Death
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Death the walking dead or rigor-mortis
Death dancing with or meeting dark figure
There are two forms of death and any study of death needs to be aware of them.
- The easiest one for us to confront is the death if the body. This occurs when the body is badly injured, has suffered a bad illness or is dying from old age and so cannot support the intricacies of consciousness, then consciousness can longer function in the body.
- Another one that many people are not aware of is ‘ego death’. There are many descriptions of ego death, in fact the term Ego Death is misleading, because nothing dies in this process of enormous process of growth, instead it is a huge enlargement, a massive shift of our ideas and experience of who and what we are. The history of those who obviously have experienced this enlightened state, does not show that their experience of themselves has disappeared, it has been transformed. It occurs when we have stopped living in our thinking, beliefs and opinions – or what is sometimes thought of as our personality.A man, Anthony, describes the experience of it by saying, ‘I was sitting opposite someone during an enlightenment intensive workshop. We had been posing the question for days – “Who are you?” Suddenly I realised that it was a silly question, because I was the answer. All thought stopped and I existed as the answer. My being had always been this. In this state there was an awareness of being connected with everything around me, in the beginning of creation. This was the first day.While in the state of simple existence I was able to observe many things I am usually not aware of. For instance while I simply existed, my usual pattern of behaviour and thought went through contortions to be the centre of attention again. I could see them almost like habits, systems, that have life, like a body does, and they were dying and twitching in their death throes. Also I saw that I knew that all thought is like a mimic, so all our thinking is like photocopies, without any real life. Also as I saw this I had an image of a monkey that was actually my normal thinking self running alongside my every motion and trying to mimic it. It was almost as if as I as a person walked along, another mechanical person ran alongside trying to keep up and mimicking everything I did in an attempt to be alive and real. Yet thought can never be life. If you think of dog, the thought can never be a living creature, just a word.’
Another person says, ‘Unexpectedly everything changed and my fundamental self was something that existed throughout all time. It didn’t have a beginning or end. There was no goal to achieve. I am.
I am a wave on a shoreless sea.
From no beginning
I travel to no goal,
Making my movements stillness.
Constantly I am arriving
And departing,
Being born and dying.
I am always with you
And yet have never been.’Slightly different but still the same enlightenment. ‘Everything seemed to slip away and I felt as if I melted back into the primal being of the universe. It didn’t seem as if my ego was gone, just melted into everything else. It was blissful.’
Dreaming of death: Some aspect of your outer or inner life is fading, or being superseded by a changed approach or attitude, 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.
But death of anything also involves a tremendous release of energy as the form breaks down. But the various levels of energy involved in the death of a person are never lost, for energy cannot ever be lost, it is transferred and used elsewhere. A transformation takes place. The consciousness and energy that gave the body life also goes through a process of transformation into universal life.
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.
Because you cannot actually die in your dreams. It is like you become totally involved in a movie that you can only escape from by waking. But when you wake things are the same – you are not dead – but you have been enriched by a lot of new experiences. I feel so deeply that our society does not let us die. What a terrible thing! The process of death isn’t just your heart stopping, it is a long process of shifting values, of creating a self that is no longer so deeply identified with the things of the world. The way our society is structured forces the ageing individual to go on and on almost like a hunter or warrior tied to processes in the external world trying to pay their way. Why I wonder? It seem so strange that the Stone Age societies living in very difficult circumstances, without our massive technological back-up, could manage to support their ageing and allow them a period of sinking into death. We, with massive resources, cannot do this. I felt a tremendous desire here to let go of all my worldly activities. I wanted to hand all my savings over to my sons and say, look, you care for this. All I ask is for a small amount of money to pay for my food and basic needs. I dearly wanted to give up and live from within myself.
Also parts of ones feelings sometimes die. Our love for someone might die for instance, and so our dream illustrates this with a death, perhaps of that person. Some teenagers dream of their parents dying as they start to become independent. This is a form of killing of dependent feelings about their parents as a means of growth. This happens in some relationships too, where we want to break with the person. See Dimensions of Human Experience
“The dead differ from the living only in this respect: they are in a permanent dream state the subconscious state because the conscious mind of the physical body no longer exists. But the body is an expendable shell, and all else is intact. On the astral level of existence, the sub-conscious mind replaces the conscious mind of the soul, and the superconscious replaces the subconscious. Hence, in dreams, we find that communication with those who have passed on is more logical than the average person is able to comprehend.” Quote from Edgar Cayce.
Death of someone known: Frequently, as in the example, this might express desire to be free of them, or unexpressed aggression. Perhaps your love for or connection with 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. When someone we know dies lots of things happen to us. First of all we have always thought of the person as being outside of us. Then suddenly they are gone from the outside world, and we either think of them as gone forever never to be seen again; or we do what dreams often do and find them inside of us. In this way we can discover a new relationship with them, either because they now communicate with us as a dead person, or we receive from them what they left in us.
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.
Death of yourself: You might be exploring your feelings about death, or retreating from the challenge of life. Sometimes it expresses a split between mind and body. The experience of leaving the body is frequently an expression of this schism between the ego and life processes. It could also be death of old patterns of living – your ‘old self’, or the loss of the traits that limit your awareness to an identity connected only to your body.
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 yourself to do now what you want – especially regarding love.
Example: During a major operation I dreamt I saw my little daughter – dead for many years – standing in a corn field. When she was actually buried the cemetery was skirted by a corn field, and later in life, coming to terms with this early death of a child, I imagined my daughter walking into the corn field. In the dream I walked into the corn field. My daughter was waiting for me with her arms held up. I put my arms to her and we greeted each other smiling. At that point I felt it wasn’t time to die yet, turned and walked out of the corn field. Ken S. Example: I was upstairs watching T.V. with my dog laying on the bed. I heard a motorbike out in the yard. I went downstairs and the dog followed me and this person on the bike tried to run the dog over. My husband came out and told me to go back to bed. I picked the dog up and started up the stair, reached the top and there was a big gap from the top of the stairs to the bedroom door, so to get to the bedroom I had to jump across this gap. I tried to jump this gap but missed and I fell and hit the bottom. The next thing I remember was I was floating up, I looked down and saw myself lying face down with arms spread out and I suddenly realised I was dead. I was so frightened that I woke up. I had the feelings of fear of dying and that the dog had been killed. I felt no pain.
The dream is obviously about her fear of dying, and also shows that even if one hits the ground one does not actually die, but experiences feelings of dying.
Death of child: Dreaming that your child dies can have several meanings. In some dreams a parent, much to their horror dreams of killing their child; or as one dreamer said, “I saw him jump off a bridge to his death.” This occurred at a time when her young son was making his first moves toward independence, and it was a difficult thing for the mother to face – the loss of her son. So it can easily be shown as the death of ones child in a dream. Another women describes it differently as follows:
‘I am standing outside a supermarket with heavy bags wearing my Mac, though the sun is warm. My daughter and two friends are playing music and everyone stops to listen. I start to write a song for them, but they pack up and go on a bus whilst I am still writing. I am left alone at the bus stop with my heavy burden of shopping, feeling incredibly unwanted.’ Mrs F
Mrs F was dreaming about her young daughter leaving her, and she has to grieve it, almost like a death.
This can mean a lot of other things than your actual child dying. For instance a man told me a dream that worried him enormously about walking with his wife and his young son fell down a hole and was apparently dead. But in fact he had had a terrible row with his wife that day, and it was showing the child as what they had created between them. In fact the dream child recovered as did their marriage. Your child dying can also be a warning that your inner child is dying. We each carry some awful memories from childhood that are shown in our dreams as our child. So it is worth taking hold of your apparently dead child – nothing can actually die in our dreams – and hold it and tell it you love it. Watch any feelings that emerge as you do this and any tears you shed. See what you understand from what you feel. Of course this could be a ‘mother’s’ dream in which your terror of losing your child is dreamt. A woman ones told me a dream in which her daughter was murdered. As we helped the woman explore her dream – not interpret it – she burst out into enormous sobs, crying that her daughter was leaving home and she was terrified of losing her. The girl was never murdered. See Baby or child hurt or killed So ask yourself what your fears are about.
But our dream child can represent many things, and it is useful to realise that any person, object or scene in a dream is not a symbol – it is not dead thing that has to be interpreted – it is a living part of you and can only be understood by relating to it. So in this way I have found that a child can represent whatever our strongest feelings about them are. It can represent your marriage or partnership because it is what you have created between you. In that case the death of the child can depict something like an awful argument that feels as if it the marriage has died.
A child and its death can also show you how you have killed out the growing or adventurous side of you; or if you see your child as vulnerable and needing protection it could show you the death of that part of your feelings.
So you need to ask yourself what your dream child depicts as a living part of you.
When our child actually dies it is one of the most heartbreaking experiences we can meet. Sometimes it takes years to adjust to what has happened. Not only is the adjustment emotional and psychological, but also your way of life is often built around the person you have lost. Therefore the changes we meet can be enormous. However, we each have enormous resources of healing and ability to meet the new if we can access them. Very often there are experiences we have, or dreams, that continue our relationship with the child. Unfortunately we live in a culture that often denies the possibility of this. See Life’s Little Secrets
For instance, Dr. Morse, in his book Closer to the Light, tells of a mother who came to him because she hadn’t slept properly for 1041 nights after the death of her son. She showed him a picture of her son, but Dr Morse was suddenly called away to a ward emergency. Having dealt with the sick baby, he was writing up the notes and a nurse who had been helping said to him, ‘Who was that person who came in with you? Is he a student?’ Morse did not understand what the nurse was talking about as nobody had come into the hospital with him. As he was trying to find a pen for the notes he was writing he pulled out the photograph of the woman’s son. Immediately the nurse said, ‘That’s him. He kept trying to get your attention’. When he returned to his office Morse asked the mother if she had ever been contacted by her son after his death. She said, ‘Oh yes. After he died, for several nights he would stand at the foot of my bed and tell me he was alright, and that I should stop crying. But that was only a crazy dream.’ However, such things are not crazy dreams, but insights into a greater reality. After her converstation with Dr. Morse the woman slept properly for the fist time in nearly three years.
Death the walking dead or rigor mortis: Aspects of you that are denied, perhaps through fear.
Death dancing with or meeting dark figure: Facing up to death and developing a different attitude to it – unless of course you are running away. If you turn around and face these figures you will break through to a different way of life. Death of someone close to us: As explained above, this often refers to ones own feelings or talents that have been hurt, denied, or ‘killed out’ by events and your response to them. The following example illustrates this.
‘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. Although the unconscious has a very real sense of its eternal nature and continuance after physical death, our conscious personality seldom shares this.
Also we all we all carry within us ideas, behaviours, talents and ways of life from 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. This aspect of a life beyond the physical is shown in many dreams.
For instance a man I knew dreamt of walking with a friend of his. As they walked they came to a river. The friend crossed, but the dreamer was unable to. Even in the dream he felt crossing the river meant his friend had died. Some time later he discovered that his friend had died at about the time he experienced the dream.
As the dream points out, the friend died, but continued another type of life ‘across the river’. A woman told a similar dream to me. Her teenage son came down to breakfast looking very unhappy. When she asked him why he said he had a dream that deeply disturbed him. In it he was walking with a friend and the friend walked through a door. When her son tried to follow he could not pass through the door. They could not find a rational explanation for the dream, but on arriving at school, her son heard that his friend had been killed in a motorbike accident on his way to school.
The river and the door are often used in this way, suggesting a change to another dimension of life usually unreachable by the living. Idioms: Dead and buried; dead from the neck up/or neck down; dead to the world; play dead; dead to the world; dead tired; drop dead; stone dead; at death’s door; brush with death; death wish; kiss of death; sick to death. See: Dreams of Death; Illness;
Useful questions and hints:
What feelings about death does this dream highlight?
If I imagined the dream being carried forward, how would I change it?
Am I changing and my past self dying?
If this is someone I know what are my feelings about them – and where are those feelings arising in me at the moment? What part of myself have I killed?
See Being the Person or Thing – Near Death Experiences – Techniques for Exploring your Dreams – Journeying Beyond Dreams and Death
Comments
I woke up sobbing from a nightmare last night. The emotions and fears have stayed with me throughout the day, today, which is highly unusual for any dreams that I actually remember. This one played out in such a realistic way, it is almost hard to describe how terrified I was feeling.
In the dream, my family (husband and 11 year old son) was abruptly jarred out of sleep by a major earthquake. Our son came running into our room screaming as the earth seemed to be moving in all directions around us, by, feet at a time. As soon as we were all together in our room the house began to be ripped apart around us. While we clung to each other, suddenly we began falling while the ground opened up beneath us revealing a massive lava flow – the heat made it hard to breathe, much less scream. Suddenly, my husband and I felt our grip on our son slipping as we were being torn apart from each other by the movement of the earth. Desperately clinging to my son’s right arm, my husband clinging to his left, both of us shrieking in terror, he slipped from our grasp and plunged into the lava below, flat on his back. I cannot get the look of terror and agony in his eyes, or the sound of his screams as I woke up just absolutely freaking out. I thought I was screaming when I awoke, but my husband told me I was sobbing in a way that really scared him.
We have a great marriage, a wonderful son whom we are very proud of (and who we have a great relationship with). We both have good jobs (I work from home). No major arguments in the past few months… but a bit of Holiday decorating frustration over the weekend. Nothing that I can think of that would cause such a traumatic dream to come up from my subconscious…
Any possible insight to what this could mean? Your insight is truly appreciated, as I’ve never really experienced a nightmare quite like this.
Thank you.
Shades – I am so sorry it has taken so long to answer your very interesting dream.
If I give a straightforward interpretation of you dream, it starts with the promise of enormous changes occurring in your life – that is the earthquake, which shows powerful inner, psychological energy being released. But usually such things are a way of personal growth, but your fear of it transformed in into a nightmare. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-yoga/
The falling and lave flow are also a wonderful sign that can be frightening, simple because we tend to take the things that dangerous in our outer life and import them into our dream life – yet they are totally different. The falling is caused by the great changes you face which present you with a different and changing world, in which you feel insecure and so have a sense of falling. And the great lava flow is that you have, through the changes, have opened to your core self. If you have never met it before it can be a shock, but it is a great thing to do. See http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/the-core-experience-part-1/
You have to recognise that dreams show you a vastly different world that our eyes and senses show us. And your son is what you have created between you and can represent your marriage and your hopes and dreams that you are terrified will die in the great changes. Of course you had to let go of all you held on to as you change. And your son falling into the lava is not a sign of death but of new life.
Here is such a dream faced without fear.
I was running through crowds of people or soldiers who were trying to stop me. I pushed or knocked them aside and ran toward what was a huge caldera – the mouth of a volcano. It was hugely deep, and in its depths was a massive glow from volcanic lava. But I knew that this was the core of myself, so I ran and leapt into the void falling into what I knew or felt sure was the light at the core of my being.
To have courage to face the changes that are coming or are already starting.
Tony
I had a dream last night that has left me distraught today. It was actually one of those where you dream, wake up and continue dreaming.
We were out at a park of some sorts with my husband, my one son, my mother and father. I was chatting to some people and my husband was supposed to be watching our son but when I turned around he was gone. My husband and I started looking for him and were arguing at the same time as he had not watched him. We found him quite quickly but my husband had to climb through some bushes to get to him. When he came back he had a large branch – actually half a tree, on his back and it appeared to slice half way through his neck but he did not seem to notice. He finally took it off and said to me that he thinks he may need a neck brace and I said no I think you need stitches. At this moment blood was pumping out of this puncture as if it had hit his jugular and he passed out immediately. I tried screaming for help and to stop the bleeding all the time remembering a show where they say hitting the jugular is normally terminal. I woke up at this stage.
When I finally managed to get to sleep I dreamt again – this one a bit hazy though. My husband was apparantly dead but not from the dream above. He was killed while at work in a car accident and people were talking to me about compensation from the company so that I would have money to bring up my two boys.
I woke up again and upon going to sleep again continued the same dream with people pushing me to put in a claim for compensation. After I woke from this dream i did not go back to sleep.
I understand dreams of death are about changes and to give you some background we are in the process of an immigration but are awaiting the sale of our house which has taken a lot longer than normal. This has also placed us under great financial strain so there is quite a bit of stress.
As a young child I dreamt of the death of two people close to the family one being my grandfather and within 24 hours they were dead. Could have been coincidence but it worries me.
I would not normally even consider posting something private on a forum but this has left me so unnerved.
Lauren – Sorry it has taken so long to reply, but I cannot keep up, and every dream seems important.
I feel this is all about what you have felt about your marriage in a time of stress. You see a child is what you have created between you – your marriage – and the child being injured shows your anxiety.
This is further shown in the following dreams where your husband was dead. It is certainly about change, a change in your feelings. And the stress has put you near breaking point. In fact you need to be careful about the future of your marriage, and care for it in any way you can.
Tony
About a week ago I had a dream that my dad and I got into a really big argument (I’m not sure about what). In the dream he started yelling at me that I would be dead by September. In the dream it felt like a threat not a prediction and it was in public. Some sort of lodge/park ground that I have never seen before.
Last night I had a dream that my two brothers and my mother and myself were driving up a very steep hill urging my mom to stop smoking. Right before we got to the top of the hill she sped up in anger because we were bugging her about smoking and as we started going down the hill I noticed (too late) that there was a very large truck coming towards us and we were involved in a head-on full speed collision. I was sitting in the front seat and as soon as we hit I felt several of my teeth gone and blood gushing down my face. I remember my eyes being heavy and how hard it was to remain conscious. Then I woke up.
Do you think these dreams have any correlation?
Amanda – Yes I feel there is a connection. The feeling I get is that in the first dream you are not supported emotionally by your day, and that leaves you feeling a bit hopeless about the future. And the second dream is about you feeling driven by your mother into a life threatening situation – again about hopeless about the future.
But I have another feeling that says you are meeting so much so much that you are feeling dragged down by it. These are only feelings so if I am wrong excuse me. But it would be a kind thing to do to listen to the silence within you. Do not make the mistake of thinking you can create the silence – it is already there. You sit and observe all the thoughts and emotions and simply say – those are my thoughts and emotions. Then notice any physical feelings, warm, coldness, comfort, discomfort, the feeling of clothes on your body and say – those are physical sensations. But then notice where they are all coming from. Maybe it is like a grey space that is a stillness amidst the movement and change. Just watch and listen to it.
Also imagine a different ending to the dream of the car crash. And if any of the dream at any time becomes reality ask your mother to stop the car and get out.
Tony
I have had many dreams over the years about death. My norm is what I call “Having Supper with the Dead”. When these dreams occur, the dream is always of a table surrounded by people who have gone before. They are eating, but there will always be someone new at the table. The newest person has always been the next person to leave us. I am always nothing more than an observer. There are no time lines on these dreams; however, the last one I had, I was also at the table.
But I regress, it is about last night’s dream I wish to ask about. It was very strange. I was young, maybe yearly to mid 20’s and I was getting married (no groom in the picture). I was dressed in a long white gown and carried red roses. It was a big outdoor wedding with grandstands. There were a lot of older people who I did not know. The grandstand gave way and the people on it fell and died. The stair case going into the house (which was large) gave way and more people died.
This dream puzzled and concerns me because I have never seen death and marriage in the same dream.
I was very Psychic when I was younger, but I shut it off because all I saw was death. This dream was very disturbing.
Any idea’s?
Thanks
T’ce – What an interesting dream, and thank you for the background information, it helps me get a much better idea.
And what I believe is happening to you is that you have denied a gift, a spiritual gift. And you have denied it because you have not dealt with death fully. And the dream you describe to me is very much about that. The marriage is a wonderful promise of marrying, the uniting with a wonderful possibility that has been trying to ‘marry’ you for years. It is not a marriage with a human person but with the spirit of Life and Love.
But to complete this marriage you have to actually face death. I do not mean you have to die, but you have to experience the wonderful transition that death is. This is what is called an initiation, an experience that opens a new experience and possibilities for you. It is difficult to find words for it.
Iif you want to go ahead with it you can find a time when you will not be disturbed, and if you have person who is sympathetic to dreams and emotion, that would be good.
When you dream you surrender yourself and another will takes over that has constantly confronted you with death. That will is the force that gives you life and keeps your heart beating and your flow of energy. It has not wish to hurt you, but it does seek to grow you, to expand your awareness of what and who you are, and while you hide from death you are cowering in a dark corner of what is possible. So in your imagination open yourself to that Life and allow it to move you in any way. Obviously we have all been taught that death is an awful thing, with a mask of rotten flesh and a skeleton face, but that is only a mask created by fear. So at first it is a bit scary, but trust in the power of Life in you.
Blessing on your journey.
Tony
I dream about killing deamons very vividly sometimes, which is weird for me because im a very happy go lucky butterflies n rainbows kinda person so i dont understand why i only have grusome dreams, alot of them doing with other wordly creatures..
Erika – You have dreams like that probably because of two reasons. One is because, as you say, you are a butterflies and rainbows kinda person. The other is that none of us know who we are unless we actually explore what people have called the unconscious.
You are a bright little flower, a bloom, on a very ancient plant. You are not in touch with the forces of Life that keep your heat beating, makes you breathe even while asleep, grew you from a seed in your mother’s womb, and as it did so took you through the whole process of evolution. Up until the time when you learned the amazing computer like program called language you were living in the ‘unconscious’. It was only then that this bright and vulnerable flower you are came into being. The ancient plant is the process of Life that is incredibly ancient. And it – Life – is a wonderful thing with such depths and opposites containing everything that has ever lived and been experienced. And your dreams arise from that.
Your ‘gruesome’ dreams are a reminder that you are much bigger than you realise, and an invitation to grow into a full human being who has experience of and makes conscious the depths of you.
So try using the following on your dreams: http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-in-your-dream/
Tony
I recently had a dream where I watched my husbands murder. We were with a group of his friends and this group of outsiders came into the group saying that my husbands brother owed them money. One of the men pushed me and when my husband when to stand up for me the man cuts my husbands face and they begin to swarm around my husband. He is trying to fight his way up but there are too many men stabbing him. Out of nowhere our 3 year old daughter comes running to me and we are forced to watch my husbands murder. Then one of the men come back to us and tells my daughter “tell your uncle he doesn’t owe us anything anymore”. What does this mean? I have never had a dream this vivid it was like I was living it. It was HORRIBLE!
Angie – First if all, it isn’t your husband or daughter you are dreaming of. They are representations of your feelings and fears. At first you were pushed, showing that you felt the anxiety about something that in your mind linked with a dangerous situation. Then you dream husband, probably representing your outgoing self, tried to fight back.
Such things can be very real because we can see them happening around us, acted out in films and in life. And the debt paid is like saying that your strength is dead and we can do anything we like.
And although that might be an option in waking life, it is not an option in dream life, your own inner world. While such fears run the show within you it is an awful way to life. And in any case your dream husband isn’t dead, and such thugs cannot harm you or your husband. You will soon dream of your husband again – so death, where is your sting? You can stand up to such thugs in your dreams and challenge them. All you are doing is challenging your own emotions of fear. Please see http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dream-yoga/
Tony
I had a devastating dream last night and can’t seem to shake the horror it left me feeling.
I was standing in the middle of a living room and my 3 daughters were all dead.
Two were on the sofa and one on the loveseat, all 3 on their backs and their throats had been cut. The awful part of the dream was knowing I was the one who had killed them.
I felt confindent that I had an excuse ready to give in order to get away with what I had done, but, as soon as I thought about it I realized that I had already used that excuse the last time I murdered them.
My oldest daughter is already moved away from home and I have no deep fears of my other two leaving and being on their own. I can’t begin to imagine where this dream came from or why I would have dreamt something so unfathomable.
Regards,
Denise
Denise – Can you begin to remember the years of effort, worry, heartaches, self giving that have been a part of your everyday life? When the role of parent ends what will it feel like.
I know that you will say – a relief. But whatever you feel it will mean a whole new life for you when they leave home. A whole new life means an awful lot of changes you will face.
So sometimes in a mother’s dreams I see them killing off their child or children as they become independent. I think it is a strange way of cutting their emotional links.
Or maybe you are killing out your own inner children. If that is so it is worthwhile asking yourself if it is a way to avoid an early pain you faced as you grew up. See http://dreamhawk.com/health-and-healing/inner-baby-and-child/ it may link with what you feel, because the dream depicts a desperate act too be rid of your dream girls.
Tony
I dreamed that I am at home with my mother and brother. I saw my coffin and that I was waiting for the time to bury my own coffin at the cemetery but I got a problem with, something like a financial matters. My mother suggested me to bury my coffin at the backyard. I asked them “why can’t we go to the cemetery where we can perform the burial ceremonial rites?”… I told them that “should I really dig the backyard and bury my own coffin all by self?”, and my elder brother doesn’t even care to help mein digging. It also came in my mind during my dream, the possible cemetery where I can lay peacefully…near from my relatives place…not far from where I live. It also came in my mind a question about reincarnation or another life..that I can still live while knowing that Im already dead and planning to visit my grieve yard…
What does my dream mean to my life?
Allan – I have a feeling that this is what I call an initiatory dream. In other words it is a dream that begins the process for you to experience death and what place it has in your life. Initiation is a way of introducing you to a new level of experience.
You passed one test in that you were not horrified of the prospect of death, and the business about finance may be that it would cost you more in terms of what you are willing to give of yourself.
The digging it by yourself and without help from your brother, I think deals again with what it would cost you. But in the end we have to meet death ourselves.
As for reincarnation I suggest you read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/reincarnation-and-dreams/
Tony
-ROXY
Last night I had a dream i was with some friends. I was going to go home, but not before i was about to offer my bestfriend a ride home… before i could offer she appeared to be crying. She then told me “your brother “R” passed”. I started crying and I immediately ran across the street {in my dream I was living in some apartments across the street} As I ran across the street I saw my brother the one who had supposedly passed walking into the building. I could only see his back but assumed it was him because it kinda looked like my little brother “I” too, but more like my brother “R”. He never turned around although I screamed his name so loud. I chased him up about three flight of stairs. The whole time I keep screaming after him calling his name. The Whole time i just see his back not to mention he was holding some shopping bags. When I finally get to our floor my brother is laying there dead. I dont really recall but I think he was shot……. I wake up scared and worried…. I manage to go back to sleep…. My 2nd dream is a lil similar to my first but this time my aunt is telling me that my mom died… i didnt go into detail about the 2nd dream but i would really like to know what these dreams mean.. I am very worried.. A lil backgroung my brother from the 1st dream just recently about 2 months ago went to jail and is facing some time in prison. My mom and I are currently not speaking and its been about to 2 weeks since we had a fight. I am 19 years old and living apart from my family -REPLY
Roxann – I believe from your dream that you are troubles by the relationship with your brother and your mother. I am led to this conclusion because the dream doesn’t make sense to me otherwise. So I feel that the relationships trouble you enough to want to be rid of them. Dreams do this often by dreaming that they are dead.
Maybe you could see it as I do not want my family dead as in the dream, but I do want myself separated from the influence they have on me.
Tony
Hello Tony,
I had a dream which i hope you can help me to interpret.
In the dream, i was walking with someone in a, seem like forest area but it was night time. I could not see the person i am with. Then we met a female, a strange. I could not see her face too. We had a chat and she point us to a direction. We turned to the pointed direction and suddenly find ourselves in front of a tombstone with no name and only a time 8:47 of death. The person with me suddenly said ” This tomb belong to the female who saw just now. We are talking to a spirit without knowing and the time now was only one minute after 8:47. Passing onto spirit world is only a swift moment.” As i heard this, i feel amazed by what i came across but at the same time a creepy feeling to the time i saw. I woke up then.
Why the time? Does it mean anything?
Thanks Tony for any helpful tips on this dreams meaning.
Regards,Denise
Denise – I feel this is a profound experience. You see when you walked into the forest area you entered into wider awareness. Some people call it the unconscious, but that is only when you have not entered it. And usually before you can have an experience such as this you must have had other dreams leading up to it.
The person you are with in the forest is an important part of you that has not been known until now. That suggests that you have been going through either powerful life experiences or something like spiritual practices that have produced this growth – a growth of awareness. But you are still in the first stages of realising who this person is and what part she plays in your life.
Then the second woman, who is like a guide and advisor to you, points you in a direction that confronts you with the next step of your realisation. The woman whose face you could not see and the tombstone without a name represents parts of you that are now becoming aware of, but are still not really understood.
The tombstone and the time on it are doorways into very personal memories that you can only reach by really opening to your dream. It is an important part of you that wishes to be known. You can open to it by finding time to relax in a quiet environment and then imagine you are standing in front of the tombstone. As you do this leave your body, emotions and mind like keys of a piano that are ready to be played, but not by your conscious direction. Then watch and wait to see what arises.
As I said, this only happens to you because you have grown to the point where you were ready. Do not be anxious. She will bring you so much.
Tony
Hi. Im of a young age(20) and have a young baby. My father means the world to me and is in his late 40’s. He celebrates his birthday today. This moring I woke with a bad dream very bad dream and even when I got up I cried. I rang him on the phone and couldnt even talk to him I was so upset. In my dream, He died at home in the morning. I was in the pub and no one told me until I got home incase I wouldnt come home and keep drinking. I was so heartbroken in the dream I could see his ghost and went to sit on his knee but he wasnt there.
I really need to hear what this mean. Im going crazy today with worry as I’m away and now i’m dying to get back to him. Please help me, I beg
Thank you
Ellen – This is obviously about the death of your father, a very deeply felt loss, but not that he is going to die tomorrow, the next day or any time soon. I believe that you can see the signs of ageing in him, and this has set you thinking about him dying, even unconsciously; that is where the dream started, and it is like a rehearsal for you. We do this when we haven’t come to terms with death or thought about it seriously. It is also the first step toward being an independent adult.
So think about what death means to you; the death of your father and your mother. Even if it causes you to cry. Think about it till you can talk easily about it – it is not a taboo subject. Read the book Closer to the Light by Dr. Morse. It will give you a realistic view of it.
If you do not meet Death like this it will be a terrible shock when it happens – and it is going to.
And tell your parents how you love them and how much they mean to you – tell them now.
Tony
i have just woken crying. in my dream my mother had died from an illness (cancer maybe). Even thought she was supposed to be dead I could still see her and speak to her but no one else could.
What do you think this means!?
i had a dream wherein i was standing beside my dad.. suddenly he starts shivering..shaking to be exact shaking too much and almost faints yet i try very hard to hold him..give him water..he tries to stand up straight but couldn and i hold him by his shoulder and scream for help.. i got scared and woke up and started praying for my dad’s health.is this a sign of something bad?
Dani – I wish you had explained to me some of the background to your dream – whether your mother is still alive, and what you felt in the dream.
I have to guess about this, and I have the impression that at some time you have wondered about your mother dying. The dream is stimulated by that and is showing that even if she did die with a disease that is seen as awful, and she is shown as alive and okay as a sign for you not to be afraid of death.
Your mother couldn’t be seen by anyone else because most people are not aware of the dead. Most people believe that there is no after life. So perhaps you have the gift of vision.
Tony
We recently lost my 20 year old stepson to cancer (just three months ago, after two years with it).
Last night my husband dreamed that he saw our son alive and shopping in a grocery store. He still looked the way he did when he was in the last stage of his cancer, except he could walk (at the end of his life in reality, he was bedridden and couldn’t eat, move anything, or really talk).
My husband said he didn’t talk to him, he was just watching him shop and it seemed to my husband that he didn’t know he had cancer that was stage 4 or that he was dying. He was just shopping like normal. My husband watched him shop for a while and then woke up.
That was the whole dream. My husband would love to know what it means.
Thanks.
Shaun – I see this dream as arising from several things. Also it is important that you understand that dreams, like our sight or hearing, are not a direct sensing. The eye for instance receives light that is translated into nervous impulses. Those are then translated into images by the brain.
The dream uses images from your own experience in translating what are formless, like light, into things that we can understand. So it may be that your image of your husband’s son showing signs of cancer is used for your husband to recognise him, and his shopping is a sign that he is fine and getting on with his life. I feel your husband’s feelings about his son’s death have coloured the dream. From my experience of such dreams and the after death state, he would not need to go to a grocery store as he would not have a body to feed.
I also have a sense that you felt a lot in hearing the dream.
Tony
Last night I dreamed that my brother died, and then I woke up. I fell back to sleep and dreamed I was taking time off from work and traveling home to attend his funeral, then I woke up. I fell back to sleep again and dreamed I was at his wake/viewing, and then I woke up again. Once again, I fell asleep and dreamed I was at this funeral and burial, and then I woke up…this time I stayed awake and decided to start my day (and of course I called him).
Does the fact that I continued to wake up and dream and sort of continuation of the same dream have any significance?
Thanks,
Katie
I have been having the same dream for years now. I dont get it very often, but when I do it is so intense in emotion that I wake up frantically. Most often I can wake myself up from dreams, but not this one. When I am having this dream I can’t wake myself up and I always stop in the same part of my dream. It’s really like a nightmare. I dont know any of the people in my dream and every time I try to remember it, I lose my train of thought as if the dream doesnt want me to remember. It’s weird, but in my dream people are chasing me and they are torturing me. I have to relive it every time I have this dream. Two men are chasing me and stalking me, they shoot my best friend (in the dream) to death and they break into my house which is like a broken down house.. but in real life the girl in the dream isnt my friend, in fact, i dont even know her. Same with the house.. my parents live in a nice house. And I have no idea why these men are chasing me, although my mind always seems to fall towards the thought of me owing them money? Throughout this dream I am constantly feeling in fear of my life. This old man is in my dream trying to help me without getting killed and in the end they killed him, but he was my only source of survival. I had a shot gun that man handed me when they broke in and it was loaded and i was ready to shoot but when it came time nothing came out and they took it and beat me with it til I was passed out. I woke up to find out they raped my dog and killed him.. and I see my friend is still alive (barely) but I am crying prefusely over my dog… and then I wake up. None of the places or faces in my dream look familiar other than my dog, any ideas of what this could mean?
Stephanie – Please get it clear in your mind that nothing can hurt you or kill you in a dream. If that were not true you would be badly hurt and injured by now. Also there is nobody else in your dream except you. And dreams show all the different characters and our most intimate fears and longings 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 fears as someone attacking us, something that haunts our memory shown as a ghost or demon. 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 it seems you are in a passive relationship to your fears. The best thing to get rid of such dreams is to challenge them – but first of all practice feeling the truth that dreams cannot hurt you, and all you can feel is fear – or if a pleasant dream, pleasure. If you can find the strength to believe this then your dream will change. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/active-passive/
It is important to do this as it colours the way you react in everyday life. If you change it you will see the difference in you waking life. Also look at http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/technique-for-lucid-dreaming/ and go to The Second Steps. In it are simple techniques that if practiced will revolutionise your dream life, and your waking life.
Tony
I had a dream last night that I just cannot stop replaying.
First, some background. My 5 year old daughter died 5 months ago of cancer. She had some emergency surgery to try to stem her tumor growth and she never regained consciousness — I was able to hold her as she passed away.
My dream: I’m holding her in a busy room — she is dead… Well, everyone is saying she is dead. Her father (my ex-husband) is talking to people in the room about her passing and her funeral. As i’m holding her, I notice her eyes fluttering and in the dream, I am all of a sudden very certain that if I hold her close and rock her, that I can bring her back to life. So, to everyone in the room’s dismay, I pull her body into my lap and start rocking her and her eyes open and look directly into mine. She doesn’t say anything and I realize that I don’t want to tell anyone she had come back to life because I didn’t want to share her with anybody. Before I can talk to her, everyone notices her eyes are open and they swarm all over and carry her away from me.
It just takes my breath away how real feeling her breath in and open her eyes felt in that dream — but I don’t understand what it means.
Can you help me make sense?
Beth
Beth – I had to enter into your dream deeply and explore it with you to get any sense of what it might mean to you.
I saw that you felt the loss of your daughter like a death; something had gone out of your life. Then, in the dream you held her and then saw a flicker of life. And that was when you felt that your daughter was alive in you, and you could feel her and love her.
So the dream was a breaking through the feeling of loss into the wonder or a living presence.
Then the last part seems to be a sense of her taken away again, but not completely. I suggest that you stay with the image of your daughter in you arms and looking in her eyes. Do it often and watch her grow, and your confidence in her as a living presence will grow also in your life.
Tony
i had a dream with a book of deaths in it. but it was death dates. and i found my name and a date in it! whst does that mean?
Kirsten – I wish you could have told me a bit more information. Did you recall the date that you were supposed to die on? What did you feel on seeing it?
So I feel that this is probably about your fear of death. Usually people dream of death a lot as a means of learning what it is and feeling okay. But the first dreams are usually about fear because of our beliefs.
Tony