Saturday, February 20, 2021

I Keep Dreaming of Danger, Death, the Deceased and Life After Death

Note: After its appearance on February 20,2021 I have been updating this post with recent relevant examples. 

Since mid-November 2020 I have noticed a strange change in my dreams. During the past few months my dreams have been dominated by themes of danger, death, the deceased and life after death. I will describe particular dreams I have had in such categories. The descriptions are based on notes I took on a notepad I keep next to my bed.  My habit is to write down on a notepad descriptions of dreams I remember, not turning on the light to do such writing.  

Danger

The danger dreams are usually nightmares in which I seem to be facing great peril or risk of death, although some involve other people in peril. Many of the dreams involve a blockage motif that may symbolize a health danger such as an artery blockage.  Since mid-November 2020 these have included the following:

  • I had a dream I was packing to leave, running away from a military invasion of my country.
  • I had a dream of being in a backyard, and seeing a flaming plane crash near me. 
  • I had a dream of fleeing a monster that was behind a door. 
  • I dreamed of a fire spreading from a gas station to an adjacent house. 
  • I dreamed of encountering growling lions inside a house in which I had been invited. 
  • I dreamed I was running to find a hospital because of some medical problem.
  • I dreamed I was watching heart surgery be performed. 
  • I dreamed I was stuck on the top of a speeding tractor-trailer, shouting for the driver to stop.
  • I dreamed I was guarding a party of some guy with enemies, and holding closed a door which someone (apparently a killer) was trying very hard to push open; and the door was slowly opening. 
  • I dreamed I saw a scary figure lurking in my back yard at night. 
  • I dreamed someone said I looked horrible, and so I looked in a mirror, seeing my skin discolored. 
  • I had a dream I was packing up things, preparing to go to a hospital (one of quite a few "packing up for travel" dreams or "gathering up stuff for travel" dreams I have recently had, including quite a few not mentioned here). 
  • I dreamed a tenant (?) was asking me for the phone number to call the National Guard, presumably because of some great danger.
  • I dreamed of inanimate objects moving around on the floor as if some great earthquake was occurring. 
  • I dreamed someone warned me not to go down some path, saying that was "the wolf way."
  • I dreamed I fell off the top of a tall building, and was dangling near the top of it. 
  • I dreamed of people on a pier that collapsed. 
  • I had a dream driving in Manhattan, trying to reach a bridge to escape some unspecified danger.
  • I dreamed someone sneezed near me, causing me to reach for some Lysol to use to reduce the danger.
  • I had a dream of some men swimming down a river to escape some danger. 
  • I dreamed of getting a big bill at a hospital. 
  • I dreamed I saw people on the street running with scared faces, as if they fleeing some unseen danger behind them.
  • I dreamed I was a night watchman at a building invaded by robbers armed with weapons.
  • I dreamed men were falling down a kind of hill-like surface with lots of rocks moving with them, in some event resembling a rock slide,
  • I dreamed about someone selling pesticides putting children in danger.
  • I dreamed I had major surgery, and was asked by a nurse later whether I wanted to sleep 10 hours a day while recovering, or for much longer. 
  • I dreamed the police offered me a dangerous job in which I would be jumping between buildings.
  • I dreamed that in some biology "live sample" test I was taking, one of the animals was a very large spider that bit me. 
  • I dreamed a man was pointing to his heart to signal to a police car that he was having a heart attack. 
  • I had a dream I was in a house in which someone discussed some apocalyptic event coming. I opened the door, and saw the sky was filled with round objects: maybe meteors or invading spaceships. A woman approached my house's door, surrounded by big cats like leopards or tigers. I slammed the door, and tried to keep it closed as I felt someone on the other side trying to thrust the door open. 
  • I dreamed I was trying to get coffee from a vending machine, but the machine stopped working (such a failure of liquid moving machinery perhaps suggesting some risk of bodily death by a heart problem interrupting the body's liquid moving machinery). 
  • I dreamed I was trying to park my car in a garage, but all of the available spaces were blocked off by yellow tape. This "yellow blockage" dream may have suggested the artery blockage that can cause sudden death (such blockage involves plaque that is yellow-colored). 
  • I dreamed I was being pursued by a large motorcycle gang, and that I escaped them by hiding in a kind of natural crevice. 
  • I dreamed someone stabbed me in the back with a syringe. 
  • I dreamed a plumber was dealing with a severe sink clog, saying it might require a specialist in such clogs (a possible veiled reference to an artery blockage that might imperil a person).  Similarly, in another dream a person trying to sell her house confessed there was some plumbing problem, causing me to ask, "Why didn't you bring in a plumber to fix this?"
  • I dreamed that I was told to check out some intersection in which the pathway was blocked by snow. After checking it out, I said something like, "There's not much you can do, other than hiring someone to keep shoveling at that spot." Later on the same night I had basically the same dream a second time.  Me and two other people were looking at a computer screen showing   a snow blockage at one little spot. Asked why there was so much snow there, I speculated that maybe the spot was at the bottom of a high road, resulting in a a pileup of snow at that bottom. Both dreams may be a symbolic reference to an artery blockage that might endanger someone.  Artery plaque gradually piles up rather like snow piling up.  Such a "blockage" theme seemed to have also occurred in a dream in which I was trying to cook in a kitchen where movement was blocked by many washing machines, causing me to say, "It's ridiculous how many washing machines are in this kitchen." 
  • Yet another "blockage" theme occurred in a dream I which I was driving but had my path blocked by large blackish pools of water, which I had to drive through. 
  • Still another "blockage" dream in which I was trying to get to work, but had my path dangerously blocked by what looked like a fallen steel beam or electrical pole. 
  • Still another "blockage" dream in which I was trying to move down a very narrow stairway and had my path blocked by a very slow-moving handicapped person. 
  • Still another "blockage" dream in which I was trying to get something from an office room, but my path was blocked by all kinds of clutter on the floor. 
  • I dreamed that I drove my car onto a road with many fast-moving cars, and immediately did a U-turn on that road, temporarily blocking the road in a dangerous way. 
  • I dreamed one of my daughters said, "There's a wolf at the door."
  • I dreamed of some electronic control screen, and someone saying that a launched nuclear missile can't be recalled. 
  • I dreamed that some person had intruded into my hotel room while I was sleeping at night, and I was yelling in a scared voice, "Who is it? Who is it?"
  • I dreamed there was something blocking the road I was driving on, forcing me to quickly pull over to the side of the road (one of very many dreams I have had in recent months with a theme of blockage). 
  • I dreamed I was being attacked by a snake. 
  • I dreamed I was a soldier in a war, using a sniper rifle against enemy soldiers I faced. Suddenly I noticed that an enemy soldier had set up a Gatling gun facing me, about 20 feet away. A Gatling gun is a very fast-firing machine gun capable of killing a squad of 10 soldiers in only a few seconds. I tried to use my rifle against the gun, but it was out of ammunition. So I raised my pistol to protect myself, but I could not fire. Maybe I was frozen in fear. 
  • I dreamed that some crooks had got into my home and placed a big machine gun near the front door. I locked the door to a bedroom, and tried to call the police. There was no answer. In the dream's next scene, I was outdoors watching some road, hoping to spot some police car and then wave my arms to attract attention.  One of the crooks came up next to me, and made threatening comments. I then started to fight him, but awoke before he could kill me in the dream. 
  • I dreamed that I was in an office tower that had some kind of catastrophic blockage in its stairway. It was the like the catastrophic stairway blockage that occurred during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. 
  • I dreamed there was some talk about a kidney problem in someone. 
  • I dreamed some bad men came into where I was working, trying to kidnap me. I fled. Then there was a scene in which I lying on the ground motionless in a darkish hall as one of the bad guys walked by. In great danger, I was hoping he would not notice me. 
  • I dreamed that on some snow-filled natural landscape there was a gigantic procession of hundreds of brown bears (possibly grizzly bears) moving right by me, in about four long columns. Plainly in their sight, I was calmly counting them, oblivious to the enormous danger I was in.  
  • I dreamed I was a spy on a dangerous spy mission. At the end of the dream I had to suddenly escape people around me, by carjacking an SUV and driving it very perilously up a very steep hill. 
  • I dreamed I was in some frigid environment like the Arctic. I was at the front of a line of people walking in the snow. I said that the path ahead was too dangerous, that I alone would continue to walk forward, and that everyone else should turn back. 
  • Having another of countless dreams I have had in recent months of being on a bus or waiting for a bus, I dreamed I was on a bus, and a man behind me coughed, causing me to move away, closer to the front of the bus. Then former US president Jimmy Carter sat next to me on the bus.  The bus may have represented a passage to some afterlife.  Since Carter is 98 and has health problems, the dream of him being next to me on the bus may be an ominous omen, perhaps hinting that I will die around the same time he dies. 
  • In a dream I saw of kind of satellite view of the United States, showing it covered with smoke. Then in my dream I was telling my wife that all the running water no longer worked, and that we had to find some lake for fresh water.  The failure of running water systems may have symbolized the stopping of blood circulation in a single person. 
  • I dreamed I was in a car levitating motionlessly about 40 meters above some body of water. I was wondering whether I would be killed if I jumped out and fell into the water. 
  • I had a dream that I had stumbled upon some plot by bad guys to make an atomic bomb.
  • I dreamed I was in some house in which a lion was roaming about. I thought, "I've got to get out of this place; it's too dangerous." 
  • I had a vivid dream that large metal chunks were falling from the World Trade Center, putting me in danger.  I told someone, "The World Trade Center is falling apart!".
  • I dreamed a cab driver driving me was driving at dangerous reckless speeds. 
  • I dreamed I was on top of a geological structure about 100 meters tall and only about 15 meters wide, with the shape of a loaf of French bread.  I was trying to make a very risky climb down the structure. 
  • I dreamed that some doctor was performing heart surgery on me. 
  • I dreamed there was an enraged man with a gun trying to push open the front door of my apartment. I was on the other side of the door, trying to stop him from coming in. I called 911, but there was no response. Then in the dream I desperately tried to plunge a can opener into the man's neck to stop him from killing me. 
  • I dreamed the Nazis were chasing Jews in the Soviet Uniion, and later in the dream I saw two captured girls being taken in a Nazi train, presumably towards death. 
  • I dreamed there was a fierce battle between two sides using rocket launchers. To escape the danger I jumped from an overpass to land on top of a passing truck. 
  • I dreamed that I was attacked by a spooky Miss A-Scare-Ica that emerged from a mist. 
  • I dreamed of a man who suffered a bloody neck injury. 
  • I dreamed there was a carnivorous dinosaur (about two meters high) outside of my house. I closed the door so the creature could not get in. 
  • I dreamed that I woke up and found someone trying to strangle me. 
  • I dreamed that I was trying to dive very deep in water to save a boy who had gone down way too deep underwater. 
  • I dreamed I was in water, spinning around rapidly, like some particle about to be sucked down a drain. 
  • I dreamed a man collapsed to the floor. I asked him whether he felt dizzy before the collapse, and he said he did. I then told him I thought it was some kind of heart trouble. 
  • I dreamed I was facing a gang of about five bad guys, and we all had guns. I kept shouting to them to drop their weapons, and someone starting firing. 
  • I dreamed my hands were hanging on to the top of a 30-meter-tall brick wall, with me being in great peril of falling to my death. 
  • I had a terrifying dream that some werewolf was threatening a house I lived in. I was saying that a flamethrower was needed for protection. 
  • I dreamed that a tiger was dashing towards me, and that I fired a gun at it, trying to stop it from killing me. 
  • I dreamed that I was in some hovering vehicle (either a helicopter or a hot air balloon), and that I saw nearby someone with a rocket launcher aimed at my vehicle. 
  • I dreamed that three men were underwater, outside a submarine, without scuba gear. They were desperately trying to get inside some entry hole in the submarine, before they drowned. 
  • I dreamed there were nuclear missile launch codes on the little table near my bed. 
  • I had a dream with a chilling reference to being made homeless by an atomic attack. 
  • I had a dream on May 20, 2022 of a crash at the Daytona International Speedway. 
  • I had a dream some people were running in the middle of a busy lane on a highway.
  • I had a dream that I was attacked while riding a bike. 
  • I had a dream I was on a mountain road, and saw a mountain lion ahead of me. Running away in the other direction, I saw coming toward me a lion.
  • I dreamed I was at the World Trade Center location, saying, "Now I've lived through three World Trade Center attacks." The dream ominously suggests a third attack in the future. 
  • I dreamed I was hearing the aria ""Non Piangere Liu" from Puccini's opera Turandot, an aria that mentions a death risk.  
  • I dreamed I was fighting a tank by throwing hand grenades toward it. 
  • I dreamed a nuclear bomb had exploded, and I was planning how to protect myself from nuclear fallout. 
  • I had a terrifying dream of some little monster pursuing me, one I was unable to escape. 
  • I dreamed I was in a kind of fight to the death with another man. 
  • I dreamed that white walls of the place I live were all filled with writing. "The writing is on the wall" is an old phrase meaning that danger or doom is imminent. 
  • I had an ominous dream in which someone was saying that the biggest danger of nuclear war is Russia's "Satan" missiles. Looking up the topic, I found this seems to be correct, with such weapons consisting of multiple nuclear missiles.
  • I dreamed I was on the doomed ship Titanic, and saw that water was starting to flood into my cabin. 
  • I dreamed the room was rocking back and forth like there was some great earthquake. When looking outside, I saw people running around in panic like it was the end of the world. 

Death (Direct References)

Since mid-November 2020 I have had these dreams (among others) that seemed to explicitly refererence death:

  • I had a dream in which I saw a tombstone. 
  • I had a dream in which I said, "This is like some scene in a mafia movie in which someone gets killed."
  • I had a dream of someone being sucked out of a hole in an airplane (a visual that seems to symbolize the idea of sudden death). 
  • I had a dream about getting benefits in case of death.
  • I had a dream in which there was some statement like "they thought their child was dead, but he was only taken away."
  • I had a dream in which I took a newsletter (?) with someone's name printed on the address part, and someone said, "You're stealing that from a dead man."
  • I dreamed of a man shot repeatedly in the neck, which presumably would have killed him. 
  • I had a dream in which I was telling my wife and children how my assets would be distributed when I die. 
  • I had a dream of a book store that posted a notice saying that an author had died. 
  • I dreamed I was in a train car divided into about 10 sections, each of which was filled with dirt and a shovel -- a kind of "train of graves" dream.
  • I dreamed a dead mother was in a coffin, and I was wondering whether the coffin should be buried immediately, or whether I should seek out the mother's son to notify him first.
  • I dreamed there was a detective investigating some murder. 
  • I dreamed of some military action in which a soldier was killed by being shot.
  • I dreamed I visited a woman who had many pets, one of them being a dog my family once owned before it died. After a vivid dream experience petting the dog's back, I said, "This old dog will die soon." But the dog looked young and very healthy, and I wonder whether those words were a veiled reference to a human dying soon.  
  • I dreamed I saw a truck run over a man on the highway, apparently killing him. 
  • I dreamed that people were throwing flowers upon something that would become a funeral pyre once it was lit.  
  • I dreamed that some family members were being told someone in their family had died. 
  • I dreamed that the late actor and celebrity Orson Bean said to me something like, "I've heard that you're having lots of dreams about death?" I answered "Yes," and he then said something like, "Well, when it's your time, it's your time," echoing a Shakespeare line in which Julius Caesar says death "will come when it will come."
  • I dreamed I saw some "teaser clip" talking about a soon-to-be-shown TV news segment talking about some near-death experience in a place called Sominem. 
  • I dreamed I was watching some TV show in which someone was talking about a murder. 
  • I had a dream in which somebody's throat was cut, in a seemingly fatal blow. 
  • I had a dream that a woman, aged 66, gave a vocal performance at some little place, seemingly her first vocal performance in quite a while. Then with a smile she said, "My life has been a miracle," and then a second later she collapsed to the ground, apparently dying. (See here for a rationale for suspecting that every human life is essentially a miracle.)
  • I had a dream that someone knocked on my door late at night and told me that I might be inheriting some money when a person died. 
  • I had a dream in which two men died by gunfire. 
  • I had a dream in which a rabbit died and was buried. 
  • I had a vivid dream in which some aircraft crashed into the top of one or more tall buildings in Manhattan, creating some large-scale fatal catastrophe that seemed to cause a kind of "falling dominoes" effect. I looked up and saw much falling debris. Then a kind of bell-shaped structure fell on me. Later my wife found me under this structure (I'm not sure whether dead or alive). There is a possible "surviving the fatal catastrophe" motif here which might symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed there was some smartphone app that allowed you to specify a video to be played when you die. This is actually a decent idea for a product. We can imagine such an app being linked to a fitness tracking watch, and the video (perhaps one in which you say goodbye to your loved ones) might play in an endless loop when the fitness tracking watch detects five minutes of no pulse. 
  • I had a dream in which someone was shot in the back at close range.  
  • I had a dream some people were killed because they knew some secret that someone else didn't want anyone to reveal. 
  • I had a dream in which someone was singing about some man dying of cancer. 
  • I dreamed that at work someone asked for a computer password, and I gave it to him, thinking something like, "It's good for him to have it, in case I die." 
  • I had a dream of a sudden attack on the White House, with attackers being blocked at the entrance by defenders, and with lots of gunfire and dead attackers and dead defenders at the entrance. The dream had a theme of "sudden death and blockage" that may have hinted at sudden death caused by an artery blockage. 
  • I had a dream that a man was walking up a few steps to the top of a platform where he would be executed. Below him an executioner held a pole with a half-circular blade on its end, and was kind of taunting the man by stabbing the execution weapon a little to the right of him, to scare him before killing him. 
  • I had a dream in which I had a kind of bird's eye view of a battle. Trapped in what looked like kind of a canyon, a big bunch of soldiers was blocked on one side by a long line of enemy tanks, and also blocked on the opposite side by a long line of enemy tanks. The tanks began firing, and there was massive sudden death. It was a "death after blockage" dream that may have symbolized sudden death by artery blockage. On the same day (May 4, 2021) there was a mysterious power failure in my apartment, occurring about 9:01 AM, and lasting only a few minutes, an outage that seems to have occurred only in my apartment
  • I dreamed two men were boxing, not very vigorously. One punched the other not very hard on the chest, and the punched man suddenly died. The dream seemed to symbolize sudden death by heart attack. 
  • I dreamed I saw an alligator near me, and picked it up by its tail, spinning it around before tossing it at some ice. In my dream this effort was unable to kill the alligator, who then devoured someone. 
  • I dreamed there were two people dressed in what looked like plague gear, who were in the middle of a train track carrying two dead bodies that were all wrapped up in tarpulins.  Besides a theme of death, this dream was yet another recurrence of the "pathway blockage" motif I have got so often. 
  • I had a dream using the phrase "lethal agent."
  • I had a dream of someone on a hill firing a missile at a ship at sea, causing its fiery destruction. 
  • I dreamed of someone describing how he found a dead body in a bed. 
  • I dreamed that two children had died. 
  • I dreamed that a very famous living politician died after being hit by a truck. 
  • I dreamed that I saw a mouse in my home, and I killed the mouse with a hammer. But while hammering the mouse I felt ashamed, because I got the weird feeling that the mouse had somehow changed to become like a little child.  The dream is consistent with ideas that the release of a soul from the body gives rise to a higher mentality, the mind of a child being higher than the mind of a mouse. 
  • I dreamed that there had been a mob murder in a room, and that the mob crew was cleaning up evidence of the crime.
  • I had a dream in which someone was talking about people being killed on the subway.  
  • I had a dream in which two men were struggling on the edge of a cliff. One of the men used a short sword or long knife to stab the other man in the heart, killing him. 
  • I dreamed that some person had killed someone during a symphony performance. Later the murderer was killed by a cannon ball. 
  • I dreamed that I was renewing my passport, and somebody said something about a date in 2022. In the dream I thought to myself, "By then I'll be dead."
  • I dreamed that soldiers on a high hill were firing artillery on enemy soldiers attacking from another high hill, and that such artillery was killing many of the attacking soldiers. 
  • I dreamed that I was falling down an extremely steep mountain, in  a fall that seemed extremely life-threatening. 
  • I dreamed of a song lyric of "you might as well be dead."
  • I dreamed some teacher had died, and someone was saying, "It's a great loss."
  • I dreamed some man shot at a woman behind him, killing her. 
  • I dreamed of video-game action in which the player is exposed to constant close calls with death.
  • I dreamed that I was renting a room in some old Victorian-style house. On one of its windows was some sign saying "Somebody died here." 
  • I dreamed that some bear bit my hand. Then someone shot the bear in the head to save me. 
  • I dreamed that some terrorist group was killing people, and someone was speaking about this in worried manner. Referring to that person, someone else said, "It's like in a horror movie -- he'll be the next to die."
  • I dreamed that a policeman shot some terrorist in the neck, apparently killing him. 
  • I dreamed that some family was very sad during a trip or vacation, because one of the children had died. 
  • I dreamed that I fired a depth charge to blow up a submarine under the water.
  • I dreamed that a man was talking about how some people with an expected long lifetime take out insurance policies not long before they die, as if they sensed that death was not far away. 
  • I dreamed that I spoke to a wife who was cheerfully saying something speculative about how her husband might die. 
  • I dreamed I was using a big artillery piece (like the German 88 millimeter gun) to destroy a war plane attacking my position. 
  • I dreamed there was some school where 1000 children died. The dream involved something about a bomb. 
  • I dreamed of a fiery train crash at high speed, a type which would have killed many people.
  • I dreamed there was a dead body at a mall that people seemed to be ignoring. 
  • I dreamed that one of the Star Wars actors was saying, "This is where we buried his body." 
  • I had a dream I arrived at some place with many seats (almost all empty), a place resembling a church or auditorium. I said "I'm here for the Mahin funeral," using my last name. 
  • There was a reference in one of my dreams to "fatal gene expression."
  • I had a dream in which some article was saying a movie should not be shown, because it would provoke a Far East nation to kill people. 
  • I dreamed that policemen killed two criminals. 
  • I dreamed that some tiny wooden building had a sign in it noting that someone had suddenly died in the small structure. 
  • I dreamed I was in a row boat, trying to bury at sea a dog's dead body. 
  • I dreamed a man lying on a bed was being hit in the head many times by a steel sledgehammer held by another man. 
  • I dreamed that some writer had died. 
  • I dreamed I was carrying a coffin through the crowded steps of a church. Later me and others were wondering where to bury the coffin. The phrase "six feet under" came up. 
  • I dreamed that a group of four or more people were all holding hands, awaiting the explosion of a nuclear bomb which would kill them very soon.  
  • Strangely, I had a dream in which an announcer was announcing the death of former US president Gerald Ford, which occurred in 2006. 
  • I had some dream about psychic signs, and some voice was saying that some psychic sign preceded the death of 20,000 people. 
  • I dreamed that parachuting terrorists were killed by sharpshooters.
  • I dreamed that a car driving on the road was machine-gunned by a car on its side, as two other cars blocked any escape. 
  • I dreamed that a man and a woman were on what the woman thought was a date. Then the topic of a third person came up, and the man told the surprised woman that this person had died, and that their "date" was really attendance at that person's wake. 
  • I dreamed that a woman was driving me and two other men to a funeral.
  • I dreamed that there died some young Japanese woman with long hair and a name something like Yakuchimi Mitsubishi, who was some kind of sports figure. 
  • Someone was saying that one man had been shot and another killed, and I think these were  identified as a major league catcher and shortstop from a particular team I won't mention. 
  • I dreamed a helicopter burst into flames.
  • I dreamed of Lady Macbeth plunging a dagger into her heart. 
  • I dreamed my father asked me if I was prepared to die. I mentioned that I had prepared some instructions on things that should be done if I die. 
  • I had a dream of the closing death scene of a famous opera. 
  • I dreamed I saw a mouse on a glue trap, and I went to get a hammer to kill it. 
  • I dreamed of a huge mass of dead hornets.
  • I dreamed that someone asked whether I had been told to visit the coroner on Thursday. 
  • I dreamed some soldiers in England were killing terrorists.
  • I dreamed some woman walked up some stairs and then shot two people, apparently killing them.
  • I had an elaborate dream of some people being killed in a town, a resistance to the forces of evil forming, and some bad guy being uncovered and then killed by the police. 
  • I dreamed I was at a party in which some person challenged guests to recite something. I recited the "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech from Shakespeare's Macbeth, which refers to death.
  • I had a dream in which people were investigating the death of Marilyn Monroe. 
  • On two different nights I dreamed of a man being strangled to death. 
  • I had a dream that was mentioning honoring the dead on Memorial Day. 
  • I had a dream a woman was saying, "They're letting him out at 12:00, and he's probably going to kill me."
  • I dreamed two men were killed with swords. 
  • I dreamed a woman plunged a large sword into the chest of a man, to the left of his heart. 
  • I dreamed that two men faced other with revolvers, one man killing the other. 
  • I dreamed a woman was sobbing uncontrollably over the dead body of her small child, who had suddenly died on the street.
  • I dreamed a woman saw the coffin of her husband. 
  • I dreamed a man in a prison was shot in the middle of the head by another man. 
  • I dreamed I sent an email to co-workers saying I would soon be dead. 
  • I dreamed I was telling my mother I thought I did not have long to live. 
  • I dreamed that some old woman had died. 
  • I dreamed I was at a company I worked at decades ago. In the dream I thought that if someone asked what I was doing there, I would say something like, "Don't worry about it; I'm near death." 
  • I dreamed I was in a cafe explaining the theory that the human soul has powers of precognition, which can be unleashed on the last day of a person's life. 
  • I dreamed of a dead insect.
  • I dreamed a person was found dead on the floor of an office. 
  • I dreamed I was a Civil War soldier defending a position, using a bayonet to stab attackers. 
  • I dreamed there was some bad guy at my door. I told my brother to get a crow bar or anything that could be used for defense. 
  • I dreamed that I was on a ship at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on December 7, 1941. I hid behind a pillar, seeing that bullets from the attacking planes were appearing. I had the idea I should get to a spot where I could jump off the ship if it was sunk by bombs. 
  • I dreamed that my two daughters were crying about the death of a family member. My wife was with them. 
  • I dreamed that I shook a Venetian blind (a curtain) and dead beads fell to the ground. "Curtains" is a slang term meaning death. 

Death (Indirect References or Possible Symbolic References)

Many of my dreams since mid-November 2020 have seemed to symbolize death indirectly. A common element has been a "turning off the light" or "loss of power" theme that may symbolize the snuffing out of the physical spark of life. Examples include these:

  • I had a dream I was driving a truck and saw my license had expired ("expiration" is a euphemism for death).
  • I had a dream someone was on the other side of a door, and upon opening the door I saw a white-faced man collapse (suggesting the idea of sudden death).
  • I had a dream of snuffing out a candle. 
  • I had a dream of getting a slip telling me of a stock liquidation ("liquidation" is a euphemism for death).
  • I had a dream of seeing a Christmas tree, and saying that all the lights must be turned off. 
  • I had a dream I experienced a power failure while in Russia. 
  • I had a dream in which flies (a symbol of death) were on the ear of a motionless unspeaking head. 
  • I had a dream in which I was going to buy two big bags of dirt to use to kind of finish up a big soil area in my backyard, a dream rather suggesting the idea of a grave. 
  • I dreamed of being in a check-out line in some book store; I had a dream of being in a check-out line at a fast-food restaurant; I had two other dreams of being in a check-out line at a grocery store; and I had two dreams of being in a library processing line that used to be called "the check-out line." Then in August I had another dream of being in a cafe check-out line. Later in September I had another dream of being in a check-out line to buy a book. Then in April 2021 I had a dream of being in a library's check-out line, and two other dreams of being in a check-out line in a store. "Checking out" is sometimes used as a slang term for dying. 
  • I dreamed that I planned to suddenly leave some building I was in, after posting a goodbye note saying, "Gone forever." In the dream's next scene I left by ascending in a helicopter. The leaving of the note saying "gone forever" may symbolize death, and the leaving by helicopter may symbolize the ascent of the soul to some postmortal realm.
  • I dreamed that I was bleeding blue blood heavily, and a doctor told me this was a symptom of a viral disease famous for having a very high fatality rate.
  • I dreamed that in the middle of the night I was surprised to see a light on in my home, and turned it off. 
  • I dreamed that mice had been caught on glue traps, making them either dead or near death.  On another night I dreamed of two dead mice on glue traps.  On another night I had a dream of a larger animal caught on a glue trap. The sticky glue traps could be a symbol for death by arterial plaque, which is sticky. 
  • I dreamed that a video game I was using suddenly "died on me" and stopped working, something that may symbolize the idea of sudden death. 
  • I had a dream in which I was in my mother's old house, in the middle of the night when the lights were off. I saw the back of a woman I didn't recognize, looking out a window which provided some light. I asked her a question, and she didn't respond. I used my hands to turn her shoulders so I could look her right in the face. But she had no face -- no eyes, no nose, no mouth. In place of her face was just a formless blackness. Very scared, I asked, "Who are you? Who are you?" I then realized I was dreaming, and tried to wake myself up. But it took about 10 seconds to do this, because I had been sleeping very deeply. You could call this a "Lady Death" dream, as the figure seemed to represent death, and resembled some artwork in which death is depicted as a hooded figure whose face is a formless blackness. 
  • I had a dream of a baseball pitcher throwing the baseball to the first baseman, who tagged out a runner on first base, resulting in his sudden departure from the playing field, in a "pickoff" that can occur as a rather rare surprise in baseball. This may have symbolized the sudden departure of sudden death. 
  • I dreamed of arriving to see a "Saturday Night Live" taping too late, past the deadline (the "deadline" part perhaps symbolizing death). 
  • I dreamed I was carrying a painting, and when it started to rain, I raised the painting above my head to block the rain. This dream of an "art raise fluid block" may be a veiled reference to an "arteries fluid block" of the type that might kill someone in a fatal heart attack. On the same day I dreamed of some 3D modeling program (what is called a CAD program) that seemed to be displaying a heart and its parts (CAD is an acronym for both Computer Aided Design and Coronary Artery Disease, a leading cause of death). 
  • I dreamed I woke up in the middle of the night in a house (on the second floor), and scolded my sister for leaving on so many lights. I went down to the first floor to start turning off lights, but then began writing on some pieces of paper, "losing my place" while I was writing (in the sense of forgetting at which spot I had been writing some narrative). My brother appeared, and asked when I would be done. I said I was almost finished, and told him to start turning off the lights, telling him that by the time all the lights were off I would be finished.  The "losing of place" may signify a discontinuity of death. The being "almost finished" may signify being near death, and the lights being turned off (one of many appearances of such a motif in my recent dreams) may signify death, particularly given that in the dream the turning off of lights was equated with me "being finished." 
  • I had a dream there was a theatrical production that was abruptly stopped, as some director came out on the stage and quoted Albert Einstein as saying that under some conditions you just have to have a sudden end.  This may have symbolized the idea of sudden death. 
  • I had a dream of receiving a phone call saying that some developer at a bank had just been terminated, a possible veiled reference to death.  In another dream, I was fired from a job, another "termination" reference. 
  • I had a dream that I was two days away from leaving a job, a possible veiled reference to soon "leaving the job" of earthly existence. 
  • I had a dream I brought in someone to check out a problem with my refrigerator, and he said that the device was fine, and that the problem was in my electricity. I then tested my electricity by turning on a fan, which ran in a kind of irregular, spasmodic, stop-and-start manner. The dream may have been a dark veiled warning about sudden cardiac death, which typically occurs because of some kind of electrical malfunction in the heart.  (Quite a few days later, there was a strange  incident reminding me of this dream. I turned on a fan, which ran very slowly for about 40 seconds, and then ran normally. The fan started up normally the next time I turned it on.) 
  • I had a dream I was in a house and could hear from another room a woman's voice saying, "Dad?! Dad?!" The tone of voice was one suggesting the discovery of a dead or collapsed body. 
  • I had a dream in which I was looking at an unplugged bath tub with a little water in it. As the last water started to go down the drain, there was that kind of gurgling sound that a tub will make as the last gallon of bath water goes down the drain. This may have symbolized death, which often occurs with a kind of gurgling sound. 
  • I had a dream that I turned off a light, and then tried to turn it back on, but was unable to do that (suggesting a loss of electricity).  The turning off of the light and loss of power may have symbolized death. 
  • I had a dream I rose up from my seat in a bus, with the intention of leaving, but then realized that I had forgot my shoes. I went back to get them, but just held them as I left the bus barefoot. Getting off the bus barefoot may have symbolized dying (one web site says most people are buried without shoes). 
  • I dreamed I was working as a night watchman, and some maintenance men came in, saying there had been a sudden failure of the building's heating system. Such a thing may have been a metaphor for sudden death. Every death is a failure of the heating system that is the body. 
  • I dreamed I was working in an office building in which there was a power failure. Leaving to go home, I signed my name and the time in a big "sign out" book in which all of the employees were apparently recording their time of leaving. I remember thinking that the time I was writing wasn't right, because I was using a clock on the wall that had stopped because of the power failure. Yet another dream referring to a power failure (which may symbolize death). 
  • I dreamed of a big bag filled with fine white material, what could have been human ashes. 
  • I dreamed that in the middle of the night I saw my alarm clock, and it was displaying nothing, as if a power failure had occurred. It was yet another dream of a power failure, which may symbolize bodily death. 
  • One day I had a dream that I had abruptly quit a job, and was telling someone at my former company, "Sorry about my sudden departure."  On the same day I had a dream I was in a classroom, thinking to myself something like, "In a few weeks, I'll leave this place, and never have to see it again." The first dream is suggestive of sudden death, and the second dream may suggest not having much time left to spend in the "classroom" that is earthly life. 
  • I dreamed about throwing out an ugly old coat. The old coat may symbolize an ugly old body discarded at death. 
  • I dreamed I was in front of a bed that had on it large chess pieces about the size of wine bottles. Someone moved his king piece in the same column as my queen piece. I explained to him that such a move was illegal under the rules of chess, for under such rules you cannot move the king piece so that it is "in check" and can be "killed" on the next player's move. The exact  remembrance I had in this dream of a rule of chess is remarkable.  The dream may signify not merely death, but a death in a bed. 
  • I dreamed that after a son met with his father, he investigated a big power failure that occurred at a power company. This motif of an electrical failure or power failure (which has very often occurred in my dreams in recent months) may symbolize death. 
  • I dreamed that I was dropping off some books in a library's drop-off boxes, before getting on the subway at about 8:20 AM, to cross the East River to go to work in Manhattan.  The "dropping off in a box" may symbolize the discarding of the body at death (which may end up in the box of a coffin), and the trip across the river (to its other side) may symbolize the journey of a soul to some Other Side that is an afterlife realm.  
  • John Garfield was an actor who died suddenly at age 39 from a heart problem. I dreamed that John Garfield stole my wallet in an elevator. I then dreamed that he annoyed me by following me. I told him to stop following me.  Garfield may have symbolized sudden unexpected death. His stealing my wallet in an elevator may have symbolized the loss of money ("you can't take it with you") that someone experiences when passing to some "higher realm" at death. 
  • I dreamed on July 6 that I announced to a boss that I was quitting a job, saying, "Sunday will be my last day." This could symbolize the idea that I will die on a Sunday, since "last day" might mean either "last day of working" or "last day of living." On the same day (and also the next day) I dreamed of a roof leak, which could symbolize some death in which fluids leak, such as an aneurysm burst. In one of these dreams someone talked about "structure deterioration," which may have been a veiled reference to death.  I had several other dreams of being on the last day of a job. 
  • I dreamed I was urinating on some curtains. The curtains may have symbolized death ("It's curtains" is a slang expression meaning death). The urination may have symbolized incontinence which often occurs at the moment of death. 
  • I dreamed that in a furnace room I dropped a glass jar of pasta sauce, which shattered. There was the worry that this dropping may have damaged the working of the furnace.  The shattered jar of red pasta sauce may represent some internal bodily bleeding such as an an embolism burst, and the damaged furnace may represent a body going cold at the time of death. 
  • I dreamed I was trying to catch the subway to get to an interview. I looked at a piece of  paper in my hand, and saw a typo. I was concerned this typo was a kind of "show stopper" or "fatal error." I then got in a subway train, but the train soon went out of service. There  was an idea that the people in my subway car all had a medical problem. The subway car going out of service suddenly may represent sudden death. The "show stopper" typo may represent a DNA mutation that leads to death.  DNA mutations are often compared to typos. 
  • I dreamed I tried to turn on my air conditioner, but it would not turn on. When an appliance stops working, people commonly say the appliance "died," so the no-longer-functioning air conditioner may symbolize death. 
  • I dreamed that I was conducting an orchestra playing the Siegfried Funeral March from Wagner's opera Gotterdammerung
  • I dreamed I was in a large field looking at a body on the ground that was completely covered by a sheet, blanket or tarpaulin, with even the head being covered. The body was apparently dead. 
  • I dreamed that I could see before me the last act of Puccini's opera La Boheme, an act that is very death-related as it centers on the death of Mimi by consumption. 
  • I dreamed there was some house with a very bright elevated light in its yard, and a voice was saying, "The light must be removed." It was another of innumerable "loss of electrical power" or "turning off the lights" dreams I have had, in which such a loss or turning off seems to symbolize death. 
  • I dreamed I was rushing to make a deposit at a bank before its closing time. The deposit may have represented the deposit of the body a person may make when dying at the "closing time" of his life.
  • On August 30, 2021 I dreamed I was looking through a window, and could see the huge ship Titanic slowly moving.  The Titanic (which sunk on its first voyage after hitting an iceberg) can be regarded as a symbol of sudden unexpected death.  
  • I dreamed that I was sleeping in my bed, and that the power went off, causing my fan to stop.  On the same night, I dreamed I was turning off some strange lights that provided both light and heat. The loss of power and the loss of heat and light may have symbolized death. 
  • On a night in which I had yet another dream of a power failure (which may symbolize death), I had a dream of a comet falling from the sky. 
  • I dreamed I had decided to do a dramatic reading of Poe's famous short story "The Tell Tale Heart." The story is centered around a sudden death. 
  • I dreamed of a woman with a noose around her head who had a large metal object (like an anvil) smashing her head. 
  • I had a dream of a black widow spider, a symbol of death. 
  • I dreamed that I was thinking that I must go to some government office and register the fact of my father's death. 
  • I dreamed there was a business conference in a room, and a standing man collapsed, as if suffering a heart attack. 
  • I dreamed someone asked to see some book I was working on. I said something like, "I'll be finished in a few months," which has a double meaning, and could possibly refer to my death in a few months. 
  • I dreamed that after someone died another person was talking about the person on TV.
  • I dreamed I was cooking some meat, and realized I was a vegetarian. So I threw the meat in the trash. Trashing the meat may symbolize death of the body.
  • I dreamed a mother was talking to two crying children on a stairway. She said something like, "We loved Daddy, but he was very sick." Apparently the father had died. 
  • I dreamed my brother and I were both writing long stories or novels. As I was writing the last line of my long story, I seemed to be falling asleep or losing the energy to write. Writing the last line of the story may have symbolized death. 
  • I dreamed I was lying on a slab-like table at a hospital, and no one was talking to me. Finally someone came near to me, and I said, "No, I'm not supposed to be here -- my wife will pick me up." Was I lying in the hospital morgue? 
  • I dreamed I heard of a strike (what I presumed was a union strike), which was followed by a scene of an office in which there were about a hundred people standing silently next to desks and chairs that all had big nails driven through them, so that the nails pointed up, making the desks and chairs unusable.  The strike may have symbolized a military strike that kills many people and makes property unusable, and all the nails through wood may have symbolized coffin nails. 
  • I had a dream of some special wheeled gold-plated double-coffin. 
  • I dreamed I saw what looked like a black hearse vehicle coming down the road, like the vehicle they use to carry coffins. There were then flies in the air. Next in the dream I saw a huge black fly on a bed. Flies are a death symbol. The huge fly on the bed may symbolize a death in bed. 
  • I dreamed I was in a checkout line at a market (something I often dream of).  "Checking out" is a slang term for death. In this dream the person ahead of me in line disappeared, leaving his stuff behind (another element hinting at death, when you leave all your stuff behind). 
  • I dreamed some boss suggested that he should fire me or maybe just "wait for circuit breakers."  Circuit breakers (involving a sudden loss of electrical power) may have symbolized sudden death, which can occur from an electrical failure in the heart. 
  • I had one dream about someone's last day at work, and in another dream I tried to return to my desk at work and found someone had taken my place. Both dreams may have symbolized death. 
  • I dreamed a running electrical fan suddenly stopped. This may have symbolized sudden cardiac death, in which the electrical system of the heart suddenly stops working. 
  • I dreamed that at work I was told that the project I had been working on had been terminated, which may have symbolized death. 
  • I dreamed that when leaving some meeting, someone told me I had left behind some things. The things included lots of money and my shirt. This may have symbolized leaving behind your money and clothes when you die. 
  • I dreamed a chorus line of dancers all dressed in black were dancing the finale scene in a Broadway show, what is called the finale. Such a finale may have symbolized death (ditto for another dream I had in which it was my last day at a job). 
  • I dreamed that a dog lay in a shallow puddle. The dog was twitching a bit, as if it was near death. 
  • I dreamed that it was the last play of a football game. The ball was thrown to me, and I caught it, which in football is called a completion. Then I headed for the end zone, probably scoring the winning touchdown. The dream seemed to symbolize completion of a life, and had a kind of "death as a victory" feeling to it. 
  • I dreamed that I was driving with my daughters on a road trip, but that I had to stop my driving sooner than expected because of a medical problem. The trip may represent my lifetime, and the earlier-than-expected stop of the trip may represent my death occurring earlier than I had expected.
  • I dreamed I was in my present home, which I recently moved to and hope to live in for the rest of my life. I pulled out a can of bug spray, and told someone, "When I'm gone, you can spray all the shelves." There seemed to be an idea that before long I would be gone, presumably because of death.
  • I dreamed the late Stanley Kubrick was showing an actor how he wanted him to perform a death scene in a movie. 
  • I dreamed I was sitting next to a soprano who had got distracted while singing Act 1 of Puccini's La Boheme. "Don't worry," I said, "You'll knock them dead in Act 3 and Act 4." Besides using the colloquial phrase "knock them dead," the line referred to two acts with strong themes of death. 
  • I dreamed I was on a stairway, heavily bleeding. I called out the names of two of my siblings, but I could only speak in a whisper, because I was so weak. 
  • I dreamed some people at a conference room were explaining why some employee was terminated: that he had allowed a catastrophic system failure. The dream may have symbolized sudden bodily death. 
  • In dreamed that I had learned a baseball player at bat had been fired. Thinking it was his last chance to hit a baseball, I told the pitcher to pitch a fast ball, hoping that the player might hit a home run. The last chance at bat seemed to symbolize death. 
  • I had a vivid dream of a Las Vegas tower collapsing into dust, in an event like the 9/11 collapse of the World Trade Center towers. 
  • In one of very many dreams I have had about being in a checkout line, possibly symbolizing death because "checked out" is a slang term meaning "died," someone at the checkout line asked for my Social Security number. Cashiers never ask for such a thing. But if a person dies, and his relative reports the death to the Social Security Administration, that agency would ask for the dead person's Social Security number. 
  • I had a dream that would have made a better ending for The Sopranos TV series than the actual last episode. In my dream the members of the crime family were all celebrating in a gated outdoor area. Their enemies sent flying drones armed with powerful explosives. There was a huge blast. People investigating the wreckage found no bodies, but only a huge oval-shaped hole in the ground, as if all of the celebrants had been blasted into dust. 
  • I had a vivid dream of something rather like a hollow office tower filled not with floors but many ladders stretching way up into the air. I was on one such ladder, about 60 ladder steps up the ladder, and below me on the same ladder were many other people. All of the ladders were filled with people, and everyone on the ladders was climbing up higher and higher (rather like in the depiction below). I could see my daughters far below me, on other ladders, and wished for them to climb carefully. Then suddenly I was told that because of something in my DNA, I could not climb the ladder any higher.  Each step on the ladder seems to represent one year in a person's life, and the ladder climbing seems to represent aging. The dream may suggest some DNA or genetic reason why I may not live much longer.

Life-After-Death or Immortality (Direct References or Possible Symbolic References)

Many of my dreams since mid-November 2020 have seemed to directly reference or indirectly symbolize life after death or immortality.  Below are more than 300 examples:

  • I had a dream I was working in a company developing an immortality drug. 
  • I had a dream in which I heard the song "You'll Never Walk Alone," which in the movies was originally sung in a scene in which the spirit of the deceased Billy Bigelow is trying to express his love for his daughter and wife, who cannot see his invisible spirit. 
  • I had a dream of having a power failure in my home, with a quick restoration. The power failure may symbolize death, and the power restoration may symbolize life after death. 
  • I had a dream in which I turned off the light to better see some glorious sight in the night sky. The turning-off of the light may symbolize death, and the glorious sight in the sky may symbolize some heavenly glory experienced after death. 
  • I had a dream in which a moth was trapped in my bathroom, and I opened up the bathroom window and turned off the light, so that the moth could be attracted to the moonlight or light from outside, and leave my bathroom.  The moth trapped in the bathroom may symbolize the soul trapped in a body. The turning off of the light may symbolize death. The idea of the moth leaving the bathroom and heading towards the greater light outdoors may symbolize the soul leaving the body and heading toward some greater light like that in some heavenly realm often described as a place of dazzling light.  Another day I had a similar dream, involving a red bird that escaped a bathroom, using its beak to open a window screen. 
  • I dreamed I had been working a long time, and told to "go home." In another dream I was working very late at the office, and there was a kind of impression that I would soon be going home. In another dream I finished working at an office, and started to go home, returning back to my desk after realizing I had forgot to take my winter coat. In another dream I dropped off a package (which may have represented discarding a body at death), and then thought that it is time to go home.  In near-death experiences people often encounter some mystical realm they claim they felt to be their "real home."
  • In dreamed I won big in a lottery, about the same time someone said something about "going home."  This could have been some reference to good fortune obtained when "going home" to some heavenly realm.  In another dream I was "going home" victorious after some big military victory. 
  • I had a dream of stone statues of saints being packed into canoes on a river, suggesting some kind of "religious journey to the Other Side" theme. 
  • I dreamed I was swimming from one side of a river to the other, which suggests some "journey to the Other Side" theme. 
  • I dreamed I saw (through what I first thought was a big window) a big scary monster, but then I found out the monster was a CGI illusion, because the "window" was not a window but a big video screen.  The monster may symbolize death, and finding that the monster was nothing to fear may symbolize finding (through some life after death) that death is really nothing to fear.  
  • I dreamed that someone had found either a fourth act of Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, or a sequel to it. We know that Wagner did not write such an act or such a sequel, at least not while he lived in his mortal life, and that this opera is only three acts.  This dream thereby implies the idea of Wagner continuing his composing work after death. Months later I had the same dream.
  •  I dreamed opera singers were singing "Nessun Dorma" as behind them a man collapsed. "Nessun Dorma" is a triumphant aria that ends with words in Italian that mean "I will win, I will win, I will win!" The juxtaposition of this triumphant aria with the visual of a man collapsing as though dying suggests a "death as a triumph" idea suggestive of life after death. 
  • I dreamed a man had been stabbed (probably dying), and that I then saw the man standing in a building, and said, "Hi there -- back from the grave?" The dream suggests the idea of continuation after death. 
  • I had a dream in which some person asked me if he could use something, and I said he could. But then I got the feeling the person was a ghost. So I turned to the door, pointed at it, and said, "Go out, Kevin!" When I turned my head back to look at where the figure had been, I saw that it had suddenly vanished, like a ghost. 
  • I had a dream of someone jumping off the top of a high skyscraper, but then using a parachute to escape death, which may symbolize postmortal survival after what seems like someone's demise.
  • I had a dream in which from an overpass I looked down and saw a car driving very fast smash into another car.  But the collision caused the car to ascend into the air and land on the overpass, with the clear idea that the mother and child in the car had "landed safely." The high-speed collision may symbolize death, the ascent of the car may symbolize the ascent of the soul to heaven, and landing safely on the overpass may symbolize reaching a state of postmortal immortality on a higher heavenly level. 
  • I had two dreams in which I heard the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, with its resounding repetition of a theme of eternal life.
  • I dreamed my deceased father showed me a wallet. I took out of it a card that had on it the name of a company that notoriously underwent a "sudden death" that came in the form of an unexpected bankruptcy.  My father then said, "Your identity won't be stolen," a possible reference to life-after-death that prevents a loss or "theft" of personal identity. 
  • I had a dream in which I got a bus back home quickly, but some young people had to wait a long time before getting their bus back home.  Because those having near-death experiences often report encountering some heavenly realm which they thought of as their "real home," you could interpret this "bus back home" as reaching an afterlife realm after death (a person as old as me getting such a trip fairly soon, and young people having to wait a long time before getting such a trip). Similarly, in another dream I was waiting to catch a bus back home. 
  • I dreamed my late father asked (?) if I could go to some home where I had previously lived, saying that my late grandmother now lived there. I'm not sure whether it was an asking to make such a trip or a prediction of such a trip. Another "going home" reference that may refer to a post-mortal realm, particularly given the assertion that my late grandmother now lives there. Because it was stated that I had previously lived in such a place, the dream may hint at the doctrine of pre-existence (that souls live in some heavenly realm before they come to live on Earth).
  • I had a dream consisting of nothing but me giving a key to an old woman. Suggesting a new residence for the old woman, the dream may symbolize some afterlife place to which the old woman may soon be going to. 
  • I had a dream I was using some computer program or web site allowing me to peek into graves. When I pressed a button, I saw on my computer screen a big rectangular hole in the ground. But inside the hole there was no coffin, no corpse, and no skeleton -- only dirt. The dream seems to suggest a kind of "death is an illusion" theme.
  • I had a dream in which there was the vague idea that some very important transition event was about to occur, but that it could only occur if I traveled somewhere by bus. The transition event may have meant death, and the bus trip may have signified moving to some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed that I was supposed to go with an old man to speak with Johnny Carson for some interview scheduled for around 8:30.  I wonder whether the going to speak with Johnny Carson part was a reference to going to a place of the dead (Carson is deceased).
  • I dreamed that some ghost was saying, "I'm here to pick up my wife."
  • I dreamed that a married couple on a trip were unexpectedly separated, with one of the two going on a "great trip" to Sweden. The separation may represent death, and the "great trip" to a high northern country may symbolize some trip to a "more elevated" afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed that my late father was driving me somewhere, and I could see (driving in a nearby car) my late sister. There was an idea that we would all soon be meeting at the same destination, which may suggest the idea of me soon meeting deceased relatives in some afterlife situation. 
  • I dreamed that someone behind a desk asked me to tell in which graveyard my late mother was buried, as if he doubted that she was really dead. Such a dream suggesting a doubting about whether a deceased person was really dead may suggest (in a veiled, indirect way) the idea of life after death (it being in one sense right to doubt that the deceased are really dead if they survive in some afterlife). 
  • I dreamed that my younger brother asked me whether it was true that "something could go on forever," a possible reference to eternal life. 
  • I dreamed that a woman driven in a car over a river bridge (from the other side of a river) got out of the car, and said she had to walk about sixty blocks before she could reach home.  Each of the sixty blocks may symbolize a year of life, and the "reaching home" after such a journey may symbolize a return to some post-mortal state (on the Other Side) that the soul may have previously inhabited during some non-earthly pre-existence.  
  • A kind of narration voice in my dream said, "This is John Wayne when he was dying of cancer." But the image was not of Wayne in some bed, but instead an image of Wayne walking across some bridge. The bridge may have symbolized a passage to an afterlife realm ("crossing a bridge" is a common motif in near-death experiences).  Wayne did actually die of cancer. 
  • I had a dream of my mother giving me a gift, and saying, "You can keep it." This may have been a veiled reference to immortality. You might consider life a gift from your mother, and the preservation of existence through immortality a kind of "keeping the gift."
  • I had a dream I was in some attic describing a philosophy I called biospiritism. In the dream I said that one central idea of the philosophy was that biological life was a marvel of organization beyond natural explanation.  I also said that another central idea of the philosophy was that humans have a soul or spirit. The latter statement seemed to be a reference to an immortal soul. 
  • I had a dream that there were some people moving into a life boat launched by a ship, and that someone in the boat threw out a dead dog into the water. The dream simultaneously suggests themes of survival and discarding of a body, hinting perhaps of survival after your dead body has been discarded. 
  • I dreamed that the lights turned off, and that I then picked up an old-fashioned rotary phone. There was the very clear idea that I was phoning some realm of the deceased.  "We are greeting you here," said a male voice I heard over the telephone. "I can't wait to see you," I replied, using an expression someone uses when he thinks he will soon see someone else. 
  • I dreamed that I was going to soon visit my mother, and then got a phone call saying she was dead. The dream may suggest I may soon visit a deceased parent in some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed that I was working in some office like they had in the early 1990's, in which people had big bulky computers that needed to stay plugged in while someone was working. I pulled out an electrical plug from the wall to put in my plug in the socket, but then I noticed I had pulled out the plug of a man who had been using his big computer. I was worried that this would have caused an information loss, but the man told me there was no information loss.  The loss of electricity (a frequent motif in my dreams)  may have symbolized death, and the preservation of information despite such an event may have symbolized preservation of the mind in some life after death. 
  • The night after the death of a sibling, I had a dream consisting of nothing but me looking at a few pennies on the floor, and saying to someone else, "Look here!" Many people think that finding hard-to-explain coins can be a sign from the Great Beyond, and I have had innumerable strange experiences finding hard-to-explain coins, including one in which a coin rolled up from behind me, rolling on its edge, when I was alone in my apartment.  
  • I had a dream in which I was on one side of a river, and could distantly see some females on the other side of the river, who were anxious that someone come back across the river. There was then the idea that this person was not coming back, and the females wailed, before walking away from the river bank. Crossing a river bank is a frequent metaphor for dying and going to some Other Side. 
  • I had a dream of a trunk that was all packed up with things needed for a journey.  This "packing up for travel" theme supposedly occurs often in hospice patients, and the journey may represent a trip to some afterlife destination.  
  • I dreamed that I found papers scattered all over my living room floor, and that I thought to myself that it must be the work of a poltergeist (the concept being related to life after death).  I had another similar dream months later. 
  • I had some dream involving military events, in which I was thinking that I would soon cross an amount of water about as wide as a river, going to its other side, which may have been a reference to "crossing over to the Other Side." 
  • I had a dream that some medical person was examining a body on a table, a body with closed eyes, stretched out arms and an open mouth. It looked like some autopsy or "cause of death" examination, but there was an underlying thought of "it's just fake" or "it's just a sham or a charade," with a hand movement of the examined body giving evidence for such an idea.  All in all, the dream seemed to suggest the idea of death as being a sham or illusion, which may suggest  the idea of survival beyond death. 
  • I had a dream of a flying figure rising way up in a kind of tall hollow building interior, like a grand hotel atrium. A body was trying to hold on to the flying figure to prevent the ascent, but the rising figure cast off that body.  This may have symbolized the ascent of a soul after death, involving a casting off of the body. In the dream's next scene there was a shining ghost-like body that could pass through another such ghost-like body. 
  • After having a dream of a grizzly bear outside my building followed many days later by a dream of such a bear inside the house I was living in, I had the thought that the bear may symbolize death,  that such dreams may signify death getting closer, and that if I see the bear in the same room it may mean death is near. Then much later I did have a dream in which a bear was in the same room. But it wasn't a grizzly bear, but a big cuddly stuffed animal bear that someone was moving around in a kind of funny dance.  The last of these dreams may have suggested death is nothing to fear, perhaps because it isn't really the end. In the same dream someone was singing about the soul, and I saw my image in a wall mirror which then disappeared (the disappearance of my image seeming to suggest death).  Similarly, quite a few days later I dreamed I was petting a full-sized brown bear not in a cage, who was no danger because he was very old, dying and sleepy. 
  • I had a dream in which I kind of woke up to find about 10 gallons of water had poured out from a faucet, even though the faucet was not running. There was a strange thought of "the cold water was blocked, so the hot water came out."  The cold water blockage may have symbolized an artery blockage causing death, and the hot water that came out may have symbolized the soul emerging from the body after such a fatal blockage. 
  • I had a dream of being at a lawyer's office to sign a release form. The release may have symbolized life after death, which has sometimes been called the release of the soul from the body. 
  • I had a dream some person put on trial was writing an appeal to a judge, which included the words "you know the soul lives forever."
  • I dreamed that I was standing in a bathroom, facing the door, and that my wife and one of my daughters came up close to the door. But I had the feeling that they had not even noticed my presence. It was as if I were some invisible ghost.  
  • I dreamed I was standing next to my mother, who was holding a telephone to her ear, and said saying something like "I will see you soon."  As my mother is deceased, this may have been a reference to life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I could fly around in the air, and was demonstrating such a power to some people, but no one seemed impressed or astonished. The dream may hint at some afterlife realm where everyone has such a power. 
  • I dreamed that I jaywalked across a highway avoiding lots of cars traveling fast, arriving on the other side of the highway. This scary journey may have symbolized a scary death experience that leaves you on the Other Side (an afterlife). 
  • After her death, I dreamed I was with the last-born of my siblings, on the bottom floor of a house we used to live in. I was telling her how she could speed-dial me on the phone if she had some trouble. I saw in the room a book with the title "Effective Ghost Writing." So there were two elements in this dream hinting at the idea of communication with the deceased. 
  • I dreamed that I had a kind of a birds-eye view of a football stadium. First, I saw a body lying by itself on the field, as if a player had collapsed or died. Then I saw some players celebrating joyously, as football players do when a touchdown is scored.  This may have suggested a "death will be followed by triumphant joy" theme hinting at some afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I entered an office and told the man at the front desk I had an appointment. But the person ignored me, as if I was some invisible ghost. 
  • I had a dream I was repeatedly falling from a rooftop about 50 meters high, down to the street below, with about three such falls occurring.  In one of these falls, there was some fire involved, as if I had fallen into a fire. Each such falling may represent a death I may have experienced in a previous life, and one of those deaths may have been a death in a fire.  Alternately, the dream may simply represent the idea of survival after death. 
  • I had a dream mentioning the concept of "spirit bells," bells that could be used to receive manifestations from spirits. 
  • I had a dream a woman was singing some song about salvation or life after death. Nearby people were dancing or jumping about in a very joyous manner. 
  • I had a dream I watched a book-sized object on the floor slide away from me. The object then reversed motion, sliding toward me. I said, "Hey, who is moving that thing?" It was like some poltergeist was at work. 
  • I had a dream I looked at a big bridge and thought that it was too far to walk across it, and that I should take the subway instead (living in New York City, I know that subway travel is an alternative to walking across a bridge to get across the East River).  I then entered the subway station, but to get into the subway station required some very scary traversal down a cliff-like entrance.  The travel across the river may have represented passage to some Other Side.  Traveling through the subway tunnel may match near-death experience accounts of passing through a tunnel to get to the Other Side. The scary cliff-like entrance of the subway may represent scary experiences a person has to endure around the time of death, before passing over to the Other Side. 
  • I had a dream someone was in some small room with a glass front wall, to the side of a house. There first appeared to be no way to get in or out of the room. But then the dream revealed there was a secret exit: a rectangular shaped hole in the floor that could be crawled through.  The dream may have symbolized the idea that there is some secret path by which the soul can escape from the body, to survive death.
  • I had a dream some  workers (including me) came to their desks, and were saddened to see that their computers had been stolen or destroyed. I thought to myself something like, "This isn't so bad, because I have a backup," thinking of an information backup. The dream may symbolize the idea that someone's self and memory may be preserved (by means of a soul survival) even after a physical body is lost. 
  • I dreamed that I posted some URL links to some web site, one of those sites (such as www.reddit.com) that allow users to post links that become part of a web page.  The links were to some web pages talking about life after death.  In my dream I then checked whether the web site had accepted my links (moderators often reject links you try to add to sites such as www.reddit.com).  I found the web server was rebooting.  The computer reboot may symbolize life after death, with the server's "life" continuing after the brief "death" of the reboot. 
  •  I had a dream in which I heard a couple singing the song "One Hand, One Heart" from West Side Story, a song that ends with the line "even death won't part us now," which hints at life after death.  Months later, the dream recurred, with the same song appearing in a dream. 
  • I dreamed I was in a big auditorium or church or theater where some music was playing.  Someone said something like, "This performance has dragged on too long -- let's stop it." So there was a sudden end  to the music. Then I walked up some stairs. The sudden end may have signified sudden death, and the walking up the stairs may have symbolized the ascent of a soul to some heaven after death. 
  • I dreamed that I had been chosen to be the new host of The Tonight Show. An announcer on TV said, "At 12:40 tonight The Tonight Show will be cancelled, but five minutes later the show will return to the air with a new host and a new format."  The cancellation of the show may have symbolized sudden death, and the return five minutes later of a new version of the show may symbolize life after death. It is interesting that the five-minute delay mentioned is about how long it would take someone to die from something like cardiac arrest.  Cancellations of TV shows are often compared to deaths, and someone may say something like "NBC killed Star Trek after three seasons."
  • I dreamed that I was an Allied soldier in Nazi-occupied Italy, trying to get back home. I found a boat yard near a river, and stole a kayak, trying to use the kayak to get back home. Once again the "crossing the river" motif, which may symbolize the barrier between life and death that leads to some Other Side that is like "your real home." On the same night I had another "trying to get back home" dream, which also had a "blockage" motif that I often get in dreams. 
  • In another one of very many dreams of "crossing the water to get to the other side," I dreamed that I first thought of crossing a body of water using two big empty plastic boxes in my home as flotation devices. But then I realized this was impractical, and bought an airplane ticket to cross the water. Getting to such an other side may represent reaching the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I went into my kitchen, and saw it dramatically rearranged. "It's the poltergeist!" I said. "This place is haunted!" 
  • I dreamed that after entering a building, I tried to greet a young woman, but saw her fade away into nothingness like a vanishing ghost. Then I saw phantom faces on window panes.  
  • I had a dream I was sitting with members of my family at a table, probably the four deceased members of my family. I said that I would bring a song of my own composition, and seemed to be promising to prepare that for our next meeting, seemingly thinking of a meeting that would occur before long. 
  • I dreamed that a car picked me up in the middle of the night, to take me to a train where I would go with some other people on some quest to get knowledge about paranormal realities.  This may have symbolized dying in the night, and traveling to some afterlife realm. On the same night I dreamed I was being carried in a man's arms in a "crossing the threshold" fashion, which may have symbolized crossing a threshold between earthly life and the afterlife.  The man was a famous deceased person. 
  • In the middle of one of very many dreams with a "going home" theme which may be related to life after death, I dreamed of a book with the title 100 Secrets of Eternity, a title rather suggesting the idea of deep truths such as eternal life. 
  • On one night I had a dream of a light being unplugged and then replugged in elsewhere. The first loss of light may represent death, and the restoration of the light  may represent life after death. On the same night I dreamed vaguely about major transfers of financial assets, which may refer to the type of financial asset transfers that occur when someone dies. 
  • I dreamed I was in a group of 10 or 15 people standing rather closely together, facing a man. In the middle of these people there was a black rope hanging from the ceiling. I climbed up the rope a little ways, and then began swinging back and forth, vocally making a spooky "ooh-ooh-ooh" noise like some haunting ghost.  My motion resembled that of a ghost flying about or gliding about, and my feet were not touching the ground. Very strangely, none of the 10 or 15 people moved out of my way as I swung, and none of them seemed to notice me. It was as if I was some invisible immaterial ghost.  
  • I dreamed that a man was encased in some huge outer covering of packed snow or ice, like a butterfly trapped inside a snowball, and that some workers came to free his body from this material.  The dream may be a metaphor for the idea of the soul being freed at death from some body that it does not need.
  • I dreamed that I was taking a night train to go see my mother. This may been a reference to traveling to some afterlife realm, as my mother is deceased.  
  • I dreamed that while walking towards an elevator, I was singing the Christmas carol "Oh Holy Night," but I was paraphrasing its lyrics, so that I sang "Oh night divine, oh night when I met you." The elevator may symbolize rising to some heavenly realm, and the meeting on a "night divine" may refer to encountering some divine reality.  
  • I had a dream in which a narrator was saying that a deceased mother was somehow watching over her son and also somehow helping him at different times.
  • Although I have been living in the same place for many years, I had two recent dreams of relocating to a new residence, which may symbolize moving to some new afterlife realm of existence. 
  • I had a dream I was walking with someone to go see my father's tombstone. Strangely, in the dream I had the idea that I did not know where my father's body was, and that I should just go to the known location of his tombstone, which was easier to get to.  Although this big difference between a body location and a tombstone location may seem senseless, it makes very good sense under the notion (common in the literature of the paranormal) that each person has a kind of spiritual body that will survive death.  Under such a hypothesis, the location of a deceased person's spiritual body would be very different from the location of his tombstone.  
  • I had a dream I was in the lobby of a tall building, in front of its elevators. I was dressed in a business suit, but wearing no shoes.  My attire in this dream may symbolize death, because people who have open-coffin funerals often have fancy clothes on their top half, but no shoes (their bottom half being unseen by funeral attendees).  The elevators in front of me may symbolize an ascent to some higher plane of existence after death.  On another night I had a similar "elevation" dream.  On that night I dreamed I was an astronaut taking a rocket up to a space station. The space station was all brilliantly lit whiteness like the space station in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. In near-death experiences people often report rising up to some place of dazzling white light.  In dreams on several other nights I was also approaching an elevator. 
  • I had a dream I was driving down a mountain with a structure like a high ziggurat, but with no road. There were about 70 levels, with the levels getting wider and wider as I drove down. After finishing this scary ride, I felt safe and relieved. Each level may symbolize a particular year of life, with the width of each level representing how old I was in one year of my life. The feeling of safety and relief when I finished this difficult journey may represent how a person will feel after he has died and progressed to some afterlife realm: a feeling of safety and relief. 
  • I had a dream I was climbing up a very tall and thin yellow tower, by climbing up a long ladder. I came to some area near the tower's end that I couldn't see well. I heard someone say that now I had to make a jump to go farther. Each wrung on the ladder may have represented a year of life, and the jump at the end of the tower may represent the transition to a life after death.  
  • I dreamed that by putting a cigarette lighter under an empty upside-down plastic bottle, I could cause the bottle to levitate and then float far away.  The dream may have symbolized common reports (during near-death experiences) of souls floating in the air and moving far away. 
  • I dreamed on August 17 that I was palm-push wrestling with my late father. We were facing each other, standing, with our palms together, pushing in opposite directions, with a line between us. In each round the winner was whoever pushed forward far enough so that both of his feet were standing on the other side of the line separating the two players.  My father won the first round, but I then won the next two rounds, to win the match.  My father went out of my sight. Then a woman said she would bet 20 dollars that my father would win if there was another round. So my father came back, and we did one more round of palm-push wrestling, which I won, by pushing far enough so that my feet were on the other side of the line. Moving to the other side of the line may have symbolized crossing over to the Other Side of an afterlife. I can never recall having a dream in which I was so physically close to a deceased person. 
  • I dreamed that I was on the sofa of my living room, and was surprised to see a deceased sister (the first born of my siblings) come up to me. She looked much younger than when she died, and was smiling. I said that she must be a ghost, and she said she was not.  I reached out to touch her. I then experienced some problem with my tablet device, causing me to turn it off. 
  • I dreamed that I and many other people were crossing a bridge, which may have represented a boundary between earthly life and postmortal existence. 
  • I dreamed some people including myself had been on some long obstacle course or treasure hunt, and that the kind of end point or finish line was a door.  The long obstacle course or treasure hunt may have represented earthly life, and the door at the end of this may have represented the entry to an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I was at an airport, and there was some task I had to do before my departure. There were long tables and hundreds of people in front of the tables. There were hundreds of little slots on the tables. In the dream I felt I was supposed to find some little slot I could use somehow, but it was hard to find an empty slot that was not already being used.  The slots may have symbolically represented burial slots in a graveyard, and the departure into the sky may have represented an ascent to some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed some woman in a tower was looking at a large border divider, a border between   two countries. She thought that she would escape her country by traveling  at length near the border. The border may have represented a boundary between earthly life and an afterlife.  On another day, in a similar vein, I had both a dream of climbing up and over a high fence (like you might have at a border) and a dream of searching for a tool I could use to pry open a locked door. 
  • I dreamed someone put a dead turtle with a burned shell on the chair I was using at work. Disgusted by this, I quit the job.  The destroyed shell may represent the destruction of an earthly body (a kind of shell for the soul) at death, and quitting the job and going elsewhere may have represented moving on to a new postmortal reality after death. 
  • I dreamed that in some family a housekeeper had seen a ghost, and the story of the sighting had been passed down for 400 years in the family.  In another dream on the same day, there was a mention of "beckoning ghosts." 
  • I dreamed that some video was being analyzed of a woman falling from a high height, and in a freeze-frame from the video there was some glowing luminous effect around the instant she crashed to the ground, as if her soul had visibly departed at that instant. 
  • I dreamed a woman sitting in a theater was singing Marguerite's part in the trio near the end of the opera Faust, in which she prays for the angels to carry her soul to heaven, just before she dies and her soul rises to heaven.
  • I dreamed that a group of men and women in colorful clothes were happily floating around in the air, like ghosts or angels. Behind them was a bright white featureless background. The bright white indistinct background appears in cinematic depictions of life after death, and in accounts such as near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed that two women came into my apartment, and some paranormal things started to happen. At least once the lights turned off and then on;  the face on a helium balloon changed its expression; and I found a little rag doll where no one would have put it: on top of a table lamp, near its glowing light bulb.  The turning off and turning on of the light is something I have got repeatedly in my dreams. The turning off may symbolize physical death, and the turning on may symbolize life after death. The rise of the rag doll to the top of the lamp may symbolize the ascent of the soul to heaven (people having near-death experiences often report rising up towards some heavenly light). 
  • I dreamed of a man falling about 30 meters down the side of a building, landing on a mattress. The dream may have symbolized a life-after-death idea of "when you seem to die, you are not really destroyed." 
  • I dreamed of a kind of "full circle" camera view of a house, a kind of 360 degrees view such as might have been made by a drone flying in a circle around the house.  The dream may have symbolized the 360 degrees vision reported by many during near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed that US president John Kennedy and someone else were walking about, hoping that no one would recognize them. There was the clear idea that this was occurring after Kennedy's assassination.  The dream therefore hints at life after death. 
  • I dreamed that Robert Kennedy (a US senator murdered in 1968) was catching a butterfly (often regarded as a symbol of life after death, because of how butterflies emerge from the death-like state of a cocoon). In the dream there was some idea of the butterfly being supernatural or paranormal, so the dream may be regarded as pertaining to the afterlife.  Very strangely less than 6 hours after having this dream I saw a beautiful orange-black monarch butterfly from a moving subway car, a few feet outside of the car's window. 
  • I dreamed that I was showing someone photos I had taken of some ghost-like glowing thing floating in the air. 
  • I dreamed that some boy accidentally fell from some high height, but he was saved by some fancy device designed to save people from such falls.  The fall may represent death, and the saving from destruction may represent life after death. 
  • I dreamed there was some complicated terrorist plot that included a giant flying thing that  crashed into some area where people were, acting like a giant flying blade. A woman's body then seemed to fly up into the air after this crash. The disaster crash may have represented death, and the flying up of the body may have represented life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was crossing a kind of floral boundary line marking the border between two different homeowner's yards. Looking at the yard I was entering, I was thinking, "I've lived there before." Crossing over into the other yard I saw a smiling woman who seemed to greet me. Crossing over to the other side of this boundary may have represented crossing a boundary between earthly life and an afterlife, often referred to as the Other Side.  The thought that I've lived there before may suggest the idea of the pre-existence of the soul in some heavenly realm. 
  • I said to my deceased father, "I'm almost finished," and agreed to meet him for a meal. The "almost finished" part might have referred to my death, and the meeting with my deceased father may have referred to an afterlife encounter. 
  • I dreamed that I was watching some fictional TV show that had a plot in which all of the dead had been brought back to life. There was some road filled with standing people who had died long ago. 
  • I dreamed that I was talking to some person who said that he thought that a person's energy survived death. I told him that I had the strongest reasons for believing that the whole mind and the whole personality survives death, not just some energy. 
  • I dreamed that I walked up some ascending walkway to reach some high place where there were joyous people having fun and playing music. I saw a little girl who was having fun playing with colorful sprinkles. I said to the girl, "Princess, we have been drawn away from this place by our duties, but we will return to it one day." I gently took the little girl's hand, and walked away with her. The dream may symbolize the idea of a blissful heavenly pre-existence, followed by an earthly life involving the carrying out of duties, followed by a return to the heavenly state. 
  • I dreamed I was crossing a bridge, going to its Other Side. 
  • I dreamed I was crossing a highway, going from one side of it to its Other Side. 
  • I dreamed that someone banged another person on the head ten times with a big 25-pound iron barbell (which would probably kill someone). But the banged person retained a normal mind,  as if nothing had happened.  The dream may symbolize continuation of the mind after fatal injury. 
  • I dreamed someone was singing the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," the part with the lyrics "where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that's where you'll find me." The song describes some place sounding like a heavenly paradise. 
  • I dreamed that I was driving a car, next to a toll gate on a bridge. There were two lanes, and I realized I was in the wrong lane. So I did a short U-turn to get into the right lane, the lane with the toll gate. The toll was $98.  Because I was first in the lane opposite the lane with the toll gate, the dream implies I had previously come across the bridge, and was now going to cross the bridge in the other direction to return to where I had come from. The bridge may symbolize the border between this earthly life and some afterlife realm (on the Other Side). The dream may symbolize not only an afterlife (going to some Other Side) but also pre-existence before birth in the same afterlife realm (because the dream implies that I previously crossed the bridge).  
  • I dreamed I awoke to find my bedroom flooded with water. I searched around the house, and found my last-born sister in bed, underwater, apparently dead. My mother and I tried to revive her, and she came back to life.  The dream seems to hint at life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I had covered in a tissue a dark insect looking rather like a rotting locust. I said it was disgusting. Then something started to move from underneath the tissue, as if something was coming to life or leaving the apparently dead insect. The rotting locust may have symbolized a dead body; the tissue may have symbolized a shroud; and the movement of something from underneath the tissue may have symbolized the departure of the soul from a dead body. 
  • I dreamed someone was talking about a person who tried to photograph the soul  leaving the body. 
  • I had a dream I was trying to use some chemical to bring dead cats back to life (which may have symbolized spiritual life after death). 
  • I dreamed that as I looked from a high balcony, I looked down and saw a big table in  which about 24 people were seated. There was a single empty chair which  I recognized as where I would have sat. The empty chair may symbolize  death, and the high balcony a position in some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I was looking through the window of a building about four stories tall, looking at a street scene ahead of me. I saw a volcano erupting in the distance. Then I saw the brick building in front of me (on the other side of the street) undergo a strange kind of disaster. All of the front walls of the building collapsed and fell. But the interior of the building was preserved. I could look inside that interior like some child looking into the floors of a doll house.  I saw that the building's owner had survived the disaster. The volcano may represent some physical disaster causing death. The collapse of the building's front walls may represent the destruction of the body,  which is only the loss of an outer shell, a facade.  The preservation of the core of the building (and the survival of the owner) may represent the survival of the soul (the inner core of a person) after death. 
  • I dreamed that while putting stuff in the bottom of a refrigerator, a woman fell asleep. She then awoke. The woman being asleep in a cold prone state may have symbolized death, and the awakening may have symbolized life after death. 
  •  I dreamed I was driving on a highway that had many other cars driving fast. Several people were crossing the highway from one of its sides to its other side, perpendicular to the path of my car. The people seemed unbothered by the danger of all the fast- moving cars whizzing by. The crossing people were acting like ghosts or spirits as they crossed over to the Other Side.  
  • On November 26, 2021 I dreamed that I was at some huge heliport resembling an airport. I could see big helicopters departing in the distance, carrying many people up into the air. One of the two destinations was some kind of academy. I bought a ticket for $20.  The ascending helicopters carrying people up in the air may represent people going to some afterlife in a higher realm,  where things will be learned that cannot be learned on Earth. 
  • I had a dream I was jumping from a very tall cliff, towards the ground about 100 meters below me. But there was no feeling of danger. Instead there was a feeling of "this won't cause me any trouble." It was as if I knew that my soul would survive the crash of my body.  
  • I had a dream that I was working as a security guard, and encountered some gushing pipe leakage. Then I met some impressive tall figure dressed in white, and said something like, "You are the super-boss." The fluid leakage may have symbolized death (by something like gunfire or an aneurysm), and meeting the "super-boss" may have symbolized meeting some divine entity after death. 
  • I dreamed my boss was telling me I must meet some deadline. I told her I would meet the deadline when I went home. The deadline may have symbolized death, and the "going home" may have symbolized going to some afterlife realm. In near-death experiences people often report seeing some realm which they said felt like their "real home," and the "going home" theme is one very frequently occurring in my dreams (including many I haven't even listed in this post).  
  • I dreamed I saw on the ground what looked like a $20 bill. When I looked at it I saw it was marked "Transit Bill," as if it was something that could only be used to make some trip. I hesitated about picking up the bill. The "transit" referred to may have been a transit to some afterlife realm,  and it would be natural to hesitate before taking such a trip. 
  • I dreamed I was telling someone I keep having dreams about death. I then said something about having one of my feet in one world, and the other foot in a different world. Such an expression is sometimes used to describe people having end-of-life dreams or visions, with the second world meaning some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I was in a room with several people, and I was suddenly told I had been fired. Strangely in my dream I was then lying on a bed, thinking about how I would go home, the time being about 2:15 AM.  As the dream had me lying on a bed in the middle of the night, the firing (or termination, to use another word for firing) may have symbolized death (something also referred to as termination).  The "going home" part may have been yet another "going home" reference to traveling to some afterlife realm, often described (by those having near-death experiences) as feeling like one's true home. 
  • When the work of a group of programmers is sent out or made available so that it can be used by people, that is called a "release." I dreamed I sat in a programmer's desk, and had the idea that it was almost time for the release.  The release may have symbolized a soul surviving after death, which is sometimes called "the release of the soul from the body."
  • I had another of many dreams I have recently had about crossing from one side of a road to its other side. Death was an element of this dream, which featured a dead body. The crossing over to the other side may have meant a transition to some Other Side that is an afterlife realm. In another dream (one of many I have had about bridge crossings), I was walking with some women, and watched as they crossed over a bridge (although I chose not to go with them). 
  • I dreamed I was on the subway, and I fell asleep, dropping my leather coat on the  floor of the subway car.  I then woke up. The falling asleep and the drop of the coat (like the drop of a collapsing body) may represent death,  and the waking up after sleep  may represent life after death.  On the same day I had one of  many dreams I have had recently with a "coming home" theme (see above for the afterlife relevance of this theme).  In the dream I was playing backlot baseball, and first hit a double, then reached third and then reached home plate. 
  • I dreamed that some person stood next to a very sick person, and said that he would soon die. I said, "I'm sorry -- hopefully he'll go on to a better place," a reference to life after death. 
  • I dreamed there was some lightning bolt that seemed to cause a loss of power. Then I called the power company to complain about the lack of power.  The person at the company said, "You're online," as if he could tell I now had electricity. The power loss (a frequent motif in my dreams) may symbolize death, and the still being online after the power loss may symbolize life after death.  On the same night I dreamed I was buying a ticket for a train to an amusement park that would leave in 20 minutes. The amusement park may have represented some blissful postmortal realm. 
  • I had a dream I was at a bus depot, about to depart on a bus trip (one of many dreams I have had about departing on a journey).  As I was about to depart, I could hear some voice saying grandiose things about the bus trip. I don't remember the exact words, but it was something like, "This will be a trip more fantastic than any you have ever had." The ever-so-amazing trip may have symbolized a journey to some afterlife realm. 
  • I had a dream of a baseball player who hit doubles so often they called him "Mr. Double." The term may have been a symbolic reference to a doctrine often suggested by scholars of out-of-body experiences or the people who have them: that humans have a kind of double body, with the second body (the so-called "astral body") consisting of some different type of matter or energy, which can survive death.  A few instants later I dreamed of a baseball player sliding into home plate, one of countless cases of a "going home" or "reaching home" motif in my dreams (see above for the afterlife relevance of this theme). 
  • In the latest of countless "crossing a dividing line" dreams I have had, I had a dream in which there was a row of horses inside a room, and behind them were two horses. The two horses wanted to get to the other side of this row, but the solid row blocked them. So the horses jumped over the row of horses. This "rising up to reach the other side" dream may have symbolized the rise of the soul after death to some heavenly realm, often called the Other Side. 
  • On one night I had three dreams involving travel. In one I was waiting for a train, and in another I was in car about to go on a long trip. The dream most suggestive of life after death involved me in a bus, being driven across a bridge to its Other Side, with the bus then dropping me off at a spot that I recognized as my home (another repetition of the "going home" motif constantly occurring in my dreams, with "home" possibly representing some afterlife destination where souls may have previously existed before coming to this earth). 
  • I dreamed I was walking up stairs in a subway station, and could see way above me a shaft of light. The "rising up to the light" theme reminds me of a motif of near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed that a male had fallen from a height, and lost consciousness after bumping his head. Then he awoke. The loss of consciousness may have symbolized death, and the waking up may have symbolized life after death. 
  • I dreamed I woke up at night and saw the front door of my apartment open. Looking around, I saw only my wife sleeping. The dream may have symbolized dying at night, and then existing as some spirit that can effortlessly exit my apartment without opening the door.
  • I dreamed I was talking to my first-born sister on the phone, telling her of a time and place (a train station) where we and other family members should meet. I had the idea that I needed to leave soon, to arrive on time for this meeting. Since the sister is deceased, the dream was suggestive of life after death. 
  • On one night I had two dreams of traveling way up into the sky. In one two people were flying in the air mysteriously underneath a flying "M," which may have stood for my name. In another I was an astronaut going to Mars. The dreams of traveling way up into the sky may have symbolized some ascent to a heavenly realm. 
  • I dreamed a human figure was floating around in the air, like a ghost. 
  • I dreamed a man jumped from a high height in an apparent death leap. But then I saw the man smiling after he hit the ground, his fall having been cushioned by a huge pile of green leaves.  The fall seems to symbolize death, and the surprising survival after the end of the fall seems to symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was one of many people who arrived to meet the leader of one of the world's  most powerful countries. I was scolded for arriving in causal dress. The dream may have symbolized some sudden death in which a person unexpectedly finds himself meeting God or some other otherworldly power.  
  • Similarly, two days later I dreamed that I met with Santa Claus, but a Santa Claus who was very tall and muscular, and looked rather like a blend of Santa Claus and Superman.  This may have symbolized a future post-mortal meeting with some superhuman power. 
  • I dreamed I was in front of a white hill, facing a white military tank that was trying to kill me. I hurried to get to the other side of the hill, thinking that if I got over to its other side, I would be safe.  The attack by the white tank may have symbolized bodily death, and getting to the Other Side of the hill may have symbolized some post-mortal immortality in which one is safe from death.  In the next part of the dream I could see myself at a distance of about thirty meters, and thought, "That's me." This part may have symbolized an out-of-body experience, such as often occurs during near-death experiences, when someone reports seeing his body from afar (see here and here for examples). 
  • I dreamed I saw some tall apartment building, and somehow had the idea that some great miracle or supernatural wonder could be seen somewhere on its upper floors. Curious, I took the building's elevator to an upper floor. I had a feeling of regret that I had not brought my camera. I then saw some figure who seemed to be an authority figure, and asked what the admission fee was to see the great wonder. He mentioned a small fee. I think it may have been about 3 dollars and 20 cents. I may have given him four dollars and told him to keep the change. The rising up to see some great supernatural wonder may have represented an ascent to some afterlife realm. The admission fee may have been a hint as to when such a thing will happen for me. But  if it was a clue, it was an ambiguous one. A fee of about $3.20 could mean about March 20 (3/20), or it could mean 320 days or 320 weeks. 
  • I dreamed some family had a plan similar to a plan being currently put in effect by my own family, but the plan was upset when one of the family members had to take a job in a distant location.  The distant location may represent some afterlife realm. The "take a new job" or "assume a new role" motif is one that has often occurred recently in my dreams.  Rather than being some place of endless idle leisure, life after death may include some type of work, job or role. 
  • Weeks ago in this post I wrote of "countless dreams" I have had of being on a bus. On March 4, 2022 I had basically the same dream twice in one night. In both dreams I was in a bus heading for a school. The school may represent some afterlife realm where I will learn great truths. In the first dream the bus driver was Al Gore. The first Google result I get when searching for the the definition of "gore" is  "blood that has been shed, especially as a result of violence." But Merriam-Webster gives us this as one of its definitions of gore: "blood, especially clotted blood."  This dream might signify that I will be killed or that I will die from some blood clot such as an embolism.  In the second dream (occurring on the same night) I was in a bus driven by a big black bus driver. Some riders exited from the bus, and then I got the sense that my destination (a school) was right down the road.  The bus driver said, "Don't worry, Mark, your stop is next."  This could indicate I will soon die. On the same night, most improbably, I dreamed I went to give something to Dag Hammarskjöld (the second Secretary General of the UN, who died suddenly in 1961).  Going towards a deceased person may have hinted at life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I met with my deceased mother and deceased father in a park. Some voice said, "He's very successful, he's the godfather," or maybe it was, "He's very successful, he's the God Father," a reference to a divine reality you might encounter when meeting your deceased parents. 
  • I dreamed that I was in some apartment building, and walked up the stairs a few floors, discovering some huge  swimming pool with many people happily swimming. This dream may have symbolized an ascent to some heavenly realm of great bliss.  
  • I dreamed that I found myself on the top of some tall tower, looking down on some very beautiful view, which included Caribbean-type beaches. In the dream I knew that I had somehow arrived at some distant land, but I thought to myself that I had no idea how I had got to such a place. I seemed to have some special type of vision, allowing my eyes to zoom in like a telescope. The dream may have symbolized a person suddenly finding himself in some beautiful heaven, without any idea of how he got to such a place. 
  • Dreaming what some writer could flesh out into an interesting story, I dreamed that I had a full-length mirror in which I saw the image of my deceased mother. I urged one of my brothers to come over and look into the mirror, saying something like, "Talk to Mom; it's probably the last chance you'll have."  The dream presupposed life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was at an amusement park where there were two big ships near each other, both looking like World War II destroyers with big guns. The ships looked like they were firing shells at each other. I could see what looked like smoke and fire and detonating shells arriving at both of the ships. But the clear idea was that it was all just illusory stagecraft and make believe, and that no one was really dying. It was just some "mock terror" thing like the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride in some Disney amusement parks.  With its theme of make-believe death, the dream may have symbolized the idea that death is just an illusion, because of life after death.  
  • I dreamed that I was working in a big office tower, and I had an appointment to meet the leader of the big corporation I worked for, up at the top of the tower. This may have been a metaphor for meeting God or some other lofty spiritual figure after my death. 
  • I dreamed that some person had his or her heart stopped for quite a while at a hospital, and that my mother revived the person using shock paddles. In the dream I was saying that this incident was so remarkable I was going to notify the Boston Globe about the event. If we consider the long heart stoppage as a kind of death, this can be considered a reference to a kind of "life after death."
  • I dreamed that Frank Sinatra had given me some paper on which I was supposed to write a speech introducing some social event.  I promised Sinatra that I would write the speech and return the paper to him.  Since Sinatra is deceased, this "promise to meet Frank Sinatra" can be considered a reference to life after death. 
  • I dreamed that was someone was saying that on Saturday an island would experience a type of storm that carries people away, lifting them up into the sky.  This may have been a reference to life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I was filling out a form reporting that my cell phone had suddenly stopped working. In the form I requested a new model to replace the one that had broken down.  The "new model to replace the old one that stopped working" may symbolize life after death. 
  • I had a dream showing a US football scene that consisted of nothing but a football flying out of an end zone. This may symbolize life after death, in which the soul may rise up and fly out of a body which has reached an "end zone" of death. 
  • I had a strange dream in which a helicopter approached the top of a tall residential tower, and then crashed through the glass to enter inside. In the dream there was the clear idea that the area behind the glass was the home of the person flying the helicopter. It was a dream with a theme of an ascent to a lofty destination and then a journey to the Other Side of the glass.  The dream may have symbolized some ascent to some afterlife Other Side, such a place often reported by those having near-death experiences as being recognized as their "true home" or "real home." 
  • I had a dream of the death scene of Jean Valjean in the musical Les Miserables. In that scene the spirit of Fantine beckons Jean to the afterlife, singing, "Come to me where chains will never bind you, all your pain and misery behind you."  
  • On a night that I had only three dreams, all seeming to symbolize themes of survival after death. I dreamed my brother told me the library called to tell me my "Beetle Juice" book or DVD was overdue. "Beetle Juice" is a movie about a funny ghost. 
  • I dreamed I was in a distant land, behind a gate. I crossed over to the Other Side of the gate, after paying an admission fee of five dollars. The crossing over may have symbolized crossing over to some afterlife realm.
  • I dreamed that a human form appeared "out of thin air" on the street, rather like Captain Kirk being transported onto the surface of a planet in the original Star Trek show.  I said, "So that's how they do it." The visual reminded me of a ghost appearing "out of thin air."  
  • I had a dream I would soon be meeting with a woman I knew when I was very young. Because the woman is probably dead, this may have been a reference to life after death. On the same night I dreamed I was in a spaceship, with the "go to a distant world" idea also possibly suggesting a trip to some afterlife realm. 
  • On one day I had a dream I was being crushed by some big bulky man. In the next dream I was flying up a stairway, like Superman. The part about being crushed may have represented death, and the flying up the stairway may have represented the ascent of the soul to  a higher level of existence after death. 
  • I had a dream about the Kevin Costner movie "Field of Dreams," a dream with a very prominent theme of life-after-death, including the scene of deceased baseball players coming through a cornfield to play baseball. 
  • I had a dream of a plane spiraling out of control in a downward plunge, and a dream of a person falling from an extremely high height. About the same time in my dreaming, I was dreaming of what it would be like to survive such a disaster, by having your soul float out of your dead body. 
  • I had a dream of a huge field where many people were going into helicopters, with each person going into a different helicopter. The scene may represent the ascent of souls to some afterlife realm, after some event resulting in many deaths, perhaps some event like those reported in the tragic recent news from Ukraine. 
  • I dreamed that police were performing an arrest. The strangest thing about the dream was the visual perspective, which was very much a "bird's eye view" from about 40 meters above the scene. The dream may have symbolized what is often reported during near-death experiences: an out-of-body experience following a cardiac arrest, in which the person reports seeing his body from an angle high above his body. 
  • In one of very many dreams I have had with a theme of a blocked pathway, I dreamed that I was driving a motorcycle in one direction on a road, heading straight towards three black cars that were driving in the opposite direction, filling up the roadway.  In the dream no harm came to me, because my motorcycle passed through the cars, very much like a ghost passing through a solid wall. The collision with the cars may have represented death, and the surprising survival in a ghost-like state may have represented the survival of an immaterial soul after death. 
  • I dreamed that an actor exclaimed, "Safest place in the world!" He then died. Maybe he had referred to some afterlife realm where there is no risk of death. 
  • I dreamed construction workers were inserting dynamite to blast open a big crack in a mountain. After the dynamite blew up, there was the idea that rocks were ejected many miles high in the sky. The construction workers ran away for a long time, running for many miles, because they were afraid that rocks blasted so high in the sky might fall down and hurt them.  The big blast may represent death; the ascent high into the sky may represent the soul ascending into heaven; and the safe escape from a giant blast may represent the successful survival of the soul after death. 
  • I dreamed it was the last play of a football game. The quarterback threw a pass to me at about the 30-yard-line, and the idea was that this was unprecedented for me (maybe I was one of the players that don't catch passes). I crossed over to the other side of the field, running proudly for the end zone. The dream may symbolize having unprecedented triumphal experiences at the end of your earthly life, in which you cross over to the Other Side that is an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I was about a meter away from a brother of mine, on the other side of a glass barrier. My brother seemed to not notice me, although a cat next to my brother seemed alarmed by me.  This may have symbolized being a spirit on the Other Side, observing a living person who can't see you. Some people think that animals can see spirits when humans do not. 
  • I dreamed that me and another man were being pursued by police trying to arrest us. The other pursued man escaped by jumping on a vehicle (a motorcycle, I think) and heading up a high hill. I went down a steep hill, still closely pursued by a policeman. I got very tired, and seemed to be close to being arrested. The policeman pursuing me said something about someone dying.  Apparently about to be arrested, I thought something like, "At least one of us got away." The dream may represent death by cardiac arrest. The person going down the hill and arrested (or almost arrested} may represent the body, which often falls down during a cardiac arrest. The person escaping arrest by rising in altitude may represent a soul surviving a fatal cardiac arrest, and ascending to some higher realm of existence where an afterlife occurs. 
  • I dreamed that I was on the subway, heading for the first day of work at a new job. But I was not well-prepared, being dressed too casually. The new job may represent a new role you get in an afterlife, in a sudden transition event you may not be prepared for. The traveling through the subway tunnel reminds me of the tunnel pathway to an afterlife realm often reported in near-death experiences. On the same night I had two dreams referring to God, and a vivid dream in which I escaped from a prison, which may represent the escape of the soul from the "prison" of an earthly body. 
  • I had a dream in which I was thinking that there were many different types of evidence for life after death. 
  • I dreamed that a man was holding a rope that passed through a small hole in the ceiling no wider than the rope. The man moved up the rope and very strangely passed through the small hole no bigger than a fist, ending up on some higher level. He said, "It's very interesting up here." The paranormal passing of a body through the small hole and the arrival on an interesting higher level may symbolize the paranormal ascent of a soul to some wondrous afterlife higher level of existence. 
  • In a dream that was purely auditory, without visual content, I heard a voice say, "I am your father." There was then a majestic musical chord sounding like something in a Wagnerian opera. The dream then ended as I awoke. Because my father died long ago, the dream suggests life after death.
  • I dreamed that an apparition of the deceased actor Leonard Nimoy (dressed as his famous character Spock) appeared at a pond to discourage some young man from drowning himself in the pond, perhaps by flashing his "Live Long and Prosper" hand gesture.  
  • I dreamed I was playing hide-and-seek with my daughters. I hid behind a door, simply hiding in the space between the door and the wall. From the other side of the door, I peeked to see one of my daughters searching for me in a room. This dream of being on the other side of a door (being able to see a daughter who could not see me) may symbolize some future afterlife state in which I am on the Other Side, being able to see my family without them being able to see me.
  • I had a dream which had the idea that I should try to contact my mother, but that it would be hard to reach her if I did try to contact her. Since it was never hard to reach my mother when she was alive, the dream seems to hint at life after death. 
  • I had a dream I was on a long journey in some kind of underworld, trying to pick up a key. The long underworld journey may represent a human lifetime on Earth, which may seem like some underworld to those in a higher heavenly realm. The key may represent passage through the door from this world to the next.  
  • I dreamed that there were two men facing each other, with one being chained to the other. The first man cut the chain, freeing the second man. This may have symbolized the liberation of a soul from a body at the moment of death.
  • I had a "no story" dream consisting only of an image of the late actress Natalie Wood, with about ten smiles superimposed over her face, so that every position on her face had a smile in front of it. The dream may have symbolized the idea of postmortal bliss, with the deceased enjoying happiness ten times greater than we have here on Earth.  
  • I dreamed that I fell a distance of about 50 meters, and walked away from the fall apparently feeling just fine. The collision at the end of the fall may have symbolized death, and the survival may have symbolized life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I was on a bus heading to some library, with the idea that I had once lived next to the library. The ride may represent a return to some heavenly place of great knowledge where I had existed before an earthly life (the idea of pre-existence). On the same day I dreamed of a baseball batter hitting a homer and rounding the bases, with clear imagery of the discarding of the bat. The trip ending up at home plate may represent the same idea of pre-existence (return to a heavenly home where you once existed), and the discarding of the bat may represent a discarding of a human body at death by a soul that no longer needs it.    
  • I dreamed I came to some office where someone said that the last time I was at the office I had dropped on the floor many pages of information and some cash, and that such things had been saved for me, so that I could receive them when I returned. The dream may symbolize the idea that upon leaving some heavenly pre-existence to come and be born on Earth, a person may lose memories of such a pre-existence, which are then restored when the person returns to such a heaven after dying. 
  • I dreamed I was hiding in the woods as some of the Bad Guys passed by. Then I remembered a place I had once lived, some magnificent building where I had seemingly enjoyed perfect happiness and safety. I had the idea that I must go back to that place, and beg the current owners to let me live there again, so I could again enjoy such happiness and safety.  The part about the woods may have symbolized the danger of earthly living. The magnificent previous home may have symbolized some heavenly realm where each of us enjoyed a pre-existence of perfect happiness and safety before coming to live on this planet, a realm to which we will all one day return.  On the same night I had another dream involving using the subway to go back home, after watching an arrest. The arrest may have symbolized cardiac arrest, and the tunnel of the subway reminds me of the tunnel reported in near-death experiences, in which people often report finding themselves (after traveling through a tunnel) in some heavenly realm they identify as their "real home."   
  • I dreamed that I was talking over the phone to my father about a problem of mine. Because the problem only arose many years after my father died, the dream hints at life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I crossed over to the other side of a little stream, to reach a tall building. In the tall building I came to elevators. Near the elevators were trash cans. I threw away into the trash cans something I was carrying. Crossing over the stream may have represented crossing over to the Other Side of an afterlife. The elevators may have represented a pathway to some higher realm of existence. The discarding of what I was carrying may have represented the discarding of a body that occurs before a soul rises up to some higher realm of an afterlife.  The little stream was about the easiest stream to cross that you can imagine: many meters long, but only about an arm's length wide, and only about six inches deep, and with stepping stones. A stream so easy to cross may have symbolized the idea that dying is easy or painless (or that it will be for me). 
  • I dreamed that I saw across the street some bins offering free books. I crossed to the other side of the street to examine the books, and found many beautiful old books, some containing art work. The dream may have  symbolized the idea that great knowledge and beauty can be found on the Other Side of an afterlife.
  • On the same night that I had another dream with a "going home to see your relatives" theme, I had a second dream with a "coming home" theme possibly relevant to life after death. In the second dream a baseball runner slid into home plate, but the umpire made the wrong call about whether the person was safe. This may have symbolized a human error in which we misjudge whether a person who dies is safe, failing to see that the person has "come home" to some afterlife realm that is safer than this planet. 
  • I dreamed that I was trying to close programs on my computer, and that each time I closed a program, another program popped up. The "death" of each program was followed immediately by an "afterlife" in which another program popped up on my computer screen.  The dream seemed to symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I was being driven in a car on a long journey to some very fun place where the late actor Dudley Moore was. Since Moore died in 2002, this dream may have symbolized a journey to an afterlife state. On the same night I dreamed I was shooting at night intruders who came through the window, but that none of them seemed to be affected by the gunfire, as if they were ghosts.
  • I had a dream that consisted only of an image of the late evangelist Billy Graham posing with the cast of the TV show Saturday Night Live.  The "Live" part of that may mean the dream symbolizes the idea that Graham's soul still lives. 
  • I dreamed that a vehicle of mine traveled to another planet, resulting in gorgeous astronomical space photos. The dream may symbolize some trip to an otherworldly afterlife destination. 
  • I dreamed that a downstairs bathroom in my house was not functioning because of a clog or blockage, and there was the definite idea of "so you have to go upstairs" because of this blockage. The plumbing blockage may represent a fatal cardiovascular event such as an artery blockage, and the going upstairs because of this may symbolize going to some spiritually higher afterlife realm as a result of such a fatal blockage. 
  • I dreamed that I was adrift at sea atop what seemed to be junk or some naval wreckage, something not seaworthy. There was a storm, and I was in great danger of drowning. But suddenly a motorcycle appeared, driving on the ocean surface. A rope was attached between the wreckage I was clinging to and the motorcycle, and the motorcycle towed me to the safety of some shore, like a tow-truck pulling a car. At the shore there was a cheering crowd that welcomed me. The dream seems to symbolize some supernatural survival of death. The motorcycle driving on the surface of the ocean represents some method of survival defying all human expectations. The crowd cheering the arrival of a survivor is an element that not rarely occurs in deathbed visions and near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed that a man and a woman were singing in a moving subway. They were singing "Somewhere," a song from West Side Story which depicts some peaceful place with a "new way of living." The main line that was sung was, "Hold my hand and we're almost there."  The dream may refer to some idyllic afterlife realm reached by traveling through a tunnel. Those who have near death experiences often report reaching some otherworldly realm after traveling through a tunnel. 
  • I had a dream that I was at some machine allowing me to check how many college credits I had earned. The machine told me I had 140 credits, 20 more than needed for graduation. The idea was that I would soon be graduating. Some regard Earth as a kind of school for the spirit. a "University Earth." The dream may have symbolized an upcoming transition to an afterlife realm beyond this "University Earth."  The "soon to be graduating" theme was repeated in another dream I had, in which I dreamed that I would soon graduate from high school. 
  • I had a dream that someone got in a big truck behind a gate, and drove it so that the truck went smashing through the gate. The truck came to the other side of the gate and the other side of a street, where someone yelled for the police to arrest the driver. The mention of arrest in the dream may symbolize cardiac arrest, and the crossing over to the other side may symbolize crossing over to the Other Side that is an afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed that I was in a cab that came to Central Park in New York City at night. I had a bag containing a warm blanket, a sweater and some other clothes. It was snowing, and I told the cab driver to drop me off here in the park. The idea was that I had to spend the night in the park. With a theme of being dropped off and lying in a cold state, the dream may symbolize someeone's cold dead body being dropped off at a funeral home or morgue. The element of the blanket and clothes (suggesting survival through the cold night) may symbolize survival of a soul after the coldness of bodily death.  
  • Having another of countless dreams I have had with a "crossing over to the other side" motif, I dreamed I was impatiently waiting to cross to the other side of a street, being blocked by cars that were passing by very rapidly. I was waiting for a street light to change. The "other side" may represent the Other Side (an afterlife). 
  • I dreamed I was watching some movie depicting Jesus, but showing some scene that is not in the Bible. In the scene Jesus (not on any cross) was talking to someone who had helped cause his death, probably either Judas or the Roman who nailed him to the cross. But there was a strong feeling of peaceful forgiveness. Seeming to depict Jesus (and perhaps someone else) surviving after death, the dream counts as a mention of life after death.  
  • I had a dream I was at my home, looking at an open trash can that had at its top a discarded envelope. The envelope was for a letter that I had sent to England, and which had been returned to me unopened. Only the envelope was in the trash, not the letter. The discarded envelope seems to symbolize the idea that when we die we discard a body that is a mere envelope for the soul. The round trip of the letter (going on a long journey and returning back to its home and source of origin) may symbolize the idea that after death a soul returns to its heavenly source, possibly (according to the idea of the soul's pre-existence) a place where it lived before (its real home). 
  • I dreamed that I was driving a car very slowly along a road, as many people in front of my car crossed over to the other side of the road, moving from the left of the road to the right of the road. It was another repetition of the "crossing over to the other side" motif that may symbolize transition to the Other Side (an afterlife realm).
  • I dreamed that a group of about 10 humans were meeting for the first time a group of about 10 extraterrestrials. In the dream the meeting occurred in a graveyard. The humans threw pebbles at the extraterrestrials, who crouched down and hid behind tombstones to protect themselves from being hit by the pebbles. The extraterrestrials then mimicked this action, throwing pebbles at the humans, who all crouched down behind tombstones to protect themselves. The crouching down of each person behind a tombstone may have symbolized  bodily death, in which a body is behind a tombstone (from the perspective of someone looking in one direction). The rising up of each body (unharmed) from such a crouched position may have symbolized the survival of the soul after death and its rising up to a heavenly state. 
  • In another dream involving a tombstone (occurring on the same night as the dream above), I dreamed a tombstone shook mysteriously and then fell. The dream suggests an idea that the person mentioned on the tombstone isn't really dead. 
  • I dreamed a father at the top of some outdoor steps looked around for his son, and was upset because he could not find him among the many people on the steps. The father seemed to be thinking, "I've lost my son!" The father walked away. But then the unharmed son walked up the steps. The father had erred in thinking his son was lost. The sadness of the father may have symbolized a parent's sadness after the death of a child. The son walking unharmed up the steps  may have symbolized survival of the soul after bodily death, and an ascent to some spiritually higher heavenly realm. 
  • On the same night I dreamed I was having a phone conversation with my late father, I dreamed I was riding in a cab. Looking out the cab's window, I saw two death symbols: a large crashing jet and a tall building collapsing. Then I yelled at the driver, telling him he was driving on the wrong side of the road. The cab crossed over to the other side of the road. After the journey ended, a dog and a woman ran to greet me, as if I had arrived back home. Again we have a "crossing over to the Other Side" motif along with other motifs that may suggest life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was at a port leaving to go on a sea voyage. The weather was very bad, and there was the idea that I would have some turbulent, scary traveling in rough waters, but would eventually arrive at my destination happily.  The scary sea turbulence may have represented the suffering before death, and the happy arrival at my destination may have symbolized arrival in an afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I took a jet to Heidelberg, Germany, and in the dream I recalled a part of Sigmund Romberg's song "When It's Summertime in Heidelberg," which portrays an idyllic place where "there's beauty everywhere" and "every day is like a holiday."  The dream may have symbolized a journey to some afterlife paradise.
  • I dreamed that a small boat carrying a family was traveling around the perimeter of a finger-shaped pond. Near one end of the pond a man jumped off the boat and swam to the other side of the pond. Later (after traveling around the finger-shaped pond) the boat reached where the man had swam. Someone on the boat said something like, "You scared us -- why did you jump off early?" The crossing to the other side of the pond may symbolize going to some Other Side that is the afterlife. The longer route may symbolize the longer lives of other surviving family members, who end up being reunited with their lost family member in heaven. 
  • I dreamed I suddenly remembered it was almost Mother's Day, and I must book a jet to see my mother. Then I realized it would be expensive to book a jet on such short notice. Getting the jet may have symbolized going to some afterlife realm (my mother is deceased). The high cost of the trip may symbolize death, when you lose all your money.  
  • I dreamed that I had a winning lottery ticket that would mean I would get some huge fortune. During the dream I thought something like, "Whenever anyone goes to the afterlife, it's like wining the lottery." In the dream I then got on a bus to take me to the lottery office to claim my winnings. 
  • I dreamed I was trying to buy a new luxurious home, and there was a deadline. The deadline may symbolize death, and the new home may symbolize some new place to live after death. 
  • I dreamed I was talking to some old man who said he was selling a house he had held for 50 years, for a price five times greater than the house's purchase price. The relocation of the old man may symbolize moving to some afterlife realm at death. The big amount of cash received may symbolize some spiritual bonanza received when progressing to some heavenly paradise. 
  • I dreamed that after mentioning that I was soon going to relocate, I came into my living room to find a big family reunion, one that included two cousins I have not seen in many years, and my wife's mother, who I haven't seen for many years. The dream may suggest reunion with deceased family members in some afterlife realm, to which I will relocate. 
  • On the same night I dreamed  I was in an audience that had gathered to hear the late president John Kennedy speak, I dreamed that a man with a rocket jetpack on his back was rising up high in the sky, like some soul ascending into heaven.  
  • In New York City where I live there are various transit lines designated by letters such as N,D,R,1,2,3,7 and so forth. I dreamed I caught a bus that was marked "D" with a destination of "Kenmore."  I got in the bus, sat next to someone, and realized no one wore masks. So I crossed over to the other side of the bus for more "social distancing."  The "D" may have stood for "death." The crossing over to the other side may have signified crossing over to the Other Side of an afterlife. "Ken" is a word meaning "range of knowledge or understanding." The destination of "Kenmore" may have symbolized a place where you have more ken: more understanding because of an elevated consciousness after death. 
  • I dreamed a co-worker had won $645,000,000 in the lottery. As he left work and passed through a door, I followed him, and tried to lecture him about being very careful with his winnings. I followed him to the edge of a corn field, and saw him disappear into the corn field, no longer visible in the high stalks. The element of someone disappearing into a corn field (or appearing from it) is one that will be remembered by anyone who saw the memorable movie Field of Dreams. In that movie the corn field was a portal to the afterlife. The dream seems to symbolize  an idea that has occurred several times recently in my dreams: the idea that going to an afterlife is like winning a huge fortune in the lottery. 
  • I dreamed a relative of mine who died was walking up a ladder leading to a roof top. The ascent to a higher elevation may symbolize the rise of the soul to an afterlife realm.  
  • I dreamed a person took some narcotic which produced great bliss. The person said something like, "Oh, this is so wonderful!" Then he died from a drug overdose. The dream may have symbolized bliss occurring at the time of death as someone passes into some heavenly afterlife. Those having near-death experiences often report a strange feeling of bliss. 
  • I dreamed that my things were all packed for moving, and a moving man arrived to take my things away. This was one of very many dreams I have had with a theme of relocation, which may symbolize a relocation to some afterlife realm. On the same day I dreamed I was waiting for a bus to take me to the east end of Long Island. I associate the east end of Long Island with a water park where I had my best July 4th ever. The dream may symbolize a trip to some blissful afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that a Diane was to be given some huge amount of money, and that she would be revealed very important secrets. Someone was noting that Diane was quiet, but questioned whether she might disclose the secrets. Diane said, "If I'm so quiet, why are you worried about me telling secrets?" Diane may have been a sound-alike reference to dying ("Di" sounding just like "die" is a nickname for Diane).  The monetary windfall may have symbolized some great bliss or bonanza (perhaps mainly spiritual) that one gets when progressing to an afterlife. The secrets may refer to metaphysical secrets a person learns only in heaven. The paradox of Diane talking while also being called "quiet" may refer to a person surviving death, but being thought of on Earth as being silent and dead. 
  • I dreamed some pianist was playing the end of a piano concerto. After the finale of the work, the audience applauded. There was then some weird scene in which someone was being levitated by an air hose I was pointing at them. The finale scene may have symbolized death. The rising up of a body into the air (appearing like some floating ghost) may have symbolized life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I left some tall skyscraper where I worked or lived, but then returned to the building's ground-floor lobby. I was worried that I did not have the ID card needed for entrance, but found that I did have it in a bent shape. The "high altitude" destination reached by an elevator may signify some heavenly realm where my soul once lived (the idea of the soul's non-earthly pre-existence, suggested in 10+ other dreams I have had). The bending of the ID card may signify some mind-bending alteration of the self that occurs when a person returns to his heavenly home upon dying. 
  • I dreamed that it was a dark stormy night, and that I was supposed to meet my daughters outside, but I had no coat. I thought that after meeting my daughters I should just go home.  The dark stormy night may represent death. The lack of the coat may represent the shedding of the bodily exterior at death, leaving only the soul behind. The brief meeting with my daughters may symbolize some ghost appearance I might make after dying. The "going home" (a motif repeating countless times in my dreams) may symbolize return of the soul to some heavenly home where it once existed (again, the idea of the soul's non-earthly pre-existence). 
  • I dreamed I and other hikers were on some long journey, but there was a thought of "there's still farther for us to go." Ahead lay a snow-covered mountain. We climbed to the top, and there we encountered some supernatural-seeming wonder: a large glowing patch of light in the sky above the mountain. There was a strong feeling that I was encountering some superhuman reality, perhaps God. Someone said, "This is as real as real can be." The dream resembles near-death experiences in which people report seeing a mysterious "Being of light." 
  • I dreamed one of my brothers was talking to me and my mother, saying something to the effect that humans exist for only a relatively short time. Apparently taking this as some claim against life after death, I then started to argue in favor of life after death and a purposeful universe. First, I mentioned the research of the Society for Psychical Research (which includes many accounts of apparitions). Then in the dream I referred to the very exact equality of the proton charge and the electron charge, an example of cosmic fine-tuning needed for life to exist. Then I mentioned how in near-death experiences people report floating out of their bodies. "We are souls," I said. The dream was extraordinary for its philosophical sophistication and use of pertinent points. 
  • I dreamed they were showing some movie that was billed as starring two movie stars that had died long ago, and also a living movie actress. The idea seemed to be that it was some kind of "mash-up" that would be mixing recently made footage with old movie footage, with hi-tech tricks that would make it look like the long-deceased stars were talking with the still-living actress. The dream may have symbolized the idea of the deceased talking with the living, something that could only occur if there is an afterlife.  
  • I dreamed that a man was leaving the building where he worked, going back home. The security guard in the front lobby said something about not leaving a mess, and so before the leaving man left he gathered up some newspapers and put them in a plastic bag (one about four times longer than its width). The "leaving work and going home" part may have symbolized dying and returning to some "heavenly home" where a person's soul may have originated (according to the idea of the non-earthly pre-existence of the soul). The placing of the newspapers (information) in a plastic bag may have symbolized a death event in which information (in a body's DNA) is put into a body bag. Plastic body bags (about four times longer than their width) are used whenever a body is stored in a morgue. 
  • I dreamed that the ground underneath me was collapsing, as if I was starting to fall into some big sinkhole. But just ahead of me was someone who seemed to be some rescue person who would save me. The "collapsing into a sinkhole" part may have symbolized bodily death, and the rescue worker may have symbolized life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I awoke sleeping outdoors in a dangerous spot very close to the tracks of trains that were speeding by. Then, strangely, I had a bicycle which I returned to a woman and a child, saying, "Sorry I slept with your bike." In the dream I then realized I was on some trip to some city far away from my home, and that the trip was almost over, and that I would soon go home. The "dangerous sleep" element of the dream may symbolize dying during sleep. The "giving back the vehicle" element may signify shedding at death my body, widely regarded as a vehicle for the soul (legally bikes are considered vehicles). The trip far from home may signify my earthly life, and the return to home (an extremely frequent motif in my dreams) may signify going back after death to some heavenly home where my soul may have existed before my earthly life.  
  • I dreamed I was living in the house of some US state governer, which may have symbolized some idea of going to live after death in the realm of some God-like power. On the same night I had a dream consisting of only an image: the entrance of a school with some huge circular emblem above it, an emblem saying that the school was a place of perfect safety.  The image may have symbolized some afterlife realm of perfect safety where great spiritual truths are learned. 
  • I dreamed an image of a shark devouring a horse. The very next dream image I had was of an animal giving birth. Together the sequence of images may be described as "life, after death."
  • I dreamed I heard some unrecognized woman on the street mentioning my full name (Mark Mahin), while talking about someone she knew in high school. I identified myself as the person she mentioned, and then asked her about which high schools she had attended. She had not actually attended any of my high schools. So in the dream I concluded that there must have been two Mark Mahins. The theme of "two Mark Mahins" may represent the dualist idea that there are two of you: the body you and the soul you, one mortal and the other immortal. 
  • I dreamed that upon arriving in some distant city, I reminded myself to make sure to book a flight back home. The "flight back home" part may symbolize the ascent of a soul at death to return to some heavenly home where such a soul may have previously existed before living on Earth.
  • I dreamed that I parked my car amidst some huge group of cars. Then after getting out of the car, I was unable to remember where I had parked the car. I was upset that I had lost my vehicle. Then I had the idea I had lost my camera, with the worry quickly ending as I found the "lost" camera in my pocket. The dream had a transition from the idea of worrying about a lost vehicle to the idea of "there was really nothing to worry about." The vehicle which I departed and then lost may symbolize the human body lost at death, widely called a vehicle of the soul. The "there was really nothing to worry about" part may symbolize the idea that you should not worry about bodily death, because of life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was at some hospital, but there was the idea that it was too late for me to be treated. Then I thought I have too much bread, and gave away some, and I also put some coins in a donation cup. Then I went home. The "too late for treatment" part may signify death. The giving away bread (a slang synonym for money) and the giving away of coins may signify losing your money at death. The going back home part (a very frequent motif in my dreams) may signify returning to some heavenly home where an afterlife can be enjoyed.  On the same day I dreamed of a rocket ascending into the sky, which may have symbolized some ascent of the soul into heaven. 
  • I dreamed that I was walking up some dark stairway leading to daylight. It was like walking up subway stairs leading to the street, except that the stairs were so steep it was hard to climb up them, and I gasped. The difficult climb up the stairs may represent the difficulties of earthly life or perhaps a painful period at the end of life. The rising up to the light may represent the soul  rising up to some afterlife realm (very often described as some place of great illumination). 
  • I dreamed that a particular woman that I know said she had to go see one of the senators from Rhode Island (no exact name was given). I went with her to the airport.  In the airport there was a kind of large waiting room filled with people. The idea was that you were not allowed to enter the aircraft until they called your name. Finally they called the woman's name, and we said goodbye. Now, a trip to see a Rhode Island senator could mean two things: either (1) a trip to Providence, Rhode Island to see one of the 38 state senators of Rhode Island who work in that city, or (2) a trip to see one of the US senators from Rhode Island. The last names of those senators are Reed and Whitehouse. Under either case, there may be a kind of "going to see God" symbolism. Providence is a synonym for God, and in the US the White House is the place where the highest executive power works and lives. So "going to see Whitehouse" may symbolize going to a place where the highest power lives (a heaven), just as "going to Providence" may symbolize that. The dream also had the idea of the woman hugging her deceased father. 
  • I dreamed I was on the top floor of a tower, scared by a helicopter near me, one shining a very bright light I could see through the window. In the dream I thought the helicopter might crash through the window, causing me to die. The helicopter at a time of death may represent transport to some higher realm of existence where life after death occurs. The bright light may correspond to the bright light commonly seen during near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed that I had deleted all the files in a directory, by using the command line "del *.*" command. I then had the idea that I could restore the lost data, by using some Undo command. The deletion of the files may signify death, and the restoration of the data may signify life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I was playing some game of catch with people on the other side of some barrier. I was throwing some little orange semi-cylindrical thing through holes in the barrier, and people on the other side of the barrier were throwing the object back to me. Back and forth the object was thrown several different times. The dream may have symbolized interaction or back-and-forth communication between earthly denizens and some spirits on the Other Side. 
  • I dreamed I was in the apartment of the late John Lennon, high up in an apartment tower. There was the very clear idea that I had to meet him the next day at his apartment, with both of us then leaving for a concert tour. There were between three and five aspects of the dream suggesting the number 67, which may have symbolized an age of 67 or a date of June 7 (6/7). In the dream I was meticulous about setting things up so I would get the appointment right. I verbally reviewed our meeting plan with John, and I thought to myself to make sure to write down his apartment number so I could make the appointment. The dream may symbolize me going to see John Lennon in some afterlife realm, either at the age of 67 or on June 7 (which could be a June 7 of any year).  The element of taking the elevator up is a common motif in dreams I have, seeming to suggest a kind of ascent up to some more elevated plane of existence. 
  • A few days later I again dreamed of John Lennon. He was in a bar, on the other side of a barrier separating the customer area from the bartender area. I said, "I had a dream about you." This is the only time I have ever correctly recalled a previous day's dream while I was having a dream. John being on the other side of the barrier may have symbolized him being on the Other Side. 
  • I had a dream in which someone thought I was trying to communicate with the dead. 
  • I had a dream that I received a large envelope, and recalled hearing somewhere that people had been shocked to death (by static electricity?) after opening packages. Removing something from inside the envelope, I took the envelope upstairs. I then noticed some liquid in the envelope. I poured out some red liquid at the bottom of the envelope, pouring the liquid into a sink. The mention of the death by shocking may have symbolized sudden death. The removal of the object from the envelope may represent the soul leaving the body, sometimes referred to as an envelope for the soul. The pouring of rhe red liquid from the envelope may represent bleeding at the time of death. The rising up the stairs may represent an ascent of the soul after death, to some higher realm of existence.  
  • I dreamed I walked up some stairs to find some large bookstore. One of the books on the shelves was a volume of the plays (dramas) written by Isaac Newton (who wrote no plays during his earthly life). The dream may have been symbolized rising up to some heavenly realm where there is great knowledge to be found, including literary works produced by people after their earthly life finished. 
  • I dreamed I saw a ghost. 
  • I dreamed I reached some snowy location where I saw my late father and my late firstborn sister. There was the idea that I was returning home. My sister said that my coat was seeming to unravel. The unraveling of the coat may have symbolized dissolution of the earthly body at death.  The returning home idea may have been another repetition of the idea that in an afterlife people return to some realm where they existed before birth. 
  • I dreamed I was levitating and spinning around as I levitated. Later in the dream I mentioned flying to the ceiling, and then mentioned flying to God, a reference suggestive of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I held a card saying something like "I love you Carolyn in heaven," which may have referred to a woman I once knew well long ago, who may have died. On the same night I dreamed of a man flying around at will in the sky, with only a circle on his back. as if he were some spirit flying around in heaven.  
  • I dreamed I saw some old boat that seemed to be mysteriously moving about, although there was no one in the boat. I told someone that maybe the boat was manned by invisible spirits or ghosts on a joy ride. 
  • In a dream I recalled a scene at the end of the movie The Sting, in which Paul Newman and Robert Redford are apparently shot dead, but then a few minutes later rise up alive, with the idea that their deaths were just faked. The scene may be regarded as a metaphor for life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was entering some foreign country, and being asked questions by customs authorities, possibly at an airport. One of the questions I was asked was some question about my "last meal." The dream may have symbolized entering some afterlife realm. The "last meal" may have referred to my last earthly meal.  
  • I dreamed that I was on some gigantic escalator, with the idea that this would take me to some place where I would be safe from nuclear war. This may have symbolized going to some afterlife existence of perfect safety. 
  • On the same night I had a very vivid dream of my late mother in which she had a beckoning appearance, I dreamed I returned to a family home to find her, and that I was surprised to find the home had a new deluxe swimming pool. The dream may have symbolized bliss to be experienced in some heavenly realm in which you reunite with departed loved ones.  Also on the same night I dreamed of a scheduled meetup with the late George Harrison. 
  • I dreamed that I and another person were on the outside of a high flying airplane, trying to get into it. Grabbing on things on the outside of the aircraft, we had to go from the front side of the aircraft to the other side of the aircraft. There we found some little round entrance hatch we could enter into. We have here motifs of a very high elevation, going to the other side (Other Side), and a "high plane" idea that may have symbolized a high plane of existence such as an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I was on the planet Mars, gathering rocks. I realized that I had too much to carry, and knew that I had to discard something. Going to Mars (another world) may have symbolized going to the other world of an afterlife. The "discarding something" may have symbolized discarding the earthly body at death. 
  • I had a dream the electrical power was down because of fallen trees affecting the power lines. In the dream it was reported that the power would soon be restored.  The loss of power and the fallen trees (like fallen bodies) may symbolize death. The restoration of power may symbolize life after death. I seem to get this motif often both in dreams and in mysterious physical events I witness when awake: a turning off of power or light, followed by a quick restoration of the light or power. 
  • I dreamed that I lost a purple balloon, and saw it rise way up into the sky. In the dream I could fly, and I flew way up into the sky to grab the balloon's string. The color purple is one that I strongly associate with my late mother, because it was her favorite color, and because of a long fascinating tale told here. The purple balloon rising up into the sky may have symbolized her going to some heavenly afterlife. The part about me flying way up into the sky to make contact with the balloon may symbolize some future meeting I may have with my late mother in some heavenly state.  During the dream I noted an uncanny ability to see fine details of buildings below me, while I was flying in the air. People having near-death experiences often report such enhanced vision during such experiences.  
  • I dreamed I crossed over to the other side of the street, to return a book I had borrowed from a library, at the deadline for returning the book. The deadline may represent death, and the crossing over may represent returning to some Other Side where my soul had once been (before birth). The book may represent my soul, which may have been kind of "borrowed from heaven" according to the idea of the nonearthly preexistence of the soul.  On the same night I dreamed I was in a school class, being asked by the teacher to give the answer to some complex question. Confident that I had written down the answer on one of the pages on my desk, I searched my pages, but could not find the answer. We have a "you had the answer, but you lost it" motif. Perhaps the answer represents an answer to some great philosophical question, which may have been known by my soul before coming to Earth, but which was lost upon my birth on this planet. 
  • I dreamed that I was next to a person talking on the phone, who was saying, "Dead is dead." I said, "No, dead is not dead." In the dream I definitely had the idea of life after death, and was anticipating discussing evidence for life after death as soon as the person got off the phone. This is one of quite a few cases in which I had an advanced philosophical concept during a dream. 
  • I dreamed that the late Robin Williams smashed through some glass barrier in a church. On the other side of the smashed barrier, Robin had an exulted look, looking upwards and smiling. He was saying something about heaven and angels. The smashed glass barrier seemed to represent a boundary between earthly life and an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed there was some important computer system that was undergoing an upgrade. As part of the upgrade I turned off a computer, and then turned it back on. This was a repetition of a motif that has occurred quite a few times both in my dreams, and (very mysteriously) in physical reality. Here the turning off may represent death, and the turning back on may represent life after death. The upgrade may symbolize some superior mental, spiritual or perception abilities you may get in an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I was in a small room, and suddenly the light went off unexpectedly, leaving me in darkness. I opened the room's door, entering into brightness in the adjacent room .The sudden turning off of  the light may symbolize sudden death. The entering into the lighted room may symbolize life after death. 
  • I had a dream I was watching some movie depicting an ascent of someone to heaven.
  • I dreamed I was at a hospital, and told that some table covered by sheets held the dead body of my mother. Upon uncovering the table by pulling the sheets up, I found no body on the table. The dream seems to represent an idea of death being an illusion, as it would be if there is life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was discussing some kind of "special arrangement" to see in the future Gene Kelly, which hints at life after death because Kelly died years ago.
  • I dreamed that the exit of my building was blocked by bad guys wearing red, another case of the "blocked pathway" motif I often get. In the dream I evaded the trouble by flying very high into the air, like Superman. "Look how far I've gone!" I thought, "They'll never catch me." The threatening red blockage may symbolize death (perhaps by heart attack), and the flying escape may symbolize life after death.  
  • I dreamed that on my window sill was a black bird (perhaps a raven), that was trapped in the window curtains. I pulled at the curtains to free the bird, and it flew away through the open window, toward the sunlit sky. The bird trapped in curtains may signify death. "Curtains" is itself a slang phrase for death, a phrase that arose because plays end with the pulling of curtains. Ravens are sometimes symbols of death, as in Poe's famous poem. The bird escaping the curtains and flying towards the light may symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was in some room very high up in a tall skyscraper. Suddenly I could feel the room plunging to the ground, as if the whole tower had collapsed or toppled over. But strangely I felt no fear. As I plunged downward, I very calmly said to myself, "This is it; this is how my life ends."  The odd calm in this situation suggests someone knowing that death is not the end. 
  • I dreamed I was in some control room with lots of little lights and switches. Suddenly the power went off, and all was dark. I thought: this is terrible -- what will we do for heat in the winter, burn paper? Then the power went back on. I have had many similar dreams, which are similar to  mysterious "light off/light on" events I have seen while awake. The loss of power and light may represent death, and the restoration of power and light may represent life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was leaving some building with my arms and pockets filled with big rolls of cash, and also some rolls of white paper. Realizing I could never carry out all of it, I discarded two of the rolls of paper. Exiting the building, I crossed over to the other side of a road.  The crossing over (an extremely frequent motif in my dreams) may represent crossing over to some Other Side that is an afterlife. All the big rolls of cash may represent some bonanza of good fortune or bliss when you reach some heavenly state after dying. The discarded rolls may represent discarded earthly roles you no longer have in an afterlife (such as the role of being a spouse, parent or citizen). In English "roll" sounds the same as "role."
  • I dreamed I was crossing over some highway, using a concrete overpass. On the other side I found some school. It was the first day of some class, and there seemed to be a seat for me. The dream may have symbolized crossing over to some Other Side where important truths may be taught. 
  • I dreamed there was a yacht which had been sunk, but which had been brought up from the sea bottom, and then restored to all its former glory, resulting in a kind of "life after death" for the boat, which may have symbolized a human life after death. 
  • I dreamed I awoke in a bedroom to hear a magnificent choir. I thought that there might be a funeral going on below me, although it also could have been some normal church choir. I then noticed in my room a white dog I once had decades ago. I didn't see the black male dog I had once had, and remembered the dog had died. But then I saw just that dog, and petted him. The dream gives an idea of life after death, at least for the dog.  
  • In a similar vein of "an afterlife for animals," I had a dream a cat lept up to the top of one of those black lights in which the light is on top of a black pole about six feet tall. Rising up to the light is a frequent motif in symbolism about life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was at some store that was selling my I-Pad tablet, the exact one I use. The tablet was even marked with my name: "Mark Mahin's tablet." I tried to kind of erase my name, so people would not know the tablet had been mine. Then someone at the store said there was a phone call for me. I was told that I had been given a new job in a different city. I was very surprised because I had not even interviewed for the job. The "Mark Mahin's tablet" part may symbolize my death, with the I-Pad tablet having almost the same shape as a tombstone. The suddenly getting a new job in a different location may symbolize going to an afterlife after a sudden death. 
  • I had a dream consisting of a single image: a little bag of trash lying in the backyard of one of my boyhood homes, with the trash containing the outer layer of an onion.  As I explain in my post "Dreams and NDEs Suggesting the Soul's Non-Earthly Pre-Existence," the "coming home" motif is one that has occurred frequently both in my dreams and in those having near-death experiences, with "home" seeming to be some afterlife realm where the soul may have previously existed before earthly life. The "discarded outer shell" image in the dream suggests a discarding of the "outer shell" of a body, leaving the inner self of a soul that survives after death.  On the same day I had a dream of a bird being trapped inside a building, with someone opening a thin veil-like curtain so that the bird could exit through a window. The "parting the veil" imagery is frequent in literature about life after death, in which we often read about a "thin veil" between this world and the next world, which can be parted to allow transit or information from one to another. The bird flying out of the building in which it was trapped rather seems to represent a soul flying out of an earthly body at the time of death. 
  • I dreamed two men were struggling atop a tower. One of the men fell about 30 meters, and hit the ground. The idea was that he had died. Then there was kind of a replay of the same thing. But the second time the man did not die after hitting the ground from this high fall. The dream suggests life after death. 
  • I dreamed that Christopher Columbus turned down two lucrative offers, accepting an offer of huge wealth to be paid for going to the New World. There was an element of "there will be the downside of not seeing some family members for a long time." The voyage to the New World may represent going to some vastly different afterlife state of existence. The gaining of great wealth from such a voyage may represent some heavenly bliss or spiritual bonanza you get from reaching such a state. The separation from family members would occur if you had died and gone to heaven. 
  • I had yet another dream of being on a bus (a search for the word "bus" in this post will give many   matches). This time there was something different I have never dreamed of: I was on a double-decker bus like they have in London. I looked around for a seat on the first level, and saw no seat. So I rose up to the second level, and found a seat there. In my dreams a bus has seemed to symbolize going to some afterlife. In this dream that association seems stronger, with the ascent to an upper level in the bus seeming to represent an ascent to some higher spiritual level in an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I was on a short trip to the USA, after crossing the ocean, which is strange because I live in the USA. Then I returned home to some unspecified place, thinking kind of "That little trip was a joke."  The dream is consistent with the idea that we all come from some heavenly place that is our real home, and that this earthly life is just a comparatively brief trip away from such an eternal home. 
  • I dreamed of a dragonfly that seemed to transform into an orb, with the orb then transforming into something else that I could not identify. The dragonfly is a symbol of transformation, and has an association with life after death, partially because the Kevin Costner movie Dragonfly was about life after death. 
  • I dreamed the police arrested me for throwing away some meat. At the jail house the charges were dropped, and I was free to go. Throwing away the meat may signify death (in which the meat of your body is discarded), and the arrest may signify sudden cardiac arrest. The "sudden freedom" part at the end may signify the soul leaving the "jail house" of the body at death. On the same night I dreamed a yellow bird was trapped inside my room, and that I led it to freedom by guiding it to leave out the window. The liberated bird may signify a soul leaving the body at death. 
  • I dreamed I kind of climbed like Spiderman up the side of a skyscraper, to its top. Then I saw far below me on the ground what looked like a dead body. The dream may symbolize a soul leaving a dead body and viewing it from above. On the same night I dreamed I was in an elevator and told someone that in a short time I would "make it up." In the dream I may have been talking about making up missed work,  or "make it up" may have referred to an ascent to an afterlife.  (In English "make it up" is a phrase that can mean three different things: invention, doing missed work, or physically rising.) 
  • I dreamed someone picked up my glasses, which would probably never be done unless I had died. A thin lens fell out of my glasses, but after hitting the ground the lense (about as wide and thick as a silver dollar) landed resting on its edge, without rolling. It was as if my ghost was around, to cause an event so improbable, as a sign of my survival after death.  On the same night I dreamed someone was flying through the sky without any machinery, as if ascending to heaven. 
  • I dreamed I was in a movie theater late at night. Suddenly I found myself sliding down a spiral slide of between three and five stories. It was great fun. Sliding down the slide, I quickly found myself out of the building. Now I saw the theater was dark, with its lights off. "Time to go home," I thought. The "lights off" in the building may have symbolized physical death. The thrilling sudden exit may have symbolized an exciting exit of the soul from a body. The "going home" part is a motif that is extremely common in my dreams (and in near-death experiences), and may symbolize a return to some heavenly state where a soul existed prior to its earthly existence. On the same night I dreamed I was one of three astronauts about to blast off into the sky. 
  • I dreamed that a man stood on a tiny ledge protruding from the outside of the top of a very tall skyscraper building. The ledge was the size and shape of a tombstone, and looked like what you would have if a tombstone were to fall flat on the ground. The "fallen tombstone" image and the very high position seem to symbolize the idea of rising up after death and a kind of cancellation of the death notice on the tombstone, thereby suggesting life after death. 
  • The dream discussed here, which hinted at life after death. 
  • I dreamed someone was talking about a bridge that had won a design competition, because it was based on "quantum mechanical principles."  The dream may have referred to the idea of a "quantum jump," by which a particle instantly moves from one position to another. A bridge using "quantum mechanical principles" might be one that transported you instantly from this world to some afterlife world. 
  • I dreamed that on the night of someone's death, there were two angels appearing in front of someone's bed. 
  • I dreamed there was some crowd that blocked my movement. In the dream I got past this blockage by somehow rising up into the air. The blockage (a very frequent motif in my dreams) may represent some kind of fatal blockage such as an artery blockage. The rising up into the air may represent a soul rising up out of a body. 
  • I dreamed I was playing poker with someone on a small table with four chairs. A moment later I saw four people in the chairs. "Hey, that's my chair!" I protested. But then I resigned myself to watching the game from a chair away from the table. The loss of my participation in the game may signify death, and the watching from the side may symbolize some brief experience as a ghostly onlooker. Another dream on the same night was very similar. 
  • I dreamed the curtains of my bedroom were billowing mysteriously at night, as if ruffled by a cold breeze, even though the windows were closed. This is an effect that was repeatedly reported during seances of the medium Eusapia Palladino (see here for one of many such reports in a book). 
  • I dreamed I saw a small plastic zip drive crushed on the floor, as if someone had walloped it with a sledgehammer. In the dream I thought the data could still be saved, because there was an inner part that was indestructible. The shattered plastic of the zip drive may have represented a dead body, and the indestructible inner part may have represented the soul that survives death.  
  • I dreamed I had written a post called "Spook Poems."
  • In American football there is a rule that if a receiver catches a ball and his knee touches the ground without contact from a defensive player, the play is "still alive" until someone tags him while his knee is on the ground, at which point the play is called "dead." Sometimes after a player makes a falling catch, the defense will fail to tag him. In that case there is kind of an "illusion of death" when a play is still "live." That's what happened in a dream I had. A player made a falling catch, was not tagged, and got up and ran, with the play being "still alive."  This "illusion of death" may have symbolized death being an illusion because you will have an afterlife after you die. 
  • I had a dream in which a famous female singer seemed to fall a great distance into a pool, as if she had been dropped from an aircraft. As many people watched, the singer then rose up magically far into the air, apparently unharmed, as if pulled by some unseen wire. She was wearing a glittering rhinestone dress. The fall from such a high distance into the pool may have symbolized death, and the magical-seeming ascent into the air may have symbolized life after death.  
  • I dreamed I was carrying a computer-like device while exiting a building, using one of these dolly carts. Somehow while doing this the machine's exterior got destroyed. But there was still left some electronic interior, which had blinking lights and was apparently still working. The destruction of the exterior of the computer may symbolize physical death, and the building exit may symbolize exit from this earthly life. The survival (with apparent good functioning) of the computer's interior may symbolize survival of the soul after physical death. 
  • I dreamed that I was behind a man sitting in front of a computer, a man talking on the phone. Suddenly the man was no longer visible. Speaking to the person on the phone, I said something like, "He'll be back soon," although I did not know the man would return. On the man's computer screen was one of those popup windows.  The man's sudden disappearance may signify death. The popup window may symbolize a soul that kind of pops up out of a body when a man dies. 
  • I dreamed there was a very crowded ship that an overweight man had just pushed into with difficulty, like someone pushing his way into a very crowded subway car. I then arrived, apparently the last passenger to enter the ship before its departure. The about-to-depart ship may represent traveling to some afterlife realm. Similarly on the same day (December 10) I dreamed of a spaceship going to Mars very quickly. 
  • On the same day I dreamed there was one of those plastic confinement pens that parents use to keep toddlers within a small confined area. In the dream there was the idea that by about the end of the day I was going to dismantle the confinement pen.  The toddler's confinement pen may represent the limitations (physical and mental) of earthly life, limitations that are thrown away when a person progresses to some afterlife existence. 
  • The next day I had dreams involving flight, elevation and an otherworldly locale. In one dream I was on a jet waiting for takeoff. A second dream mentioned visiting an "alien base," which could have represented some other planet or maybe an afterlife realm. In the third there was some mention of helicopters, and in the fourth I was taking an elevator up to a high floor. 
  • I dreamed that while driving a car, I saw my father driving a car. There was the idea that I should follow his car, and that we would meet for dinner to celebrate my good report card. But the road got confusing, and I wasn't able to follow him.  Then I thought, "I should just go home; I'll see him there." As I discuss here in my dreams (and in many near-death experiences) "home" seems to symbolize some afterlife realm (possibly  where souls may have existed before coming to Earth), and this dream fits in with such an idea (as my father is deceased). 
  • Having one of countless dreams I have had in the past two years about being on a bus, I dreamed I was on a bus at night, and that I pulled the "bell cord" to signal that I wanted to get off. In the dream the time was 5:00 AM.  One thing seemed to enhance the impression that the "getting off the bus" represented getting off at some afterlife destination: in the dream Princess Diana (causally called Di) was on the bus, with "Di" having the same sound as "Die." On the same night I dreamed that I was on a speeding subway car underground, going to a "movie palace."  The "passing through the tunnel" motif brings to mind near-death experiences in which people report traveling through a tunnel and then visiting some afterlife locale: perhaps a palatial location. Also on the same night I dreamed about being physically above the late Sir Roger Moore, as I might be if I ascended to some afterlife realm.    
  • I dreamed that I was in some movie theater, and they started showing The Sixth Sense, a movie about a little boy who sees the spirits of deceased people. 
  • I dreamed that I was in some big jet that must have been taking a very important trip, because it carried the entire US Senate. The "very important trip" motif may have symbolized some journey to an afterlife realm.  The senators were all popping up and down in their seats, as if there was heavy turbulence. That part may have symbolized difficulties at the time of death. 
  • I dreamed that I was at an intersection where about a dozen people stood, waiting for the light to turn green. Across the street lay some kind of Swedish church. I thought it would be good to follow the people into the church, and when the light turned green, I walked with them to the other side of the street. The crossing over to the other side (a motif constantly recurring in my dreams) may symbolize going to some Other Side of an afterlife. The Swedish church may symbolize some religious experience in some elevated heavenly realm (Sweden is at a high latitude on the globe). 
  • I dreamed there was a mouse stuck to my sock. The mouse died, and I shook my foot, trying to separate my foot from the dead mouse. The dead mouse may symbolize my body at its death. The shaking to separate the mouse's dead body from my foot may symbolize a soul trying to free itself from a dead body at the time of death. 
  • I dreamed that I was in a bedroom adjusting its curtains. In the room were two fans. I tried to turn on the first one, but its engine had "died," and the fan merely made a dull humming noise. I turned on the second fan, and it worked okay. The dream may symbolize death ("it's curtains" is a slang expression meaning death). The fan that failed to work may symbolize the failed machinery of a dead body. The fan that continued to work may symbolize a soul that survives death. 
  • I dreamed that I was in a car being driven by someone else. The car went on a long journey that took it constantly uphill at a steep angle. At one point the car was driving up a long waterfall that had about a 45 degree inclination. Finally some high-altitude destination was reached where the late actor Jack Lemmon was speaking. The long journey upward may symbolize some ascent to an afterlife realm.  
  • I had a dream in which someone was saying a house was haunted. 
  • I dreamed I stood at the front door of a house, which marked the house as belonging to the poet Lord Byron. Here besides the motif of meeting a dead person, we have the motif of "arriving at the house of the Lord," which has a double meaning. 
  • I dreamed I saw a strange metal grid rise up from the ground, one with a magnetic power. In a second dream on the same night I again saw the strange grid, blocking my ability to enter an outdoor subway car. I came to a spot where the grid seemed to be no longer metal, but like a weird lattice work of electrical pulses. I wondered: do I need to pass through this to get into the subway car?  The subway car may represent passage to some afterlife (subways go through tunnels, and tunnel travel is often reported in near-death experiences). The passing through the electrical pulses may refer to the kind of bodily electricity anomaly that can cause sudden cardiac death, a common cause of death for people my age. 
  • I had a dream with elements of a cruise, and meeting a President. The cruise may have represented some trip to meet some higher spiritual power in an afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I was in front of the Library of Congress. Someone asked me if I believed in ghosts. Then inside I got into a checkout line to check out a book. The motif of the checkout line is a recurring one in my dreams. "Checkout" is a slang term for death. On the same night I had a dream of someone saying, "We take it to the next level," which have symbolized some higher afterlife plane of existence. 
  • I dreamed that some machine in the hallway was playing the "Ride of the Valkyries" music from the beginning of Act III of Richard Wagner's Die Walkure. In this opera this music is associated with life after death. In Norse mythology the Valkyries were female figures who guided souls to the afterlife realm of Valhalla. 
  • I dreamed that an old man fainted when he unexpectedly saw a woman give birth to a child in some library. The old man fainting may symbolize death, and the child emerging from the woman may symbolize the soul emerging from the body at the time of death. On the same night there was some dream with a theme of metamorphosis, long regarded as a symbol of life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I met the late John Lennon on a bridge, which may have symbolized a gateway to an afterlife. It was raining, so I thought to myself that I had to buy an umbrella. I then found myself in a checkout line, a recurring motif in my dreams that may symbolize death. "Checkout" is a slang term for death. 
  • I dreamed at a baseball game an upset child was comforted by the ghosts of animals. Then the ghost of Babe Ruth appeared in the outfield. 
  • I dreamed I was surprised to see one of my late sisters in my living room. Looking about 30 (about half her death age) and smiling, she was wearing a white bathrobe. I said something like, "I'm so surprised to see you -- you didn't tell us you were coming."  People claiming to see deceased relatives in some heavenly realm (perhaps in a near-death experience) often say they were wearing white robes, or that they looked around 30. The dream was kind of the next-best-thing to a ghost sighting.  On the same night I had a dream of a dog I once owned (now dead) jumping up on my lap, one of quite a few such dreams I have had in the past two years. 
  • On one night (besides having a kind of "gift of a new body" dream) I had two dreams of being in an airport about to depart. In one of these dreams my two daughters arrived to see me at the airport, and I said I was surprised they didn't bring any luggage. Apparently I was going off on a sky trip alone, as a person's soul might do if he died.  On this night and the previous I had dreams of an escalator and elevators, the latter being a very frequent motif in my dream, possibly symbolizing some elevation to a higher state of existence. 
  • I dreamed it was the final play of a football game. As the play occurred, the TV coverage failed, with the screen showing only a kind of blinking static, as if there some electrical glitch. Then the TV coverage was restored, and the screen showed the winning team exulting. The final play and the electrical glitch may have represented death, which often occurs through an electrical failure in the heart. The exulting team may represent some blissful outcome following death. On the same night I dreamed I was swimming from one side of a swimming pool to its other side, another example of the "crossing over to the Other Side" motif that keeps recurring in my dreams. 
  • I dreamed I was in some type of captivity, which I could get out of by crossing over to the other side of a door. The captivity may have represented the captivity of the soul in a body, and the other side may have symbolized the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I was on a street in front of an entrance to the North Korean embassy or consulate. In the dream I hesitated entering, with the feeling that if I passed through the door I could never again return to my regular life. The door may have symbolized an entrance to an afterlife realm from which you can never return. In my dreams "north" often seems to symbolize "going higher" or "reaching a higher state of existence."  On the same day I had one of many "last play of the game" dreams I have had, which seem to symbolize death.  
  • I dreamed I crossed over to the other side of a road, reaching a tall skyscraper where I thought I was supposed to do some work. Just outside the building I found myself barefoot, but luckily there were some shoes lying outside that I put on. Then I went into the elevator to rise up in the building. Me being barefoot may symbolize death (corpses are often buried without shoes). The crossing over to the other side (an extremely frequent motif in my dreams) may symbolize going to the Other Side of an afterlife, and the elevator (another very frequent motif in my dreams) may symbolize rising up to some higher plane of existence. On the same night I dreamed I was killing a swarm of black flies. Flies are a death symbol, and killing the flies may have symbolized immortality. 
  • There is an association between the idea of going home and the idea of heaven, with those having near-death experiences often reporting a feeling that they were "back home." I dreamed I was returning to a previous residence where I long lived and spent many summer vacations, so there was a "going home" motif. But in my dream the place had many waterfalls. When I have tried to visualize heaven, I have often imagined it as a place with many waterfalls. 
  • I dreamed I was driving a car, and for some reason I parked the car and abandoned it, thinking I would never see it again. Then I went home. The abandoned car may have symbolized a body abandoned when a soul leaves the body, often called the vehicle of the soul. On the same night I dreamed I was one of ten people carrying suitcases. There was the idea that my name would be called next. Then my name was called, and I walked up to meet some official, carrying my suitcase. 
  • I dreamed I was on a train trip, and there were reasons why two of the destination cities may have symbolized an afterlife destination. 
  • I dreamed I was looking at a list of college courses, and one was what seemed to be a reference to an afterlife: a course entitled "Better Off Dead?"
  • I dreamed that I was at work, and there was no lighting above me, as if someone had turned off the lighting. I pressed a button to try to turn the lighting back on. There then rose up a wall some colorful luminous screen as might be used in an audiovisual presentation. The loss of lighting may signify death, and the rising up of the luminous screen may signify the rising up of the soul to some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I got a package in the mail, and the return address seemed to be written in the handwriting of one of my two deceased sisters. 
  • I dreamed I was looking from a very tall tower, and could see below me only smoke and burning buildings. There was the idea that I should go up higher in the building. The apocalyptic scene below me may have represented death, and the rising up part may have represented the ascent of the soul after death. 
  • I dreamed I was in a room with two windows, which had both had pull-down roller curtains, the type that can rise up quickly if you pull them down a certain way. I played a piece of music, and I suggested that at the music's end the roller curtains should be pulled down so that they quickly rise up. "Curtains" is a slang term for death.  The curtains (and the music's end) may have symbolized death, and the quick rising up of the roller curtains may have symbolized the rise of the soul to some higher plane at the time of death. 
  • I dreamed I was on the roof of a house, looking down at one my daughters, urging her to walk slowly on the icy ground. But it was like she could not hear me. The high elevation may have symbolized being in some elevated afterlife state in which the deceased can observe the living, but find it difficult to communicate with them.  
  • I dreamed that some computer programming job of mine had ended, and that I had gone home, taking what programmers call "source code" with me. The end of the job may have symbolized death, and the return to a home having source code may have symbolized the idea of returning to some afterlife realm, which (according to the doctrine of the soul's nonearthly pre-existence) may have been the source of my soul. 
  • I dreamed that someone won some big jackpot of M and M's candy. She said that the candy should be divided into two parts, with one half given away, and the other half being saved. The M and M's candy may signify me (my initials being MM). The part given away may represent my body discarded at death, and the part saved may represent my soul surviving death. 
  • I had one of many dreams I have had with a theme of accrued earnings that I had failed to pick up. In one version of the dream I suddenly realize I have long failed to pick up my pay check from my employer. In another version I suddenly realize I have long failed to fill in timesheets necessary for me to be paid. The accrued earnings not yet received may symbolize some afterlife reward that will be paid upon death to every good person who lived on Earth, with a reward proportional to how long you lived or how much trouble you endured.  An interesting speculation is that each of us signed up for "Earth duty," lured by a promise that at the end of such a duty our participation would be very richly rewarded. 
  • I dreamed there was a college existing on the top of some immensely tall tower-like geological structure as tall as a large mountain. The dream may have symbolized some elevated afterlife state where sublime cosmic truths may be studied. 
  • I dreamed a police officer said I was under arrest. Fleeing him, I went into a subway train, traveling through several of its cars. I sat down and pretended to be a sleeping passenger, so I wouldn't be noticed.  The arrest may signify death by cardiac arrest. The element of pretending to be asleep may symbolize a death that appears to be a real end, but is not, because the soul  survives.
  • I dreamed I dropped on the ground outside a pill. I looked for the pill and could not find it. But while looking for it I picked up another pill. I saw it was a pill giving a large amount of some powerful pain killer, something as powerful as morphine. I thought to myself that I should save the pill, because it would be useful if I ever had great pain. The lost pill that fell to the ground may have symbolized a person's body that falls to the ground at death, and is lost. The pill lifted up and saved may symbolize a soul that rises up from the body after death, in a pain-free or blissful state. 
  • I dreamed there was a high wire fence I wanted to get across.  Seeing a hole in the fence about three meters above the ground, I climbed up and went through the hole, passing over to the other side  The rise and passing through the hole may have symbolized a soul rising up after death and passing through a tunnel (as reported in near-death experiences), with the other side of the fence representing the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • At a meeting I announced that I would soon be using a small white airplane to go to the other side of some border. The border may represent the border between earthly life and an afterlife. The small white airplane resembled the white cross often used to mark a grave.
  • I dreamed I was debugging code. I set what is called a breakpoint in the code. When that is done, a program will freeze on a particular line of code, with a complete cessation of activity. The programmer inspects the state of the system when this breakpoint halt occurs, and then the code continues to execute. The breakpoint (with a cessation of activity and an inspection) may symbolize a person's death, when his body stops running, and when his body may be inspected by a doctor or someone verifying the cause of death. The continuation of the program after the breakpoint may symbolize the continuation of the soul after a body dies. 
  • I dream I lifted off into space in a rocket. I then found myself floating in zero gravity. In the dream my floating body may symbolize a soul that leaves the body and floats above it, an effect often reported during out-of-body experiences. 
  • I dreamed a helicopter fell off the deck of an aircraft carrier, plunging down into the water. Then somehow the helicopter rose up from under the water. The plunge down into the water may symbolize death, and the rise up may symbolize life after death. On the same day I dreamed I was going to Dubai, a city so famous for architectural splendor and luxury it may have been a metaphor for an afterlife destination. 
  • I dreamed I was in some cable car that was traveling incredibly high in the air. The car crossed over a river. Now I could look below me and see the tops of very tall towers, as if the cable car was traveling 1000 meters in the air. The motifs of very high vertical ascent and crossing over a river seemed to suggest ideas of life after death. 
  • I dreamed there was a man lying at the bottom of a dumpster that was halfway filled with water. The man was looking up with no expression, as if dead. Someone approached, and said, "John, there you are." The man then rose up out of the water, and said, "Hi, how are you?" The first part of the dream seems to symbolize death, and the second part life after death. 
  • I dreamed I was flying without any aircraft very high in the sky, crossing a body of water, way above an aircraft carrier. After crossing the ocean I landed on a distant shore. 
  • I had one of many dreams I have had in which an American football game is won on the final play, with the scoring of a touchdown. Such dreams may symbolize a "the end of life is a victory" theme that would make sense only in the context of life after death. 
  • I dreamed I went on a subway and then took an elevator to reach an office where I met King Charles. In the dream my appointment was for 6:30, but I was 13 minutes late. After awaking and writing down the dream, my next dream was the same dream, one of meeting King Charles. The dream had a motif associated with near-death experiences (rapid travel through a tunnel), and the elevator rise may may have symbolized an ascent to a heavenly realm. The meeting with a king may have symbolized meeting with God or some heavenly authority.  The "being late" part may have symbolized me having died (you may refer to a deceased John Smith as the late John Smith). 
  • I dreamed I lay on some bed, surrounded by medical equipment. Then I could see myself many meters  above such a table. I floated up and saw many other people in the building, and tried to recognize them,  or get them to respond to me. But it was like no one could see me. It was like I was a ghost or spirit who had left the physical body.
  • I dreamed I was talking to people on the other side of a fence, saying that I must soon meet them. The other side may have represented the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I was in a car that was auto-driving by itself. The car took me across a bridge. The sense of being auto-driven to the other side of a bridge reminds me of near-death experiences in which someone reports being propelled through a tunnel to briefly visit the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I was lying in a hospital bed in some huge gloomy room filled with 30 or more patient beds. The person next to me was saying something about hospice care. Then in the dream I kind of thought, "This place is not for me," and left. The grim hospital scene and hospice reference may have symbolized death, and my sudden leaving the scene may have symbolized the soul surviving death. 
  • Very oddly I had a dream in which I vividly heard a group of people singing Irving Berlin's first hit song "Alexander's Ragtime Band,"  which I have not heard in many years. In the song the narrator talks about taking you by the hand and leading you up to see a leader. In the dream this may have referred to ascending up after death to meet some heavenly authority figure. 
  • I  dreamed I was on the right side of a busy road, walking, and running towards me were two lethal predators (I think one was a lion). I ran across the busy road to escape the predators, dodging cars passing by me. Finally I reached safety on the other side of the road. The dream may have symbolized overcoming the scary events at death, and reaching the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I saw a door in front of me, slightly ajar. Opening the door I found on its other side one of my two deceased sisters, smiling. The dream symbolizes the idea of such a sister surviving on the Other Side, an afterlife.  
  • I dreamed I paid 5 dollars for a copy of the Jules Verne novel "From the Earth to the Moon." The dream had an "ascending up from Earth" motif that may have symbolized a trip to an afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I was climbing a ladder leading to the attic of a house, where I found a book about survivors. The survivors may have been symbolized those surviving death, and the high up part may have symbolized some elevated heavenly realm. 
  • I dreamed I walked up stairs to see someone, saying something like "You owe me a huge amount." The voice of an unseen figure upstairs said something like, "You owe me." Walking up the stairs may have symbolized an ascent to the higher level of an afterlife realm. The huge amount owed me (a frequent motif in my dreams) may have symbolized some blissful afterlife a person may earn after having an earthly life. If the unseen figure symbolized a deity, it would have made sense for such a figure to suggest that I owed him, if all of us owe our existence to some deity that created our universe fine-tuned to allow our existence.  
  • I dreamed I was surprised to see a dog I had as a boy, one who had died long ago. "Do you see that?" I asked someone else in the room. "No," she said. Then the dog started to fade away, until there was only like a little puff of mist left; and then that disappeared. When apparitions of the dead are seen, they are often reported to fade away in such a manner. And when people report seeing apparitions in their last days (as very many people do), the apparition is typically seen only by the dying person. In the same dream my TV screen showed seven vertical rows of planes flying in a tight formation. That may have symbolized the idea of a "higher plane" that is the afterlife.  
  • I dreamed I was on a ship that seemed doomed, requiring me to flee it. Strangely I exited the ship far below the water line, way under the water. Swimming ahead, I saw a scuba diver there to save me. He had a spare air hose that he gave me so I would not drown. The doomed ship may signify a dying body the soul flees. The being saved by the scuba diver may have symbolized being saved from oblivion by the survival of the soul in an afterlife. 
  • I was at what looked like one of those movie cashier stations. There seemed to be a person in front of me, on the other side of a black semi-opaque barrier. I used a credit card to buy a ticket. The person on the other side of the barrier (only dimly visible) may have symbolized someone on the Other Side of an afterlife, perhaps dimly perceptible by dreams. The ticket may have symbolized a trip to that Other Side. The credit card may have symbolized credit or merit earned by earthly good deeds, which may earn you a trip to the right kind of afterlife locale. 
  • I dreamed I was looking at some TV screen with a split screen, and some woman said there were two shows being shown at once, one of which involved "the afterlife" (to use the exact term used in the dream). 
  • I dreamed a baseball runner was running to first base, but did not make it to the base before the ball was caught by the first baseman. Being called out by the umpire, the runner melodramatically acted out a sudden death charade, clutching his chest and falling to the ground as if dying. The announcer said something like "What theatrics!" as if it was just play acting. The dream may symbolize the idea that death is just an illusion, and that when we think someone is dead, his  soul lives on. 
  • I dreamed I was seeing my daughters for what seemed like the first visit in quite a while. I had the idea the two daughters (currently single) were now married. I hugged one, and referred in a kind of congratulatory way to her marriage. But it was as if neither one of them recognized my presence. It was like I was an invisible ghost, visiting some time in the future. 
  • I was on a street that had a car on a fire. "This is like a video game," I thought. I wanted to cross the street to reach a bus (a frequent motif in my dreams, seeming to refer to transit to some afterlife). For a while I could not cross the street because of all the cars passing by. After about 8 or 10 cars passed, there was a gap that allowed me to cross the street and reach the bus. The car on fire may represent pain near the end of life. The crossing over (a very frequent motif in my dreams) may represent crossing over to some Other Side of an afterlife. The number of cars may represent some number of time units left in my earthly life (weeks, months or years).  The reference to a video game may have echoed an idea sometimes stated by people who said things such as "this earthly life is a mere shadow of the life to come" after someone dies. 
  • Two men were facing each other, and one said, "I've switched over to the Other Side." The other man then hit the first man, causing him to collapse. The collapse may signify death, and the switching to the other side may mean going to the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that two people buried a dead pet, only to then see the pet still alive.  
  • I dreamed a man and a group of other men came up to a national border, what seemed like the border of Switzerland. Thinking that the others would cross the border with him, the man was surprised to find that the others would not cross over the border, and that only he would be crossing over the border. The border seemed to represent some border between life and death, and in this dream Switzerland (a nice place to live, with high altitudes) seemed to represent some afterlife realm. 
  • I dreamed I had been invited to sing with a chorus that was singing the magnificent opening chorus of Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg. In this dream the "Die" in that title may have alluded to death. The chorus the dream referred to is one that refers to "our salvation" and the river Jordan, long a symbol of crossing over to some deliverance such as life after death. Very oddly, when I awoke from having this dream I found that one of the two long white socks I always wear during sleep was now off of my right foot, and was laying to the left of my left leg. I have no memory of having removed the sock (something I never do at night). We have a "one left" motif that could signify I have one time unit left in my earthly life. But that could mean many things: one day, one week, one month, one year, or one decade. 
  • I dreamed I was in the back seat of a car driven by my late father. The car crossed over a bridge, and entered on to a dark road. "Turn on the headlights," I said. The bridge (a very frequent motif in my dreams) may have symbolized a passage to the Other Side of an afterlife. The turning on of the headlights may have symbolized a sudden spiritual illumination occurring during such an act of crossing over. 
  • I dreamed that Jimmy Carter had written a book claiming to see apparitions of the dead in Canada. 
  • I dreamed that my late father had phoned and asked me to come see him. I said I would visit him soon, a possible reference to me going to some afterlife state. 
  • I dreamed I was at an office meeting, and I mentioned that I had worked for a company that suffered  the most horrible loss of its staff in the World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001. Using a very striking phrase in the dream, I said, "They went on to infinitely grander things." The phrase may have referred to the dead of this company reaching some exalted state in the afterlife. There were other details of the same dream with possible afterlife interpretations I discuss here
  • I dreamed I went to some chemist and asked that he make a fatal potion, specifying the exact ingredients to use. I then drank the potion. There was the idea that I would somehow survive, even though the potion was definitely fatal. 
  • I dreamed that I entered a bus that was crowded with people, all of whom were dressed in bright white clothes. I asked where the bus was going, and the driver said, "The bus is going back to Springfield." In near-death experiences people often report going to some flowery meadow, one that is like a spring field. In such experiences people also often report a feeling of "going home." The phrase "going back to Springfield" brings to mind such motifs. The all-white dress of the people in the bus suggests ghosts.  In my dreams many times a bus has seemed to symbolize a trip to some afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that one of my sisters was reading a post I had written about near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed that a giant ladder rested between two apartment buildings about 10 stories in height, separated by a narrow alley. The ladder was about 10 stories tall. It was a "ladder to the Other Side" dream. There was another dream on the same night that seemed to involve afterlife symbolism.  
  • I dreamed I was at a Grateful Dead concert. You could only be grateful about being dead if you were enjoying a happy afterlife.  
  •  I dreamed that Ronald Reagan was in the Soviet Union, dressed as a Soviet general. If this had occurred, it would have been a case of "going over to the other side," a phrase that has a double meaning, one meaning being "going over to the Other Side" of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that I had joined the Air Force, and that I went to meet my father wearing an Air Force uniform. The dream seemed to symbolize meeting my deceased father in some heavenly realm.
  • I dreamed that after completing a bus ride, I had the power to instantly teleport. The bus ride is a very frequent motif in my dreams, seeming to represent a trip to an afterlife. In this case the teleportation idea seems to reinforce such an interpretation.  
  • I dreamed that I was on the other side of the front fence of the house where I live, in front of a plant that had pink blossoms. "Look," I said to a family member on the other side of the fence. "This one is blossoming nicely." The dream may have symbolized some female flourishing on the Other Side of an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed a man at night was entering a lighted subway entrance, and was sending out a social media message saying something like, "You wouldn't believe the danger I just escaped!"  The escaped danger may symbolize danger at the time of death. The escape to a subway tunnel brings to mind the tunnel motif of near-death experiences, in which the tunnel seems to lead to some afterlife realm or encounter with the transcendent. 
  • I had a dream in which someone said something about the afterlife while smiling, something sounding rather like "See you in the afterlife."
  • I had a dream of a baseball player on the right side of the first base line throwing a red heart-shaped pillow to home plate. The dream seemed to symbolize a "love from the Other Side" idea. 
  • I dreamed I was looking up at a subway map, with the map showing destinations that were named after three deceased figures famous for their activity involving life after death: the medium Daniel Dunglas Home and the two Fox sisters (Kate and Margaretta).  There was the idea of a kind of northern destination corresponding to these names. The looking up and northern destination seems to symbolism some "higher realm," and the traveling through the subway tunnel reminds of the tunnel travel so often reported in near-death experiences. The three deceased people involved are particularly evocative of themes of life after death (see here and here for why). 
  • I dreamed I was in a checkout line, buying a flashlight and some device like binoculars. The checkout line motif is one that very frequently occurs in my dreams, one that seems to mean death ("he checked out" is a slang term for dying). The flashlight and binoculars may symbolize illumination and greater perception achieved in some afterlife (near-death experiences are rich in illumination motifs and reports of a sudden increase in perception). 
  • I dreamed that I was going to tell my mother I had become convinced by study of the immortality of the soul.  
  • I dreamed I jaywalked across a busy street in which cars were passing by. On the other side of the street, I then slid on ice to travel about 5 blocks, sliding the whole way. The dangerous crossing over to the other side of the street may have represented crossing over to the Other Side of an afterlife. The effortless travel may represent some power of effortless travel souls may have in an afterlife. It is sometimes claimed that in afterlife you can go anywhere just by thinking of your destination. 
  • I dreamed I was using a computer interface that showed an aerial view of New York City buildings. I could discover information about each building by hovering my mouse above the image of the building. The dream may suggest floating above buildings in my home city, like a ghost, possibly with the power to learn about any such building by floating into the building. 
  • I dreamed I looked out the window, and saw in a few seconds the rising up of a tower of about 50 stories, looking rather like what you would see if you watched in reverse a clip of the World Trade Center collapsing. This visual of a miraculous construction may have symbolized the mediumistic phenomenon of materialization, associated with life after death (read here for an example).  
  • I dreamed two people unexpectedly came in from the other side of my front door. Then someone asked me to turn down the TV, and I turned the volume down to zero. Suddenly I saw a bunch of flies flying about. Then I saw some big water drip from the ceiling. "It's dripping from the top!" I exclaimed. I then rushed up some stairs, which seemed like grand hotel stairs, not the stairs in my home.  The unexpected visitors from the other side of the door may symbolize apparitions  from the Other Side, often reported near the time of death. The turning off of the volume may signify my physical death. The flies in the dream are widely known as a death symbol. The dripping from the top may symbolize some fluid leak (such as an aneurysm) occurring at death. The rising up of the grand stairs may symbolize an ascent to some heavenly realm. 
  • I dreamed I was at the White House when it experienced a massive attack. I hid in a Safe Room that had an escape ladder leading up.  There was the idea the White House had been taken over, and was now controlled by new masters. Then there was the idea there was some plot I was involved with. I was worried about bugs on my body (listening devices) that might reveal evidence of the plot. The White House in the dream may have symbolized my white body. The attack may have symbolized some sudden attack on my body such as sudden cardiac death. The Safe Room may have symbolized the safety of going to an afterlife. The ladder of the Safe Room may have symbolized some ascent to a higher level of existence. The White House being taken over by new masters may have symbolized people such as medical people or funeral home people taking over the dead body no longer in my control. The plot may have symbolized a burial plot, and the worry about bugs on my body may have symbolized worries about bugs crawling on my dead body (something that could be avoided by cremation or a good coffin). The interpretation above may seem puzzling when translated out of English. In that language the word "bug" has a double meaning (referring to both an insect and a secret listening device), and the word "plot has a double meaning (referring to both a burial plot and also a secret plan). 
  • I dreamed I opened a door. On the other side of the door were four people lying on the floor as if dead or sleeping. They seemed to be wakened by my entrance, and stood up. The four may have represented the four deceased members of my original family (two parents and two sisters), with the lying state representing their bodies left in graves, and their subsequent standing state representing their afterlife existence, occurring on some Other Side represented by the other side of the door. 
  • I dreamed that Mark Twain had won some prize that amounted to a "mint," a term meaning a large fortune. "Twain" is an archaic word meaning "two." So here "Mark Twain" may have symbolized "Mark Two" or "Mark 2.0," an afterlife version of myself (Mark) who may enjoy some bonanza of heavenly bliss (symbolized by winning a "mint" of a prize). 
  • Having a vivid dream of playing in a soccer game, I dreamed I collapsed in front of the goal, hitting the ground. I seemed very weak, unable to get up. But I still blocked a scoring attempt, making what is called a "save" in soccer. In the dream my collapse may symbolize death, and the "save" part may symbolize being saved by having an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I saw a severed head on the ground. The head was smiling. The head rose up in the air, levitating.  The severed head may have symbolized death. The smile on the severed head and the levitation may have symbolized the rising up of the soul to some more elevated afterlife realm, a state of bliss. 
  • I had a dream very vividly giving the theme of lights that  turn back on by themselves after they are turned off.  The turning off may symbolize death, and the turning back on may symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed I saw a little boy, and said, "You must be hungry, you haven't eaten in thirty years," just as if the boy had returned to Earth from some afterlife. 
  • I dreamed that two people passed through each other, just as if they were ghosts. 
  • I dreamed I was using a computer, and a programming error caused the computer to crash and reboot. The sudden crash may symbolize sudden death, and the reboot may symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I was in front of an elevated overpass stretching over a highway. The overpass led to an amusement park on the other side of the highway. The overpass requiring an upward stair walk may symbolize some bridge to afterlife bliss on the Other Side, symbolized by the amusement park. 
  • I dreamed some people were waiting for service in a dark restaurant that had no one but themselves. "Where's the waitress?" they asked. They then found a hallway behind the restaurant that led to some other place where there were lots of happy people, food, music and dancing. The dark deserted restaurant may have symbolized death, and the happy place may have symbolized some blissful afterlife. The connecting hallway reminds me of the tunnel so often reported in near-death experiences, a tunnel seeming to lead to an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed I was engaging in a kind of teleconference with the late writer Jerzy Kosinksi. The teleconference motif suggested the idea of communicating with the dead. I haven't heard a word about this obscure figure in decades, and only saw him on TV once or twice about five decades ago. If the dream was a recollection (rather than telepathy from the Other Side), an astonishing act of recollection would have occurred. 
  • I dreamed a man exited a car safely just as the vehicle crashed into ruins. The man was holding a suitcase full of cash. The crash of the vehicle may represent the death of a body, sometimes called the vehicle of the soul. The survival of the man at the moment of the crash may represent life after death. The suitcase full of cash may represent some bonanza of afterlife bliss obtained after dying. 
  • I dreamed a cat fled an attack by rats by jumping off a tall building, plunging maybe 60 meters. But this fall did not kill the cat. Crossing to the other side of the street, the cat made a huge leap upward of maybe 30 meters. and then met some of its fellow cats for a triumphal reunion. The long fall seemed to signify death. The survival of the fall and crossing to the other side of the street (combined with a huge leap upward and a triumphant reunion) seems to signify rising up to some Other Side of an afterlife, and having a triumphant reunion with deceased friends or relatives.  
  • I dreamed I was in front of a fence's gate, and thought that on the other side of that gate life must be so much better. The dream may have symbolized the Other Side of an afterlife in which you can enjoy heavenly bliss. 
  • I dreamed that a fly was bothering me, and that I crushed it. But then the fly just flew away. Flies are a symbol of death, and crushing the fly symbolizes death. The fly flying away after being crushed seemed to symbolize life after death. 
  • I had one of very many dream I have had about being on a bus. The bus seems to symbolize being transported to some afterlife. In my dream when I got out of the bus there was some grand commemorative ceremony (such as a person might have if he were welcomed to an afterlife). There was also the idea that my work had been reviewed in the New York Times. That part of the dream may been symbolized the "life review" reported by those having near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed I had a stack of book about ghosts, books that needed to be returned to the library. 
  • I dreamed that I was clasping the hands of my late mother and late sister as we walked up a stairway leading to a subway.  In my dreams a subway seems to symbolize a passageway to the afterlife (similar to the tunnel motif of near-death experiences), and in this case such an interpretation was accentuated. On the same day I had a dream with the "life review" motif of near-death experiences. 
  • I dreamed a man jumped off a building to try and kill himself. Another man jumped off the same building trying to save the man. Both of the man were left in the most precarious position, dramatically dangling off the edge of the building. Somehow the second man was able to save the first.  The dangling "looks like death is certain" position of the two may have symbolized death, and the survival of the two may have symbolized life after death. 
  • A later dream was comparable, but depicted even greater peril. I dreamed a sudden hole in a high-flying jet caused a prince to be sucked out of the jet. Two of the prince's bodyguards jumped out of the jet, to try to save the prince. Against all odds they caught the falling prince midair.  I then extended my hand out of the hole, to try and grab one of them. I was able to grab a hand, and pulled all three back into the jet.  The state of the three falling men seemed to symbolize death, and the miraculous survival seemed to symbolize life after death. 
  • I dreamed that I was standing near an elevator, when someone told me that the late medium Kate Fox wanted to see me. I got in the elevator, and strangely seemed to press a floor number greater than 1000. Taking the elevator up so high (to see a famous deceased person associated with life after death) seems to symbolize going to some afterlife.  
  • I dreamed I was watching a rocket launch. The rocket seemed to veer to the left, as if it was doomed to fail in its launch. But somehow the rocket corrected its trajectory, and soared high up into the sky. The failing trajectory may have symbolized the death of the body, and the successful ascent may have symbolized the soul rising to an afterlife. 
  • I dreamed about a ghost at the front door. 
  • On one night I had two dreams with an "Other Side" motif. In one I was at a street corner asking some workman whether it was OK to go to the other side of the street. I was told yes. In another dream on that night I was using a card allowing entry to the other side of a turnstile leading to the subway. In my dreams the subway seems to symbolize transport to the other side of an afterlife (matching the near-death experience motif of a tunnel leading there). 
  • I dreamed that I saw a spooky happening around my house, and said, "This place is haunted." 
  • I dreamed I was holding a book mentioning "contact with the dead." The underlying idea was communication with the dead. 
 Besides these there have been quite a few other dreams with a "going home" theme that may symbolize a return to some afterlife state of existence that souls may possibly inhabit before going to our planet. 

References to the Deceased

Many of my dreams since mid-November 2020 have referred to deceased persons or deceased animals, who I have either directly seen in my dreams or heard mentioned. These include the following:

  • 124 dreams involving my late mother.
  • 133 dreams involving my late father. 
  • 43 dreams involving my late sister, the first-born of my siblings.
  • 17 dreams (after her death) of another late sister, the last-born of my siblings. 
  • Three dreams involving one of my late grandmothers. 
  • A dream involving another of my late grandmothers.
  • Six dreams involving my late grandfather on my mother's side. 
  • One dream involving a late grandfather mentioned only as "Grandpa." 
  • A dream involving my late sister-in-law, who lived outside of the US.  
  • Two dreams involving my late brother-in-law. 
  • A dream involving a late relative named Ursula. 
  • A dream involving a late aunt Laura. 
  • A dream involving a late aunt Rachel. 
  • A dream involving a late brother-in-law of mine. 
  • Many dreams in which I saw pets I had previously had, who died (with me sometimes stroking such pets). 
  • A dream in which I heard the late Karen Carpenter singing "For All We Know."
  • Four dreams involving the late actor Richard Burton.
  • Five  dreams involving the late actress Elizabeth Taylor.
  • A dream involving the late actor Peter Lorre. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Jack Larson. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Sidney Poitier. 
  • A dream involving the later actor Jack Lemmon. 
  • A dream involving the late singer and actor Peter Tork. 
  • A dream involving the later singer and music producer Mike Nesmith.
  • A dream involving the late singer and actor Davy Jones. 
  • A dream involving the later singer and actress Carmen Miranda. 
  • A dream involving the late singer Whitney Houston. 
  • Two dreams involving the late actor Dan Blocker. 
  • A dream involving the late publisher Hugh Hefner.
  • A dream involving the late photographer Linda McCartney.
  • A dream involving the late actress Greer Garson. 
  • A dream involving the late hi-tech executive Steve Jobs. 
  • Two dreams involving the late singer and composer John Denver.
  • Two dreams involving the late actor Burt Reynolds.   
  • A dream involving the late German poet Hans Sachs. 
  • A dream involving the late dancer, actor and director Gene Kelly. 
  • A dream involving the late architect Frank Lloyd Wright. 
  • A dream involving the late actor George Peppard. 
  • A dream involving the latte general Robert E. Lee. 
  • Six dreams involving the late actress Lucille Ball (in one I could see her very vividly, almost like she was standing in front of me). 
  • A dream involving the late actor George Kennedy. 
  • A dream involving the late theater critic Walter Kerr 
  • Four dreams involving the late US president George Washington. 
  • A dream involving the late singer/actor Bing Crosby.
  • A dream involving the late composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. 
  • A dream involving the late Icelandic medium Indridi Indridason. 
  • A dream involving the late author Mark Twain. 
  • A dream involving the late singer Peggy Lee.
  • A dream involving the late First Lady Rosalyn Carter. 
  • A dream involving the late medium Daniel Dunglas Home. 
  • A dream involving the late actor James Coburn.
  • A dream involving the late singer and actor Robert Goulet.  
  • A dream involving the late actor Lee J. Cobb.
  • A dream involving the late actor Sean Connery. 
  • A dream involving the late dramatist John Osborne. 
  • Three dreams involving the late actor and singer Desi Arnez. 
  • Two dreams involving the late actor Paul Newman. 
  • Three dreams involving the late composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
  • Two dreams involving the late composer Ludwig van Beethoven. 
  • Seven dreams involving the late singer and actor Mario Lanza.
  • A dream involving the late senator Barry Goldwater.  
  • One dream involving the late labor organizer Cesar Chavez. 
  • Three dreams involving the late US president Richard Nixon.
  • One dream involving the late senator and vice-president Hubert Humphrey.
  • Two dreams involving the late US senator George McGovern. 
  • A dream involving the late writer Jerzy Kosinski.
  • Two dreams involving the late actor Robert Culp.
  • A dream involving the late US senator John McCain. 
  • A dream involving the late actor James Mason. 
  • A dream involving the late comedian and director Dick Martin. 
  • A dream involving the late US president Grover Cleveland. 
  • Five dreams involving the late singer and actress Doris Day. 
  • A dream involving the late actor and director Jerry Lewis.
  • Two dreams referring to the late composer Richard Wagner.
  • Two dreams involving the late composer Peter Tchaikovsky. 
  • Twelve dreams involving the late president Ronald Reagan.
  • Four dreams involving a famous deceased political leader I won't mention. 
  • Eleven dreams involving the late actor Peter Falk.
  • Five dreams involving the late talk show host Johnny Carson.  
  • Five dreams involving the late actor Leonard Nimoy.
  • Three dreams involving the late actor Laurence Olivier.
  • A dream involving the late actor Michael Landon. 
  • Two dreams involving the late singer Perry Como. 
  • A dream involving the late US president Theodore Roosevelt. 
  • Two dreams involving the late baseball player Ted Williams. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Richard Deacon. 
  • A dream involving the late Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
  • A dream involving the late actor/dancer Fred Astaire.
  • Two dreams involving the late baseball player Babe Ruth.  
  • A dream involving the late singer James Brown. 
  • A dream involving the late opera singer Beverly Sills.
  • A dream involving the late painter Rembrandt. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Don Adams. 
  • Two dreams involving the late Princess Diana. 
  • Three dreams involving the late US president Lyndon Johnson, and one dream involving his late wife.
  • Two dreams involving the late US senator Robert Kennedy. 
  • Two dreams involving the late US senator Edward Kennedy. 
  • Three dreams involving the late opera singer Luciano Pavoratti. 
  • Four dreams involving the late actor John Wayne.
  • Four dreams involving the late actor Jimmy Stewart.
  • A dream referring to the late musician Benny Goodman, mentioning "the King of Swing," which is what people called him. 
  • A dream mentioning a very famous historical figure born in ancient times. 
  • Six dreams involving the late actor Gregory Peck. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Dudley Moore.
  • A dream involving the late US president Franklin Roosevelt. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Raymond Burr. 
  • Two dreams involving the late evangelist Billy Graham.
  • Three dreams involving the late Albert Einstein. 
  • Two dreams involving the late Neil Armstrong. 
  • A dream involving the late actor William Holden. 
  • A dream involving the late Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
  • A dream involving the late prime minister Winston Churchill.
  • A dream involving the late poet Lord Byron. 
  • A dream involving the late Carrie Fisher. 
  • Two dreams involving the late William Shakespeare.
  • Seventeen dreams involving the late US president John Kennedy. 
  • Three dreams involving the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 
  • A dream involving the Beatles (two of whom are deceased).
  • Three dreams involving the late actor Marlon Brando.
  • A dream involving the late theorist Immanuel Velikovsky. 
  • A dream involving the later actor Charlton Heston.
  • A dream involving the late visionary and writer Andrew Jackson Davis.
  • A dream involving the late explorer Christopher Columbus. 
  • Two dreams involving the late US president Gerald Ford. 
  • Fifteen dreams involving the late composer and singer John Lennon. 
  • Fourteen dreams involving the late composer and singer George Harrison. 
  • A dream involving the late director and actor Charlie Chaplin.
  • Two dreams referring to the late physicist Isaac Newton.
  • A dream referring to the deceased founders of a large company.
  • A dream referring to the late philosopher Rousseau. 
  • A dream involving the late scientist and writer Benjamin Franklin.
  • A dream involving the late scientist Antoine Lavoisier. 
  • Four dreams referring to the late biologist Darwin. 
  • A dream involving the late actor/celebrity Orson Bean.
  • A dream involving the late actor John Garfield. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Robert Mitchum.
  • Two dreams involving the late writer Thomas Paine.
  • Five dreams involving the late opera singer Franco Corelli. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Jimmy Cagney.
  • Three dreams involving the late psychologist and ESP researcher Joseph Rhine.
  • Four dreams involving the late science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke.
  • A dream involving the late commentator Rush Limbaugh. 
  • A dream referring to a biographer of English poets, probably a reference to the late biographer Samuel Johnson. 
  • A dream of the late singer and congressman Sony Bono. 
  • A dream involving the late novelist George Orwell.
  • A dream involving the late physicist Robert Oppenheimer. 
  • A dream involving the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
  • Two dreams involving the late medium Margaretta (Margaret) Fox.
  • Two dreams involving the late medium Kate Fox. 
  • Five dreams involving the late film director Stanley Kubrick. 
  • A dream that was probably a reference to the late novelist Victor Hugo (ta dream in which some man gave me Hugo's novel Les Miserables). 
  • A dream involving the late actress Diahann Carroll. 
  • Three dreams involving the late actress Natalie Wood. 
  • A dream involving the late talk show host Tom Snyder.
  • A dream involving the late actor Walter Pidgeon. 
  • Three dreams involving the late actress Betty White. 
  • One dream involving the late game show host Allen Ludden (in which I seemed to dream-know an obscure fact I never learned while previously awake, as I describe here)..
  • A dream involving the late actress Marilyn Monroe. 
  • A dream involving the late pope John Paul II. 
  • A dream involving the late football player and sports commentator Dick Butkus. 
  • A dream involving the late actor R. Lee Ermey.
  • A dream involving the late writer Jules Verne.
  • A dream involving the late actor Henry Fonda. 
  • A dream involving the late philosopher  Plato. 
  • A dream involving the late writer James Joyce. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Danny Kaye. 
  • A dream involving the late boxer Muhammad Ali. 
  • A dream involving the late boxer Sonny Liston. 
  • A dream involving the late US Supreme Court judge Ruth Ginsburg. 
  • Two dreams involving the late actor Jim Garner. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Fernand Gravey, mirroring a scene in a 1938 movie in which Gravey was humming a Johann Strauss melody (interestingly, I could not recall the melody the morning after having the dream, but it played exactly right in my dream).
  • Two dreams involving the late actor Christopher Reeve. 
  • Six dreams referring to the late singer/actor Elvis Presley.
  • A dream involving the late actor Richard Basehart.
  • A dream involving the late philosopher John Stuart Mill. 
  • A dream involving the late writer Virginia Wolf. 
  • Four dreams involving the late actor Cary Grant. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Eddie Albert. 
  • A dream involving the late talk-show host Merv Griffin. 
  • A dream involving the late Soviet leader Mikail Gorbachev. 
  • A dream involving the late singer and actress Judy Garland. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Andy Griffith.
  • A dream involving the late emperor Napoleon talking to his wife Josephine. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Fred MacMurray. 
  • Two dreams involving the late civil rights champion Martin Luther King.
  • Eight dreams involving the late singer/actor Frank Sinatra. 
  • A dream involving the late composer Franz Shubert.
  • A dream involving the late composer Robert Schumann. 
  • Two dreams involving the late singer/actor Dean Martin.
  • A dream involving the late singer Bobby Darin.
  • A dream involving the late writer Voltaire. 
  • A dream involving the late comic and actor Richard Pryor. 
  • Three dream involving the late TV and movie executive Carl Reiner. 
  • Two dreams (one vivid) involving the late actress Audrey Hepburn. 
  • A dream involving the late actress Kathryn Hepburn.
  • A dream involving the late composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein.
  • Three dreams involving the late US president Thomas Jefferson.
  • A dream involving the late actor Leslie Nielsen. 
  • Three dreams involving the late actor Roger Moore. 
  • Three dreams involving the late actress and diplomat Shirley Temple Black. 
  • A dream involving the late US president Martin van Buren. 
  • Two dreams involving the late dictator Saddam Hussein.
  • Six dreams involving the late actor James Gandolfini. 
  • Two dreams involving the late singer Sammy Davis Jr. 
  • A dream involving the late singer Peggy Lee.
  • A dream about the late author Albert Camus.
  • Four dreams involving the later actor Robin Williams.
  • A dream involving the late actor Martin Milner.
  • A dream involving the late TV host Allen Ludden. 
  • A dream involving the late actor Burgess Meredith.
  • A dream involving the late gangster Al Capone. 
  • A dream involving the late actor and comedian Bob Saget.
  • A dream involving the late actress Anissa Jones.
  • A dream involving the late actress Angela Lansbury.
  • A dream involving the late evangelist Oral Roberts. 
  • A dream involving the later director and writer Joshua Logan. 
  • A dream involving the late US senator John Warner. 
  • A dream involving the late nun Mother Theresa.
  • A dream involving the late actor William Frawley. 
  • A dream involving the late US general Douglas MacArther. 
  • A dream involving the late German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
  • A dream involving the late poet P. S. Shelley. 
  • A dream involving the late actress Valerie Harper (one in which I improbably remembered that she had been fired, a recollection matching her firing from a TV role in 1987). 
  • A dream of the scene in the movie Patton in which General George Patton (played by George C. Scott) was hearing about the famous "Nuts!" reply of General Anthony McAuliffe (the dream therefore managed to refer to three deceased people, Patton, Scott and McAuliffe). 
  • Two other dreams involving Patton, one mentioning the late actors Lee Marvin and Robert Ryan.
  • A dream that may have mentioned the ancient Greek urban planner Hippodamus, a name I had never heard mentioned before the night of the dream (I wrote down the name "Hippodemus" after having the dream). 
  • Five dreams involving the late US president Dwight Eisenhower. (In the last dream Eisenhower was saying that people from Texas could be good presidents. I was not aware when having the dream that Eisenhower was born in Texas.) 
  • Three dreams involving the late US president George H. W. Bush. 
  • A dream involving the late economist Fischer Black. 
  • A dream involving the late US Vice-President Walter Mondale. 
  • A dream involving the late character actress Alice Ghostley (oddly, I had never learned her name prior to having the dream). 
  • Seven dreams involving Jesus. 
  • A dream involving the late actress Charlotte Rae. 
  • Two dreams involving a late professor Riess (mentioned below).
  • A dream involving the late United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld.
  • A dream involving the late medium Laura Edmonds.
  • A dream on February 20, 2021 involving the late actor Edd Byrnes. 
The appearance of Edd Byrnes in my dream of February 20, 2021 is very astonishing.  Byrnes became famous in the late 1950's and early 1960's as an actor in a TV show called 77 Sunset Strip.  He played a character who was called Kookie. After 1964 Byrnes had very little fame in the US on the stage or screen, and the US public pretty much forgot about him (although he had some success in acting in Europe). He appeared briefly in the movie Grease in 1978, and got occasional roles here and there, without ever getting another US TV series to star in.  There is no reason why I should have remembered Edd Byrnes or the role of Kookie that was his main role.  I remember my family would occasionally watch 77 Sunset Strip, but it was always more than 50 years ago. Except for seeing Byrnes briefly in the 1978 movie Grease,  in which I did not recognize him, I cannot recall seeing Byrnes in any role in the past 55 years, nor can I recall reading a single word about him during those 55 years (prior to my dream of him), nor can I recall seeing him on TV during that time, nor can I recall ever thinking about him during the 55 years prior to having a dream of him. I can't recall a single word spoken on 77 Sunset Strip, or any of the show's plots, and I can't recall a single word Edd Byrnes ever said or wrote. If you had asked me "who is Edd Byrnes" the day before my dream of him,  I would have said that I don't know. But somehow on February 20 I wrote in the middle of the night that I had a dream about him. I wrote down his name exactly like this: Eddie "Cookie" Byrnes, remembering not just his name but his main role, with the very minor shortfall of using "Cookie" instead of "Kookie."

Byrnes died in 2020. In my dream he was on a high-speed boat, looking young and handsome, as he did back in his glory days.  Was that boat heading across a river, going to its Other Side?

Telepathy and Psi References

Another novel change in my dreams since mid-November 2020 has been references to telepathy and clairvoyance.

  • In one dream I was being tested for telepathy. 
  • In one remarkably philosophical dream, I was in a cafe explaining the theory that the human soul has powers of precognition, which can be unleashed on the last day of a person's life. 
  • In another dream I suggested telepathy as an explanation for something.
  • In another dream that was vivid and realistic, I was lecturing a group of students on the topic of clairvoyance, speaking just as I would if I actually were doing such a thing, and noting that the published evidence for clairvoyance goes back more than 200 years. 
  • I dreamed my mother was asking me to say something to my brother about clairvoyance. 
  • In a dream on March 3, there was a very vivid presentation of the idea of telepathy. In the dream I was struck by the idea that I could read a young lady's thoughts. So while staring at the woman face-to-face I merely thought to myself (in the dream) something like, "I am thinking of the number 14 -- can you guess it?" Then, staring at me intensely without speaking, the woman thought, "Yes, I got the number -- it's 14." 
  • I dreamed I was writing a history of paranormal phenomena, which included a discussion of early evidence for clairvoyance. 
  • I had a dream about some strange change in a house I once lived in. Then in another dream the same change was being discussed, and I was saying, "I dreamed this before seeing it -- it must be clairvoyance."
  • I dreamed I was doing an ESP test with my wife. 
  • I dreamed about a boy who had psychometry powers.
  • I dreamed that I had a dream of a man having a finger cut. The man then came in and said that while I was sleeping his finger had been cut.  In my dream I was impressed by this, regarding it as evidence for something like ESP. 
  • I dreamed I had thought of the topic of cosmology, and then shortly thereafter heard some stranger use the rarely-used word "cosmology." I told the stranger that her reference to cosmology occurred because of ESP between me and her. 
  • In a dream I heard the words "They have an uncanny sixth sense -- totally uncanny." 
  • I dreamed about ESP experiments in Russia, and later dreamed about some secret lab in the USA doing ESP experiments. 
  • I dreamed twice I was telling someone that the experiments of Joseph Rhine were convincing evidence for ESP. 
  • I twice dreamed I was accurately describing an experiment in which Professor Riess performed thirty-seven experimental sessions with a 26-year old woman in a different building, who was asked to guess which of 5 ESP cards had been randomly chosen by Professor Riess. The woman guessed an average of 18.24 cards correctly per 25 cards, achieving a phenomenal 73% accuracy rate (instead of the expected accuracy rate of 20%). This was the result in "Series A" of two series of tests with the young woman. The chance of getting such a result accidentally is far less than 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000 (this link estimates the probability of getting these results by chance as 1 in 10 to the 700th power, which is smaller than the chance of you correctly guessing all of the social security numbers of  a set of 70 strangers).  Page 36 of Louisa Rhine's book ESP in Life and Lab tells us the story of the Riess remote ESP test described above.  The Riess experiment is also discussed on page 167-168 of Rhine's book Extra-sensory Perception After Sixty Years ( see here or here).  Another discussion of the experiment is here.  
  • I dreamed I was disputing a small girl claiming "no one is psychic" by referring to the convincing ESP research of Joseph Rhine.  
  • I dreamed I had mind-over-matter powers. 
If dreams are sometimes telepathically influenced by mysterious parties, we can imagine such parties telepathically suggesting the very idea of telepathy, as a kind of hint as to the source of such dreams. 

Dream Length and Detail

I do not usually have dreams of very great length, although on one night I noticed a dream of rather astonishing length and detail, one reported here

Lack of Lucid Dreams

The phrase "lucid dream" is used to describe a dream in which the dreamer is aware that he is dreaming. Some people report being able to repeatedly have lucid dreams in which they have some control over the content of their dreams. I have only been aware that I was dreaming a very small number of times (fewer than 10), and whenever I had such a dream the content never resembled any of the content described here. In none of the dreams listed here was I aware that I was dreaming. You cannot explain any of the dreams mentioned in this post as some dream I had because I willed when I was dreaming to have some particular type of dream. In this post I have described some of the dreams as vivid, but a merely vivid dream should not be confused with a lucid dream (in which the dreamer is aware he is dreaming while dreaming). 

Visual Death Symbols or NDE Symbols

Possibly related to these dreams is the fact that in August and September of 2021 I got many occurrences of a tombstone pattern while photographing ordinary drops of pure, clean water falling.  On one day in September, 2021 (as shown here) I got a total of 5000+ instances of a tombstone pattern, which occurred in most of 2500+ photos I took of falling water drops.  On another day I got many instances of a tombstone pattern, a pattern that eerily faded away over the course of quite a few photos.  

The events discussed here and here seem hard to explain except with the hypothesis of some mysterious force pulling out the cord of an alarm clock from the electrical socket, and then plugging the cord back in.  The pulling out of the cord may have symbolized death, and the plugging back in may have symbolized life after death. 

On September 16, 2023 I saw in about the most noticeable position possible (at eye level on my door edge) the insect below, which is a spotted latternfly (a type of insect I have never seen before). The name "latternfly" reminds me of  the near-death experience motif of someone floating out of his body and flying towards some mysterious Being of light

A month later I saw the same rare type of insect (a lattternfly) at almost exactly the same position on my door edge, near the door knob. 


Related Accounts

Chapter VII of Horace G. Hutchinson's Dreams and Their Meanings is entitled "Premonitory Dreams," and gives some remarkable accounts of people who seemed to have dreams that foretold the future. Chapter V of Frederick George Lee's book The Other World, or Glimpses of the Supernatural (which can be read here) narrates many examples of people who had dreams that seemed to foretell a death.  Larry Dossey's book The Science of Premonitions gives similar accounts. The book Dead and Gone by James S. Pollock (which you can read here) gives cases of dreams and signs that seemed to foreshadow death. In the posts here and here and here and here and here  there are additional cases of people who seemed to get explicit dream warnings of how they or others would die or when they or others would die. A theory of warning dreams in the last year of life is presented here

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