Hanging Dream

I don't usually report my dreams on this blog but last night's dream was unusual. I was scheduled to be hung along with a small group of maybe three other men. The site was a single story house on acreage. Initially I was on the verandah and there were lots of people about, chatting and enjoying themselves. There a party atmosphere such as might have existed back in the early 19th century in England when hanging of criminals was public and a source of entertainment. 

I was free to move about and nobody seemed to be paying attention to me. I pondered whether to run away and thought about hiding at John Contarino's house. I knew my old school friend was dead but that meant there was a spare room that his mother might let me use. It didn't occur to me that she was long dead. I knew I'd be found however, and things might be even worse for me. There was an awful sense of dread knowing that I was to be executed. I couldn't believe that my existence was about to end.

I've had similar dreams in the past, though not many. At one point I asked Baba for help which I've never done before. Earlier in the evening I'd been talking to Sabina about the timing of my passing. A Pak Haji whom she had known predicted that I would decline healthwise once she graduated. She herself felt that my demise would occur soon after she got engaged. That's not on the cards at the moment but her current boyfriend in the United States is planning to visit mid-year. I'll have to wait and see how that relationship evolves. Clearly that conversation with Sabina and discussion of my time of death had prompted the dream.

I remember thinking in the dream that hanging was a nasty way to go and that I would have preferred a bullet. As my concern showed, I'm still very much attached to my body and my physical existence. The fact that I called out to Baba is positive I guess. I've only done this once before in a dream when I was falling to my death and remembered to take His name before impact. Here is a description of the merriment accompanying public executions.

Public hangings in early 19th-century England were major, rowdy public spectacles, often attracting thousands of spectators who treated the events as entertainment, with vendors selling food and drink. Executions typically occurred at locations like Newgate Prison for offenses ranging from murder to theft, continuing until 1868.