Death

What does it mean to dream about death, or to be visited by someone who has died?

Dead bodies jerking…

dead bodies shadow Dream: I’ve had this dream for many, many years. I dream that I am at a funeral home and there are three coffins with dead bodies in them, however, the bodies begin moving in jerky motion, I then go to the director and he tells me that’s what dead bodies do. Sometimes I recognize the dead people, other times no.

DreamsMaster: Interesting. Let’s take a look at each of the symbols in this dream and then piece them all together into a theme…

Funeral home: A house or home in a dream often represents our personal space or self. Along these lines, a funeral home or a “house of the dead” could represent a part of yourself that feels obsolete or lifeless, that harbors old memories or ways of being.

Three coffins with dead bodies: The number three may be a religious symbol (such as the Trinity), or it could mean something personal to you. Is there something in your life that comes in threes? Or do you have any other personal association to that number?

Dead bodies moving in jerky motion: When I project myself into your dream, I visualize this jerking as being similar to when we first fall asleep and sometimes jerk ourselves awake. How did you feel when you saw the bodies jerk? Were you afraid, or just confused?

Funeral director: This character could represent the part of yourself that is in charge, in control of the situation, even when another part of you doubts or questions.

“That’s what dead bodies do”: Even though one part of you questions what you see, another part of you “takes charge” and provides an answer for you. Interesting that you appear to take the director’s words at face value, despite the fact that the answer does not seem logical with your felt sense of the experience. Do you tend to give your power away like this in the waking world, question your intuition?

A dead person in a dream generally represents some aspect of ourselves that has become obsolete, has “died off”. If the dead person is someone you recognize but is not someone close to you, think of how you would describe that person and then consider how that person may represent your shadow side, an unseen or personally unacceptable part of yourself with those same traits you described. If the dead person is someone you know well, then seeing them dead may have to do with your relationship with that person – for example, some aspect of the relationship is over, outmoded. This is not necessarily a bad thing, though, as the other side of death is new life. Old parts of ourselves and/or of our relationships need to die in order for new aspects to be born. This is what growth is all about.

All that said, this recurring dream may be a metaphor for “out with the old, in with the new” in regards to different aspects of growth occurring in your life. The fact that the bodies are dead but still moving may represent resistance to accepting the finality of transition, not allowing the past or obsolete to “rest in peace”. Next time you have the dream, think about what was on your mind the night before, and this may provide more clues as to the message the dream is trying to relay.



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I dreamed of my father’s funeral…

Sunset - my father's funeralDream: I dreamed of my father’s funeral. As we were carrying him to the grave site, the coffin fell and he fell out of it, wearing the same jeans he always does and a shirt and tie. We rolled him over to put him back in the casket and once he was in, his eyes opened and he looked around as though to say “what am I doing in here?” but he never spoke. That’s when I woke up. My dad is 85 and still alive, although not in the greatest medical shape. I don’t know if I am suppose to prepare myself for something that I don’t want to happen. Please help if you can.

DreamsMaster: Yes, I believe this dream is indeed preparing you for something that you don’t want to happen. Your dad is aging, his health is failing, and death is imminent. Not necessarily in the next few days or weeks, but intuitively you know the day will come soon enough, and your innermost mind is preparing you for the inevitable. In fact, you have already begun the grief process.

Perhaps a friend of yours recently lost a parent. Or you may have seen a movie or read a story that involved death. There are numerous ways the outer world may have infiltrated your inner world and triggered thoughts of your own parent loss, resulting in this dream.

If your dad were young and in good health, then the dream would more likely symbolize your childhood image of him dying or becoming obsolete, representing a new level of maturity awakening within you. This level of symbolism may still be true, but based on the additional information you added about his age and health, the more literal interpretation in regards to mentally/emotionally preparing for the loss carries more weight.

In your dream your dad had the sense he didn’t belong in the coffin. This is likely your own rational mind recognizing he’s not dead yet, and perhaps even symbolic of your resistance to his dying. However, your intuition – what dreams are largely made of – is warning you that the time is drawing near. From my perspective, the takeaway message is to start preparing for the loss mentally and emotionally… first and foremost by taking advantage of the time you still have with him in the present.



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Watching myself die…

Watching myself dieDream: I have been having a weird dream where I am being attacked by my family and I get lifted out of my body watching myself die!!!

DreamsMaster: In the world of dreams, death is symbolic of new life – out with the old, in with the new. Some part of you is dying off, making room for another part with clear vision to move forward.

Perhaps you have felt like a victim in your family, or what’s sometimes referred to as the “identified problem”, the target of blame for family conflict. If so, the dream could represent that you now have the ability to rise above that role and leave it behind.

If this is a recurring dream, pay careful attention to how the dream evolves. This will give you a clue as to whether or not you’re on the right track in regards to the message your inner self is trying to give you. If you continue to feel stuck, check out these tips for dream incubation, a process in which you can plant a seed to get more specific information from your sleeping mind.



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Cut the cord…

Cut the cordDream: My dad passed away going on two years now. I dreamt that I was at a wedding and I walked upstairs and into my grandmother’s bedroom (my dad’s mother who is also deceased). I saw a figure lying in her bed with the covers pulled up over the head. I pulled the covers down and it was my dad. My first time dreaming about him since he passed away. He was asleep and never opened his eyes. In a joking way he asked me why did I make him cut the cord. Then he says “You know you’ re pregnant right? and it’s a boy.” Then at the end of the dream I was carrying a baby boy that appeared to be my dad.

DreamsMaster: My sense is this is a very special dream. It has elements of healing and new life, and also has the feel of a visitation, as if your dad’s spirit has actually found its way to you through your dream.

When I project myself into your dream, these themes call out to me:

– Wedding: A transition to a new chapter in life.

– Cut the cord: Also a transition, from parent-child dependence to independence.

– Pregnant: Creation of new life, bringing new life into the world. This could be literal, if you’re in a stage of life where having a child is a possibility, or it could be a metaphor for a new sense of self evolving inside you.

– Carrying a baby boy that may be your dad: Similar to the theme of pregnancy, this could have literal meaning as well as metaphorical meaning. In a literal sense, you may be carrying a child that has your dad’s spirit within. In a metaphorical sense, this could represent your new role in life… whereas once you were dependent on your father to carry you or take care of you, now the tables are turned — you are the adult and it’s up to you to be in the adult, care-giving role.

All of these images represent transition and new life. The fact that this is the first time you’ve had a dream about your dad since he passed away says to me that you are transitioning to a new level of acceptance in regards to the cycle of grief and loss. Death and birth are interrelated. Death is an ending, and birth a beginning. This dream appears to me as a gift signifying new beginnings for you.



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Thin ice and mice…

MiceDream: For the past two nights I’ve dreamed of my deceased dad in bed. On both occasions he never spoke. One dream I was walking on ice that was about to break, but i jumped into the bed he was on and the ice stop breaking. The other bed dream there were mice infested in the room we were in.

DreamsMaster: A bed often represents a resting place, and since your deceased dad is in bed in both dreams, perhaps this is a way of you coming to terms with him “resting in peace”. The fact that both dreams are anxiety-provoking leads me to think that something unsettling is going on in your waking life, and perhaps you’re wishing you had your dad to turn to for help.

There’s a clear metaphor in the first dream: Where in your life do you feel you’re “walking on thin ice”, or in a precarious situation? You reached out for your father in the dream for protection. If your father were alive, what words of wisdom might he share with you to get you through this difficult time?



Water or ice in a dream may also represent one’s emotions. Viewed from this perspective, this dream scene could represent a fragile or vulnerable emotional state. If your father died relatively recently (“recently” is purely subjective), or if the dream occurred around the anniversary of his death or other event when you’re particularly aware of his absence, the dream could be connected with a wave of grief surfacing, breaking through the thin veneer of “holding it together”.

As for the second dream, mice may symbolize different things depending on your personal association with mice. From your description, mice infesting a room could symbolize certain situations or people in your life becoming overwhelming. A mouse may also represent timidity. In this case, the dream could be sending you a message to be more forthright – perhaps a trait your dad had, or would encourage you to have.

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