And Who Are the Dreamers?

 And Who Are the Dreamers - Catlynh Phan

    We had the pleasure of listening to Dr. McIntosh from Indiana University during one of our classes in which he discussed the Journey of the Soul When the Body Dies. He had spent a good number of years studying the aboriginals in Australia where he learned about their religious traditions and the transitions of their beliefs. 
    Their primary belief was that of the external soul. The external soul is a soul which is outside one's body. For example, when someone would die in their community, they would say that their souls were in a whale (or some other animal) in order for them to live forever although their bodies were no longer alive. The external soul has been used throughout history and in myths and legends as a symbol and way for eternal life. The aboriginals also claimed that sleeping was a way to see into eternity as sleeping was the closest thing humans could get to death. So came the name "Whale Dreamers." 
    When the Indonesian whale hunters came to the coast of Australia and hunted whales, the aboriginals were horrified. If humans could kill these whales, then where were the souls of those who had since passed? Where were the Dreamers? Then their ideas transitioned to the internal soul. 
    We all experience our own external souls in different ways from the aboriginals. In the death of a loved one we all feel a sense of losing a part of our selves. We invest so much of ourselves in that person that it seems that we have lost a piece of our souls. We are Dreamers.

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