What Are Dreams Video

[Gabriel Litke]

The 1998 film What Dreams May Come starring Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, and Cuba Gooding, Jr. was one I enjoyed, but it was the cinematography that I loved the most. The images were so beautiful that it has become a film I've watched more than once. When I learned it was based on a book originally released in 1977, I figured I would download it. After I did more research, it was interesting to find the author was previously a horror writer and, at the time, was trying to separate himself from the genre.

In the book, Robert has a visitor at his door, who delivers a large envelope. In this, Robert finds a manuscript written by his brother Chris. Immediately dubious at the authenticity since Chris has passed away, the woman at the door explains that she spent the last six months writing down Chris' words and after reassuring him that she understands it might be unbelievable, it is, in fact, true. She leaves quickly, never giving her name or a way to contact her.

It is Chris' journey following death that is explained, in minute detail of his initial stumbles as a spirit who didn't understand what happened. He doesn't grasp how he can be at his own funeral, or lay down next to his weeping wife, since he believes he's not dead. When it becomes too confusing and exhausting, he eventually cries for help. It's answered by Albert, a guide who begins to educate Chris on where he now is, and what he must do in order to achieve fulfillment in this afterlife. Albert brings him to Summerland and while it's not quite the heaven one might expect as there aren't any angels or harps, it instead is a sweeping landscape of beauty and nature, where colors are at their purest, and everything emits its own natural energy vibration that is pleasing to hear. The sky has no sun, yet is bright and clear; the rushing water in the lake is cool and refreshing, yet hands and clothes remain dry. It's a peacefulness that Chris has never experienced before. And I'll admit that when a dog begins to run toward him, a dog he and his wife Ann had in their earthly lives but had to put to sleep because of illness, I got a little choked up.

Chris, though, is still tethered to earth through his wife's despair and pain at his loss. Her grief ultimately keeps him connected, and he can't move on. It's when she commits a final act that determines her own fate, that Chris must travel to the deepest realms to save her soul.

What happens after we die?
I'm sure I'm not the only one who wonders what happens after death. Although several sources were used to build the foundation of the experience of death and the afterlife in What Dreams May Come, the book doesn't claim to be anything more than a story, and it's a pretty entertaining one. Bogged down by descriptions at times, but still good.

Surprisingly, I was not all that interested in the love between Chris and Ann, even though it's important to the story and I appreciated it in the film. In the book, though, I cared more about this particular version of life after death. I was fascinated by the idea that hell was a result of people limited by their minds in the afterlife. If they could only bring themselves out of the negativity they were surrounded by, and the despair and darkness, then they also could be in Summerland. Everywhere they looked, though, they were in a land with others who were also drowning in misery, so these poor souls couldn't conceive of anything more than sadness, hatred, and pain and were mired in this existence.

I also was more curious about the image of a house of rest, almost like a hospital in Summerland in which those who died by an act of violence or a lingering illness recuperated. Only when they acknowledged that they had passed on and could accept that they were able to now live without pain, could they really begin their new life. An interesting thought that new residents of Summerland still clung to their earthly existence, even if it was wracked with pain.

It's a good story and I enjoyed several aspects of it, but I found that I did get a little overwhelmed with so many of the descriptions of the love between Chris and Ann. It's pivotal to the story, but the flashbacks to moments in their life and expressions of devotion became tedious. In one defining moment towards the end, I was shocked at how many pages it was taking to fully express their connection. So, I quickly read those sections, to get to the ones that interested me more.

The book is a nice way to spend a couple of afternoons, though, and those who are interested in this version of an afterlife, or who struggle with what might be next, might like to spend some time reading this. Ultimately, I do recommend the film instead of the book simply because the images alone are brought to life much more. In my opinion, it was a story meant more for the eyes.

The movie follows the same story to a certain extent as the book. Even though several characters were changed, I could understand why it was done. It's the stunning visual imagery that I've always enjoyed, and here are a few pictures to give you an idea.
All Images from Blu-Ray.ComAll Images from Blu-Ray.ComAll Images from Blu-Ray.Com

Months before my tenth birthday, a shift in my personality sparked some concerns among those closest to me. At my elementary school, I was part of a junior achievement program that allowed me to be a mentee to my school guidance counselor for a select period every week. I did this with another student, Abby, who was one of the first to notice a personality change in me.

After pricking my finger, the doctor left the room. We sat looking blankly at the fluorescent white walls for what felt like hours when she returned, approaching us calmly. She began to explain that I had type 1 diabetes, gave us directions to the hospital and told us how I would have to live thereon.

How successful have you been at pursuing your dreams? Are you on a journey or a treadmill? How happy are you? Often, the answers to those questions are linked. If you have not been able to incorporate your dreams into your life, think about what you are modeling for your children: do you want them to have the same level of happiness as you have had? Or do you think they could do better on the happiness scale than you have done?

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Wanting to talk more with him about his approach to work as an international artist and to hear more about his playwrighting process, I (virtually) sat down with Liu recently to talk about making theatre in a pandemic, navigating the expectations placed on queer artists, and the urgent message PrEP Play has for audiences in an inter- and post-pandemic world.

After I came to the U.S., I started to take PrEP around 2015, and I was having some side effects, mostly very vivid dreams, where my senses of touch, feeling, and smell felt so real, almost like reality, which ultimately inspired this play. I talked to my doctor about it and she mentioned that vivid dreams are a really common side effect after you start taking PrEP.

I think, ultimately, I wanted to write a story that I could actually see myself in, that would reflect my experience or the experiences of people like me. It ended up being this play, which is something very personal and intimate, but at the same time, a very ambitious project that, like the characters in it, wants to have a conversation with the past, and with all the other plays addressing HIV/AIDS to figure out its own unique place in this new age of globalism and PrEP.

Linnea Valdivia (she/her) is a professional freelance dramaturg, producer, and playwright based in San Luis Obispo, Calif. She also served as the literary manager for National Queer Theater in New York City.

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But more than just not understanding things, how do we process these surprising and sometimes strange incidents? They are tough to ignore, but does that mean they are automatically divine revelation? Are they fallible? How do we understand them?

As believers living today, we are well advised to, like the centuries of Christians who have come before us, to find out guidance chiefly from the Word of God, the Scriptures, rather than our dreams or even our intuitions.

We might think of these type of things that get our attention like driving advice from children in the backseat. If you are a parent of small children, you have likely received advice from your kids about the route you are taking, better ideas for the day, or feedback on some other decisions. Often, like a strange dream, the interaction seems to come out of nowhere and has little value to you as you drive. But occasionally, they say something that gets your attention. It causes you to reflect, reconsider, and perhaps even change your plans. The input forces you back to another source to evaluate. Surprisingly, they can be quite helpful. So it is with things like this that we cannot explain. Are they infallible? Certainly not. Are they authoritative? No. Can they get our attention and be helpful? Definitely.

Erik Raymond is the senior pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Metro Boston. He and his wife, Christie, have six children. He blogs at Ordinary Pastor. You can follow him on Twitter.

On the whole I find that we tend to make sense of the world around us after we have experienced it. That is, you cannot know the feelings you will experience when you first get on a roller-coaster ride until it has finished and you can reflect. Likewise in this film, the assumption is that one cannot know life till one has passed on. Therefore the life section of the film is interspersed and is generally only highlighted when our main character remembers and reflects on his (past) life. So the question here is what do we learn about life from the perspective of hindsight?

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