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Moving Beyond Culturally Bound Ethical Guidelines
Early in the morning, the phone rang and a friend asked to speak to
Christine. When I said that she was away, I was told about the death
of our friend. I responded, unintentionally and matter-of-factly: “I
know.” Surprised, the speaker asked how this was possible. I shared
my dream, after which the speaker asked for the telephone number at
which Christine could be reached. I hesitated for a moment and said
I preferred not to give it. Shocked, the speaker insisted that Christine
would want to know what had occurred. I agreed but maintained that
following the dream I had in the morning, I felt that our friend would
soon let Christine know. This made no sense to the speaker. Out of re-
spect for her, I asked for time to think about the matter. I assured her
that I would call within twenty-four hours. I did so and maintained
my earlier position. I did not give out the phone number. To do so, in
my view, was to destroy an unfolding form of communication that
was proceeding in ways beyond our ability to fully comprehend.
The next day I received a phone call from Christine who reported
sitting by the ocean beach and seeing our friend rest peacefully, hor-
izontally atop the waves. This simple image had comforted her im-
mensely because she “knew” that her friend had died. I then told her
about my own dream, the ensuing phone call, and my decision not to
give out the Vancouver phone number where she could be reached. In
our experience, everything had fallen into place at the right time.
In the light of such interpersonal experiences, I feel much at ease sit-
ting with Alexis Seniantha on his hospital bed. With him, I can consider
the very fundamental question: “Why is it that, once in a while, things
appear before our eyes,” in dreams or in broad daylight, as described
elsewhere (Goulet 1998 , 8 – 9 , 178 – 180 ). Like Alexis Seniantha, I do
not have a truly intellectually satisfying answer to such a question. The
experiences of such visions and annunciatory dreams are nonetheless
real. They arise out of deep emotional involvement with significant
others, as illustrated in this paper and that of many others included in
this book. Why and how such knowledge arises eludes us. In the end,
we may be wise—with the Yurok, the Dene, and many other aborig-
inal peoples—to learn to simply live responsibly and ethically in the
light of such experiences with a minimum of explanation.
