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Some aspect of your outer or inner life is fading, or being superseded by a changed approach, so may be shown as dying.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
Hi I dream that my boyfriends mother comes walking with one clean shoe and the other is dirty very dirty I’ve never met her before. But she comes to me. My boyfriend does believe in dreams but I’m trying to find an answer to why she comes to me.
For the last 3 weeks I am dreaming situations and people I am with that I would never get into in real life. These people and situations in real life would be dangerous for me and my daughter. And last night I dreamed a dead man that I don’t know he was just older man named Miller and he died by taping his neck and feet with a tape in a bath tub and kinda hanging himself in it but he is horizontally tied and hung in a bath tub by the throught/neck and feet. So this bath tub is in my parents home where I grew up but don’t live there anymore. The bath tub is in one if the bedrooms. This bath tub with this guy was given to me by the police to solve the mystery of how this man has managed to hang himself in a bath tub like this. So I am dreaming that I am in that bath tub with him on my left and my daughter on my right. I’m trying to figure out how he did it. His body touches me since the bathtub is relatively small even for 2 ppl. Then I see myself standing up and trying to move one of his arms up but it’s extremely stiff and it would not move at all. Then I’m in a bath tub with him again and suddenly he starts to move slowly and in silence without looking at me gets out of the bathtub and walks out of the room. That’s when I woke up and was really disgutted by this dream and are very concerned about what this dream is warning me about if it’s a warning at all.
Dear Caitlin – What I see in your dream is a part of a beautiful healing process that you are exploring.
What you meet in this dream has nothing to do with your real or waking life; it is a reflection of your inner world.
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.
The old man is a symbol for your inner male and your inner police – your sense of right and wrong and even more your feelings of guilt – asks you to explore why you stopped expressing your inner male; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/archetype-of-the-animus-jungs-view-of-the-male-in-the-female/
The name of the man gives you another clue; a “Miller” and so milling can be a symbol for crushing or painful experiences in your life and it also symbolises the process of extracting what is useful from your gathered experiences in your childhood while you were living with your parents.
In the context of your dream the older man could reflect the symbol of your inner father; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/father-dad/#InnerFather
The child in the bath tub is a symbol for your inner child when she has the age of your daughter and she is part of the healing and forgiveness process too; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/child/
When you stand up and try to move his stiff arm you are exercising your psyche; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/exercise-of-the-psyche/
This results in your inner male coming back to life again.
Because cleansing could depict a change of heart or forgiveness where old feelings are washed away, you may need to cry or release and ‘wash out’ long held emotions.
“Opening to Life” will assist you if you decide to enter this inner journey of healing and growth; http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/
To get a deep feeling understanding of your inner father, your inner child and your own dream figure it will serve a purpose to use http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson for yourself and your inner family members.
Anna 🙂
I had a dream about my fiancé’s cousin whom I never met. To explain, his cousin passed away long before I met my fiancé, he passed away after his motorcycle accident, which he died at the scene. My dream was that he took me to his grave site and in my dream I had walked straight to his tombstone as if I had been there, (I have never been there). I called my fiancé and told him I needed to go to the cemetery where he was buried. His tombstone was almost identical to the one in my dream. Also he never spoke a word to me. However I had this incredible urge to go to the cemetery right away and got the feeling I was suppose to share this with my fiancé almost to validate that he just wanted him to know he was fine. I have also had similar dreams reguarding my fiancées deceased relatives I have never met. Is there any meaning behind these types of dreams?
Can u tell me about meaning of my dream,
My boyfriend he dream his daughter watching TV alone becouse he left her and some one come and kill her with other small girl
I had a dream that I killed myself in one reality and didn’t in another. The two realities combined so I was not dead or alive. I kept fading and reappearing. What could this mean?
Dear Ethan – I wonder if you spend a lot of time in an electronically mediated reality such as “cyberspace”; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/not-enough-information/
If so then your dream may reflect how part of your self is not allowed expression anymore – “that I killed myself in one reality” – which “one reality” may refer to the physical world.
The “electronical identity”- that you may have created to communicate with others (email, Facebook, twitter etc.) can then be seen as the self that is still allowed expression and so the self that is still alive.
When these two worlds combine – meeting with other people while not interacting with them, but with your electronic friends on your iPhone instead – may be perceived as “I was not dead or alive”.
Anna 🙂
I dreamt that I was over a naked body lying on its back (I assume dead). I didn’t see the head but I believe it was my own body although there were two tattoos on the body(I have no tattoos). One tattoo was on the chest area and the other was on the abdomen. I was observing the body.
Dear JC – The chest area is linked with emotions and the abdominal with ‘gut feelings’ or intuition and/or feeling reactions in a relationship.
A tattoo can reflect an experience that has left an indelible memory or mark, like being hurt emotionally by someone.
What do you think/feel/sense when you are observing the body; http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
and
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/self-observation/
Do you feel that you (still) have to protect your being nude?
Do you feel the body could reflect your old self that has died?
Do you feel that “this body of experience” needs to be brought back to life and expressed?
See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/the-lifestream/#Open
Anna 🙂
I saw my dad dead and I think its because he’s always at work so I don’t see him a lot.
Dear Leila – How old are you Leila?
What do you feel in your dream when you see your father dead? What do you feel about your father not being as much available physically (and emotionally?) in your life as you would like him to be?
When we see someone dead in a dream it could also mean that we do not want him/her to be a part of our emotional life anymore (either) and/or that we have stopped loving that person, maybe because we perceive loving someone who is not available the way we would like to as too painful.
Did you also share this dream with your father and/or mother?
Anna 🙂
I recently had a dream about a big tall guy, that came to the room I was sleeping with, I asked him his name and he replied my name is John.
I didn’t think anything about it but face was stick in my head, so when I told my girlfriend about my dream she started crying, saying that he was a friend that passed away before we met, she never told me anything about him and I described him perfectly, she even showed me a pic of him, and it was him the guy of my dream … Why would I have a dream about a person that I didn’t even know, what does this mean
Dear Omar – I feel that questions like “Why would I have a dream about a person that I didn’t even know, what does this mean” are part of your growth process.
Exploring the outer world and your inner world to find an answer/meaning might enlarge your awareness of yourself and change your perception about Life and so that could be the purpose of your dream (too).
Perhaps you also dreamt about him because your girlfriend did not tell you anything about him yet, and it serves a purpose to bring it/”him” out in the open?
What might help you on this inner journey of discovery is to read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/function-of-dreaming/ and especially 14 with all the links that Tony provided there.
Quote:
“Dreams can be a way of reaching beyond the known world of experience and presenting intimations from the unknown. Many people have dreams in which ESP, out of the body experiences, and knowledge transcending time and space occur. This type of dream may indicate a link between the present person and people who had lived in the distant past; or between the dreamer and all existing life. Some of these dreams present powerful insights into how the transitory human personality may arise out of an eternal consciousness. They thus deal with the spiritual aspects of human nature.”
Anna 🙂
Sept.10 marks 11 months since my sister in laws passing. She passed away from cancer at the young age of 32. Tonight I dreamt of her. But it wasn’t her. It was as if I was her and I was explaining to ppl how I felt the day I died but I was explaining how I think she felt when she passed it was extremely strange and I don’t know whag exactly it could’ve meant. I won’t up weak,shaking and nauseous and my head is pounding. And now I can’t fall back asleep Bc I feel as if I woke wake up
I have had two dreams about my late husband wearing women’s clothes. The other dreams I have had I am chasing after him but can’t see his face. He was a biker old school. These dreams are very troubling to me. He has been gone for 2 1/2 yrs.
last nigt I dreamed of my grandma and her neighbor, who both passed of cancer years ago but at different times. I dreamed I was in another room knowing they were passed and wondering if I was also dead or just experiencing them. They were sitting at a table laughing and reminiscing about when I was little and something i had done that was apparently funny. I laughed ad hollered out to them “I can hear you ya know” and they both disappeared.What does this all mean?
So I’m 14 years old and last night I dreamt I was at like a special assembly for my school and everyone was there I had an argument with a boy that I like and decided to go outside for some air. When I walked out there were alot of people., and then I just stood on the step as I stood there I looked up and saw this boy Dorian looking at me but he was spinning around slowly “Dorian?”. I asked then I looked at him properly and realized he was hanging on a rope and looking me directly in the eye I was so in shock I just turned around and ran to find a teacher who was standing right next to him but didn’t notice him, until I mentioned andd when she noticed everyone else around noticed I couldn’t handle the stress so I ran away and on my way out I bumped into my friend Elijah and was stuttering and crying “I-i found him” then she asked who . I replied “Him” pointing back, then I screamed “H-Hes dead!!” That’s when I woke up crying and in shock I the line “He’s dead” is just repeating over and over even though I’m awake. What does this mean?
so if you have a bad and don’t know the meaning just go to dream hawk.com/dream-dictionary or ask your allies meaning fiends
That’s crazy cause the next day my uncle died
i dreamed of myself dead and being mourned by my mother.though i really didn’t see my face but in my dreams it indicates it was me.it was really sad. then suddenly i entered my lifeless body and said to my mother that theres just two women that i loved my whole life her (my Mom) and my current girlfriend which i have in relationship for about 8 years. is there any definite explanation with this dream?
I dreamt that I was at a former classmate’s viewing. This is someone who is still alive, I went to school with her over 20 years ago.
I was in line waiting to see her lifeless body propped on a table, for some reason she was not in a coffin. Her stuff body fell off the table a couple of times by accident which freaked people out. Then suddenly she fluttered her eyes, smiled and got up. She started to walk towards people, with her arms stretched.
People began to run out of the room. There was a coffee table between her and a couple of people including me, we felt trapped as she tried to reach out to us, circling the table. I pointed to the next room where some people ran into and she went into that room giving us the chance to flee.
What does this dream mean?