Something to think on and read when time permits
"One must understand that dreaming is a human mind activity. We dream from the day of birth to the day of death...Dreaming is a sign that we are not dead "in our mind" (the body-computer) while we are sleeping and that our minds do not sleep (rest) while our body does. Dreaming is a sign that while we sleep our minds continue to function inside as well as outside our sleeping bodies. Here the Bantu people say that dreaming is the function of the 'Mfumu-kutu" (lit. the chief of the ear, the chief or power of understanding), the 'human double', i.e., the key to the understanding of what human knowledge cannot grasp or understand through senses. This 'Mfumu-kutu', the human double, roams around while the body lies in the bed. By roaming around, would say the Bantu people, the Mfumu-kutu meets other 'Mfumu-kutu' (human doubles) as do people while awake during their daily activities. These human doubles talk about 'business' as do awaken people. They exchange ideas on healing their 'Biubula' (sing. kiubula) the empty sleeping physical body, only if one of the Mfumu-kutu's kiubula (empty sleeping physical body) or of a family member is sick. Then, and then only, possible healing plant might appear in to the scenario. This will be, to the 'Kiubula' (the empty sleeping physical body), when awaken up at the return of her/his 'Mfumu-kutu' (the human double), dreaming about a healing plant." (Fu-Kiau, The Healing Plant of Yesterday: 14-15)
Tarek Asaad in his article "Sleep in Ancient Egypt":
This description of multidimensional levels of the self has something to do with sleep, as the ancient Egyptians believed in the ability of the ba (soul) to travel beyond the physical body during sleep. The ba was represented in hieroglyphics as a human-headed bird floating above the sleeping body. In that sense, sleep was viewed to be similar, in some aspect, to death, in which the person is in a different state or a different world. Being strong believers in the afterlife, sleep was considered as a way or outlet to that mysterious world and a means through which a person can communicate with the dead as well as his gods. For this reason, it is not surprising to find some rituals related to sleep to resemble what is adopted in preparation for death. (Asaad, 2015:13) >>
In: Sudhansu CHOKROVERTY and Michel BILLIARD (Eds.), Sleep Medicine: A Comprehensive Guide to Its Development, Clinical Milestones, and Advances in Treatment, (New York: Springer), 2015, pp. 13-19. See Zabkar (1968: 44) for the sources and line numbers from the Temple of Edfu for the citations in quotes.
The Egyptian bA can be found among the Songhoy (West Africa) in the form biyoo. Hassimi Oumarou Maiga, in his seminal text Balancing Written History with Oral Tradition: The legacy of the Songhoy People (2010), in discussing the make-up of the person according to Songhoy philosophy, highlights an aspect of the person, which echoes much of what we discussed concerning the bA of ancient Km.t.
<< Besides the hunde [vital-force] there is the biyoo, the “double,” which is the reflection or the shadow of the living soul. The double is not attached to the body. On the contrary, the double remains separate from the body but is always nearby. A person who is separated from his or her biyoo becomes ill until the biyoo returns. For example, the Songhoy explain dreams, possession, and even clairvoyance through the biyoo, which actually is the one who has these experiences. The dream, for example, is just a reflection of what the biyoo has experienced, while the person was sleeping. Some magic practices consist of replacing the biyoo with something else other than one’s own double. After death the biyoo remains beside the deceased and goes tormented to the other world unless the descendants of the deceased person give the double another place in which to reside (for instance, a Torou or stone). On the other hand, in case of a brutal or accidental death, the biyoo (double) still lives, wanders, and takes revenge upon the living. The double then becomes a dangerous and frightening ghost among the living (Ba, 1977, pp. 146–147). As a result, the world is subjected to an inevitable fate—a series of shocks and their extreme consequences. However, this imbalance was necessary in order to achieve a final balance. (Maiga, 2010: 135-136) >>
