NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.—Dr. Jim Kwako is interested in dreams that are “not dreams in the usual sense,” he said. People commonly have dreams in which they talk to dead loved ones, or seem to presage some events in their lives, or have some other experience that has a profound effect on them mentally and emotionally. Some people Kwako knows have even used them to find the answers to complex math problems and other worldly and practical problems.
Kwako is a family physician in Santa Barbara, Calif., a past medical director for Cottage Hospital’s Shealy Pain and Stress Rehabilitation Center, and annual meeting chair for the American Holistic Medical Association. He has had his own “night-time experience” as he calls it.
Dr. Jim Kwako speaks at the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2014 Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., on Aug. 29, 2014. (Tara MacIsaac/Epoch Times)
He awoke with the words “help Rose” in his mind. Rose is his sister’s name. He later discovered that the same night, Rose had been going through a terrifying and traumatic experience. He had another dream with a more spiritual significance.
He dreamed that he joined a group in prayer. One of the people said: “May the light from the center of all that is good shine to us and through us.”
“That’s great, that helped me,” Kwako said. He said the experience was real and he is certain it wasn’t his subconscious or something created in his own mind. He shared these experiences and talked about a few benefits these experiences can have, as part of a discussion at the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) 2014 Conference in Newport Beach, Calif., on Aug. 29.
1. Finding Answers to Math Problems?
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Kwako had a good friend, a physicist who worked for a defense industry contractor, who is now dead. This friend had a talent for solving intensely complex math problems. When he would come to the point where he couldn’t figure a problem out, he'd rest and when he awoke, “Boom, the answer was there,” Kwako said.
“What was he doing when he went to sleep?” Kwako asked with a chuckle. “Was his mind simply connecting with his own subconscious and all the things he had read, or was he communicating with other people who were feeding him the answers?”
2. Balancing the Books?
(Dariusz Sas/Hemera/Thinkstock)
Kwako’s aunt worked for an insurance company when she was young. She had to balance the checks at the end of the shift and if they didn’t balance everyone would have to stay later to try and figure it out. She was often embarrassed, unable to balance hers and making everyone to stay later.
She started having night-time experiences. She would go to the office in her dreams, look at the records, and see highlighted spots. The next morning, she would check those highlighted spots, and sure enough, that’s where the problems would be.
Eventually, it got to the point, Kwako said, that “5 o‘clock would come, she hadn’t balanced, her boss would say: ’Let’s go home—let Tress sleep on it.'”
3. Healing Relationships
(Christian Müller/iStock/Thinkstock)
Kwako spoke of a woman who had an uneasy relationship with her father, whom she saw as domineering. In a dream, she talked to her father and experienced a kind and soft side of him. This helped her see these qualities in him in waking life as well. The dream helped change her view of her father, and their relationship improved greatly.
4. Warning, Communication
Illustration of holding hands via Shutterstock
As with the “help Rose” dream, Kwako said, many night-time experiences serve as warnings. They are often also reported as communications from dead loved ones. People find these are able to heal grief in many ways.
ALSO SEE: When a Dead Loved One Visits You in a Dream, Is It Real?
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