A Vivid Dream of a Deceased Sister, Possibly With Deep Metaphysical Symbolism

This morning I had a vivid dream of my late sister, the first born of my siblings. When I had last seen her in this world many years ago, she had a big lump of cancerous cells sticking out of her body. But in the dream she looked smiling and beautiful, about 30. She was wearing a white dress with lots of little ruffles. In the dream she said something about having some psychic ability she never displayed in this world. 

"I thought you were dead," I said in the dream, surprised to be seeing her. 

"No, I live in Astoria," she said in the dream. 

Now, Astoria is a neighborhood of New York City that I once lived in for years. The reply "I live in Astoria" may symbolize a deep metaphysical idea. 

There is a theory I have discussed, one I call the theory of the non-earthly preexistence of the soul. This is the idea that your soul did not start to exist here on Earth, but started to exist somewhere else long before you were born. According to such an idea:

(1) You once existed in some non-earthly realm, which may have been some kind of heaven or paradise;

(2) for some reason you then came to live here on Earth as a flesh-and-blood human;

(3) after you die you will then return to that place where you dwelled before being born here on our planet.

There is some evidence to support this idea. It comes in the form of dreams suggesting such an idea, and also near-death experiences suggesting such an idea. In near-death experiences people will often encounter some mystical realm, and report having a strong feeling that such a place is their "true home."  That is the kind of thing someone might experience if he was returning to some place he had been before. 

Now, in dreams there often seems to be symbolism, which serves as a kind of shorthand way of expressing ideas. Imagine you were some spirit trying to telepathically give an answer of "No, I live in a heavenly place that you once lived in."  That might be too long a sentence to successfully transmit in a dream. So you might use instead some shorter expression symbolically expressing such an idea, such as referring instead to some place where I had lived before (Astoria).  That might be a kind of shorthand symbolism expressing the idea of some heavenly realm where I  and all of us once existed before coming to this planet. 

In my post here I discuss quite a few dreams I have had suggesting the idea of the non-earthly preexistence of the soul, and I also discuss how near-death experiences may support the idea. 

If the dream had depicted my late sister (who died  about  11 years ago) as a child,  about 10 years old, you might interpret the dream as referring to earthly reincarnation, with the idea of a reincarnated sister literally living as a child in Astoria, a neighborhood of New York City. But in the dream my late sister was a full-grown woman, looking about 30. 

Spooky Symbolism?

 In my bathroom is a GFCI electrical outlet that has a small green light that stays on continually. Since 2022 I have more than 55 times seen the light mysteriously turn off and then immediately turn back on when I was in the bathroom at night. In my post here I document all the dates in which this occurred. I've been updating the post each time such an event occurred. Over those years I have seen only a few times in which this green light would turn off during the day. 

Last night there was some rather interesting synchronicity involving such an event. Strangely feeling my ankles itching, I got a tube of hydrocortisone, which is the best stuff for relieving itching. After applying some to my ankles, I returned the tube to its original position in the bathroom. At the very second I placed the tube back to its original location, the green light on the GFCI outlet mysteriously turned off and immediately turned back on. 

I can speculate about metaphysical symbolism in this timing. According to the interesting theory of the nonearthly preexistence of the soul, discussed in my posts here and here, all of our souls originated elsewhere, in some heavenly realm outside of this planet; and to such a place we will one day return. So timing of a mysterious light event so that it happened at the exact second something was returned to its original location may symbolize the soul returning after death to its original location. The theory I refer to is suggested by near-death experiences in which people often report a strong sense of "returning home" while seeming to be transported to some mystical or otherworldly locale. 

A Metaphysical Interpretation of a Dream I've Had 20 Times

This morning I had another instance of a recurring dream that I have experienced at least 20 times. It is what I call the "accrued earnings" dream. It always has the same two features. In the dream I am working at a job and I suddenly realize that for a long time (usually months) I have not received any earnings, either because I failed to fill in my time card or that I failed to pick up my check from an employer. The idea is always that I have some bonanza of accrued earnings waiting for me. Often there is the idea that if I can go to some office and explain what happened, I will be able to get all of this money I am due but have not yet received. 

Condensing the dream into a description as short as possible, the two themes are these:

(1) There was some important thing that I forgot. 

(2) Some bonanza of earnings I have earned await for me to claim. 

I have an interesting speculation that may explain the dream.  In the dream the job being worked at may symbolize your earthly life. The "accrued earnings" in the dream 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, or both.  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 -- perhaps with some ratio such as 100 or 1000 units of pleasure for every unit of pain experienced, or maybe a reward of 10,000 units of happiness for every unit of earthly unhappiness we experienced.  The "forgetting" motif in the dream may symbolize a non-earthly existence that each of us may have had before being born, something we forgot about when being born on Earth, but may one day remember. 

To understand this speculation, you would need to understand the hypothesis of the nonearthly pre-existence of the soul. I explain the concept and some evidence that may suggest it in my post "Dreams and NDEs Suggesting the Soul's Non-Earthly Pre-Existence," which you can read here. The hypothesis may be supported by frequent cases in which someone having a near-death experience may encounter some mystical realm, and may have a strong feeling that such a place is his "true home." 

I admit that I am being speculative here, and that interpreting dreams is a very tricky business. If anyone else has had a dream like the dream I have described, I would be interested to hear about it. 

Postscript: As of August 12, 2026 I have had the dream described above at least 32 times. 

The version of the dream on February 20, 2026 has two elements suggesting  me getting the accrued earnings quickly. In the dream I was in the same street as the office that had my accrued earnings (existing as a stack of paychecks). Also, it was 4:55 PM, with the idea that in five minutes I could go get the accrued earnings from the office on the same block.