In Communication With The Deceased: (A Dreaming Experience)

By Jacob W. Chikuhwa

In Communication with the Deceased (A Dreaming Experience) is an analysis of dreams and their interpretation. The central theme of the book is based on incidents where the living are able to communicate with the deceased through dreaming. For a period of 16 years dating from 9 April, 1991 to 24 May, 2007, a record of dreams-in the Dreams Diary o

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: May 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647533557

Jacob W. Chikuhwa

Jacob Chikuhwa is the author of several books on Zimbabwe that include: Zimbabwe: The Rise to Nationhood, A Crisis of Governance: Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe: The End of the First Republic. He is also author of other titles that include A Cheer for Sanity, A Handbook in Business Management, Shona Proverbs and Parables, and Revealing the Holy Spirit in Humans (Stories from the Bible). A national of both Zimbabwe and Sweden, Jacob Chikuhwa holds degrees in Economics, Economic Integration and International Relations from the Kiev Institute of National Economy in Ukraine and the University of Stockholm in Sweden, respectively. SaChikuhwa is the Founder/Director of Fortune Development Centre based in both Zimbabwe and Sweden.

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In Communication With The Deceased

Copyright © 2020 by Jacob W. Chikuhwa. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020908249

ISBN 978-1-64753-354-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64753-355-7 (Digital)

04.05.20

To the future generation

CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Author’s Note

Some Classical Interpretation Of Dreams

Dreams Diary By Category

Future Or Expectation

Wish Or Desire

Fear Or Anxiety

Conclusion

Dreams Dictionary

Your Central Horoscope

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Following the publication of In Communication with the Deceased in 2007, quite a good number of friends wanted to know how it was possible for me to remember my dreams in such minute detail. This aroused my conscience to make a thorough investigation into the subject of dreaming as a field of psychology. Writing on a subject in which one is not specialised is not an easy venture, but I found encouragement from friends and postings on my visit to the Cyberspace.

True, when one sits and talk to other people, certain events have an impact in the way one thinks and behaves. Many times, when we reflect on our dreams, we tend to carry the images into our waking life where we wonder why events sometimes turn out to be translated into reality in our daily experiences.

I have been nudged into writing another version, In Communication with the Deceased (A Dreaming Experience) largely because of reviews I have been getting from readers and friends. This has allowed me to enter into dialogue and discussion with quite a wide audience. Some offered agreement and others disagreed with certain aspects of my interpretation of dreams. This has enabled me to identify where the work is deficient in its organization and style.

The bibliography in this book lists most of the published sources of research used. A substantial number of interpretations in the Dreams Dictionary were compiled with the help of websites. I would like to thank the authors and compilers of the sites, the ICT and the various handbooks, which made my task easier.

My wife, son and daughter have always been leading lights in my dreams. Thanks to the staff members at Urlink Print & Media for the sterling work they put to produce this edition of the book. Without their inspiration, this might not have seen the light of day.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I was born in a humble Christian family and was brought up in an atmosphere of full love and care. My father was born in Panga near the eastern border with Mozambique. Before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1561, there were no records kept in these remote villages. According to my father’s narration, the Chikuhwa clan immigrated from Tunhi, under Ishe (Chief) Mukahanana in the Mutasa Communal Lands. While one branch trekked to Panga, another went up north and settled near Mutoko where they built a strong chieftainship at Chikuhwa. There is even a flourishing secondary school by the same name.

These movements came about because of the Mfecane invasions of the early 1830s. At that time the Munhumutapa Empire was at its decline in the wake of the Ngoni invasions. Ngoni has been applied to all the various Nguni-speaking migrant bands of the Mfecane era. In its narrower and more proper sense, the name applies only to migrant bands led by Zwangendaba, Nyamazana, Maseko and Nxaba, all of who passed through present-day Zimbabwe during the 1830s.

My father must have been born during the later period of the Mfecane invasions because he talked about his experiences as a boy when the people of the area used to run away from the Madzviti. One such experience he talked about was when a whole band of invaders was wiped out after eating manzongo left in the sun to dry by villagers as they ran to hide in the mountain caves. Manzongo is an indigenous root which is poisonous if not properly treated.

Raids by the Madzviti went on continuously until after the arrival of European hunters and concession seekers in the late 1880s. We read that during the 1840s, raiding parties extended Ndebele influence over neighbouring Shona communities. Furthermore, we read that when the British South Africa Company with its Pioneer Column occupied Mashonaland in September 1890, the Shona were happy that they had found allies to help defend themselves against the marauding Madzviti.

My father used to tell us stories about white men on horseback wandering in the area. Those must have been the British pioneer hunters like Courtney Selous (1811-1890), who came to the country during the 1880s.

It has been difficult to establish the exact date of my father’s birth, but he talked about having been working in Johannesburg during the influenza epidemic of 1900. He also talked about how people used to travel to South Africa on foot and how many were devoured by lions in the (Kruger National Park) Messina region. My elder brother, Norman, says our father was a border- jumper.

When he got married, a marriage certificate (in my possession) was issued dated 28th June, 1919. My mother talked about how people and relatives in the Saruwaka village used to tease her for choosing to get married to an old man. On the basis of this information, it is reasonable to deduce that in 1900, my father must have been about twenty or twenty-one years of age and that when he got married nineteen years later, he must have been thirty-nine or forty years of age. This makes his year of birth about 1879. My mother, on the other hand, must have been about eighteen years of age when she got married to my father in 1919. During those days, girls used to be given away into marriage (kuroodzwa) quite at an early age. Therefore, it would not be unrealistic to estimate her year of birth as 1901.

When my father died on the 10th March 1972, I was studying in Kiev, Ukraine in the former Soviet Union. According to Shona tradition, I had to be present during the last days of my father’s life, but this was not to be because I was listed as wanted by the Ian Smith regime. However, when I went to live in exile in Sweden, I made sure that I contributed towards my father’s burial although my father was already resting in peace.

In 1973, I sent money to my elder brother, Babamukuru Norman, to put a head-stone on my father’s grave. For quite a long time, there was some prevarication on the part of Babamukuru Norman. When I sent some more money with strict instructions that the money be used just for the purpose I had elected, Babamukuru Norman conceded to my demand and put the head-stone with the inscription, RIP Wilson Katiro Chikuhwa (1879–10.03.1972).

At about the same time this head-stone was erected, my deceased father appeared in my dreams for the first time. He was smiling and appeared satisfied with himself. The following morning, I told my wife about the dream and we both agreed that Babamukuru Norman had at last fulfilled my wishes. Sure enough, after about a week, I received a letter from Babamukuru Norman in which he described the head-stone.

On a good number of occasions, I continued to dream meeting my deceased father. During one encounter which I vividly recall, my father was leading me through a green valley and as we came to the edge of a hill, he started walking up the hill. To my surprise, I found the grass before me burnt. The burnt fallen trees were still smouldering with embers and I was wondering how my father could not get burnt since he was walking bare-foot. Before I realised what was happening, I saw he was already on top of the hill and before I could pursue him, he was gone over the hill and disappeared.

When I returned to Zimbabwe from exile in 1981 after sixteen years, I was overwhelmed by the experience of meeting my three brothers (one of them a twin brother), my younger sister and my old mother—Granny. She was amused to hear of my experiences especially our decision to name our first-born son Tonderai-Wilson as he was born on the 25th April 1972, just about a month after my father’s death. When I told her that our daughter (born in Sweden on the 29th June 1978) was named Eleonora-Ngwarai, I was thrilled to see a broad smile on her face. Ngwaranyi was my deceased mother’s name before she was baptised as Cecilia in the Anglican church. Her smile seemed to say to me, ‘So, you remember my childhood name! How nice!’. It is interesting to note that my father was a Reverend and school teacher for about 24 years before retiring in 1942 at Samaringa School in Honde Valley.

The belief in reincarnation and life after death raises a tantalising question: Can the living communicate with the dead? Most churchmen and scientists are sceptical, but many people, including churchmen and scientists, believe such a thing is possible. When I told Babamukuru Norman of my initial dreams in which I had communicated with our deceased father, I was greeted with a gasp of shock and scepticism. My brother actually told me it was taboo and that such things were never heard of. However, to those who encourage the study of physic phenomena, there is nothing wrong with what has been going on between me and my deceased parents. Actually, it’s very common for me to dream communicating with deceased relatives and close friends.

In my continuing research, I have read that the Reverend William V. Rauscher, President of an organisation devoted to examining such phenomena within the context of religion had this to say, The Bible is full of paranormal experience. It’s just that people get upset if we say Jesus practiced levitation, instead of simply saying that He walked on water.¹ Even William James, the psychologist-philosopher, affiliated himself with a society for psychical research in the belief that such phenomena should be investigated thoroughly.

Among the outstanding thinkers who believed in spirit communication were Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes’ creator, and Sir Oliver Lodge, an English physicist and writer who died in 1940. Lodge, whose scientific work included studies of electromagnetic waves and lightning, was convinced that human survival beyond the grave could be scientifically proved. I make this assertion, he said, on definite scientific grounds. I know that certain departed friends of mine still exist because I have talked with them as I could converse through a telephone with someone at a distance. Being men of cultivated mind, they have given proofs that it is really they, not some impersonation, not something emanating from myself. I tell you with all the strength of conviction that I can muster, that they do persist, that they take an interest in what is going on here, and that they help us.²

In Shona communities, it is not unusual that the spirit of the dead (mudzimu) may come back and speak to the family through a medium (svikiro). The chosen individual through which the spirit comes back (the spirit medium) goes into a trance, during which time the voice of the deceased is clearly identifiable. I can say, without hesitation, that I saw a vision of my deceased father at Turumhu—a stream near our homestead in Honde Valley—during the time I was writing the conclusion in this addition of In Communication with the Deceased before Christmas in 2018. I had a challenge to provide proof that my deceased parents’ souls reside in Heaven. In the vision, my deceased father looked about sixty-four years of age and was smiling.

I realise some readers will think this is just a figment of my imagination.

But least be assured it’s not!

Spiritualism got one of its biggest boosts when Sir William Crookes (1832- 1919), an eminent English chemist and physicist and discoverer of the element thallium, announced that he believed in ghosts. He set out to prove that there was something to spiritualism with the same cool calculation that was the hallmark of his usual scientific work. Crookes spent a good deal of his time examining the phenomena produced at séances by a Scotch immigrant named Daniel Douglas Home. Home is considered one of the most important figures in spiritualism, and much of what he did has never been completely explained. Among his feats was one in which he appeared to be raised bodily and propelled through the air; other times he materialised spirit hands and, later, entire spirit forms.

It is worth noting here that spiritualism is a religious movement based on the belief that the spirits of the dead exist and have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. The afterlife, or the spirit world, is seen by spiritualists, not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to a third belief, that spirits are capable of providing useful knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of GOD. Some spiritualists will speak of a concept which they refer to as spirit guides—specific spirits, often contacted—who are relied upon for spiritual guidance. Spiritism, a branch of spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and today practiced mostly in Continental Europe and Latin America, especially in Brazil, emphasizes on reincarnation.

The idea of summoning the spirits took a thrilling hold of the Victorian imagination—and has its adherents now—but the psychology behind spiritualism is more intriguing. As the evenings get darker and the first hint of winter hangs in the air, the western world enters the season of the dead. It begins with Halloween, continues with All Saints’ and All Souls’ days, runs through Bonfire Night—the evening where the English burn effigies of historical terrorists—and ends with Remembrance Day. And through it all, Britain’s mediums enjoy one of their busiest times of the year. The Swedes, on their part, have a tradition where they have bonfires at the end of April in each calendar year. A custom which began during the 18th century, lighting the popular bonfires began with the purpose of keeping away evil spirits, especially demons and witches. Many Swedes now celebrate the end of long, dreary winters by singing Spring songs.

Ethnographic investigations into the religious traditions of the last remaining hunter-gatherers in the southern Cape as well as those of the !Kung San has shown that a spiritual focus of the hunter-gatherer’s culture was a ritual dance and, more importantly a trance state attained by many of the dancers. During a trance, the dancers are considered able to heal sickness, control game and weather and to communicate with their gods. Modern !Kung San have described the sensations of going into trance, during which a certain potency referred to as n’um which is released. There is sometimes a feeling of elongation or added height, as the n’um is said to move up through the spine to the base of the neck and arms. Patterns of light and movement are frequently observed. People in trance may bleed from the nose; this blood is considered to be a potent fluid which can be rubbed on a sick person to promote healing.

Immortality has been rejected by those who feel its only basis is wishful thinking—that when the body dies, the personality dies with it because it is part of the physical body. Believers can cite the resurrection of JESUS, and maintain that since life on earth is not completely fulfilled an afterlife is necessary for completion; they believe that since the just often are not rewarded and the unjust often not punished on earth, there has to be a final judgement for the soul. Another argument in favour of an afterlife is that since matter and energy may be transformed but not destroyed, neither can personality, which exists just as do the elements in nature, be destroyed.

Indeed, Shona religious belief recognises that when a person dies body and soul separate and the soul goes to NyikaDzimu (Heaven).³

I returned to Sweden in October 1989 and on the 5th August 1991 my mother passed away. Although I was not present at her burial, I did not waste much time before going down to Zimbabwe to pay my last respects to the wonderful woman who taught me to develop the freedom to initiate and cultivate a Godly environment both at work and in my family life. On her tomb stone is the inscription, In Loving Memory Cecilia Ngwarai Chikuhwa (c. 1901- 05.08.1991).

What makes the story about my deceased parents amazing is that on the 9th April 1991, I had another encounter with my deceased father. (For the full encounter, see Dreams Diary, Future or Expectation, below.) From that point in time, I made a decision to wake up and write down any dream associated with my deceased father (and later my mother), before I forgot it. Thus, each time I got a dream which involved either my deceased father or mother, I made sure I woke up to write it down. However, as my curiosity deepened, I started writing down symbols represented in other vivid dreams and used them as a basis for research on dreams. The result is that I have ended up with a ‘personal’ dreams dictionary that interprets my dreaming experience. Some of the interpretations may not be associated with my dreams, but came about as an indirect extension of my own dreams.

In Communication with the Deceased (A Dreaming Experience) is meant to serve only as a basis for reflection in order for the reader to examine all the clues and then derive further meaning from specific circumstances of his/her own dreams. To be able to interpret a dream, one does not need to have an academic degree in psychology. What is important is to use one’s instinct and common sense. Try to develop your own personal insights into what the common symbols in your dreams mean. Through the various dreams, I began to build a working dictionary of my own personal definitions based on Shona folklore and culture. The explanations given should add insight to your own interpretations. One should be cautious not to rely on the interpretation totally to interpret one’s own dreams. When it comes to dream symbols, there are no equivocally universal rules or meanings. Dreams dictionaries help by providing hints at the meaning of symbols that appear in one’s dreams. Thus, when the elements of the dream are personal, the meanings given might not totally resonate for a given individual.

SOME CLASSICAL INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Dreams have always fascinated people from time immemorial. Among the Greeks, dream interpretation was considered as part of a medicinal art and both Hippocrates and Aristotle were dream interpreters. In the biblical tradition, there are also a good number of dream interpreters. Perhaps the most well known was Daniel who interpreted king Nebukadneasar’s dream with a lot of skill.

In the Far East, there was an interest in dream oracles. While the oracles at Delphi and Epidaurus were interpreting dreams, Japanese Buddhists were conducting similar rites.

In many ancient cultures, dreams were thought to have prophetic meaning. During the Middle Ages, dream books began to appear in the Christian world. Most of them were called Daniel’s Dreams.

Spiritual dreaming and dream interpretation are not recent traditions. The earliest written dream interpretations date back to 1350 Bc in Egypt. One dream compilation, Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams), written by Artemidorus Daldianus around 140 AD, became so popular that it was still being printed in the 1700s.

During the nineteenth century when the Munhumutapa Empire was in decline, the prophetic Chaminuka had a vision of the arrival of the Europeans. This is what he said: ‘There will come men without knees. They will come riding a stone that rolls on another stone and they will bring white buttons as gifts. Don’t receive the gifts because if you do, you would have sold the country away to the strangers.’

It is interpreted that men without knees were the Europeans wearing long trousers; a stone that rolls on another stone was the train as its steel wheels roll on rails and the white buttons were the silver coins. Reference can be made to the one hundred pounds sterling Lobengula later agreed to receive each lunar month for the Rudd Concession of 1890.⁴

Today a variety of dream books are readily available in bookshops, especially those that specialise in horoscope and astrology.

In more modern times, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) the father of psychoanalysis, revolutionised the study of dreams with his work The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud began to analyse dreams in order to understand aspects of personality as they relate to pathology. He believed that nothing we did occurred by chance; every action and thought is motivated by our unconscious. He suggested that dreams are simply a means through which unconscious thoughts manifest themselves.

He was joined by Carl Jung (1875-1960) at the turn of the twentieth century. In the beginning, Carl Gustav Jung studied under Sigmund Freud. Eventually, their differing views on dreams caused a major rift and each went their separate ways. Like Freud, Jung believed in the existence of the unconscious. However, he didn’t see the unconscious as animalistic, instinctual, and sexual; he saw it as more spiritual.

Jung viewed the ego as one’s sense of self and how we portray ourselves to the world. Part of Jung’s theory was that all things can be viewed as paired opposites (i.e. good/evil, male/female, or love/hate). And thus working in opposition to the ego, is the counterego or what he referred to as the shadow. The shadow represents rejected aspects of yourself that you do not wish to acknowledge. It is considered an aspect of yourself which is somewhat more primitive, uncultured, and awkward.

Contemporary research and studies have shown that dreams are often a contorted reflection of our daily lives. It is now believed that they are not just a haphazard reflection, but a signification caused by signals in the brain. Many experts now believe that dreams are so closely related to our conscious activities that we can use them to help us discover and solve our inner conflicts.

It is usually stated that our dreams are a reflection of what we would have been thinking about before we fall asleep. Studies have shown that not just our daily lives are reflected in our dreams, but our attitudes. Aaron Beck, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania has discovered that irascible or ill- tempered persons relieve their anger in dreams. Other studies have shown that depressed persons sometimes dream being turned away, humiliated or forsaken. Those who are unusually open, vulnerable or have difficulty with asserting themselves are often haunted by nightmares.

When Amy Tan, the author of a novel entitled "Joy Luck Club", was twenty- five years of age she dreamed that she had hired a pair of wings for one dollar and flew about together with other people and had a lot of fun. Suddenly, she wondered how she could fly with such a pair of cheap wings. At that point in time, she immediately started to fall. She became frightened that she was going to die, but she realised that if she could fly before that frightening thought came to her, why couldn’t she make it again. In the end, she came to the conclusion that it was not the pair of wings that enabled her to fly, but her own self-confidence. When she woke up, she perceived that she was denying herself all possibilities in life because she was uncertain about her own self.

Tan’s dream was typical for the early stages in life—a period when one scrutinises one’s security and self-esteem. In a book on the subject of dreams, Rosalind Cartwright⁵ writes that life is made up of different phases when different things must be fulfilled. She writes that our dreams reflect those questions we tussle with during those phases and often it is just before we go to bed that we figure out how far we have gone in a given phase.

Small children are vulnerable and easily frightened in their dreams. They dream of frightening animals and monsters that chase them around. Teenagers dream of love affairs and sex.

Milton Kramer, who studies dreams, discovered in a research that persons in their 21st – 34th years have dreams that are anxiety-ridden with rights and wrongs (injustices) in society. May be this is because they scrutinise themselves and take important decisions about their profession (career), marriage and their future. Between the ages of 34 and 50, people experience a manifestation of grudge against others in their dreams. May be this is because they have solved most of their problems and that they are reaching the peak in their careers and less aggressive when they are up and about. Between the ages of 50 and 65 the phenomenon in dreams is focused on career and/family successes/failures. It seems this is the time when people foresee very limited chances of taking up new career assignments or developing new family sentiments. There is a degree of acceptance of one’s prevailing status and surrounding. After the age of 65, themes associated with resource losses and regrets about past events appear and are quite dominant in dreams. At the same time, those with a successful career or family record ravel in their success.

Creative people often use dreams to solve problems. Naomi Epel writes in her book, "Writers Dreaming", that when a good number of feature writers, artists and researchers are just on the verge of falling asleep, they usually pray (meditate) that their sub conscience give them a dream that can help them with unsolved problems. Once that dream appears, they wake up to write it down. It is not uncommon to see an odd light in the middle of night in a research-institute building.

Some of the world’s greatest creative works and inventions have come from the dream state. It is said that Albert Einstein literally dreamed up his theory of Relativity: The Special and General Theory (E=mc²) in 1905. It came to him while he was sleeping.⁶ In an effort to try and reveal what exactly Einstein dreamed, it came to light that he was also helped by his wife, Mileva Maric. Mileva tells a Serbian friend, we finished some important work that will make my husband world famous.⁷

For a period of three months dating from April to June 1905, Albert Einstein was dreaming of time and what it really represents.

Time is always changing. Time never stands still. Time is continuous, and not stationary. An observer finds that another’s clock which is physically identical to their own is ticking at a slower rate as measured by their own clock. This is often taken to mean that time has slowed down for the other clock, but that is only true in the context of the observer’s frame of reference. Locally, time is always passing at the same rate. Time is infinite; change is essential to time.

For while the movements of people are unpredictable, the movement of time is predictable. While people can be doubted, time cannot be doubted. While people brood, time skips ahead without looking back. The past lies behind, fixed and incomputable, while the future lies ahead and is not necessarily fixed. But the future and the past are plaited together. In a world without future, each moment is the end of the world. A person who cannot dream of the future is a person who cannot contemplate the results of his actions.

We are told that film-manuscript writer James Cameron dreamed about a robot with one red eye. He woke up in the middle of night and started to write the script for The Terminator.

Ideas for great stories, music and poetry can come through your own dreams too. They are often sparked from your unconscious mind, usually when you have been thinking about a particular topic or problem. The unconscious mind simply pieces together all the information it has and sends it up to you while you are in your dream state.

One afternoon in 1865, President Lincoln’s Cabinet entered a council room for a meeting and found the President seated at the head of the table, his face buried in his hands. Presently he raised his head. His face was grave and worn. Gentlemen, he said, before long you will have important news. Someone inquired, Have you bad news, Mr. President? Is it something serious?

I have heard nothing; I’ve had no news, he replied. But last night I had a dream. I dreamed I was in a boat, alone. I had no oars, no rudder. I was helpless in a boundless ocean.

There was silence for a moment. Then the President added: I have had that dream many times during the war. And each time, some great battle came within a day or two. Yes, gentlemen, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps in just a few hours, you will have important news. Five hours later, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.⁸

Let us now recall Martin Luther King Jr’s speech ‘I have a Dream’ at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. It is said that Clarence Jones was sitting 50 feet behind his boss, Dr Martin Luther King Jr., on the brilliant, sunny day in 1963 when King delivered the speech that would forever change the course of race relations in the United States. In 2013, some 50 years later, Jones recalls how the words I have a dream, were not written in the text that King prepared and began to read that day. Instead, King improvised on the spot, reviving a phrase he had used previously with little impact, according to Jones, King’s lawyer, speechwriter and confidant.

I have a dream, King shouted to the crowd, his voice reverberating with emotion, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will be judged not by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. King had prepared a text that started with several paragraphs of Jones’ writing. As King began to read it, Jones tracked the paragraphs as they went by. The first seven were as he had written them. A gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, who had earlier performed the song, How I Got Over, yelled from the stands. Tell them about the dream, Martin, she said, according to Jones. Jones says he could not see Jackson because she was sitting below him, but he heard her voice. He also saw King, who had been reading from the text in front of him, look up. King nodded to where Jackson was sitting, Jones says, adding he saw King take hold of the pages of his speech and move them to one side.

He moves the text of the speech to the left side of the lectern, grabs the lectern, looks out on those more than 250,000 people assembled and thereafter begins to speak completely spontaneously and extemporaneously, Jones says. From that moment on, King’s cadence changed as sentences and ideas built on one another to reach powerful crescendos. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood, King said.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

In his address, more than a half century ago, King spoke of an end to discrimination and shared his vision for a new era of racial harmony. He personalized that global message, by saying in the speech’s most quoted line that his dream was that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. (Hansen, D. D. (2003). The Dream: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. NY: Harper Collins.)

In this dream, King was not asleep (he was awake). But something occurred that put him in a somnambulant state or trance. The biblical record is replete with references to alternate states of consciousness experiences (ASCs). Acts of the Apostles reports more than twenty ASC experiences, nearly one in every chapter. One clue is the Greek word translated gaze or stare, which occurs 10 times in Acts and is often a signal that a person has entered an alternate state of consciousness, e.g. in Acts 14:9, He listened to Paul as he was speaking.

The social sciences help us understand and interpret these biblical peak experiences (ASCs), whether factual or imagined. Though culturally specific in content, these are panhuman experiences available to all human beings.

A week before receiving his Cambridge School Certificate examination results in January 1963, the author of this book (In Communication with the Deceased) dreamed crossing a flooded river. The brown and dirty water was up to his neck. As he swam across, he was swept down the river, but after riding some rough waves, he finally swam across. After this dream, he felt calm and confident that he had passed his examination. He believed that had he not swum across the river, then he would not have gone through. When the results were published in the then Rhodesia Herald, he had comfortably gone through although a Distinction he had anticipated in Mathematics turned into a Credit.

In another vivid dream on 22 November 1994, the author dreamed of a policeman who turns out to be the policeman who served him from imminent death at the hands of ZANU-PF thugs on 10 April 2002. He had been toy- toyed into the basement of the ZANU-PF provincial headquarters during the aftermath of the turbulent presidential election of the previous month. Under there, he was battered and tortured by about twenty to twenty-five intoxicated men and women. Because of the policeman who came down to the basement to rescue him, the author was able to survive to tell the story. And so my life is safe, and I will live to tell what the LORD has done. (Psalm 118:17)

Recently, the concepts of dreaming have undergone substantial revision. The conventional view was that dreams occur during times of sleep known as REM—a stage of sleep marked by close, tightly clustered (beta) brain waves, lack of muscle tone, and rapid eye movements. However, additional research and recent advances in technology confirm that dreaming occurs at virtually all sleep phases (Rosalind Cartwright 8-17) (Hobson). Modern scientific study reveals that forebrain mechanisms control dreaming, differing from the brain mechanisms engaged during REM sleep stages (Solms). The steadfast view of the1950s that REM sleep somehow controls and manifests dreaming has fallen out of scientific fashion.

All humans dream. Study of the significance of dreams has not only travelled through science, but religion, philosophy, mythology, and psychology as well. Many non-Western cultures accept dreams as an external force that could contain messages from gods and spirits (Robbins). When Aristotle proposed that dreams reflected a person’s bodily health, the mythological twin brothers Hypnos and Thanatos guided society through their respective domains of sleep and death (O’Merara). Later, as Freud proclaimed, ….dreams are the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious mind, scientific society began to classify dreams as an internal force (qtd. in Cartwright 2). Speculation on the functions of dreaming varies as time itself.

Scientists have proposed many theories to explain the purposes of dreaming. Freud’s model of dreaming suggests that they serve to satisfy repressed desires by fulfilling instinctual wishes of the subconscious mind (Cartwright 2, 80). In dreams, we can