It’s inevitable that everyone will lose someone close to them at some point. However, the death of a certain loved one may have a bigger effect on us than we thought.
For example, have you ever seen a dead person in your dreams? You might not have thought about what it meant when they showed up in your dreams.
The process of mourning is different for everyone. Losing a loved one is very hard. Some people cry a lot, while others shut down and stay inside.
Others try to avoid talking about it or act like they don’t care on the outside. On the other hand, a lot of people think about loved ones who have died. Our inner mind is in charge of our dreams at night. If you’ve ever had a dream about a dead person, it may have been telling you something.
Can loved ones who have died send words in dreams?
Patrick McNamara, an associate professor of neurology and psychology at Boston University School, says that dreams about dead people are called visitation dreams. McNamara said that “dreams of the bereaved where the dead appear to the bereaved in dreams and look to be very much alive.” This means that the dead are coming to visit you in your dream.
The researcher, who goes by the name Dream Catcher and is 67 years old, blogs a lot at Psychology Today. Over the years, McNamara has talked a lot about his studies and ideas about dreams and what they mean. Besides that, he says that visiting dreams usually make sense.
They help you deal with your grief, sadness, and loss.
In one of his blog posts, he talks about a dream he had after his parents died. McNamara first said that the event was a “visitation dream,” and then he started to say that these dreams were proof of life after death.
If I, someone who studies dreams with a skeptical scientific mind, couldn’t shake the belief that I had just talked to my dead parents, how much stronger must be the belief of someone who doesn’t think dreams are real than I do?” asks McNamara.
Others besides Patrick McNamara have been interested in these dreams, and other studies have looked into them in more depth.
There was a study in 2014 in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care that looked at the effects of having sad dreams. “Dreams of the deceased happen often, can be very meaningful, and help people heal from loss,” the study said.
One of the main ideas in the dreams was that the dead person was communicating with the living. Other ideas included memories of the person’s sickness or time of death, the dead person looking healthy, happy, and at peace in the afterlife, and the dead person not being sick.
A group of Canadian experts looked at the dreams of 76 middle-aged people who had lost someone in 2016. The study found that 67.1% of the sad people who took part said that having dreams about the dead made them believe in an afterlife. 71% of those who answered said that dreaming about the dead made them feel closer to them, and almost 70% said that their dreams of the dead were like “visits.”
Another researcher who has studied our brains and dreams is Jennifer E. Shorter, who works at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California.
According to her study, “Visitation Dreams in Grieving Individuals: A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Relationship Between Dreams and the Grieving,” no one knows how many people have these kinds of dreams.
It could happen right before or long after someone dies, though. Her study shows that a visitation dream is made up of four things:
1. The people you see in your visiting dream look younger or healthier than they were in real life.
2. The dead person often say things about how they are now, like “I’m doing well.”
3. The dream’s message is felt more through telepathy than through physical presence.
4. The dream is often calm, well-organized, and almost harmonious.
Have you ever dreamed about a loved one who has died? What did it mean to you? If you think dreams can mean something, please tell us about it in the comments, and don’t forget to share this post on Facebook!
