of the dead\u201d.<\/p>\n

Our Departed Come Calling<\/em><\/p>\n

Most people who remember dreams can recall one in which someone on the other side made a phone call, sent a letter, or simply turned up at the door or the bedside. Our departed return to us in dreams for all the reasons they might have called on us in physical life \u2013 including the simple desire to tell us how they are doing and see how we are coping – and for larger reasons: to bring emotional healing, to bring us helpful information, to instruct us on life beyond death and the reality of worlds beyond the physical.<\/p>\n

Our departed may come visiting to offer or receive forgiveness. They may come to show us how they are doing on the other side.<\/p>\n

Our deceased friends and loved ones may appear in our dreams because they are trying to understand the fuller story of the life they have left. Yeats, with poetic clarity, called this stage in the afterlife transitions the “Dreaming Back.”<\/p>\n

Our departed can be excellent psychic advisers when they achieve clarity on the other side and are aware that they are not confined to the rules of space and time.\u00a0 \u00a0 Our departed may come as health advisers and family counselors.\u00a0\u00a0 They may visit us in dreams to help us prepare for our own deaths and reassure us that we have friends on the other side.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In dreams, we travel to realms of the departed\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In our dreams, we are released from the laws of physical reality, and travel into other dimensions, including environments where the departed may be living. Through dreams of this kind, we can begin to develop a personal geography of the afterlife, which will be vastly enriched when we learn the art of conscious <\/em>dream travel.<\/p>\n

In my workshops,\u00a0\u00a0I often invite participants to focus on a dream or memory of a departed person and make it their intention to journey \u2013 with the help of shamanic drumming \u2013 to seek timely and helpful communication with that person and to learn about the environment where that person is now living.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

photo (c) Robert Moss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my driving purposes in writing The Dreamer\u2019s Book of the Dead was to help \u00a0some of the many people in our society who are hungry for confirmation that communication with the departed is not \u201cweird\u201d or \u201cunnatural\u201d, let alone impossible, and that it is possible to extend love and forgiveness and healing across…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,10,983,24,23,12,21,22,43],"tags":[587,1791,281],"class_list":["post-6140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-active-dreaming","category-conscious-dreaming","category-death-2","category-dream-interpretation","category-dreams-of-the-dead","category-meaning-of-dreams","category-psychic-health","category-shamanic-dreaming","category-soul","tag-dreaming-back","tag-dreams-of-the-departed","tag-w-b-yeats"],"yoast_head":"\nThe departed are dreaming with us - 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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\/6140","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=6140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6143,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6140\/revisions\/6143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}