The old cliche about dreaming of your own death?

[Mike 03]

For my entire adult life I've heard that it is considered very rare and potentially cataclysmic to dream of your own death; in other words, within the context of your dream, you are killed and die due to some force.

Do you think there is any truth to this?

Have you ever dreamed of your own death?

Do you dream about it a lot?

Do you think there is anything to this or that it is just a crock.

I wonder where this idea got started.

[Taverner]

1. Nope. I've died a bunch of times in my dreams.

Some I watched my body start to rot in front of me, disembodied.

Some dreams were just dumb.

[Mike 03]

2. Hey, thanks for replying. It means a lot. NT

[LaurenG]

3. I've died in my dreams

The last one I remember was a dream about a stalker. He stalked me through several nights, and then he finally caught me and cut me to pieces one limb at a time, with a knife. I'm still here.

[madeline_con]

4. It could symbolize the "death" of something in your life. n/t

[Mike 03]

6. Like a father? Or a relationship? NT

[madeline_con]

8. Relationship, job, other person, situation, anything, yes. n/t

[jobycom]

5. I've dreamed my death a few times. Weird, actually, because your mind doesn't know what to do next.

The first time was when I was a teenager, and dreamed I got shot in the head. I knew I had died, but my dreams didn't know how to portray being dead, I guess, because it just sort of threw me into an unrelated dream. But I had the clear feeling in the new dream that I had died in the old dream. That one has stayed with me a long time.

Other times I wake up either just before or just as I die, so I don't have the clear realization that I'm dead. Never had an out-of-body experience within a dream. :)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. The last time I dreamt of dying,

my spirit was floating above the wreckage of my car, and I was saying, "Here I go to Heaven again," implying that I not only believe there is a heaven, but that it can be experienced over the course of multiple lifetimes.

It's kind of interesting, because I've always made an effort to avoid too much focus on any afterlife. I'd rather concentrate on doing my best with the present. I guess I think of it more than I'd like to admit to myself.

[jobycom]

13. That's interesting, because

I still claimed to be a believer back then, and I didn't dream of an afterlife, or any awareness at all after death. So maybe I was already doubting and didn't realize it?

Another curiosity to ponder if I ever run out of other curiosities to ponder, I guess. :)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Could be...

Maybe it was a kind of wake-up call for you? I suspect dreams often bring epiphanies; because you can't lie to yourself when you're asleep.

[raccoon]

21. My good Goddess, this should be shouted from the rooftops:

"you can't lie to yourself when you're asleep"

I believe in our society we don't pay enough attention to our dreams. I think they can tell us a lot.

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. Back when I studied dreamwork...

the usual idea was that death in dreams was virtually never about real death. It was about an ending of some sort, moving on to something new, something like that. I dreamed once about my own death about 15 years ago; I'm still walking around and posting on DU.

The one to worry about is if your horse dies in a dream, your horse symbolizing your "vehicle" or physical body. I'd expect that that isn't valid for anyone who spends a lot of time with horses or really likes them or something like that--then it would just be an interest or life situation showing up in dreams.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Since I'm alive and well after dying in my sleep

I'd say it's a crock of baloney.

I think of it in a metaphorical sense. Some element of my life no longer exists or has changed to the point of no longer being what it was.

[Taverner]

16. Either that or I shouldn't have had that eighth DFH 90 and the third brat...

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. LOL

That'll give you nightmares, fur shur!

[BeachBaby]

10. It's untrue - at least for me.

I've been having dreams of being killed by my father, since I was about 10 years old.

I'm 40 years old now - still have the dreams from time to time, but I'm still here. Obviously. :)

[FloridaJudy]

11. I've heard that as well.

But I should have died decades ago, if it were true. There's never anything terrifying about it though. Every once in a while, I dream I've died and my reaction is "Okay, so now I'm dead. It's really not that bad after all..."

Of course there was that time when my obituary was printed in the local newspaper. I scared the fertilizer out of my colleagues when I showed up for work as usual. They were taking up a collection for flowers - rather touching, really. Turned out to be another woman who shared not only my name, but my age and profession as well.

Maybe I really am dead, and this is just a very strange afterlife. Reassure me: the President of the United States is black, right?

[femmocrat]

15. Wow... that must have been an unsettling experience for you!

Glad it wasn't you! :hug:

[femmocrat]

14. No, No, No, Nothing to it.

I think dreaming of your own death is a way of releasing some fear or anxiety over an overwhelming problem. You die in the dream to escape the pressure of dealing with this problem all day. It's kind of like a pressure release valve.

I have lots of very vivid dreams, but I have never had that one. If I did, I wouldn't worry about it. Dreams aren't predictions.

[NJmaverick]

19. No, now that you mentioned it I never dreamed of my own death

not sure if it means anything if you do, but who knows.

[raccoon]

20. Bruce Springsteen?

"They say if you die in your dreams you really die in your bed...."

--Valentine's Day, by Bruce Springsteen.

Seriously, I think #4 is right.




edited to add last para.

[Midlodemocrat]

22. I've seen myself die a couple of times.

It's beyond creepy. I don't think it means anything, though.

[Roon]

23. Once

I dreamed that my ex came into my room and shot me in the head with a big pistol. I woke up with my heart pounding but was able to go right back to sleep.

[backtoblue]

24. i'm usually running from "demons" or some sinister being.

I hope my impending death will not be at the pleasure of Bushco...

[Evoman]

25. Pfft.. I've died plenty of times. Every time I watch the movie Ghost with Patrick Swayze,

I dream I die and live as a ghost.

Also, I lose a little bit of my soul every time I watch ghost, but that is unrelated to the dream.

Also, once I dreamt I died and went to hell. I was in the afterlife in a lobby....on my body there was a watch with the number 132 (i remember it vividly) on it. I knew that when that number reached 0, I would go to hell. If it went up over 500, I would be allowed into heaven. At that point, I freaked out and started calling other people in the lobby assholes, then I tried to break into the line at a nearby help desk. The number went down to 0, and I was forced to go into this door called "Pluto".

Throught that door was a path that led down to hell....which I went down. I saw a lot of the levels of hell before I woke up.

[abq e streeter]

26. Once, that I remember anyway--may be the most powerful dream I ever had, too

because I was in an afterlife with several relatives some who really were dead ( in actuality, not the dream), some who weren't. The afterlife place was cool too; we were sitting around a swimming pool...But I apparently was newly arrived there and was asking profound questions about this new place, including "do you die here too?" and was was told yes. It was so real that to this day, 20 years later , I'm still at least half convinced that the person ( a relative by marriage, not blood) answering the majority of the questions , including that one, will be some sort of main spirit guide when I cross over to the next phase. And vivid and powerful enough that it still affects me, and I woke up right at the end of it that night; not freaked out, but moved so profoundly that I couldn't possibly express the extent of it in words........I also, have literally "dodged a bullet" meant for me in many dreams; i.e. I've been shot at and was able to either outrun or literally dodge the bullet just before it got me.