death in dreams

[Nagual]

quote:Nobody believes me when I tell them I've died in my dreams, they say that if I died in my dream, then I should have died in real life.

I also maybe died a few times in my dreams.  That's weird that that many people would believe that to die in a dream = to die in reality...  Personaly, I can't find one single person who would think that among my friends.  I guess your friends watched Matrix too many times... []

[beavis]

The people who say you really die if you die in a dream are probably the same people who say walking under a ladder causes "bad luck".

[Nay]

Cool topic!

It could be that you are remembering some past lives.  I have died several times in dreams.  I found myself in the dark void that you mentioned, right after dying.  The difference for me, I actually float out of the body, then find myself in the dark void and I feel a certain peace that comes over me, while in the void.

Do you remember how you died in those dreams?  Where you aware of who you were and the people around you?

For instance, in one of my dreams I was a young boy around the age of eight, definitely felt like in Egypt.  I was goofing around a dig area, like a tunnel of some sorts.  I knew while I was doing this I shouldn't have been.  Well...it caved in on me! [:O]  The wall of sand stopped before covering me up completely.  

I was somewhat calm when this happened but knew if I turned around and saw the sand blocking my path I was going to freak!  I then found myself outside of my body above the site.  There were two men, and I knew one was my father..I don't know about the other one.  They were digging frantically and finally got to my body, and when they pulled me out, my body was limp and my lips were blue.  My father was crying, I knew then I was dead and then I found myself in the dark void with a sense of peace around me, then I woke up.

I had that dream years ago, but to this day it is as vivid in my mind as it was the first day I had it.

In this life I have a bit of claustrophobia and a BIG fear of suffocating, I think we keep some fears due to past lives.

Nay []

[Links Shadow]

I had a death dream not to long ago, about a month I guess anyway I had a short discussion about it on my site with a friend.

Here is what I wrote on the dream:

quote:Originally posted by Links Shadow

Last night I had my first 1st person dream.  It was by no means the happiest dream I have ever had.  It was a wierd dream to say the least but it was pretty scary at the same time.  This was most likely due to the fact that I was watching tv shows on the "Discovery Channel" and the "Travel Channel" about ghosts just before falling asleep and I had that kind of mentality.  Anyway the dream started out with me and some friends playing video games in an electronics store and we were there for several hours playing against each other at which time the manager of the store got angry with us and kicked us out of the store.  After that we all went our own ways and I went back to my house (which was a 2 story house that I have never actually lived in).  When there I went up stairs and walked out on a balcony looking at a beautiful sunset.  I stood there watching the sunset and just as the last bit of the sun was below the horizon and the clouds turned from oranges and pinks to the dark blues of the night sky.  Just as that happened I felt a presence walking up behind me.  Then it spoke but I don't remember what it said and then...

WARNING THE NEXT PART IS KIND OF GRUESOME




I felt a sharp prick on the back of my neck right at the top of my spine and the base of my neck, there is a bone that bulges out a little bit which is right where I felt it.  Right after I felt the prick that is when the pain really started some kind of daggar was plunged straight through my neck, and I was pushed off the balcony.  I did a flip and rotated to the point where I landed flat on my back driving the daggar in a little further.  I could feel my my body below where the daggar was which would have been impossible considering that my spine was severed.  I was in so much pain that I could not move and just lied there in that spot and bled to death.  I never saw who it was that had done this to me and I did not know the voice either.

Then comes the part that was really scary my alarm woke me up and I tried to get up and walk across the room to shut it off but my body was paralysed and I still felt like the daggar was still in my neck.  I was still in the same amount of pain that I was experiencing in the dream and this continued for about 5-10 minutes I would guess because I did not have my glasses on and therefore could not see the clock.  But even know 3 hours later my neck every once in a while gets the sharp pain like in the dream.

Heck of a way to start with first person dreams, with me dying, if I do say so myself.  Interesting how I start off doing something I love playing video games and watching a sunset and then the drastic shift in mood.  But I do think it is interesting that right as the sunsets my life comes to an end.  I love the symbolism.[xx(]

In the discussion it was brought up that death dreams are a way of showing that you are changing.  One way of life is dying and another one will begin soon.  When you have one you are breaking free of ways and casting them aside.  Based on all the details that I have not shared this seems to be the case that death dreams symbolise change.

Respectfully,
Link's Shadow

[Coffee]

The first person that called me a liar was a philosophy instructor, with his masters degree.  The second person was a very psychic woman who also had her PhD. in psychology, then there's my mother in law and a couple loser friends who are very afraid of death.  

At any rate, let me go into more death.  I mean depth.  (ha ha)

During the last couple years I've been working on remembering my past lives.  I've reached a point where I can go back no further (at least not yet) because I didn't exist until that point.  That's right, I remember my original birth.  If you haven't gone back that far yet you ought to because it's unlike any other memories you have, though I'm not going to spill the beans about it yet, in case some of you guys do it.

Anyways, the void in my dreams reminds me of a place I was during my "birth."

There are always different people around me, sometimes none, sometimes many, sometimes my family and friends, sometimes no one I know.  

I've died from gunshot wounds, once instantly from a shot to the forehead and once from bleeding to death slowly.  I've drowned, and been in other accidents, but mostly I die in some sort of struggle.

I'm not afraid of dying, apparently, since I've never been scared of dying in any of my dreams.

I agree that we carry over trauma/fear from our past lives into our current ones, but in general I've overcome mine by remembering the events.  I still carry some anger from some unresolved events, though.

[cainam_nazier]

It is difficult to say what a "death dream" means or is pointing to.  There are several possabilities.  A good suggestion was the one made earlier about it maybe being past life deaths you are seeing.  However I have run across another set of interesting possabilities.  

The one I liked the most is that it is a symbolic dream about the ending of a phase in your life.  Growing and moving on from one way of life into another.  Or a major change in the way one thinks.  The only way to really know is to seriously look at the various elements of the dream and compair them with the current situation your life is in.  But when doing this you have to try to stick to what you absolutely know.  If you have any doubts about how something relates from dream to reality then you should put it aside until you can confirm it.  This way you don't fool yourself into believing that apples and oranges are the same thing.

Of course that pretty much holds true for any dream work a person does.  I believe that it was Mark Twain that said, "Some times a cigar is just a cigar."

Me personally I can not recall if I have ever actually died in a dream or not.  I know that I have had several intense dreams where I have received massive trauma, stuff that should have killed me.  But I never seem to die, I just keep going.  Some times its really painful while other times its just seems more annoying and there is no feeling to it.   I have noticed a couple of time I will lay there for a minute or two thinking that "whatever" should have killed me so I must be dead.  But then it dawns on me that I am thinking and usually stand back up and the dream continues while in the mean time I am missing a leg, arm, or some such.

[firetoice]

I dream my own death loads of times. I'm used to it by now.
Examples of my death dreams:
Death by Giant spider
I was walking home, when this giant spider appears, in the middle of the road, out of nowhere. I run home, to find the doors and windows locked. My brother leans out of one and shouts something that I didn't hear. The spider picked me up with one of its legs, and ate me.
Death by angry mob+elastic band
Once again, I was walking home. An angry mob came up from down the road, and started to chase me. I ran away, and I thought I had lost them. Unfortuantly, I wasn't looking where I was going, and ran into a giant elastic band streched between two buildings. It snapped back, catapulting me into another building. Squish.
Death by bus station
I walked into a bus station while walking home (I have a very limited subconsious), when my best friend walked in. It turned into this sealed box thingy, and a bomb dropped through the ceiling. It exploded, sending me and my friend into the air. He hit the ground, and then I woke up just before my death.

[TheSeeker]

All of my experiences with death are like Cainam's, no matter what happens I just keep going, maybe I just don't give up, I dont know.  But, I've been shot many times in the chest in dreams, and I just keep running.

Perhaps these are just real life anxieties playing themselves out in violent fashion in dreams.

[Coffee]

Thanks fellas, I really appreciate the feedback.

I don't want to complicate things, but lately I've been dreaming about being in the dark black 3D void, and skipping the whole death experience.  I haven't had a death dream in almost a year and that's unusual.

The difference between the dark place I go when I sleep and the dark place I go when I meditate is the feeling.

In my dreams it feels vacant, empty, not lonely, but there's nobody there, not even me (ooh...creepy).  It feels like life is over for everybody, forever.  That's the only way I can explain it.

Now I'm even more confused.

[xander]

quote:Originally posted by Nay

Cool topic!

It could be that you are remembering some past lives.  I have died several times in dreams.  Do you remember how you died in those dreams?  Where you aware of who you were and the people around you?

For instance, in one of my dreams I was a young boy around the age of eight, definitely felt like in Egypt.

I had an Egyptian life, I raised lions for the royalty.
Another life was in Greece.
I vaugly recall drowning and being thrown from a balcony.

birth/death same door different destinations[8D]

Xander

[RooJ]

Hey Coffee and all.

I too have died in a dream which i described in a previous post. I would think alot of the people who say you die in real life after dying in a dream have also died in dreams, just there dream recall isnt good enough for them to remember.
Firetoice lol, if your not already i suggest you begin practicing lucid dreaming because the sooner you learn to teleport to you house in dreams the better.

[lapis]

Hi Coffee.

I was told by one shrink that dying in a dream was a sign of mental disturbance, subconscious contents, or a sign I had too much stress in my life.

I've died in every way you could think of in dreams. I've been shot, stabbed, hung, tortured, eaten, fallen, and otherwise splatted.

Psychics tell me my empathy is too high, and my spiritual teachers are always sensative of it, which is cool.

Out of curiosity once, I described what being shot was like to a friend of mine who was in viet nam. He said "yeah, that's what its like. You got a good shrink right?" He's known me for years, and he knew I'd never been shot.

So I'm thinking that dying in dreams can also having something to do with having high empathy for living things.

any other thoughts?

Lapis
Who's had dreams last for years in just one night

[holy reality]

My experiences with the black void haven't been so pleasant.

quote:Saturday.... had this dream that I can't remember very well, I was talking to a man about dreaming, and about pot, and he said something akin to "Do you know what happens when you wake up?" and he was talking about waking up a lot, and then he asked me again, and I realized that if I woke up, I was going to cease to exist.....

and then BOOM there is just nothingness, all that is there is my mind, but I can feel it rapidly decaying.... I'm screaming this distorted fuzzy internal scream like I've never heard before... crazy excrement... and that scream remains in my head well upon waking up, and then slowly fades away.
to elaborate on that.... I felt like I was really dying... I've had my fair share of nightmares and hypnagogic hallucinations and really weird things happen to me, but this really felt real.... the adrenaline rush... some intense vibrations, but not of the projecting variety (at least I think, I can't remember very well) and that scream..... eminating from within and echoing inside my entire being, body, and spirit.....

this is what I wrote a few days ago, I had the dream on 11-23 I believe.

I was reading a thread on some other forums I post on called "Dream Fantasy" and someone said something akin to "If you have a dream within a dream, doesn't that cancel the two out, making the dream not real?".... most of the posts were incoherent, which is to be expected from dream content... the last post in there I clearly remember saying "a! f*cking......." something something..... I have it written down.... but... what it said isn't important.....

Anyway, this dream I was in lasted a very long time and spanned many different scenes and scenarios and even involved perhaps a dream within a dream or two, as I did dream about sleeping.... at the end of it I was back at that thread, and to my recollectoin (in the dream that is) it said THE EXACT SAME THINGS as it said before, right down to the very last post... now... I was not lucid, but I wasn't quite normal dream stupid, and I realized that this shouldn't be.... the posts should have drastically changed given the nature of text within dreams.....

Well I read the last post, and it triggered a chaotic reaction within me much like the first one when that man said something to me.... I was on my side in my bed, vibrating fiercly, hearing electricity running back and forth through my head and feeling it go through my body.... in pulses.... during each pulse, I could see and hear, to an extent, but inbetween them I was in nothingness, but still had a sense of general existance.... my dad was there, and he was saying something like "please stop shaking" but.... it was broken up and fragmented due to the pulsated hearing going on..... I kind of thought maybe I was dying and EMTs were trying to revive me.... but I decided it would be acceptable to will myself out of this, so I did.... and everything was normal.... and I was like "hmm... that was interesting"

I wonder what would have happened if I didn't decide to "live" during that moment... I know it wasn't real... and I didn't really panic of freak out like I did the first time, but while I was in that brief state I kind of halfway felt it might have been real.... what if I had decided "no... i'll just stay like this...." ?

from my "I deseprately need/help/advice/suggestions" thread in the general OBE forum at the top.

Now...it's interesting to note that I am not "dying" per se in those dreams... rather I'm transitioning into nothingness while bypassing death.

I have dreamed about dying... generally I don't actually die, but a few times I have, and been a ghost, or woken up, or gone to heaven, etc....

Usually I'm scared... sometimes I'm not.

I had an evil looking woman tell me I needed to get over my issues with death in a lucid dream I had recently though, it was very strange.

I guess I fear death, I mean I don't know where I'm going to go or what's going to happen (no one does) and "everyone dies alone" and... well.. the pain...

But it's not a paranoia or phobia or anything like that.

[Impunity]

Ive died in a dream, but only once in my life that I remember.
I was shot and slowly bled to death, i got very tired and couldnt keep my eyes open no matter how hard i tried , then nothing, then I awoke.

[xander]

quote:Originally posted by Impunity

Ive died in a dream, but only once in my life that I remember.
I was shot and slowly bled to death, i got very tired and couldnt keep my eyes open no matter how hard i tried , then nothing, then I awoke.

I think one reason death is difficult is because part of us desires so much to continue in this incarnation even if it's a bad one.

There are parts of me that I hope carry into the next realm, and other parts that I hope to shed quickly and easily.

Xander

[m0d0]

Has anyone killed themself in a dream. I know i have.

This dreams was viewed totally from my perspective, however i couldnt see my own body. I was walkin around a horrible, basement, which was dark. A dead body lay on the floor and two women cried over the body.

I knew my motivation in the dream was to find the killer. The women were so upset they were screaming directly at me. I wondered around from dull dark grey room, to dull dark grey room, until i entered a room with a mirror. I looked into the mirror and immediately knew that i was the killer. Sure enough in the mirror u could see a knive in my hand. Then a stabbed myself in the neck.

Bare in mind non of this was lucid. It was like i was merely an observer looking through a murderers eyes.

It's was very freaky, but kinda cool (In a weird way).

[vulcanpimp]

well death in dreams means nothing particularly bad. You just are ending one chapter of your life. It can mean the end of one thing and the beginning of another.

bUt in your case it rather seems the thing thats ending is being replaced by something sullen...a dark empty place.

I'm afraid it dosn't sound good.

[V00D00]

i killed myself in a dream... i've cut my throat with a knife... and it happened in our new kitchen (when i dreamt it we had no idea that there will be new kitchen, this is really strange).. i've felt everything... slowly loosing my conciussenesa... damn.. can't write the word... but anyway i got so scared that i almost died of heart attack after i woke up... i'm scared of dying.. this dream somehow has told me that there's nothing after death and i belived it... now i can't shrug off this dream.. i think of it almost every day... but i do not intend to kill myslef )) i'm to scared of dying.. i still have much to do

[m0d0]

I don't believe in death. hehee

Death is as ficticious to me as Santa claus (Yep he aint real)

Am i stupid when i say i cant wait to see whats next, when the transformation occurs (Which society confuses as death). Im not suicidal or anything but i'm excited, i dont want people to mourn, i want them to celebrate, because for sure ill be above there heads whilst they mourn, sticking my fingers in my ears and blowing a nice big rasberry.

[beavis]

m0d0, lots of people would call us stupid, but I think they are wrong. I also think what comes after death is something to celebrate.

[RooJ]

I know where your coming from and i agree to some extent but could you honestly celebrate if your best friend died?
Its selfish i know but the reason most people mourn is more for themselves, for the fact that they wont be able to see the person for the rest of their lives (at least their current life). After all its the ones left behind who suffer, not the deceased.

[zaicer]

I died in my dream once, nothing happened. The dream just changed after a second. There was dream death and then nothing and another dream (complitly diferent dream-story line

But today I had a wierd experiance. I was in a libery and it was dark, I looked out the window and a monster apeared just on the other side of the window (like in a horror movie) At that point, just as the monster was about to attack I realized it was a dream and I destroyed the monster with one thought. Then the lucid dream eneded and I begane another dream.
I dont know why but I cant achive a full LD, I only have a few-moment ones.

[Aras]

Interesting subject. My daughter was very ill with leukemia.
She had two dreams where she died. This had never happened before.
She was 21, and she did pass almost 2 years ago... on Dec 21, 2001.
I don't know if the dreams were a way of letting her know that this was something that was going to happen, or to prepare her, but it really freaked her out.
Aras

[cainam_nazier]

Usually when a person is affraid of some thing they experience it a lot in dreams as a way of dealing with thier fears.  It is often the same with people who "know" that they do not have much longer.  I used to work in a hospital with primarily elderly patients.  They often report having dreams were they die.  Also a lot of times when a person becomes very ill they have a lot of dreams dealing with the various regrets in thier life.  

It is a common thing.  I look at it as a way the mind tries to put every thing at ease before death.  Sorta giving a person the chance to deal with these things and clean the slate up a bit.  

[Tony M.]

I can recall two dreams in which I died. First one was during the Gulf war. I also dreamt I was in a war and was hit by an explosive shell and died instantly. I knew I died and then shortly after I was reborn again, I was standing in the same place and everything was quiet, the war was over which gave me a great feeling of happiness.

In the second one, I died by being eaten by a shark. I was in the water and this big white came out of the water, I saw his mouth and then everything went black which was very scary because I could still think. I ask myself the question if this was the end and if this was being dead was like. After 10 seconds I woke up and never felt so happy to be awake again. Our mind can really play some dirty nasty tricks on us....