Have you had a dream of a loved one or pet that has died and come to visit you in your dreams? This type dream is categorized as a “supernatural”. Supernatural dreams involve unexplained phenomena like spirits, after life visits, ghosts, angels, demons and alien encounters. The meaning behind dreaming of a loved one who has come to visit in your dreams is your subconscious mind searching for closure, comfort, guidance, perhaps from that person/pet. Maybe a particular date is coming up (like their birthday, holidays or death day) or you maybe pondering life and death about where do we go when we die? Or you are in the grieving process. These dreams can also also be caused by feelings of guilt over something to do with the visitor or a time when the visitor was alive. These dreams prompt us to look further into the meaning behind the visit of this particular loved one. Sometimes the ‘visit’ isn’t pleasant and can be scary or disturbing which could mean you have unresolved feelings/emotions regarding your past – not necessarily with that person but a time when that person was around.
Dreaming of seeing someone dead alive and well in your dream can be comforting or can be sad and leave you longing for more of them. I can speak of this type of dream from personal experience and also from the truth I have come overtime to understand that has brought me peace. I share this information with you in hope that it helps you resolve or come to peace with your dreams of the dead.
About 25 years ago, I unexpectedly got a phone call that, in an instant changed my whole world; close friend had a car accident and died. I was devastated and I grieved beyond the point of sanity. For years and years afterward he was “visiting” me in my dreams almost nightly, alive and well. So much so that during the day or my waking hours I thought perhaps he faked his death and I would try looking for him. (like I said grief beyond sanity). Most of those dreams were so comforting and joyous that all I wanted to do is go to sleep so I could be with him again.
Was this him visiting me in my dreams?
I believed and felt that this was really him coming to see me from the spiritual world and communicating with me. He looked always like he did when he was alive, not damaged from a car accident or anything. I know the feelings of wanting so badly to know that they are visiting us and that all is well or that they come to give us some message. Just to hear, see, touch, smell the person or pet again is so comforting. There’s a song by that puts into words what I feel when I dream of my passed loved ones; Diamond Rio called “One More Day” and when I heard that for the first time it just hit hard and still does whenever I hear it.
In one of my favorite movies about death and grief “What Dreams May Come” with the late Robin Williams, there is a scene where his wife is at his grave and he comes in spirit and touches her on the shoulder but then she starts to wail in pain. His spirit guide played by Cuba Gooding, jr. tells him no don’t stay it only makes it worse for her to go on living.
I feel like that about dream “visitations” from our loved ones – sometimes it makes the pain more intense and all it leaves is wanting more of them and having them back filling the huge void their death has left in our lives.
For many years following my friends death I dreamed of him still being alive – I mean 15 years later I was still having dreams albeit sporadically that he was alive and living on earth. Also since that time, I have lost other friends and family members such as my grandmother and my dad two closest to me and I have yet to dream of my dad and he’s been gone almost 3 years. My grandmother has been gone for 6 years and I have had a few dreams with her as part of the dream – alive and well. Other dear friends who have also departed, I have had maybe one or two dreams regarding them. The big difference was with all but one (that first one mentioned) I didn’t have any unresolved feelings/situations, while sad and heartbroken with each one, I have grieved and accepted the harsh reality of going forward with the loss woven into who I am and into my daily life.
The second hardest loss I experienced about 8 years ago was losing my “soul” dog. I was with him the day he was born and I was with him, laying next to him 13 years later on the day he died. Oh how my heart ached and I grieved for weeks. I still miss him today. But, I don’t recall having any dreams of him “visiting” me. I remember thinking why won’t he come see me? And while grieving deeply for him I was at peace with knowing he was no longer in pain. And that I had 13 wonderful years with him. Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
I know they are not visiting me from beyond, coming down and entering my space here. They are gone Psalm 146:4 When his last breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Dreaming of the dead is our subconscious minds way of handling the emotional turmoil that goes with losing loved ones or can be a comforting reminder of them. The truth is they are alive and well in our hearts and minds always – we can pull up our memories and there they are smiling and laughing with us in that particular time and space. Nothing or no one can take those memories away.
