Menu
What does it mean when you dream about a dead person, especially if it’s a dead relative or loved one? And how do you make sense of the experience? This article will take you through dream interpretation of this fairly common, yet often puzzling kind of dream. You will also find examples to help you understand how you can use the experience of the dream to bring about positive changes in your life.
Dreams about dead relatives or loved ones are often considered part of the grieving process. It is common to have this kind of dream in the first few months after their passing.
As Rebecca Cathcart explains, “Back to life” or “visitation” dreams, as they are known among dream specialists and psychologists, are vivid and memorable dreams of the dead.”
The impact of this type of dream is such that they often fall into the category of dreams Carl Jung called “big dreams“, that is dreams that have a profound influence on our life.
Grief dreams or dreams about people who have passed away may bring up issues that we cannot face consciously. They may be an opportunity to work through some unresolved emotional issues that remain.
In a more symbolic interpretation, the deceased person can represent a part of yourself that has died, been lost, or is difficult to accept. This is also pertinent in the interpretation of dreams about someone dying who is still alive.
Even though the literature relating to dreams experienced by the bereaved has grown in the last few decades, the study of dreams as a tool for coping with loss is a relatively new field of study.
Research suggests that the dreams of people who have lost loved ones are often very meaningful and important. According to the study “The impact of dreams of the deceased on bereavement”, 60% of respondents had the impression that their dream had an impact on the mourning process.
The same study examines the prevalent themes in grief dreams, which include “pleasant past memories or experiences, the deceased free of illness, memories of the deceased’s illness or time of death, the deceased in the afterlife appearing comfortable and at peace, and the deceased communicating a message.”
You may also recognize your dream in one of these categories of grief dreams:
In addition, one of the first in-depth study about dreams of bereavement conducted by Deirdre Barrett shows four main categories of dreams based on the type of interaction with the dead person in the dream, such as when the deceased:
💬 Interpretation Tip
To interpret the meaning of your dream about your deceased relative, consider the following questions: How does the dream make you feel? Does the dream put you at peace or encourage you to accept what has happened? Do you feel hopeful, grateful, or comforted? Or is the message from the deceased more problematic? What kind of interaction did you have – if any at all?Grieving is a natural process, which everyone moves through at their own pace. It is not defined by a timeframe, although many people experience the same emotional stages. One of the most challenging tasks to do during this process is to adjust to life without our loved one.
This can be a powerful time for dreamwork. Dreams can offer symbols and metaphors to help you understand your feelings about the deceased person, in addition to your feelings about the loss.
If a deceased family member appears in your dream, it is likely that you are experiencing grief over their death. Dreams of the deceased can help with this process by providing a way of coping with complex emotions and thoughts that arise during bereavement.
A dream can be seen as a way of experiencing events in the imagination, and this allows the dreamer to work through grief issues in a safe place.
If you have recently lost a relative, you may be comforted by dreaming about them. Such a dream can be very reassuring for many reasons, including the sense of being able to “get in touch” with lost loved ones and the feeling that there is still more work to do for them, that they are not gone forever.
Dreams may feature the deceased appearing well, happy or healthy, which is reassuring that they’re “okay” after death. Dreams, where the deceased person is well or happy, can be reassuring to the dreamer.
The dreamer has often had concerns that something bad happened to them, or that they still have work to do for the people who have died and a dream can provide reassurance about their condition.
💬 Interpretation Tip
Dreams may help with grief in a very simple way – by giving expression to our feelings and thoughts about the person we are grieving for. By turning loved ones into dream characters, our mind finds different ways of working through grief issues and coming to terms with loss.Dreams about dead relatives may include fragments of actual conversations or messages that were relayed when the relative was alive. For example, a relative might speak to you in a dream or ask you for help in some way.
As noted in this study by William Domhoff, a leading expert on dreams, a large number of dreams about dead people involves the usage of a telephone: “One striking contingency of these “philosophic” death dreams is the frequent utilization of a telephone as the medium of interaction with the deceased person. Fifty-three percent of the dreams in this category involved telephone calls from the deceased person.”
Telephones or phone calls in dreams symbolize the idea of communication and bridge between various aspects of your psyche or dimensions of reality. This is why telephones often appear in dreams, especially dreams of the dead.
If a telephone appears in your dream of the deceased, it may be relaying or reminding you of a message that they told you while they were still alive.
Dreams often give us a chance to say or do things that we would never even consider doing in waking life. This can be a great opportunity to take your feelings about the loss and find some closure with the deceased loved one.
Sometimes it’s hard to express certain emotions out loud, especially those of grief and sorrow. Dreams about dead relatives can provide you with an outlet for your emotions in this sense, where you need not worry about how others will perceive you.
Dreams about a dead person can sometimes be like an emotional release point as if there was something that was buried inside of us when the person died and only now has come out through dreams and emotions.
Dreams about the deceased may be a result of unresolved emotions and desires that cry out for resolution. This does not necessarily mean that these dreams are warnings, but it does mean that they could be signs that you need to address them.
If you were close to the one who has passed away, you may dream about how much you miss them. You may also dream about them because it is a way of resolving any issues that you had whilst they were alive.
A deceased relative could appear as a guide or adviser in dreams, and this can offer support for the bereaved. Dreams about dead relatives may offer guidance, reassurance and encouragement.
Dreams are often seen as a way of connecting with the deceased, as they offer a chance to interact with that person again in a dream-like setting and gain understanding from their perspective.
The deceased in your dreams may represent aspects of yourself that you are having trouble with. When you dream about a dead relative, it may be because they symbolize an aspect of yourself that you are struggling to accept within yourself.
You might feel deeply guilty about some unresolved emotions or feelings, such as anger or resentment towards them. Dreams like these could be telling you that it is time to face up to your own feelings and perhaps resolve them once and for all.
The dreamer may also be searching for an aspect of his or her own personality that he or she feels has been neglected, ignored or disowned. The dead person in the dream may be a substitute for this latent part of ourselves that is calling out to us, waiting to grow up and become complete and capable of fulfilling its function in our lives once again.
Dreaming of the dead or seeing deceased friends or family members in your dreams can involve unresolved feelings that you are unable to integrate or deal with. The meaning of this type of dream can be similar to dreams involving ghosts, as they symbolize events or emotions from your past that you are unable to resolve, come to terms with or accept as part of your life experience.
You may be longing for closure or have some unfinished business that you need to take care of before you are able to move on with your life. Seeing the dead in your dreams can be a way for you to finally deal with these emotions and move on with your life.
💬 Interpretation Tip
Consider the multiple dimensions dreams of bereavement have: What if your dream about the deceased person is not just about that person or event, but rather about something else entirely? Dreams involving deceased people can also represent an aspect of yourself or a time in your life when you are in need of healing.A dream about dead people can be a symbol of characteristics that are missing in your waking life. If you dream about deceased loved ones, you might be yearning for a certain lost quality or characteristic from your life.
This is especially true if the “dead” person was someone who was older or wiser than you and had done or seen more in life than you have to date.
For example, having a dream about your loving grandmother who is deceased can symbolize your own desire to have more of the qualities she embodied in your life – like patience, empathy, and love for others.
The person appearing in a dream may have been someone who was important to you during your life – someone who was a role model for qualities such as kindness, respectfulness, generosity, and warmth.
On the contrary, if you dream about someone with less than admirable qualities, it is more likely a reflection of your own character traits that you would like to change or improve. Perhaps you feel like you are stuck in a “dead-end” job, relationship, or life situation. It could also be a way to process the challenging and unresolved aspects of your relationship with that person.
This type of dream might be a reflection on a few important topics in spirituality: our own mortality, impermanence in life, the fear of death, and the afterlife to name just a few.
Dreams about seeing deceased relatives may be a symbol of fear about death or denial of its inevitability. Seeing any dream character who is not alive can symbolize death. We may project our own feelings, thoughts, and desires onto a dream character and see them as having the same traits that we do ourselves.
We do not want to think about death as it is too painful or scary. We want to think of death as something that will not happen to us or affect us in any way.
The dream can sometimes be a way of disguising our fears of death and the unknown. A deceased relative in a dream may symbolize our fears that we have no control over what happens after we die.
Seeing a dead loved one in a dream can symbolize our own concerns about growing old and dying, as well as our fear of losing control over our own bodies.
If a relative appears in your dream, you may find yourself thinking about what lies beyond death. You may have hope that you may see your loved one again after you pass away.
This type of dream may give us reassurance about the existence of an afterlife, but it also opens up a lot more questions about what happens after we die – a question central to many around the world.
Dreaming about dead people is a reminder that our time on earth is limited and we should live every day to the fullest. Death has no respect for age or status, and there is no guarantee when that final moment will come for us.
In that sense, dreams about the dead are ultimately still a reflection of your own thoughts, feelings, and desires. They may provide us with a window into unresolved issues or emotions, but they can have larger implications for the rest of your waking life.
Even though the majority of dreams about dead loved ones are positive (according to the study), fear, loss, guilt, and anger are also common emotions in dreams of bereavement.
“In my experience, many people who have negative dreams of the deceased are having issues with their unresolved anger, guilt, etc. Additionally, the death may have been traumatic and they may be reliving that traumatic event (e.g., seeing their loved one dying again),” says Blake, a researcher specializing in grief dreams.
If you dream about the deceased and feel negative emotions, perhaps the dead person is a symbol of something you are struggling to come to terms with. It can also reflect the difficulties one may have during the process of grieving.
No matter the feelings you may have about a deceased loved one, you shouldn’t let the fear or discomfort keep you from acknowledging them. Sometimes, feeling guilty or ashamed if you dream about seeing a dead loved one is a natural reaction.
By dreaming about the dead or seeing dead friends or family members in your dreams, you are subconsciously addressing these issues and emotions within yourself.
Sometimes. the grieving process is too hard to bear alone. If you dream about seeing the deceased in your dream, you may want to seek professional help and guidance through counseling or confiding with someone you trust, which can help you deal with your emotions.
Other techniques involve dream rescripting, which is a common way to turn nightmares into better dreams.
A visitation dream usually involves a deceased person appearing to the dreamer in such a vivid way that there is a felt sense of the presence of the dead, and some kind of interaction occurs that has a profound impact on the dreamer.
In a traditional sense, visitation dreams are “where a dream figure, usually a deity or a prominent forebear, commands the dreamer to take specific actions and may predict future events.”
Visitation dreams in modern dream interpretation can be “defined as emotionally intense dreams in which a recently deceased loved one returns in the dream state to provide guidance, reassurance, and/or warning.” (Grubbs, 2004)
If you wonder if you had such a dream, check your experience against the 7 key characteristics of visitation dreams: outlined by Jennifer Shorter in her thesis “Visitation dreams in grieving individuals“. They are:
– deceased conveyed reassurance;
– an internal sense of knowing, a felt sense;
– message served a purpose;
– complexity of intense emotion upon wakening;
– changed perspective; spiritual
changes;
– dream affected the grieving process;
– the dreamer’s message came through telepathic means.
Whether you had an actual visitation dream where your dead relative or friend visited you in the dreams is hard to tell and is still considered a controversial topic for most people. Ultimately, it is up to you what to believe.
With that said, a visitation dream is still one of the most vivid types of dreams about dead people to experience and you shouldn’t underestimate the impact it might have on your life.
Here are a few books we found particularly interesting and helpful.
In these dreams, you may be looking down at a dead body or coming face-to-face with the deceased in a very vivid dream. You may see your loved one as they looked when they were alive.
The dead person may appear in good health and normal or not at all injured or distressed. Alternatively, the person who has died may appear injured, disfigured, pale, or even ghostlike.
These dreams are common among those who have not yet come to terms with their loss. In these dreams, you will see or talk to the person who has died. You may catch a glimpse of them in your peripheral vision or they may address you directly.
Sometimes, when the person in a dream appears to you, they are speaking directly to you or talking with you. Often they relay an important message that helps with the grieving process.
You may recognize their voice, but it can sometimes sound different in some way or it can seem muffled as if there was a lot of noise surrounding the two of you. The person may say anything from simple greetings such as “Hello, sweetheart” or “I’m glad you’re okay,” to giving advice or guidance.
Sometimes they may also appear as if they are guiding you in some way. The dreamer will feel as if the deceased is predicting that something bad or good is going to happen, but they do not know what it is.
This kind of dream can be a premonition or part of the grieving process, especially if the dead person is asking you to do something. This may reflect unresolved aspects of the relationship with the deceased that you must deal with before you can move on.
When a dead relative or friend talks to you in a dreams, pay attention as it can be a reflection of something that hasn’t been spoken or resolved yet. It could also mean that you are still having those thoughts and feelings.
Even if it is a dream, the message they are sending to you can be very profound. They may have information that can help you find closure or a resolution.
The death of a pet is one of the most difficult life experiences people go through, especially when they are children. Many of us are so attached to our pets and we love them almost as if they were family members.
The grieving process after the death of a pet can be very similar to grieving over the death of a loved one. The dreams about deceased pets can be very powerful in helping people come to terms with loss and grief.
Dreams about a deceased are very common among people who have had a recent experience with loss. This loss could be about a death in their family or friends circle, or perhaps more symbolically, about challenging changes that may turn one’s life, career or relationships upside-down.
If you have lost a loved one, this dream might be a way of raising and processing the feelings that you have had difficulty dealing with. It can be a way to begin the grieving process. If you are dealing with radical changes in your life that feel like a loss or a “symbolic death”, your dream may also be helfpful in acknowledging your emotions.
That way, dreaming of a dead person is always a step in the direction of greater understanding, clearing, acceptance, and an encouragement to work through what needs to be processed or let go to move forward in your life.
