The Green Sheaf: Mysticism, Dreams, and Death

I really enjoyed talking about the difference between mysticism and dreams in The Green Sheaf. Alevtina’s distinction where dreams can be seen as a conduit to mysticism was very interesting. With the discussion on death in The Green Sheaf, it had me wondering about how closely our sleep-state may relate to a death-state. Of course, we can’t know what happens to us when we die — but when we sleep we dream. This dialogue I’m having with myself actually reminds me of Hamlet and the famous “To be or not to be” speech: “To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come…” (Act 3, Scene 1). There’s a possibility that sleep and the dreams we have in our sleep is the closest we may experience death. And so, if we wonder (as Hamlet did) whether we dream when we die, then everything really gets tied together in a way I hadn’t considered. Is mysticism the thing that ties this all together? I find I’m going back to my thoughts on how mysticism, again, conflates dreams (and now death). Even as conduits to mysticism, they are all so closely linked.

Sabrina Pavelic. 30 November 2020.