Christopher Hitchens has recounted more than once a dream he had. In it, a Jew came over and asked him to join their minyan (prayer quorum which only Jews – and in Orthodox circles, only Jewish men – can join). Hitchens didn’t know he was Jewish then. How do you explain that?
(I don’t believe in Judaism or religion of any kind, but it’s a pretty crazy story)
He may have also had dreams about being Muslim, Hindu, or Mormon but just didn’t tell everybody about them.
Selective memory. Whose to say that he didn’t have similar dreams about being part of other religions, but those dreams didn’t leap to mind 40 years later because they aren’t part of the mental narrative he is currently laying out…
ETA: Simul-post!
Or . . . what makes any dream proof of anything?
I had a dream that I went to work without any pants on. Evidence of some divine, pantless truth, or just a dream?
I once had a dream about leprechauns. I didn’t yet know about leprechauns. How do you explain that?
Really? I mean, if you did, that’s pretty crazy too, no?
More proof for the Carlos Castaneda school of theology.
I’ve had dreams in which I was fabulously wealthy. Yay!
Actually… I meant to tell you, you should probably put your pants back on.
Hahaha! That’s what I was thinking! I mean, leprechauns are so specific. The green outfit, the hat, the belt buckle, the pipe, the red hair… If you have never seen one, and you dream it, that is freaky!
Kind of a strange title to the thread, considering that Hitchens is a very vocal atheist.
As to the actual topic, it wouldn’t surprise me if his grandmother had dropped enough hints for him to be able to put two and two together subconsciously.
Actually I saw it and assumed it was his brother, who IIRC, is not an atheist.
That’s funny, he doesn’t look Jewish…
Cite?
Assuming it’s true it doesn’t require an explanation. It’s a dream he had. And obviously he had enough exposure to Jewish culture to know what a minyan is. Once you know about something it is not all that surprising if you dream about it. For the record, Hitchens and his brother discovered (maybe in their early 30s) that their maternal grandmother was raised Jewish. And it’s not like he’s the only person who discovered as an adult that he had some Jewish family members. And it goes without saying that Hitchens certainly doesn’t think it’s proof of god.
Clearly, in a past life, he was Jewish.
I can think of, literally, no other explanation…
Dreams give incite into the spiritual reality where we are all part of a family, usually different from our biological or ‘real world’ family. And we are all connected. The dream seems to be a attempt by his spiritual family to call him home, to his heritage. Very possibly those men are his brothers, who sense a absence in their ‘spiritual family’.
When looking for a proper citation, I found out some more interesting details. See this article. Sorry if you don’t have access, but it’s what I have right now. What’s interesting is that in recounting the dream, Hitchens says “it was the only one that counted as recurrent and I had also experienced it as a waking fantasy.”
Spooky, no?
No. But then, I don’t think you’ll find any other explanation convincing and I doubt you’ll be surprised if your question gets negative responses.
Not really, since we can only access the first page of the chapter, which only tells us that his brother told him he was Jewish when he was an adult. Is there any site that recounts this dream and his reaction to it?