Dream Daemon?

[Roger]

In 1994, a close friend was very ill with cardiomyopathy, AIDS related. One night he had a most extraordinary dream. He wrote it down, I still have his account. In the dream, he was in his bed, and adjacent to it at the foot of the bed, at right angles, was another bed, on which sat a white clad figure of indeterminate gender. This figure pointed to a book and said to my friend "look at the pictures". The book was full of rather faded photos, and as my friend turned to the end, there was a full colour picture, all lifelike, which, as he stared at it, came to life as his being in it. It was a lovely scene, almost tropical, glorious colours, and a railway station. A train stood there, all new and beautiful, gold trimmed, a Great Western train (my friend loved trains, and the West is where the hero dies to be reborn,like the sun, as Joseph Campbell and Jung explore in depth).It was ready to leave for a glorious horizon. By my friend's side stood a figure "like ET", a kind of guard. This figure pointed to the train and said "don't miss it!". End of dream.

Six weeks, maybe less, he died in hospital, me by his side. Were the words of the extra-terrestrial figure telling him not to miss the fact that he was off soon on a journey? To where or what? The land of death and rebirth of the sun? Was the white clad figure his "daemon" as Anthony suggests? The faded pictures seem to be a kind of life review. The main impication here seems to be that some part of his being knew, was "watching over him", was transcendant to his ordinarly ego-self - Jung's Self, daemon, whatever. The dream certainly suggests continuity - the train was "going somewhere".

[Nimborio]

He everybody. I have just joined after experiencing a really odd synchronicity involving a particular section of Anthony's first book. I will post this in the correct place later.

Roger, I am sure that your friend's guide in the dream was, in fact, an image of the Daemon as Anthony describes this being in his books, specifically in "The Daemon". Your friend was dying and his Daemon knew this from a previous life. The Daemon then imposes itself into your friends dream looking like a typical Jungian archetype that your friend would feel at ease with. As you say the dream is also full of symbolism ..... going towards the setting sun with all its suggestions of death and rebirth.

I am sure that such dreams help both the dying and those left behind to come to terms with such things.

Really wonderfully uplifting posting. Thank you. I think I am going to learn a good deal on this forum.

[Anthony Peake]

Roger,

Welcome and thank you for your contribution. I am glad that you have joined us here. Your emails to me were of great interest and I am pleased that you wish to share them with the gang on here.

Tony

[Roger]

My own reflections on this dream are that it is a typically "transcendental" dream about a major life event (Death) which cannot be exactly "explained", but is like life otself, ambivalent. Does the dream point to rebirth - the place in the West where the sun god goes to die, journey through the unerworold in the night sea journey, and be reborn into another state of being, or reborn into an Eternal Return other universe? The ET figure is certainly in a way self explanatory, as anyone who knows the movie can see. Whatever interpretation one uses, it is a dream which shows some kind of continuity. In this respect, I quote Marie-Louise von Franz, in her book on Time. "When C. G. Jung died on June 6th, 1961, a patient of mine who did not know him dreamed: There were many people on a sunny day on a meadow: Jung was amongst them. He wore a suit which was green in front, black on the back. There was a black wall with a hole cut out, exactly matching the outlines of Jung. He stepped into it, and so one saw now only the black wall, but she knew he was still there, though invisible, She looked at herself and saw she wore an identical green'black frock. In dying, we may only step outside the event horizon of the living, but still exist in an unobervable state".