Case Studies (continued)
Reverend Patricia Bulkeley and scholar, educator and dream researcher, Dr. Kelly Bulkeley collaborated on an extraordinary book in Dreaming Beyond Death: A Guide to Pre-Death Dreams and Visions citing cases of hypnagogia during her time working in hospice. In many cases, the dying patient sees dead relatives in the room with her while other living visitors are there. Some hear their dead loved ones calling to them or perhaps have a vision of Jesus, an Angel or a bright light, depending upon the belief system. In all these cases, the dying patients are transformed, ready to face their death, often times even excited about their new adventure and to see their loved ones again. So what do these experiences tell us about what happens after we die?
"Tree Portal" Photo by Linda Mastrangelo
As I began with a quote from Shakespeare I will end thus from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The character Theseus has been chastising the lovers that this dream-like night was only a product of their imagination and not real at all.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
There have been many controversies regarding the importance of whether or not these visitations or lucid visions of the dying are real and that there is indeed life after death. My view is that is not the issue of what is real but what has been shared collectively and even more importantly what has been transformed by the experience. Through my research what remains constant, regardless through what lens or belief system, is that these visions brought transformation in the form of courage, calm and even excitement in the face of the biggest mystery of them all, our own mortality. And like Hippolyta’s response to Theseus speech in that something real was found in what was thought to be imagined in that Midsummer’s Night for the lovers themselves were changed collectively and that remains constant.
And all their minds transfigured so together,
more witnesseth than fancy's images
and grows to something of great constancy
For more info: To sleep perchance to dream: Visions of the dead and dying in hypnagogia-Part I
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