March News!

Obsessed with Death, Fantasy, Dreams, and More!

So, this week, I discuss death, dying, the mind, and ritual with Rob on the "Obsessed with Death" podcast--click HERE for more: https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/when-the-dead-visit-our-dreams/id1478296198?i=1000755367378.

Rob and I cover a lot in this episode, including:

• Why modern Western culture has largely lost meaningful death rituals

• How traditional grief rituals help people move from overwhelming grief to “integrated grief”

• The role of community, loneliness, and ritual in how we process death

• Why many grieving people dream of deceased loved ones and what those dreams may mean

• How the brain processes grief during sleep and dreaming

• Psychological vs. spiritual interpretations of dream encounters with the dead

• The structure and common patterns of near-death experiences

• Evidence and debate around consciousness, the brain, and whether awareness might exist beyond the body

• Philosophical ideas like panpsychism and the possibility that consciousness may be a fundamental property of the universe

LOTs of cool stuff. Don't miss it!

What else is going on?

I'm also in the middle of listening to Fourth Wing on audible, so I'll let you know my thoughts on that when I finish it. I'm about 25% of the way through it so far. And for my non-fiction reading, I'm about halfway through Claude LeCouteux's "Demons and Spirits of the Land: Ancestral Lore and Practices", which is a fascinating survey of folk beliefs involving land spirits, covering almost all of Europe from the Roman period on up to the 19th century. LOTS of inspiration to be had there :)

This is definitely part of how I write, by diving into the history and lore of fantastical literature, though no doubt the ancients would never be so block-headed as to call it "fantasy". It was real, and maybe it still is, but we've just forgotten it all in our rush to control the world. Who knows?

In any case, what's really cool about this is how similar such beliefs are around the world--evidence of archetypes in action, and/or the world of the spirit living all around us. What do YOU think is going on?

Keep dreaming folks,

EG