Traversing the Underworld with Red

I’ve been sitting on this post for a couple months now but I think it’s time to post it. Part of what spurred the decision was playing the name game a la Bill Wright. I am terrible at this game but this one was so simple even I could follow along.

But first, some back story!

I have been having vivid and meaningful dreams since I was a teenager. Even back then I would record them. Not every dream, mind you. Far from it. But I think I have a talent for being able to tell which dreams are worth writing down. I had 3 dreams from my teen years that correctly predicted the future so I think that is why I have kept up the habit of paying attention to my dreams.

On Valentine’s Day 2017 I had by far the most detailed dream experience I’ve ever had. Most of my dreams are like short vignettes that I could describe in a few paragraphs. This one took about 7 pages and I had no trouble remembering it when I woke up. Even today I remember it clearly. I have been planning on posting it on here for a while now and it was a question of when rather than if. Basically I’ve been waiting for a good reason or sign and this week I got two.

Recently red and red hair have been popping up for Bill especially. I wasn’t too concerned with that sync b/c that is my general posture towards syncs. For better or worse, these sync fairies have to work overtime to get me to notice their work. But this red theme worked for some reason.

In my Vday dream there was a man who was represented by someone I know in real life whose name I have good reasons for not posting here. My plan was to rename him in the dream and I began deliberating what name to use. My main worry was that if I picked a random name I might inspire a name game for Bill or WJT that would be based on a fake name, which isn’t really fair to them. I had decided this man did not represent himself but was a stand in for someone else, and to be completely transparent, I had an inkling in the past he was a stand in for Bill but I had recently decided he is perhaps a better stand in for WJT. At the time of the dream I didn’t know Bill or WJT, hence the need for a stand in I suppose.

I didn’t want to put my finger on the scale though so my solution was to look up the meaning of the unnamed man’s name for inspiration and since I won’t post the real name here, you’ll just have to trust that a name-game troglodyte like myself got this one right.

The first name means “fox” or someone with “cunning, slyness, or red hair”. The last name has 3 potential meanings. Son of:

• charioteer
• raven
• corruption

So “cunning fox/red hair son of the charioteer/raven/corruption”. There’s a lot of fun stuff there and I determined I would use something from it to rename this person from the dream. I think in some form, all of those have come up with Bill and WJT and in several cases directly connected to WJT (I think).

Then yesterday Bill posted a picture of WJT that is apparently found on Hebrew Wikipedia for “hair”:

WJT no longer graces the world with the plenitude of hair in that photo, but that is one epic red beard. Bill points out the gold-haired top w red beard and does what Bill does best with name games and connections. I like Bill’s analysis and the gold/red callout with WJT’s hair was pretty cool. Plus, now I thought I must be on the right track with our red fox dream stand-in.

But let’s do a short side quest before I reveal the stand-in’s new name (if you can’t already tell from the blog title) and the dream.

In July, WJT did a tarot reading for me, the first of my life. One of the questions he posed is shown below with the answer:

“Does :Leo have anything to do with Leo(n) Egbert?” The answer was The Chariot — definitely a “yes” to that question, though the details are obscure. The Charioteer could easily represent Ar-Pharazon or some similar figure. His chariot is drawn by sphinxes (with the same zebra-striped headdress as the one on the Wheel of Fortune), which is more “lion” imagery and made me think of Sarastro from Mozart’s Magic Flute. Again, I don’t have a real feel for the detailed meaning of this card here.

Here WJT is associating the Charioteer in his answer about me and “Leon Egbert”. But WJT has his own associations with that name and, if I read Bill’s blog correctly, with chariots. That’s another direct connection with my dream stand-in’s real name along with red and fox.

Like WJT, I once had my own gold-haired top, you know. You would never guess it now, but as a child my hair was platinum blonde. Here I am standing behind my sisters, on a family trip to BYU of all places. This photo is cropped but the Y on the mountain appears in the full image.

There are disputed claims that people with albino blond and red hair (“Bohakanim”) like in WJT’s picture were common among certain Israelite tribes, specifically Simeon and Levi. So perhaps WJT, as the Hebrew example for “hair” exactly like the Bohakanim is associated with the Levite tribe. I am. My mother called me Levi while I was in the womb. I can’t tell you what my LDS temple name is, but I can tell you that the name you get is based on the date you went through the temple so if you know someone’s date, you can find a chart online that tells you what their new name is. If you were to look up the date I went through, all I will say is that you won’t NOT find the name Levi listed on the chart. Those lines should be pretty easy to read between without me coming right out and saying it. Levi means “joined in harmony”. Joined with what or whom I wonder?

My oldest brother says my parents considered naming me Elias but they decided that wasn’t right. In the end they named me after my grandfather and so II is appended to my legal name. As a very young toddler, my mother tells me she was telling another lady my name. Apparently I became angry and interrupted her to insist “I not second, I first!” The protests both amused and befuddled her because she thought I was way too young to care about or communicate such an idea plus I’m the 5th of 6 kids so it made no sense. But according to her, I protested very seriously if anyone dared to call me the second.

By the time I was a teen I had dark brown hair. However, I dyed it blonde like a good 90s faux rebel until I went on my LDS mission. Here I am in all my frosted glory recreating the golden top I had when I was younger (and looking very smug about something).

Unlike WJT, I still do have a beard today that is now mostly white but it used to be red-brown even if it never looked as dashing as WJT’s does in the “hair” photo. (Seriously, man, why didn’t you keep it?) Here’s an old photo showing my red-brown goatee over the head of one of my two red-headed children:

Apparently I used to have my own Bohakanim traits even if I don’t have any Wikipedia bona fides like WJT.

Well anyway, I guess the point is there are some interesting commonalities I have w WJT as it relates to symbols and connections. It reminds me of his brother’s tale of Leopold and Ebber. Or the L page in Animalia with two lions. Or Bert and Ernie. (By the way, both Bert and Ernie are part of my full name.) This idea of a pair seems to consistently pop up. As for what all that means, I’ll leave that alone for now bc I have no idea. We seem to be finding associations between ourselves and various characters and symbols. The meaning behind it doesn’t have to be understood right now and we don’t need to assume too much about it. It could have nothing to do with us anyway, and is more about understanding something now or later. Someday such things will be clear I assume. Maybe recognizing the connections is plenty and I find it too interesting not to disclose all of this given the recent syncing.

As for the dream, I know I was me in the dream and I think the other guy was just a stand in. Based on Bill’s recent post, (red, etc) I’m holding to my newer hunch that he’s a stand in for WJT. Five years from now, maybe it will be someone else entirely but we are playing on this field today.

The unnamed man in my dream, by the way, has reddish brown hair in real life. So with that, his new name will be easy. We’ll call him Red. I think we could go with Fox too but I picked Red first and I’m sticking with it.

Another sync: I started this post yesterday but it wasn’t until this morning that I saw a comment over on WJT’s blog where Bill brings up the very dream I am about to share and WJT asks in reply if I will share it. That is of course beyond uncanny and another sign that this is probably the right time to share it. [I was wrong about this.]

In this dream, Red and I traverse the Underworld on quite an adventure. It will be a long read but I hope it’s not a slog:

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2/14/17 Tue

Early this morning I awoke from a vivid dream that began in mortality. I was driving in a car with my mom, sister and brother to see my kids at school. I believe the idea was simply to visit them. For some reason we had to drive a different way than usual. It had something to do with the walk up to the school being too difficult for my mom. The ascent up the stairs was beyond what she could do.

During our drive a horrible accident occurred. We ended up crashing through a cement barrier on an overpass at a very high speed. As we fell down through the air I could see it was several hundred feet to the bottom and was sure none of us would survive. As we fell, I told everyone in the car “we’re dead”. But to my surprise, when we reached the bottom, although we crashed horrifically, I was not dead. There were, in fact, many cars that had been involved in this crash and many of the car’s occupants seemed totally fine. A bunch of us were milling around the mangled cars as if nothing had happened. I don’t recall seeing any of my family members from the car but I do remember my sister had been among the severely wounded and was carried away with injuries so severe she would never be whole in her life.

I don’t know how much time passed but after awhile I noticed strange things were happening like none of the emergency responders who arrived were interacting with me or the other survivors. One survivor kept trying to call a family member but his cell phone would never make the call. After what seemed like endless attempts the call finally did go through and the family member on the other end of the line answered but when the person from the accident spoke, the family member on the other end of the line couldn’t hear anything. The family member got very angry and started saying things like “who is this?” “how did you get his phone?” “what kind of sick joke is this?” “why would you do this to me?” Suddenly I realized all of these people, myself included, actually were dead, but had not realized it yet.

I believe my mom and brother also died but I don’t remember them being part of the rest of the dream. I remember realizing at this point that my sister had chosen to stay alive even in her injured state rather than die.

I wasn’t upset to learn that I was dead for some reason. I was simply amazed I hadn’t realized it sooner and neither had the others. I tried convincing everyone. I said “didn’t I say as we were falling ‘we’re dead’? And here we are unable to go back to our previous lives? We seem stuck here. Let’s move forward and see what lies ahead.” There were only a few people who believed what I said and were willing to move forward. As we walked from the scene of the accident it was obvious where to go. A path led toward a dark desert wilderness. I walked it with I believe 2-3 strangers and, unexpectedly, my neighbor Red. The farther we walked, the darker our surroundings became. We came upon an odd scene. There was what looked like the entry way to a roller coaster where a line would normally form. There was not a soul anywhere besides us but there was a wooden ramp with chain fencing that zig zagged to an entrance at the top. It was total darkness beyond the entrance so that I could not see, hear, nor sense what was beyond it. To clarify, there was no roller coaster that I could see. It’s just that the layout of the ramp reminded me of something like that.

There was a sign on the fence that was black on the right side and white on the left side. The black side said “To Hell” and pointed to the zig zagging ramp. The cost to enter was nothing; $0. I remember thinking how strange it was that whoever put the sign there would be so forthcoming about it. But then some thoughts came to me. Some few people literally would prefer to go there, knowing it was the destination. I couldn’t imagine wanting that but I thought this place must have a purpose and was successful in getting some few to enter the dark path beyond, whatever it was. I noticed that this place and the other places I would visit in this realm were surrounded by thick darkness. The only sources of light were occasional light bulbs that would enable someone to see only specific things, like this ramp and the sign.

On the white side of the sign, another arrow pointed to the left along the path we were following and said “To Heaven” but there was a price attached to it; $1. It was an easy choice. I began to walk “to heaven” with the other people. I was shocked to look back and see Red walking up the ramp. I was terrified that at any moment he would realize his error but some snare would prevent him from returning to us. I called back to him and asked what he was doing and if he had not seen the sign. He told me he saw it but thought things might not be as they seemed in this place and that he wanted to at least explore whatever this was. I thought that was a good point but that we ought not linger in this place. It seemed dangerous to me and I had the feeling we were watched.

I turned back to the path. One of the people with us said something about wishing we had a guide, someone we could trust. At that moment, a young girl appeared. She was maybe 8-10 years old. She indicated she knew the way. Wondering if I could trust her, I remembered a friend telling me once that Paul said to ask spirits to confess Christ. I said “do you confess Christ?” and she said “I confess Christ” or something to that effect. It was not said with any emotion at all. She simply said it. I thought maybe that was enough to follow her. My companions agreed and so we pressed on. I don’t think Red followed because I didn’t see him again until much later.

The girl led us to another place. It was an abandoned, dank, decrepit old building. The girl was no longer with us now. We debated about her. My companions thought she must have been an angel sent to guide us. I told them not to be so sure because even evil spirits can appear as angels of light. I didn’t feel fear but I was very anxious to get past this place. I knew there were beings here that were dangerous. Before long we came upon a middle-aged man wearing glasses. He acted harmless but I did not trust him at all. I got the feeling in his mortality he had been a serial murderer who enjoyed killing. He attempted to beguile us somewhat with charm by inviting us into a room of this building. There was an even younger child there who walked us into that room. I knew this was not a good idea so I looked around a corner that the man had been standing in front of and made a horrifying discovery. There was a large back pack of his, the contents of which I could not perceive, but strapped to the sides were small children, smaller and younger even than the first two we had seen. They were not dead, did not seem scared or harmed, but they were totally bound. Each had a syringe strapped across its mouth as a way to keep them from speaking. They made no struggle against the bonds. It was like something out of a horror movie. The pack would have been extremely difficult to bear, as large as it was and with children strapped to it.

And then another man appeared, who I perceived was possibly darker than the first, although he had no companions. There was some conversation between them and us although I don’t recall it. My group and I were sure these two were deceivers and that they had ensnared many on this path. We decided we should bind them and, if possible, prevent them from continuing their wicked craft. We did so easily. They made no attempt to stop us. Some amount of time passed as we struggled to come up with a way to prevent them from ever escaping or returning to their wicked ways.

We settled on a solution, but I can’t recall what it was. Once they realized our intentions the second man easily removed his bonds by some trick or power I couldn’t understand. He twisted some kind of dial where his ear should be and he was free. Then I realized this was all part of their craft. Letting us bind them was simply a trick to delay us. These beings had power here I could not grasp or prevent. I felt they had no power over me so I was not fearful. But I knew there was nothing I could do to prevent them from delaying or harming others. I thought of what Joseph Smith said about lacking knowledge and therefore becoming ensnared by spirits after death who had greater knowledge. These beings had greater knowledge in this realm and I had no desire to remain in it or test their powers. I pressed on in my journey but I was now alone. I don’t know what became of the others I was with.

I passed through many dark places but the details of most are foggy, literally and figuratively. Most of the time I was alone. At one point I got bogged down in a room of diversion. There was a dog there who wanted to play and people behind a counter who wanted to chit chat. They were all pleasant until I wanted to leave at which point they would all (dog as well) get irritated as if I owed it to them to stay. So I would stay. But after a few times I realized it was just another deception designed to catch me. Their craft was to take advantage of kindness and politeness.

I pressed on, passing through more rooms. I remember being aware of other lone travelers at times but we didn’t interact and I didn’t perceive who they were. Over time the many places I came to seemed less dark until finally I found myself in a building, passing from room to room. There were almost no other people, either, and very little light. But the thick darkness at least was not there. I began to feel relief that I had made it through that hell. I was taught or understood something at this point — that people get stuck in the place I had just been for extremely long times. So long, in fact, that it seems to them an eternity. But the only reason they get stuck is because they don’t desire to leave. And that once someone has that desire, the way is opened before them although it may take some time before they find their way out. There were other ideas too such as eventually everyone gets flushed out of that place. They either press on in the ascent or they get swept back into mortality where they might learn some knowledge that will help them the next time they pass through. I don’t know if that was true of the beings with power there or just the sojourners. And I don’t know if those ideas are my own or actually true. But those ideas existed in the dream.

Next I was passing through a nice room, by mortal standards, and was pleasantly surprised to see none other than Red himself sitting on a couch. I almost didn’t notice him because I was moving quickly and hadn’t seen anyone in awhile. Looking at him I was surprised to see him ashen-faced and looking forlorn. He tried to put on a brave face but I could tell he was a little disappointed to have been seen. I inquired what troubled him. He said he couldn’t believe it was like this. He was shocked at how difficult life was even after death and he acted as if he lacked strength to continue on, as though he might linger in this empty room and not press on. I didn’t know what he had passed through to vex him so much but since he and I had not been together I assumed he had encountered difficulties greater than what I had.

As I considered what to do, another truth came to me “As below, so above.” It was a new idea to me but immediately I seemed to understand what it meant. I told Red about this and said we ought not be surprised and reminded him that we suspected the deception continued after death but that we could ascend if we press on. I told him this place is no different than mortality, that deception lies everywhere and that the only way up is to hear God’s voice and hearken to it, just as in mortality. In other words, as below, so above. He took heart at this and together we pressed on.

The next room we came to, I was surprised to see, had a sea of people. It was closed off by double doors like you see in school or church where all you have to do is press the horizontal bar and push on the door to enter. Sort of like this:

This new area was almost like a huge mall/food court in design. People were everywhere, as far as I could see, thousands of them and there were nice rooms filled with nice things. People were eating and talking. I could tell everyone was happy to be here, especially compared to where I had just been. We walked among them. Red and I wondered whether this could possibly be heaven but neither of us could really say. I suggested we ask a nearby woman about this place. She was at a small table just finishing her meal. She assured us this was heaven and said God had just been on the television talking to them (as she pointed to a TV on the wall). She said he talked to them regularly. But to me this sounded like an obvious ruse and I immediately understood that in this place literally everyone was friends with everyone but that there was no true companionship, no marriages. People were not forbidden from being intimate but they didn’t have true companionship. I don’t know really what that means. I guess they were friends with benefits? They all cared about each other and had total peace with their fellow man. Everything they could ever want was provided for them and they could partake to their heart’s desire. They spent much of their time eating and enjoying fellowship together. This particular area was filled with evangelical Christians who had congregated together. The being on the TV who professed to be God was a false god.

Red and I got separated as we explored. Just the sheer volume of people was astonishing to me. This building, as I think about it, was rather large and spacious but in my dream I just thought it was a nice mall-like building. I didn’t make the “large and spacious” connection during the dream. I walked past a particular room and noticed there was not a soul inside it and the lights were out, but it had a large bookcase right inside the open door that was filled with important books. Another truth came to my mind that this room contained the “key of knowledge” and the people here do not have it, nor do they seek it and that is why they linger in this realm.

I knew suddenly how to move past this realm. I would enter the neglected library and gain the knowledge needed. I was eager to find Red so he and I could go on together. As I looked for him I entered another area of the building that was separate from where I had just been. It wasn’t locked or guarded, but it was clearly a separate area with the same type of double doors we passed through before.

Things were different here in subtle ways. The lighting was brighter, the furniture was nicer, there were fewer people, and it was much quieter. And then I noticed people in Sunday dress, some of whom were wearing black missionary name tags. I knew then that everyone here was LDS. Their area resembled the inside of an LDS temple or the church office building. It was very nicely decorated. I saw Red and told him I needed to show him something really important. He said he also needed to show me something. We searched for a room where we could speak privately and came across a Mormon woman I know named Sandy. She acted very excited to see us (but in a “reverent” kind of way). Red wasn’t unkind but he didn’t engage her. I said hello but quickly pressed on after Red so as to not be delayed. Sandy didn’t seem to mind us moving on. I have no idea why we saw Sandy! Other than her, the people here really paid us no attention, just as on the evangelical side. We were just two people in a sea of others.

My internal sense of direction told me that we were just on the other side of the wall from the amazing library I wanted to show Red and I thought perhaps the library connected both sides such that we could enter from here. I hoped that I would be able to get him to explore it with me right then. I asked him to stop as we approached where it would be. To my surprise, however, on this side of the building the library was not dark and uninhabited. There were people and books and lights but it didn’t connect to the neglected library on the other side. I immediately perceived what had been done here. This room had also contained the key of knowledge at one point but rather than leave it undisturbed as the evangelicals had done, the Mormons had removed the key of knowledge and replaced it with falsehood so that any who partook of what was inside would continue in their delusion and be unable to move on. It sickened and saddened me and I was anxious to return to the other side where I could gain what I lacked.

But at this point Red and I entered a room where we could talk. He showed me something very disturbing that he had found in the LDS area. It looked at first like a folded parchment or something. But as he unfolded it, it became a device made to simulate a vagina. It seemed realistic in some ways but it was obviously man-made. He said he found it and that these devices were used here to engage in sexual acts. We were both troubled by this and really didn’t know what it meant. Super weird, I know. I suppose there was some kind of weird sex cult there much like in Brigham’s days?

Red then showed me something that had been given to him, a long string with keys connected at various intervals. The string had three differently colored sections but the sections were connected together. The keys were tied to the string at different points as if they were to be used in a certain order. All we really knew was that some of the keys were for a kingdom beyond. Red said the keys simply appeared in his pocket. As he pulled them out of his pocket, another strand of keys with my name on it fell on the ground. This strand was much smaller and I don’t know what they were for (a kingdom ahead or behind or the current place). We both chuckled that Red had 3x as many keys than I did but there was no envy on my part or pride on his. We were just glad to have them since it meant we should be able to get past this place.

Even with the keys we weren’t sure how to proceed. I still wanted to get back to the neglected library but Red wasn’t sure it was necessary given what he now had. We moved to another area with few people and spent some time chatting at a table about how to proceed. At some point another person, Dan, joined our discussion. He was seeking a way out as well. We became aware that a teenage girl was watching us from afar. Red and I weren’t sure this was a good thing since no one else took notice of us. We moved away but the girl followed.

She eventually approached us and said she was there to help us. I was skeptical given what had happened with the young girl in the last place but she produced a flier as proof. The flier seemed other worldly, out of place in that realm. It had silvery writing that wasn’t easily deciphered, as if it would look like a blank piece of paper if the wrong person looked at it. It was similar to the writing on the cards in my dream of 2 Nephi 27. It told about the place she was from and described its glory and benefits. Red was convinced by it and handed it to me. Dan pointed to a section that advertised baseball and got excited (he’s a huge baseball fan). He said at least they have baseball and that would mean to him it was a better place than this because it was more free. I looked at the flier to see what else it said. There was a section that said Jesus would be visiting at a specific time and everyone was invited. At this I triumphantly said “Ha! That’s proof it’s not God’s kingdom! Jesus wouldn’t ‘visit’ his own kingdom. At best the place she is trying to take us is terrestrial.”

I was kind of excited feeling like I had discovered another deception and that we could now find a way to God’s kingdom instead of this other place. Red and Dan thought, however, that going there first was the safest way forward and that we must pass through the terrestrial to reach God’s kingdom. I advocated there was a way to skip it and go speedily in. My fear was that the terrestrial would be so enticing we would no longer have a desire to ascend just as those in the place we now were had no desire to ascend. As we discussed this we weren’t angry or contending, we were simply working through the options. It was beginning to feel like we would again go separate ways as before, both feeling led to a different path but neither sure if it was right. We were in the midst of this discussion when I woke up, much to my disappointment. I have wanted desperately to continue the dream, but I have never been able to find my way back.