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It's interesting that one of the people on the dream website (http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/teethdreams.pl?method=exact&header=dreamid&search=emailteeth1) says that it's always men that die after a tooth falling-out-dream. That's certainly been the case with me.
There's another type of dream, by the way, which predicts imminent death. In many countries, I think, including Indonesia, it is believed that when we dream about a wedding, someone we know is about to die. It happened to me about two years ago when one night I dreamed about a tooth falling out and the following night I dreamed about attending a wedding. Half way during the dream, all the women had disappeared from the wedding and there were only men left. They were Dutch Subud brothers, all of whom I knew. They were all dressed in black diplomat-style uniforms, with epaulettes. Gradually the wedding began to look more and more like a funeral. Three days later I got a phone call from Holland and a friend told me that a beloved Subud brother had died. During his life he had been a diplomat. An interesting aspect is that this brother and I weren't particularly close, simply because he and I often both lived in different countries and were also never in the same group. So we never really got the chance to get to know each other. Yet I had those two warnings of his death. Why, I wonder? I suspect that Subud members are, on a spiritual level, much closer to each other then we realise. I remember a Subud sister telling me that one day, not long after a dear Subud friend of hers had died, she saw him in the sky above her. To her surprise, next to him was a Subud brother who had died several years before and to whom he hadn't been close at all during their life on earth. It's all a great, great mystery. - - - - - Many of us had spontaneous experiences connecting us to Bapak in most unexpected ways at the time of his death. In my case, I was visiting my ex-wife when I suddenly began to feel ill. "It's no use," I said to her, "I've got to go upstairs and lie down. I feel just like an old man who is about to die." I lay there for a while in that state before drifting away in a kind of doze." Later, I returned to my own apartment to find a phone message from an old friend with the news that Bapak had died. My favourite such story was told me by Robijan Gove in California in the early nineties, when he himself was already quite old. According to Robijan, now no longer with us, he was relaxing in the sunshine that day in June, 1987, when Bapak suddenly appeared in front of him. Bapak leaned over him, waggled his fingers at him - exactly as one would to a tiny baby - and said in the sort of voice one reserves for communicating with infants, "Bye-bye. Bye-bye!" Robijan was then aware of two distinctly separate responses going on within him. His ordinary mind said, "For goodness sake, Bapak, I'm an old man. Don't talk to me as if I'm a little kid," while his inner - sounding exactly like a little kid - said, "Bye-bye, Bapak!" - - - - - A Subud sister was in coma in hospital in Indonesia. Ibu (Bapak’s wife) told another Subud sister to visit her and sit quietly, in a receiving state, next to her bed and that she would receive "a present" if she would do this. So this sister went along with it and followed what Ibu had told her to do. She sat quietly next to her friend for a couple of hours. Then, suddenly, the patient sat up straight in her bed and said "Have you ever been to South Africa?" and lay down again, back into the coma, leaving the lady sitting there thinking, "That's it? That's my present? hmmm." Then she is suddenly transported, like in a spontaneous latihan, to somewhere in modern day S. Africa, I presume for identification purposes, as if in order to see S. Africa in a recognisable context. She is then transported way back in a dome and as she's walking to the front - and somehow she knows it's long, long ago - she sees lots of people she knows from Jakarta, Subud people. Bapak is in the front, he is formed out of light and he is giving a lecture about the forces while using a sort of whiteboard on which he is drawing diagrams. She went to Bapak soon after, who confirmed it was a true receiving, saying (pulling at his skin), "This is the first time Bapak is in this body." I think that is also when he said that the receiving was 10.000 years ago. He has said, in other occasions, that there have been other civilisations/incarnations on this planet that archaeologists know nothing about. - - - - - The compiler of the Sufi site http://www.naqshbandi.org:80/chain/39.htm included the following extract from John Bennett’s book ‘Witness - the Story of a Search’ - latest edition Bennett Books 2007: |
The Shaykh was waiting for me on the roof of his house. It was high up above the city, commanding a superb panorama. I felt at ease from the start, and very soon I experienced a great happiness that seemed to fill the place. I knew that I was in the presence of a really good man.
After the usual salutations, and compliments of the excellence of my Turkish, he astonished me by saying: 'Why did you not bring the lady sister who is with you? I have a message for her as well as you.' It seemed unlikely that anyone could have told him about Elizabeth. We had walked straight to his house, and the Dadji, my guide, had left me at the door without speaking to anyone. I replied that as he was a Muslim, I did not think he would wish to speak with a woman. He said very simply: 'Why not? Rules and customs are for the protection of the foolish; they do not concern me. Next time you pass through Damascus, will you bring her to me?' I promised to do so if the opportunity came. We sat for a long time in silence, watching the ancient city. When he began to speak, I found it hard to come out of the deep reverie into which I had fallen. He was saying: 'I was expecting someone today, but I did not know it would be you. A few nights ago an angel came to my room and told me that you would come to visit me and I was to give you three messages. You have asked God for guidance about your wife. She is in God's keeping. You have tried to help her, but this was wrong. You disturb the work that God is doing in her soul. There is no cause for anxiety about her, but it is useless for you to try to understand. The second message concerns your house. You have asked God for guidance as to whether you should go your way or follow others. You must trust yourself. You will be persecuted by the Armenians, but you must not be afraid. You have to attract many people to you and you must not hesitate even if other people are angry.' "'The most important message is the last. You must know that there is great wickedness in the world. People have given themselves over to the worship of material things, and they have lost the will and the power to worship God. God has always sent Messengers to show the way out of such situations, and He has again done so in our present age. A Messenger is already on earth, and his identity known to many. Before long he will come to the West. Men have been chosen to prepare the way for him... It was shown to me that you are one of those chosen to prepare the way... The Messenger will come to your country and even to your house...' In 1957, Bapak did indeed visit the U.K. and stayed with Mr. Bennett at Coombe Springs. - - - - - I strongly believe in praying. I once went through a very difficult phase in my life. I was without work and everybody seemed to dislike and criticise me, including my wife, and my Subud brothers and sisters. With money running out and no place of our own - my wife, the children and myself were staying with relatives and had been asked to leave soon - the future looked bleak and I felt depressed and lonely. The state I was in closed me off from the latihan. I still went to the group twice a week but I could hardly feel the latihan. One night I woke up around 4 a.m. and I couldn't sleep anymore. I felt terrible. I decided to go downstairs and try to do a latihan. It didn't work, so instead and in desperation, I prayed: 'Please God, I can't go on any longer. I need Your help. Please help me and show me what to do.' I had hardly finished speaking those words, when a Grace descended upon me and spread throughout my body. In no time at all the depression and dark feelings had melted away. I started to feel happy and filled with the latihan and with a feeling of love and gentleness towards myself. I felt very grateful and humbled, and I thanked God for having given this to me. I went back to bed feeling peaceful and I slept really well. When I woke up later that morning, not only did I feel light and happy, but also, to my surprise, the people around me were much nicer to me. The next day I found a temporary job and gradually things became better for us. The feeling of grace and love for myself stayed for about two weeks. I have experienced several times since that when things are really difficult and you feel pushed to the edge, that's the time when your prayers are most likely to be answered. - - - - - I was cured from a mental state of fear and anxiety by praying in front of the image of Mary the mother of Jesus as the Lady of all Nations – see Gallery page and www.de-vrouwe.info/en/. - by calling strongly for her help in the middle of the night. All of a sudden the heavy load of my state fell off from me, as if I could just step out of it, and it never came back again. That was in August 2003 and I had been ill since September 2001 She is quoted as saying, 'Whoever stands in front of the image, and asks for grace will receive it, when it is the Will of my Son, Jesus Christ,’ and I have had good experiences in praying with the following words: 'In the name of The Lady of all Nations, I ask for........ ‘ - - - - - |