Soozi Holbeche. Reprinted with permission by the Estate of Soozi Holbeche
On March 16, 2014, I received the following email from Soozi:
Dear David,
Sorry not to respond to your e-mails and invitations, but I have had 2 cancerous growths removed from my head and my left leg, the latter of which went septic, so have been in hospital on drips and having other treatment for my knees. I will be in touch when I am out of these woods. Sorry you have not heard from me. Lots of love to you all.
Soozi
She died six days later on March 22.
Probable Futures
I believe when we are given a premonition in a vision or in a dream, several trajectories are presented that lead to a number of possible personal futures. However, one future may be more likely than others.
I knew time was not A-Z. I felt a suspension in time. I knew life events were in “probables.”6
If time for all events, past and present, happen simultaneously and if seeing into the future is possible, it appears that only rarely it can be changed. Like John Brooks, we can have a view into the short-term future and see probabilities that can sneak their way into our dreams and sometimes into our waking reality that occur exactly as foreseen. So, why do we have dreams about the future? Are they meant to warn us so we can prepare for the inevitable? Or can our actions in the present change probabilities we set in motion in the past? Do we have an option to change our “appointed time?” Is the prophetic dream “set in stone?” Will the future occur just as John Brooks saw in his dream before the 2014 World Cup?
Some Examples: A symbolic dream I had on May 18, 2014 seemed to have prophetic consequences. I dreamed of a very deep gorge, threaded by a fast raging river. A huge, but gentle King Kong straddled the gorge. He wasn’t scary at all. I say “gentle” because he was helping Sharon Solomon (Paul Solomon’s widow) and me across the fast moving river. Sharon jumped into his huge ape hand, and he carefully lifted her over to the other side. It was my turn to jump into his hand, when I woke up from the dream.
The gorge and bridges crossing rivers were recurring elements in dreams I had throughout 2014 and 2015. The symbol of a gentle black King Kong could represent Death, sometimes represented by the Grim Reaper or the Angel of Death. (See also chapter15, You Do Not Die Alone) I don’t know why I got a gentle King Kong, but I think he is a better symbol of death than the Grim Reaper! I was concerned after I woke up from the dream thinking Sharon’s life was in danger. Over the summer, I asked her about her health. She told me she felt fine.
It seemed highly unlikely she would die before me. However, six months later on November 14, 2014, Sharon had a massive heart attack that, according to her doctors, brought her within an hour of death. I called Sharon a month later, and we had a two-hour chat. I talked to her about her heart attack and reminded her of my King Kong dream eight months prior. To me, the dream clearly predicted the real possibility of her death before mine. I asked her to email me a description of her heart attack. I discovered a week prior to her dramatic event; she had a dream about deceased friends and family:
I was at Hearthfire Lodge with Paul Solomon, Thomas Keller, Paul Ricioppo, and Reverend and Mrs. Dove (all deceased). We were moving, packing up everything there, moving then to Texarkana, Texas (where I moved for a time after Paul died) and from there, to Burke’s Garden, Virginia, to my current home. It left me with a good feeling, but I was not able to interpret its meaning until I remembered it again soon after I had a heart attack.
Sharon disclosed more details about her medical emergency:
Thinking back on the experience and the four days I spent in the hospital, I realize something transformational occurred and I don’t know exactly how to explain it. It wasn’t a near-death experience in the classic sense. I didn’t leave my body and view it from above. I didn’t go to or through a tunnel.
What did happen I knew …with a certainty…this dream was real-those people who I loved and had gone before me had come to reassure me. They are waiting for me and would have been there had I died then and will be there whenever I die. I have no fear of death and have been able to discuss my plans for my passing very easily.” ~Sharon Solomon
Sharon feels she did not take the opportunity to die at her appointed time, which I believe it was. Of course, I am praying for her good health, but it seems our future deaths will be connected regardless of when our deaths occur and whoever crosses over first!
Interpreting Dreams
One example of dream interpretation I would like to share happened in a 1988 dream class in Japan. I asked for one of the Japanese class participants to share a dream so I could attempt to interpret it. Emiko, my wife at the time, was translating Japanese to English for me, making the task all the more difficult.
A man in his forties stood up and described a dream where he had been imprisoned for 11 years, his wrists bound with duct tape. It was a recurring dream where he could not escape. At first, the meaning of the dream escaped me, but then it occurred to me to ask him, “What happened 11 years ago?”
He thought for a moment, and then he said, “That’s when my daughter left our home after a family argument.”
You could feel the goosebumps run through the entire class. The man had put himself in a prison of guilt for 11 years since she left.
I asked him, “Can you forgive her for leaving?”
He broke down in tears. “I’ve been in so much pain. Yes. Yes. I can.”
The whole class was in tears.
Such Zen moments are few and far between. Wisdom comes when it comes. But in between, we need lots of practice!
Asking God for Answers in Dreams
I have endured thirty radiation sessions and sixty Temodar chemo treatments since September 2013. My tumor shrank from 20mm to 3mm, so the current therapy appeared effective. By September 29, 2014, it was time for a PET scan to see if any tendrils of my cancer had spread to other areas in my brain. PET is a high resolution MRI, where you are injected with a radioactive fluid that reveals even pinpoint cancer spots. I was in my 16th month of survival following my GBM diagnosis, so this scan was pivotal in predicting any chance for long-term survival. Our neuro-oncologist appointment with Dr. Randazzo was set for the next morning at 10:30am to go over the MRI and PET scan results.
My disorientation symptoms had increased, so we didn’t know what to expect, and I wasn’t that hopeful. So before we went to bed, Delynn and I prayed together and asked God to give us a dream with some guidance.
At 3:00 am later that night, I woke up with a very short, but powerful dream. In the dream, Delynn told me “David, you are expecting unfaithful waters.” I woke up Delynn and conveyed the simple words to her. It sounded Biblical, but neither of us had heard the term “unfaithful waters” before. We did a google search and found this amazing quote from Jeremiah: 15-18. (ASV) “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refused to be healed? Wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful [brook], as waters that fail?”
In the Good News Translation we read, “Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won’t they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?”
Delynn and I were both surprised by the short dream and Biblical reference. The Scripture specifically refers to the prophet Jeremiah who also had a wound that would not heal. (Jeremiah 15:18) and he complained to God, “When are you going to heal me? God basically says, “Don’t you trust me? I am a spring well that never dries up.” The dream was a powerful “note” from God, “I am here with you. Your continued survival is dependent on ME. Have faith David.”
Approaching-Death Dreams (ADDs)
There is a distinct subset of dreams I have termed approaching-death dreams (ADDs). They differ from near-end-of-life events (NELEs)— (see Table 1, Seven Near-Death Triggers, #7, ch.2) which are conscious or semi-conscious visi
ons of deceased loved ones seen by the person who is dying a few weeks, days, or hours before death.
ADDs represent dreams of a person approaching death and contain symbols such as luggage, airplanes, ice and oranges, snow, crossing a river, black shoes, tropical shirts, passports and tickets. In general, they describe someone who is getting ready to leave for a destination in the Afterlife.
The Angel of Death may appear or in my case, death is symbolized by a gentle, King Kong described earlier in the chapter. Sometimes approaching-death dreams may be prophetic about the time a loved one plans to leave. I have included several instances of my own approaching death dreams that have occurred over the last two years. These are just a few examples:
~I saw myself climb down from a very high oak tree to be engaged in a conversation with a group of people. They were discussing whether we should feed a beautiful white stallion who had lost its will to live, or instead, continue payments on a 3-year car lease. The question was, “Do we spend money feeding the stallion who had lost its will to live, or pay the car lease?” The advisors in the dream wanted to pay the car lease. I disagreed.
The stallion was so weak from losing its will to live, and it was quietly lying down on the ground on its side waiting to die. I stood over him and was surprised to see, instead of a black eye pupil staring at me, a brilliant, glowing white Light was shining out of its eye. It was as if his whole body was lit up from within, releasing the Light through the one eye I could see. It reminded me of Luke 11:34: ‘The Lamp of the Body is the eye.’
I knelt down next to the stallion, and began gently petting his head saying, “You can do it, buddy. You can do it. Come on…hang in there, consoling him, like I was encouraging my very best friend to live.” Then I woke up. Even when I think about the moment I petted the horse with such compassion and encouragement, how absolutely gentle I expressed myself in the dream as I stared into the beautiful white Light, every time it brings tears to my eyes.
The dream became a distinct turning point in my life. I wanted to live again. I thought I had wanted to live. I was not afraid of death, but perhaps I was resigned to dying. I wasn’t “acting” as if I wanted to live. I knew the meaning of the dream. The horse was my body and life. The white Light shining from the stallion’s eyes was Christ, the Living One. God was trying to resurrect “David” back to life. My encounter with the brilliant, white Light in the dream had the hallmarks of a near-death experience. ~Chronicle 358
~Crossing a river holding on to a pole attached to a rope spanning the river. I observed a trout swimming below the thin ice and an orange (tropical). The ice and tropical mix is a near-death symbol for me. ~Chronicle 481
~Walking on pebbles just under the water leading towards a bridge crossing over a river. Six Sans Souci relaxed summer chairs freshly painted blue and grey set on a dock at the beginning of the pebble walkway on the shore I was standing on. Walking on the pebbles made it look like I was walking on water. ~Chronicle 504
~I remember getting a gold-covered piece of luggage for travel. ~Chronicle 524
~Looking to take an “excursion” to a tropical place. I was alone. No one was traveling with me. I waited at an airport/travel agency four hours for a flight. I was quite the impatient one. I really wanted to leave. Still, I was polite. Some of the other passengers who were going to the “tropical place” had bright blue or purple tropical shirts for their trips, everyone else wore black and white—kind of like the little girl with the red coat in Schindler’s List. (Travel dream going to a tropical place, color, all indicative of crossing over at some point in the not-too-far-off future. A four-hour wait could be four months or four years.) In my desperation to leave, I found a small plane I could fly, but I didn’t know how to operate it; descend, ascend, or even contact the airport tower for control
instructions. I had to get to Los Angeles International Airport, which was excessively intimidating for a pilot with no experience. ~Chronicle 815
I believe dreams are a language sent from God. Learn to remember them and interpret them. Do not let unconscious sleep rob you of the dreams the Lord has sent to teach you. The world of your subconscious is a pathway to interpret the activity and meaning of your daily life, and can be an instrument to seeing beyond the veil, a mini-death experience without the requirement of illness or death to receive messages from God. Perhaps, you will be gifted with dreams with deceased loved ones or dreams about the future. Or you may hear a dream of a loved one who is preparing to cross over and know how to interpret it. But none of these will be available to you unless you begin recording dreams, interpreting dreams, and enriching your mind with a new skill. It is rare, very rare, for someone NOT to be able to learn to remember his or her dreams. Practice will not only open a doorway to Heaven for blessings and communication from the Lord, you will prepare yourself for your own death because you will have become familiar with the Light that shines through from the Afterlife.
—
Endnotes
1Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, Summary of Key Findings, http://www.pewforum.org/2009/12/09/many-americans-mix-multiple-faiths/
2Robert B NDE, #2158, 02.25.10, NDERF.org
3Carl G NDE, #1797, 12.15.08, NDERF.org
4Michael Sabom, M.D. 1998. Light and Death, One Doctor’s Fascinating Account of Near-Death Experiences. Grand Rapids Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, paraphrased from Lori’s Premonition, p. 158.
5ILC (Inner Light Consciousness) A Course in Spiritual Evolution taught by Paul Solomon. Available at www.paulsolomon.com.
6Lori E STE/SOBE, #3098, 07.28.12, NDERF.org
— 7 —
The Apprentice Gardener
The Apprentice Gardener. Magnified image from lower right hand portion of the “The Sacred Mountain.” Painting by Chris Arbo 1991. Reprinted with permission.by Sharon Solomon
An apprentice gardener does not try to shape nature, but lets nature reveal its shape, and in so doing, the garden becomes the teacher of life… It is not the gardener who makes the garden, but the garden who makes the Gardner. ~Alan Chadwick, Founder of the French Intensive, Bio-Dynamic Gardening method.
Imagine. You are dreaming you have just crossed over to the “other side.”
You are in Heaven.
It is a separate reality from Earth University. All your earthly senses; sight, keener, sharper, subtler, spiritual counterparts here have replaced touch, smell, taste, and hearing in this special place. A robe of light covers your body, tied with a golden sash. Your new body floats as easily as a dandelion seed in the wind. You are happy. You are smiling.
You find yourself walking through a beautiful meadow with tall green grass and wild flowers. As you walk, you can feel the tips of the high grass on your fingertips. You can hear birds chirping in the absolute quiet and the laughter of children playing nearby.
Off in the distance, across the valley, a magnificent garden-terraced mountain rises up into a deep azure sky. Waterfalls, forests, and vivid flowered gardens cover its slopes, and a breathtaking, almost blinding white Light shines from its summit. You instinctively know it is the Light of God and it is His Light that lights up the heavens.
You want to get to know that Light and are drawn towards it like a moth to a flame. You realize you have been to this sacred mountain before. This is not the first time. You realize your life on Earth has created the Afterlife garden you now observe around you. It was created by lessons learned and experiences encountered while enrolled in Earth University—a garden you grew in your own heart. It is not the end of your journey, but an immortal latest addition to a garden project begun long ago. A worn granite and alabaster stone path gently winds its way through the meadow to the base of the mountain.
Looking up, you can see there are seven lush garden terraces clinging to its slopes—the gardens we must pass through in our Afterlife journey up the sacred mountain.
Red flowers and Japanese maples predominantly mark the first garden. A large granite entry stepping-stone and a magnificent 700-year-old gnarly Black Pine Bonsai frame define the entrance.
Beneath the Bonsai, a gardener sleeps. Lying beside him is a rake, a hoe, and a shovel. An angel hovers above, whispering, “Apprentice, it’s time to wake up. It’s time to finish your garden.”
Afterlife Evidence of Heavenly Gardens
The metaphorical garden is an ongoing exercise intended to heighten our level of consciousness. What we achieve (or fail to achieve) is recorded in the Great Ledger (Book of Life) of God’s Kingdom. Our words and our deeds during our stay in Earth University do not simply vanish when we take leave of our physical vehicle; we shall be called to account for our lives. As Galatians 6:7 puts it, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Repeatedly, the Dead Saints bear witness to the reality of that promise (or warning, as the case may be.)
That understanding is a staple of most esoteric traditions and it may be the reason why, in so many Dead Saint accounts, Heaven is filled with plants, flowers, meadows, and beautiful panoramas.
God endows transformational power in the garden, a concept often overlooked by the Christian faith. Both literally and metaphorically, the ancients understood this power as a science. That is why, in ancient Egypt, the walls of the nobles’ tomb were carved with scenes of sowing, reaping and all the other crafts that transformed raw material into refined finished products. The garden is an eternal metaphor that reveals the power of Christ hidden within plants, rocks, and animals, and all living things, the Source of Life itself— nature’s athanor.
The Dead Saints Chronicles: A Zen Journey Through the Christian Afterlife Page 11
