Meeting up with the dead

[crayola]

Yesterday, I was walking down one of the main roads with my father in the centre of a city I used to live in when I saw someone I once knew very well but whom I hadn't seen for over twenty years. I greeted her with a smile and a hug and asked how she was. She looked well and she smiled and said she was fine but she looked a little puzzled. I realised later this was because she thought she was invisible to me. I asked what she was doing these days and she replied that she was a 'liaison mage'. For a second, I wondered what this meant but then I realised the enormity of the experience. It suddenly dawned on me that my friend had died more than 20 years ago and she was now working as a liaison officer between our world and 'the other side'. It was clearly an important job. I think she could read my mind because she seemed happy with my reaction. I asked where she lived, she said her base was hidden below the surface of Mars but she spent a lot of time on Earth liaising with people here. I said it was good to see her and that we should catch up with each other properly soon but I had to dash off and catch up with my father before he got lost in the ruined buildings we were about to visit. At this point she stood up to her full eight feet in height and bade me farewell. I ran down the street and found my father waiting by the gate. I didn't tell him about my experience.

I awoke this morning feeling rather puzzled but feeling happy that I still remembered my former friend after all these years.

What do you think? Have you had a similar experience?

[percy toboggan]

Phew! for a second there I thought you were about to suggest some kind of rendezvous.

An 'importal' job might have been a beter description of your friends role in the universe. I have only occassionally come across deceased people in my dreams - which pleases me because some of my waking (working) hours find me surrounded by the living dead.

Told just a little better, the kind of tale you relate could have my flesh breaking out in bumps and my few remaining hairs upended. For I am open minded and receptive to the kind of experience you describe.

[crayola]

Feel free to use your literary talents to improve it percy, I would be delighted.

[changilass]

My immediate reaction is 'what a load of twaddle' closely followed by 'what the hell where you on?'

This may not be the reaction you were after but everyone is entitled to their viewpoint - even little owld me

[Average]

My immediate reaction is 'what a load of twaddle' closely followed by 'what the hell where you on?'

Thats pretty much what I was thinking too.

[percy toboggan]

One mans twaddle is another mans tosh are anothers mans dreams.
I'm as cynical as the next person sometimes but it takes all sorts to make a world.
Some feel the need to share experiences. Others feel the need to lampoon, or denigrate. All are valid, if they're constructive.

I feel as relaxed as a relaxed thing this afternoon - in another mood I might have jumped on the twaddle button.

Have you any vivid dreams Changi - that you'll share? I'm afraid I forget mine all too often. Average - are your dreams as mundane as your moniker?

I have dabbled with ouija boards - several decades ago - and they frit me a bit. I played the fool with them sometimes and frit others...I was young and foolish.

[Miss Mack]

My immediate reaction is 'what a load of twaddle' closely followed by 'what the hell where you on?'

This may not be the reaction you were after but everyone is entitled to their viewpoint - even little owld me

Ha ha, that made me laugh, i was thinking the same

[oldmarine]

My immediate reaction is 'what a load of twaddle' closely followed by 'what the hell where you on?'

This may not be the reaction you were after but everyone is entitled to their viewpoint - even little owld me

She must have been on something that she cannot describe.

[crayola]

It happened not too long after I discarded my glass bra before going to my bed. Despite it being dark I could see Ed Miliband moving about inside it as expected. It was supposed to be an Ed Miliband controlled bra after all. But I could tell that David was there even though he wasn't supposed to be. Ed was ignoring him. He was trying to convince us that he (and he alone) was in charge of the bra. But I knew David was there, and Ed knew David was there and Ed was worried. Big time worried.

What was worse was that keen-eyed political watchers (such as this bra owner) could see an old white-haired bespectacled figure wearing a black jacket in the background. What's afoot? What was afoot was the owner of longest suicide note in history thinking he could guide Ed to success.

Some dead people should stay dead before they bestow their inherent failures on their descendents. The balding red haired Welshman also seems to have forgotten why he never made the pinnacle. Ed won't ever gain control of my glass bra if he follows the black donkey and the man that did the donkey work shouldn't forget why he had to cast himself out eighteen years ago.

I never met the white-haired man while he was alive. I hope he doesn't influence Bed Ed too much. Someone will kill him if he does. And Ed's ambition too.

[percy toboggan]

Feel free to use your literary talents to improve it percy, I would be delighted.

Oh! if we could conjure up our loved ones in dreams, and at will.

Far be it from me Crayola to embellish your words , but thank you anyway.

It is interesting to share tales of these vivid experiences and I'm at least glad they bring you some comfort. Others might be less sanguine , regarding such nocturnal visitations as a kind of technicolour trauma.

I'm open minded, as I say....Sometimes my dreams are vivid. So much so that waking has been a disappointment - not often, but sometimes.

All of which allows me to harbour hope that all is not what we can see , feel and hear...there may well be something beyond the mortal and conscious state most of us cling to.

[Metalattakk]

I awoke this morning feeling rather puzzled but feeling happy that I still remembered my former friend after all these years.

What do you think?

I think cheese at supper time = bad idea.

[joxville]

Dreams can usually give pointers to where we are going wrong in our conscious life so perhaps the visit by the friend is to make you aware of something. Sometimes it could be the respected qualities of that person is what you need to look at, maybe change something within yourself. No-one knows for definite why we dream, scientist's are still probing the mystery of it all. Why can't they just accept it's something we do. Some mysteries are better not solved-allow us that little luxury, especially cos it's one thing Governments will never have control over lol

I've had some great dreams over the years from dead people, many times, like others, I've had that feeling of deja vu, probably from a dream I've had. I'd rather not know why I get the dreams, I just enjoy that I do.

[helenwyler]

Yesterday, I was walking down one of the main roads with my father in the centre of a city I used to live in

...soon but I had to dash off and catch up with my father before he got lost in the ruined buildings we were about to visit.

...I ran down the street and found my father waiting by the gate. I didn't tell him about my experience.

What do you think?

Interesting dream Crayola.

I think the role of your father is interesting too.

The city you 'used to live in', the 'ruined buildings you are about to visit', and the fact that your father was 'waiting by a gate' in the dream. Past life, future visits, and waiting. Gotta mean something .

[crayola]

I think cheese at supper time = bad idea.

I did have a lot of cheese the previous night lol, but I really enjoyed the dream. Do you not have dreams that set you up for the day? I know it's crazy but I often have a good day after a good dream.

Interesting dream Crayola.

I think the role of your father is interesting too.

The city you 'used to live in', the 'ruined buildings you are about to visit', and the fact that your father was 'waiting by a gate' in the dream. Past life, future visits, and waiting. Gotta mean something .

I thought the role of my father was coincidental. What makes you think otherwise?

We weren't intending to visit ruined buildings, it was a total surprise to me that they were ruined. I didn't say in my original post that I had entered via a side gate and my father was waiting inside the main gate. Does that make any difference to you?

I haven't lived in that city for a long time, is that significant in your interpretation?

[Metalattakk]

Do you not have dreams that set you up for the day? I know it's crazy but I often have a good day after a good dram

Yup, me too.

[crayola]

Yup, me too.

Ha ha, you had me going for a second there. Stop putting words spirits in my mouth!

[helenwyler]

I thought the role of my father was coincidental. What makes you think otherwise?

I’m not convinced anything in dreams can be relegated to the coincidental or free from importance. The fact that your father figured in the dream probably indicates that he plays a significant role in your dream scenario.

We weren't intending to visit ruined buildings, it was a total surprise to me that they were ruined. I didn't say in my original post that I had entered via a side gate and my father was waiting inside the main gate. Does that make any difference to you?

I don’t think the fact that you weren’t intending to visit ‘ruined’ buildings, and that their being ruined surprised you, is as important as the fact that your unconscious brain presented them in your dream as in a state of ruin. They had changed and were not as you once knew them.

In your OP you said you had to “dash off and catch up with your father before he got lost in the ruined buildings we were about to visit.” You don’t say ‘in case he got lost’ and the word “before” sounds as though you almost expect him to get lost, and that there is some anxiety attached to that.

In your reply you mention you found him waiting “inside the gate” (i.e. already inside the area of the ruins)….already starting to get lost? Gates are literally a division, or barrier even, between here and there, this side and that side. The "liaison mage" was "on the other side" too.

Perhaps you and your father entering from different gates could be construed as you and your father ‘approaching’ some area of experience from different angles? The more and the less conventional?


I haven't lived in that city for a long time, is that significant in your interpretation?

Revisiting, reappraising past events? Dunno.

I shall cease my doubtless incoherent ramblings forthwith !

[crayola]

I’m not convinced anything in dreams can be relegated to the coincidental or free from importance. The fact that your father figured in the dream probably indicates that he plays a significant role in your dream scenario.

We weren't intending to visit ruined buildings, it was a total surprise to me that they were ruined. I didn't say in my original post that I had entered via a side gate and my father was waiting inside the main gate. Does that make any difference to you?

I don’t think the fact that you weren’t intending to visit ‘ruined’ buildings, and that their being ruined surprised you, is as important as the fact that your unconscious brain presented them in your dream as in a state of ruin. They had changed and were not as you once knew them.

In your OP you said you had to “dash off and catch up with your father before he got lost in the ruined buildings we were about to visit.” You don’t say ‘in case he got lost’ and the word “before” sounds as though you almost expect him to get lost, and that there is some anxiety attached to that.

In your reply you mention you found him waiting “inside the gate” (i.e. already inside the area of the ruins)….already starting to get lost? Gates are literally a division, or barrier even, between here and there, this side and that side. The "liaison mage" was "on the other side" too.

Perhaps you and your father entering from different gates could be construed as you and your father ‘approaching’ some area of experience from different angles? The more and the less conventional?

I haven't lived in that city for a long time, is that significant in your interpretation?

Revisiting, reappraising past events? Dunno.

I shall cease my doubtless incoherent ramblings forthwith !

Please don't cease your 'ramblings', I'm enjoying them.

It could be that the change in the state of the buildings were related to the change in my friend's situation, I hadn't thought of that. Nor had I thought about the significance of my father being on the other side of the gate. I didn't tell him about meeting my friend for a variety of reasons most of which I can't remember!

I wouldn't put any stress on 'before he got lost' versus 'in case he got lost'. I almost wrote in 'case' and I should have done but I didn't.

[crayola]

I met my friend again last night. My brakes failed as I was reversing at speed down Pennyland Drive. I lost control and swerved down Brims Road and crashed through the flag fence at the bottom. I skidded in deep mud as I crossed the field and ended up in the huge barn which adjoins the big church next to Pennyland Farm. I managed to crawl out of the car but wasn't sure if I was dead or alive. I spoke to some hooded faceless people in the barn before emerging into the doorway of the church. Have you ever been inside that church? It's huge inside, much bigger than it looks from the outside, with an ornate roof that's more redolent of high Anglican tastes than anything Presbyterian I've ever experienced. Anyway, my friend welcomed me into her world as I entered the church. We spoke for a few minutes but I told her I wasn't going any further and I ran like hell for the fire exit when she wasn't looking. To my great relief I broke through the door unscathed whereupon I emerged into bright sunlight on Castlegreen Road. The outside walls of the church were black but fading into transparency, the birds were singing and I was none the worse for my ideal. A lucky escape perhaps?

[Anfield]

I thought this was a thread about The Grateful Dead and thought yes! something to brighten up a boring Friday.