I ate supper (or dinner, I’ve covered this before) and afterward I felt sleepy, so I decided to lie down for a while. in the darkness of my bedroom, I didn’t look at the clock but I think it was about 7PM. I knew if I fell asleep I might sleep for an hour, but no longer.
The next thing I remember is waking up and seeing the time on my digital clock. According to its softly glowing blue digits, the time was 11:30PM. I was surprised to see I had slept so long. I returned to a “dreamless” sleep.
Finally, again, I awoke. I rolled over on my side and looked at the clock beside the bed. Its glowing digits indicated 8:05PM. So the first time I looked at the clock, I was dreaming. And my surprise at how long I had slept was part of the dream. But it had seemed so real.
I have strange dreams from time to time. I’ve written about them in previous posts. I’ve had dreams where I dreamed that I was dreaming. Ordinarily, when I’m dreaming I don’t know I’m dreaming. But when I dream I’m dreaming, I know its a dream. Sometimes I’ll try to awaken myself, but I’m powerless to do so.
Sometimes I’ll dream a complete story with protagonist, antagonist, supporting characters, and a detailed plot. But when I awaken, the dream evaporates before I can write it down, and I’m left with a hazy, incomplete recollection.
Once I dreamed about a French woman whose last name was Cellére. The diacritic over the second ‘e’ is called an acute, and it was part of my dream. When I asked her to spell her name, she pronounced the letters using French pronunciations. I don’t speak French and know nothing about French names.
In one of my most unusual dreams, I awoke, dressed, and went about my daily activities. Then I awoke again. The whole day had been a dream. So I got up, dressed, and went about my day. Then I awoke again. That second day had also been a dream.
You can probably guess what happened next. I got up, dressed, went to work, came home from work, etc. A normal day. But then I awoke. The third day had also been a dream.
The next time I awoke, I was really awake. In a dream you may think you’re awake, but when you’re really awake, there’s no doubt. You know you’re awake. You know reality when you experience it.
People who almost die and have what is called a near-death experience (NDE) describe a vivid experience similar to waking from a dream. The NDE is much more “real” than their real life. NDE-ers will tell you that in comparison with a near death experience, this life is merely a dream. They’ll tell you that what’s on the other side of death’s door is the real deal.
They’ll tell you that fantastic experiences await us on the other side, and researchers who have spent years studying these things say that sometimes a person near death will begin to experience those fantastic things just before they pass away. I’m reminded of Steve Jobs’ last words. According to Mona Simpson, sister of the late Apple co-founder:
“Before embarking, he’d looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life’s partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them.
“Steve’s final words were: ‘Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.’”
For all I know, life is one long dream, and death is the wake-up call. Even if this life is a dream, it’s still a very important dream. It’s a dream that teaches us the importance of love, the importance of kindness, the importance of good deeds.
As I already said, “…when you’re really awake, there’s no doubt. You know you’re awake.” NDE-ers claim that on the other side, you’re really awake. Who am I to argue with them? They’ve been there and I haven’t.
But one day…
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