Even though they are no longer living on Earth, some believed that our deceased loved ones never really leave us.
Many people who’ve had loved ones who have passed on report seeing them in their dreams after they’ve gone.
These dreams often seem hyper-realistic and vivid, as if you’re actually seeing and spending time with your deceased loved one. These are known as a visitation dreams.
“My father and mother died over a decade ago and about one year apart,” writes Dr. Patrick McNamara in Psychology Today. “Approximately, 6 months after each death, I had at least one vivid dream with one or both of them in it. In both cases, the dream did not feel like the typical run of the mill dream.”
According to Psychology Today, these visitation dreams often have common themes.
- The deceased often appear as the did in life, although younger or healthier in appearance.
- They convey a message of reassurance to the dreamer such as, “I am OK and still with you.”
- Dream structures are organized and more “normal” than bizarre.
- They are intense, experienced as real visits, and remembered by the dreamer when they wake up.
- The dreamer is often changed by the experienced.
- The dream is followed by a resolution of the grieving process or wider spiritual view.
“For traditional peoples who accorded equal or greater ontological weight to dreams as compared to waking reality, a visitation dream must have been utterly convincing evidence that a spirit world and life beyond the grave existed,” McNamara writes. “Even in modernized societies, visitation dreams exert a considerable impact on the bereaved. Many bereaved people report that these sorts of dreams allowed for successful resolution of the grieving process.”
According to the Om Times, there can be a number of reasons that your deceased loved ones are showing up in your dreams.
- They want to seek forgiveness or resolve an issue that occurred during their lifetime.
- To offer guidance, protection, or a warning.
- To comfort you and let you know that they are OK and made it to the other side.
- To offer you a message
- To show you that there is life after death
So, the next time you have a dream about someone dear to you that has passed, you’ll want to think about what they are trying to tell you and why this is occurring.
