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"Abiku" is a Nigerian word for a feeling that you don't belong in this world, and homesickness for the spirit realm you came from. It traditionally refers to sickly kids who fail to thrive, but it happens to adults too. Happened to me. Mystics (of whatever tradition) who roam the spirit worlds already, are quite susceptible: having to return to this often barbaric plane can be painful, despite loves, loyalties, and responsibilities that tie us here.

It's revealing that the nearest English equivalent is Freud's term "deathwish." But (at least in popular use) deathwish generally means being tired of existence and wanting it to end--oblivion. Abiku, in contrast, means wanting a better existence you intuit--or remember. A hunger for life, just not this life.

And I don't think it's all that rare. It's what Goth is all about...

RELATED TOPICS: home - anorexia - souls - prayers and wishes - loneliness - sadness and grief - astral plane - paradise - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

The World Dream Bank has 1500 dreams and dream images plus 500 other pages on dreamwork and shamanism, creativity, genius, art, surrealism and fantasy. Unless otherwise noted, all material copyright Chris Wayan, 2001-2006.

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	AFTER BIRTH: by Wayan, 2004/9/29, astral acrylic painting Never mind what happens after death! What if, before we were born, we were spirits with no idea what happens after birth?...
	ANOREXIA NIRVANA: by Wayan; 106K, 1993, digital picture-poem of my astral reality. I was anorexic for years; I only mastered it when I saw it was a hunger for the spirit world...
	THE ARMS POLICY: by Wayan; 2000/4/7, a nightmare. The government has a harsh policy on armed dissidents. Not the kind of arms you think... CAUTION: VIOLENCE
	BEAR READ DUNE: by Wayan; dreamed 1981/1/28, painted 10 years later . There are many astral planes--this world's just the cellar. A cat, a bird, a bear and I guard the astral stair...
	LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: by John Keats, April 1819, a sexy nightmare poem A knight falls in love with a fey woman, until her previous victims warn him in a nightmare that she is... CAUTION: GOTH TO THE MAX
	DOCTOR WHO AND DEATH: by Wayan; 1984/6/30, a hopeful dream of betrayal. Dr Who, that BBC perennial, allies with Death. An alarming turn-around! What's he up to? CAUTION: NICE ALIEN GOES BAD?
	GHOST DOGS: by Wayan; 107K, digital comic of a 1993/4/2 dream of temptation. I meet a wolf who invites me to join Dr Who's pack of sexy Ghost Wolves. There's just one catch... CAUTION: FLIRTATIOUS WOLVES
	GRIEF KIVA: by Wayan; 1980/2/16, a lucid psychic dream. In a Hopi underworld, I find even lucid dreaming can't cure guilt and grief over losses yet to come...
	THE LEAP: by Naguib Mahfouz, 2001?, an aborted flying dream. I rode with my love in a cart drawn by a winged horse. But as we flew over the Great Pyramid, I jumped...
	LUCID FLIGHT: by Lisa Reich; March 2003, an ecstatic lucid dream of flight. I flew as if part of the air--an otherworldly freedom so exquisite I wonder if it's attainable at all in earthly existence...
	NOW DON'T PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH: by Wayan; 1998, pencil sketch of 3 recurring dream figures. It's hard being even mildly multiple. Here three of my least compatible personalities line up and...
	PLANETOCOPIA: by Wayan; 2006/6/3, an annex to the Dreambank with 16 nondream imaginary worlds. A mix of sculpture, drawings, travel writing... science and art. Alternate Earths, possible futures, and pure experiments in planetology, biology, sociology. Most of them teem with intelligent creatures--alien Edens! CAUTION: ANARCHISM, NUDITY, COMMIES, EVOLUTION
	PRISONS AND STRIPES: by Emily Joy; 2007/10/4, a lucid dream. In a museum full of spacetime-bubbles holding lost souls, the museum-goers are as weird as the exhibits...
	ZENNA CAT: by Wayan; 1972/10/13, a childhood dream. My cat dissolves in the shower. I follow her to a telepathic world. I want to stay, but can I?...
	ZYGOTE: by Wayan; 104K, 600 x 640, 1999. It's true: after death, angels advise you where to go next. But what if you get an over-eager travel agent?

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