Dead
Seeing something dead in your dream suggests you are realising that some part of yourself, or your feelings, are no longer expressing fully. In fact you may have killed that part of you by denying it, repressing, or freezing it from normal life. The ‘death’ may even have been caused by a painful experience. But even so, it still means you have made a decision – perhaps unconscious – to shut out that part of your life. This can also relate to a lost opportunity or potential.
Some aspect of your outer or inner life is fading, or being superseded by a changed approach, so may be shown as dying. Your drive to achieve something might die, and be shown as a death in your dreams. Changing from adolescence to puberty, maturity to old age, are also shown as oneself dying. Lost opportunities or unexpressed potentials in oneself are frequently shown as dead bodies. All of us unconsciously learn attitudes or survival skills from parents and others. If these are unrecognised they may be shown as dead. Sometimes we have killed the child or teenager in us because of difficulties or trauma at those ages, and these may be seen as a dead person in one’s dream.
Some death dreams may show the awakening of new life in the dreamer. For instance, Sue worked on a dream in which she was told her baby had died. She woke shaking with grief and tears. The dream and emotions appeared to show her becoming alive enough to feel the grief of her past pain as it connected with the death of her hopes, love, and ideals. She had suppressed her pain for so long. In now coming alive enough to feel her emotions, she was feeling at last that something had died in her.
If the death is someone we know: Frequently, as in second example, desire to be free of the person; or unexpressed aggression; perhaps one’s love for that person has ‘died’. We often ‘kill’ our parents in dreams as we move toward independence. Or we may want someone ‘out of the way’ so we do not have to compete for attention and love.
Death of oneself: Exploration of feelings about death; retreat from the challenge of life; split between mind and body. The experience of leaving the body is frequently an expression of this schism between the ego and life processes. Also: Death of old patterns of living – one’s ‘old self’, the loss of the boundaries that limit your awareness to an identity connected only to the body. This latter is usually a willing surrender of self to the process.
The walking dead or rigor mortis: Aspects of the dreamer that are denied, perhaps through fear.
Dancing with or meeting death or dark figure: Facing up to death.
Example: ‘My son comes in and I see he is unwashed and seems preoccupied and as if he has not cared for himself for some days. I ask him what is wrong. He tells me his mother is dead. I then seem to know she has been dead for days, and my two sons have not told anyone. In fact my other son has not even accepted the fact.’ Anthony.
Anthony is a divorcee. Processing the dream he realised the two sons are ways he is relating to the death of his marriage – the children’s mother.
Example: ‘During my teens I was engaged to be married when I found a more attractive partner and was in considerable conflict. Consistently I dreamt I was at my fiancé’s funeral until it dawned on me the dream was telling me I wanted to be free of him. When I gave him up the dreams ceased.’ Mrs D.
Example: ‘I dream I have a weak heart which will be fatal. It is the practice of doctors in such cases to administer a tablet causing one painlessly to go to sleep – die. I am completely calm and accepting of my fate. I suddenly realise I must leave notes for my parents and children. I must let them know how much I love them, must do this quickly before my time runs out.’ Mrs M.
This is a frequent type of ‘death’ dream. It is a way of reminding ourselves to do now what we want to – especially regarding love.
Although the unconscious has a very real sense of its eternal nature and continuance after physical death, the ego seldom shares this. Unconsciously we realise that collective humanity carries living experience from the life of those now dead. The farmer today unconsciously uses the collective experience of humanity in farming. What innovation he does today his children or others will learn and carry into the future. But apart from that there is life after death. See: Life after Death By Dr. Elisabeth Kubler Ross.
Idioms: Dead and buried; dead from the neck up / or neck down; dead to the world; play dead.
Dreams about a dead person: Dreaming of someone who is dead, a relative or loved one, is quite common. After all, the person may have played a big part in your life, as for instance a husband or wife. Therefore the influence of their existence is still very much a live in you.
As an example of this, you will probably be able to realise that some of your traits, some of the ways that you think or respond to things, have arisen because of the way you related to the person you dreamt about. So in many cases the dead person indicates the feelings you have about the, the traits you still have alive in you from them. When someone close to you dies you go through a period of change from relating to them as an external reality, to meeting and accepting them as alive in your memories and inner life.
Some dreams of dead people are expressive of attempts to deal with feelings, guilt or anger in connection with the person who died; or your own feelings about death.
Dreams about a Dead husband or wife: Many dreams of dead people come from women who have lost their husband. It is common to have disturbing dreams for some period afterwards; or not be able to dream about the husband or wife at all; or to see the partner in the distance but not get near. In accepting the death, meeting any feelings of loss, grief, anger and continuing love, the dream may become as in the third example. See: Death.
Comments
I need help! Trynto keep up with me……my mom died almost 12 years ago. I have never had a good dream about her?when I dream about her I almost always end up hitting her because she just walks on by ignores me and acts like I’m not there!I’m my latest dream we are in her room she’s in her bed and I go pull the covers back and ask her if she loves me and she don’t say anything so I ask her if she just wanted me to die and then all the sudden I’m hitting her as hard as I can! I love and loved my mom and would never hurt her I can’t and don’t under stand my dream. And everyntime I dream about her it’s almost always the same dream.
Melissa – First of all it isn’t your mum you are dealing in your dreams – it is an inner mum we all carry about within us and use in our dreams. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions/#SymbolDream as this will help you understand.
An inner mum is the collection of all the memories and experiences of her – not her as a person. And the theme of the dreams are always the same, you feel neglected or ignored, and that produces real anger. So I think that at some time in your childhood you had an experience that was the root of these feelings. As a baby or child we are capable of murderous rage. So I suggest you explore the dreams to get rid of them. For example get a rolled up news paper and beat the seat with the feelings you have in the dreams.
Please don’t get into the trap of assuring yourself that you love your mother. You do and did, but there is a part of you that doesn’t and you need to let it out. Read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/ as it may help.
Tony
Hi Tony… I saw my maternal grandmother’s dead body in my dream.. She died 24 years back, before my birth and I have never seen her in real life. I dreamt of me trying to find out her dead body which in the dream I saw, has been preserved for the past 24 years.. The body was wrapped in a white cloth and I could only see her face.. Although in the dream that face looked very similar to my mother.. I am very confused about what could this dream imply.. Please help..
Hi Tony, I had a dream that my boyfriend and I were in a restaurant where two strangers accused me of stealing her food. She poured her beverage over my head, and I did the same back to her. I then started swearing, and telling her off, and exited the restaurant leaving my boyfriend behind. Then suddently, the girls boyfriend stormed after me and I looked back at him exiting the building (by the door), and he pointed a gun at me, and shot me in the back (right side), and I fell-face forward to the ground (wondering where my boyfriend was)…I knew I was hit by the gun shot, and weird thing is, I was trying to hold my breath; told myself to play dead. A few minutes passed, and my bf ran over to me in a panic; I could hear him calling 911 for help. When the ambulence arrived, the emergency team were my relatives. My Mom was even there (she passed away massive heart attack in 2008), just watching my family carry me on the stretcher, and rushing me to what seemed to be a reception hall where a party was taking place. Numerous times, I tried to hold my breath hoping they would believe I was dead; as if I wanted them to realize that I was gone forever, but they kept on talking amongst themselves – divided attention between my injuries/death and the party events.
Jenny – There are an enormous amount of powerful themes here to sort out. The first is the feeling of being wrongly accused. Considering that while dreaming we are alone with our own – unconscious – self, it suggests you are often suffering from feelings to do with self criticism, which you probably blame on to others and want to fight back.
You start of well by sticking up for yourself, but unfortunately you run away. But you should always fight to win. In the ancient view of dreams recorded in the yoga teachings of the Atharva Veda, being active or even actively aggressive, was seen as a positive sign, even if one was injured or mutilated as a result of ones active stance; whereas if the dreamer passively accepted injury in a dream this was seen as a negative implication. This was because it was felt that the active or passive stance within the dreams indicated a similar disposition during waking life. As the active person is generally more successful, the dream sign of an active disposition was seen as fortunate. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/what-we-need-to-remember-about-dreaming/
Then you are shot in the back, an awful feeling, but you gave up the fight, and nothing can hurt you in your dreams unless you want it to or believe it can. Here is an example to spell it out.
Example: I was getting ready to leave and this dark haired guy told me I couldn’t leave, I felt scared and was going to leave anyways, he pulled out a pistol and shot me in the stomach, I fell down, but there was no blood. The thought in my head was, “OH NO”. Next thing I remember is that I was still on the floor in the same place and I got up and I remembered being shot but I didn’t seem to have any pain or blood and was moving normally etc. I started looking for a way to leave I was sneaking around trying not to get noticed so that I could get out of there w/o the shooter guy seeing me.
Even though she realises that the bullet did nothing, she is still creating the dream with the feeling of fear, sneaking around.
So then the theme of you wanting to disappear into death, and there is a celebration going on for you – it must be, remember, it is your dream. I can only believe that you are fed up with struggling and would like to disappear. I know that feeling from years of struggling. But honestly it is, in the end, all self created. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYYXq1Ox4sk
Tony
Tony, Just last night I had dreamed about get engaged. But the man I got my ring from was my late husband of 10 years,what does this mean???
Victoria – I think he is saying, “Even though I am dead, I am still a part of you, and very much alive in you. I love you.”
Tony
I had a dream about my grandmother who died in 1990. In the dream she showed up to our house and we all thought she was dead for years but in the dream they told us she had died but they had her in a home and hid her for years from us. Then she gets lost in the dream and I’m looking for her everywhere and can’t find her. Finally my dad and husband finds her. I hold on to her hugging her like she was one of my children. please help me to understand this dream.
Lost – I see this dream as a misunderstanding about death. In your dream nowhere is there the recognition of the death of your grandmother. Instead you see her as going to a home.
The looking for her everywhere and not finding her is probably that you were looking for her in the wrong place. You see, the mind doesn’t see things directly, but always translates impressions. Please see the http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions/#SymbolDream
If you understand that you will realise that your dream process gets as near to the original impression, but can be badly distorted by the views we hold.
Who knows, in the wider world we know through our dreams maybe she was one of your children in the long past.
Tony
My 20 year old son, Max, died less than a month ago.
I had a strong feeling when I first learned of his death that he had remained “earth bound”. I can’t describe it exactly, but I felt very strongly that because his death was sudden and he wasn’t ready to go that he hadn’t moved on to the other side.
I have prayed for a sign from him and he came to me in my dreams the past two nights.
The first night he said he wasn’t dead and I couldn’t convince him otherwise. He even said that he wouldn’t be ready to go for another “year and a half”. But I got to hug him and feel him and it was him.
Last night he came to me at my house. He was sitting at the kitchen table and we just talked for a few minutes before I brought up the fact that he HAD to go into the light. He got a bit angry. Then I told him that I knew about the drugs in Utah and he hung his head in shame. Then I told him he overdosed. At first he disagreed, I began to think about things that I could show him that would make him understand…like stuff from his funeral, but then he understood. Like he knew what I was thinking and was kinda like “don’t bother, I get it.”
I started to cry and we hugged and I began to tell him about all the books that I’ve read on the afterlife so that he wouldn’t be scared. He hugged me and asked me if our souls would always be together and I said yes, that if you’re close on earth that means the souls always stay together.
We left my house then and went to the other side. He was leery of going so I told him that once he got there he would probably see grandma Josephine and grandma Jean and that Baxter, his old dog, would probably even be there.
I went further in with him, to try and find the souls he was meant to be with so that he wouldn’t be scared.
As we looked he began to feel more at ease. Drifting away from me and looking for himself.
Then a crashing booming voice said something, I don’t remember what, but I knew I had to leave. So I went back to the tunnel that we had come in through and Max came, with another young man, about his age, they were wildly happy….riding what kinda looked like skateboards, but not. He took me back through the tunnel. He said he understood and that the other soul that was there with him was his friend and that they wreak havoc on the other side playing pranks and acting rambunctious.
I started to cry and he hugged me so tight and I told him I loved him so much and he whispered in my ear “I will see you soon”. He was completely calm and not upset anymore…like someone saying, “see you tomorrow”…like time wasn’t a big deal.
I watched him skateboard away with the other soul and he turned back and gave me a huge smile and waved and I felt all over that he understood everything now.
The tunnel began to close in…getting smaller and smaller at his end of it so I had to turn around and walk through my side because I had to come back.
I knew, even in the dream that I had helped him get there.
Was this my sons spirit? Did I help him? I feel it was…and waking up today I feel better. I miss him terribly but I feel like he is safe and where he should be.
Is this just wishful thinking or was it my son?
Laurie – I know from personal experience what it is like to meet and know the joy you felt in helping your son. I know also that we are almost hypnotised into believing that when someone dies that is the end. So do not doubt your experiences.
Thank you also for sharing such a rich dream life, with so much for other people to read and learn from.
If it is okay, I would like to put your dream on the Discussion Forum under the Healing Dreams section.
Tony
Tony,
You asked if you could use my dream on your ‘healing dreams’ page. Yes, of course. I continue to see signs from my son everywhere…the hardest part is believing it…following my natural intuition…but I am learning and I believe he is still very much with me, guiding me every day.
Thank you so much for letting me use the dreams of your son. I know it will mean a great deal to other mothers who have such dreams, and even those who cannot receive such dreams.
But as for believing, it might be a good idea if you read the books Closer to the Light by Dr. Morse, and Life After Death by Elizabeth Kubler Ross. They are both wonderful books.
Tony
Okay, as I can’t seem to pinpoint this I just have to ask. Whenever I have nightmares they usually are in the same place but one relates to the dead. I dream of a Haunted Mansion esque building, only it’s not as kind as the Disneyland version. The building is full of people being killed off by common occurrences and other such. Last night’s had me and my aunt as part of a Christmas type scene but all we did was sit in a chair. Also there was a balcony with a window’s view next to us but it was full of dress Mannequins. It wasn’t till after when my grandfather came and got us that my brain noted that the Christmas tree had a lot of pointy things and it would have probably fell on us. On the way out the wrong way (Since I was too scared to go through the rest of the whole ride), since I was somehow in the beginning of it, I passed by a dining room with a birthday scene. The one being killed by a knockout on the back of the head and a knife through the head as the person fell into the cake. Also there was a gift store oddly enough as me and my grandfather waited for my Mother and Aunt to come out of the ride. The nightmare also connects into a reoccurring place but I’ll ask about that on the correct page.
Last night I had a dream that I had died, however no one in my dream realized my death. I was still functioning as a normal human being. There was a gathering at a house I am un-aware of, and there was a man there whom I had wanted so badly to be involved with. He had never noticed me until I had passed away and was in my ghost state where he fell inlove with me. I felt instantly connected to him, only to realize it was too late and that I had no chance of being with him since I had died. After that I dreamed that I was able to float in a sense and fly around effortlessly. This is a theme that I have had reoccur in countless numbers of dreams. I always learn I can fly, and than handle a situation, and then at night, leave to fly to an unknown place that is never clear to me in my dreams, My mom is always present in this portion of my dream, and she always offers to drive me but I always choose to fly. If you have any opinions on what this could mean I would appreciate it!!
Catie – Your dream death says that something you dearly wanted, a love you felt could never be, or something you had lived for had gone, is a form of death. We go on living a normal life but something in us has died.
This also explains your flying. Flying is one way of ‘handling a situation’. Instead of meeting it and feeling the emotions and fears that staying open would lead to, instead we go off into our own inner world. Some people do it by reading a book all the time, or watching films in place of actually living.
In death you feel that you could never experience the love you wanted. But that is another way of ‘flying’ away. In actual death you can very fully know and feel totally connected with those you love. In fact there is no separation.
Of course you can find love, but not everyone will respond to your love. Love calls us to adapt, to bend and move, and accommodate others. Your fixation on the one man is probably blocking you from experimenting with actually living and loving.
Tony
i had a very restless night because I kept dreaming of old people showing up all of which have been dead years all of which are not related or known to me…they were all relatives of my husband or so he was telling me their names during my dream. I cannot wait to talk with him about this when he awakes. One person was friendly and was on his way to leave. One was lying in the bed next to me on my right arm so in my dream I am waking up my husband to tell me who this person was and to get them up off of me. Then folks started filing into our bedroom and at this point I am frustrated still in my dream I am taking charge of this crowd and having them line up on one side of my bedroom so we can have a discussion as to why they all have shown up. I remember they were fussing amongst themselves and I was trying to bring order to the group. I was awakened out of this dream by my son waking up because he was not feeling well. I do remember that at one point I did see my mother who has been dead since 2006…she was trying to tell me something buy I waved at her as if to stop her from talking to me because I knew she could not be in front of me talking to me because she was supposed to be dead. I had that awareness in my dream. I never got back to her to hear what she had to say. I have been awake since 4:30 and I am very tired but not so sure I want to go to sleep. The strangest part is that no matter how many times I awoke from this dream every time I went back to sleep I just saw another dead person…all relatives of my husband except for the one snapshot of my mom. I hope this makes sense to you cause I don’t get it.
Saundra – Fascinating dream.
Your dream reminds me of the film Ghost in which Whoopi Goldberg is suddenly propelled into being aware of the dead. A huge queue of dead people forms all wanting to communicate with their living family. And that is based on real reports of people who have the ability to communicate.
It does sound as if this might be happening to you. Because you felt, “I knew she could not be in front of me talking to me because she was supposed to be dead” it threw you into a state of disbelief – which in the world of the dead and dreams is a powerful force of denial.
I would suggest if it happens again you realise that you might be in touch with dead people and take note of what is said and then test it out against what it known of such people and what they say.
I know we are brought up to believe that death is the end, but that is rubbish based on the old idea or physics that we are only a body, made of atoms, and bodies die and disintegrate. But the new physics sees that we are more than atoms and a physical body. Nobody has ever explained thoughts and consciousness from the materialistic viewpoint. And it is only through thoughts that we can communicate with the dead. People often moan about why can’t the dead let them know they are okay – nobody has come back is the common statement. But the fact is they are all waiting for a mouth to materialise – and without a body how can they talk to us except in thoughts.
The other things – why is this happening to me now? Well things do happen – strange things – all the time. Also we are entering strange times when many people are being faced by something they have been denying for years – we are so much bigger than we suspected.
Tony
This was really enlightening, though I can’t get an exact handle on my dream yet. In the dream I collapsed into a coma like state due to some kind of food allergy or hypoglygemia or something, but I was so relaxed and calm in myself. People were calling an ambulance and talking about what to do with me. Then I was alone, feeling calm, waiting for help to arrive. Then another crowd came, thought I was dead because my eyes were unblinking and they wrapped me up in tight blankets that actually felt good. I was still relaxed. The blankets made it hard to breathe but i knew I would be fine. ??? I usually can work out what’s behind my dreams, not this time..
Bibi – This of course was the first stage of an initiation. You were taken suddenly in dreams to experience the first level of death. That is why the people thought you were dead, yet you were alive – typical of initiation.
It was all happening because of your trust of what I call Life – and Life can lead you into strange experiences. Your trust allowed you to go as far as you did, whereas many people would have been scared they were dying.
If you can allow yourself to drop into that state of trust and peace again it will take you further beyond the boundary of death into a wonderful place of realisation. Maybe it will take ages for it to happen, but it will if you persist.
Tony
(Tony this dream i didnt have my mother did) ,,, she told me that we were in a apartment we didnt know who it was but my grandparents from my father side and my real father was there too and they came by to see what my mother was doing because supposly my mother was doing drugs so my mother got mad and said that they were lying and my grandfather told my mom that yes he was lying but he had to speak to her very urgently that was the reason why he started lying about her using drugs but my grandfather didnt want me there with my mother so he asked me to go with him and i said to me no way i want to stay with my mother and thats where i will be always….. ( tony my grandparents are dead i never even meet them im 24 now and i found my father last year for the 1st time ) and now my father and i dont speak at all i see this man and he is a total stranger to me. please i need help because its my mothers dream but it could involve me in it because of my father.
Karysma – Because this isn’t your dream it isn’t directly about you. The reason is that in the world of dreams our most intimate fears and longings are given an exterior life of their own in the form of the people, objects and places of our dream. Therefore our sexual drive may be shown as a person and how we relate to them; or given shape and colour as an object; or given mood as a scene. Our feeling of ambition might thus be portrayed as a business person in our dream – our changing emotions as the sea or a river; while the present relationship we have with our ambition or emotions is expressed in the events or plot of the dream.
So in your mother’s dream your image is not about you, but about what your mother feels about you, good or bad. Whatever you represent to her that is its meaning. For instance in a dream I had about my two sons I was frightened or falling of a window ledge high up. I called on one son too help me but he couldn’t. Then I called on my other son and he helped me easily. The first son I saw as a vulnerable person; the second son as strong and daring.
This sort of dream is like a game of chess with all the possibilities of the different pieces interacting. So your mother is playing a game of strategy with the pieces/people in the dream. So why does your mother create a scene where there is a sense of urgency and also a sense of deception? Is it because the dream is somehow involved in her death, and she doesn’t want you – her sharper critical faculty involved?
What part does your father play in her dream you will have to ask her? Obviously he was not there in your life, so what does your mother feel about that?
So many things I do not know enough about to comment on.
Tony
Corinthia – The way this works when we contact the dead, or anyone who is at a distance, is through what has been called telepathy. And that means that the contact we had has to come into our own mind using our own thought processes.
So I do no think for a moment that your mother was in a back brace, and then was dancing. It is probably more likely that she was not feeling sure of herself in a very new world – a different dimension – and that was translated into your imagery. And the second one was certainly a good feeling and sharing happiness, translated into the scene of dancing.
Tony
Thanks Tony, your interpretation of my dream has helped me understand whats going on and now its not so scary
Thank you Lorraine.
Keep watching your dreams, they are the best education.
Tony
I was just wondering if anyone has contineously dreaming of talking to their dead mother. My mother has been dead for almost 25 yrs. and she is continuousily talking to me. But I never can remember what she said when I wake up.
i just woke up from a very scary vivid dream. i got home from work at 5 and fell asleep. this is what happened in my dream: i was at work(genuardis) and thru out the store there were zombie-like people walking around. i had a customer come thru my register and was a little scared because of something he saw outside. he said he was scared to walk home so i asked my mom who was waiting outside if we could give him a ride home. while we were walking to the car we saw a young girl on the ground eating some type of dead animal. we were scared so we tryed to walk faster but she stopped me and asked if we had any soup in the store. of course i didnt want some weird person eating a dead animal in the store so i replyed no. she whispered into my moms ear saying “thats alright i like dead squirrels anyways.!” my mom was freaked out and didnt want to make her mad so she said “oh yeah me to.” so while we were driving i noticed that we were driving back in the direction to get to the store. not home. we saw someone on the side of the road walking and as we got closer we noticed they had a squirrel hanging from their pocket. my mom and i was making fun of the person while the man just stopped talking all together. i asked him what was wrong and he started talking weird like he was all romantic. he took my hand and started to chew on my fingers and as i pulled away i saw his teeth were sharp like razors. i tryed to push him out of the car but he wouldnt move. he climbed on top of my and i tryed to punch him but everytime i tryed hitting him i got weaker and weaker. eventually he tryed un buttoning my pants and i screamed no and i woke up.
if anyone has any idea what this dream means please let me know