What The Dreams Of The Dying Reveal About The Human Spirit
Dr. Christopher Kerr says dying patients' dreams can help them heal spiritual wounds.
- Antonia Blumberg Associate Religion Editor, The Huffington Post
Dr. Christopher Kerr was 12 years
old when his father died. In the man's final moments of life, Kerr said in a recent TEDx talk, his
father reached out to him and told him to hurry because they needed to catch a
plane to go on a fishing trip. It was the last time Kerr saw his father.
Death has followed Kerr in one way
or another throughout his life, he said in the talk. He tried to avoid and defy
it for many years as a medical student and then as an emergency room doctor.
But since going to work in hospice care in 1999, Kerr has discovered a hidden
value in the dying experience.
Kerr now serves as chief medical
officer at the Center for Hospice & Palliative Care in New York and
recently published a report on the dreams
and visions of dying patients.
As Kerr's patients approach death,
many of them report having vivid and comforting dreams. The dreams frequently
involve deceased loved ones, reaching out to them in some way to let them know
everything is okay.
Time and again, Kerr and his fellow
researchers found that these dreams help give patients a sense of
meaning and spiritual comfort as their death approaches.
"End of life experiences
represent a rich interconnectivity between body and soul, between the realities
we know, those we don't, between our past and our present," Kerr said in
his TEDx talk.
"Most importantly, end of life experiences represent continuity between
and across lives, both living and dead."
Occasionally patients dream about
past trauma and find themselves reliving painful experiences from life. But
their dreams, Kerr said, sometimes help them heal spiritual wounds even as
their bodies decline.
"I'm inspired by the strength
of the human spirit and its endless quest to heal what is harmed and what is
broken," Kerr said.
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