Dreaming About Someone Who’s Gone? Here’s What It REALLY Means

Sooner or later, everyone experiences the loss of someone close to them. Unfortunately, this is a part of life that we all must face. However, the passing of certain loved ones can affect us more deeply than we might have expected.

For example, have you ever dreamed about someone who has passed away? The meaning behind their appearance in your dreams might be something you didn’t consider before.

Losing someone is difficult, and each person grieves in their own way. Some people cry a lot, while others may become silent or keep to themselves. Some might try to avoid talking about it, acting as if nothing has happened. But one common experience many people share is dreaming about those who have passed away. Our subconscious controls our dreams, and if you’ve dreamed about a loved one who has died, there might be a deeper meaning behind it.

So, do these dreams carry messages from those who are no longer with us?

According to Patrick McNamara, an associate professor of neurology and psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine, there is a term for dreams involving deceased people – “visitation dreams.” This means the person who has died is visiting you in your dream, and McNamara explains it as: “dreams of the bereaved where the dead appear to the bereaved in dreams and look to be very much alive.”

McNamara, a 67-year-old neuroscientist, blogs about dreams on Psychology Today under the name Dream Catcher. Over the years, he has shared his thoughts and research on dreams and their meanings. He believes that visitation dreams often have a logical explanation—they help you cope with grief, loss, and sorrow.

In one of his blog posts, McNamara describes a dream he had after his parents passed away. He calls it a visitation dream and says it led him to believe that these dreams are a sign of life after death. “Now if I, an individual who studied dreams with a skeptical scientific cast of mind, could not shake the conviction that I had just communicated with my dead parents, how much stronger must be the conviction of someone with a less skeptical approach to dreams than me?” McNamara writes.

McNamara isn’t the only one interested in these dreams. Several studies have explored this phenomenon in greater depth. In 2014, the *American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care* published a study on grief dreams. It found that “dreams of the deceased occur frequently, can be highly meaningful and further healing from a loss.” The study also noted that common themes in these dreams include past memories, the deceased being free of illness, or communicating a message.

In 2016, a Canadian research team studied the sleep patterns and dreams of 76 middle-aged people who had lost loved ones. Their findings showed that 67.1% of the bereaved individuals said their dreams about the deceased helped them believe more in an afterlife. Around 70% described their dreams as “visitations,” and 71% felt more connected to the deceased after these dreams.

Psychologist Jennifer E. Shorter from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA, also researched dreams and grief. In her study titled “Visitation Dreams in Grieving Individuals,” she concluded that while the exact number of people having visitation dreams is unknown, they often happen shortly after or even long after the person’s death.

Shorter identified four characteristics that define a visitation dream:

1. The deceased appears in the dream as they did in life, often looking healthier or younger.
2. The deceased typically shares something about how they are now, like saying they are fine.
3. The message in the dream often feels telepathic rather than physically spoken.
4. The dream is usually calm and peaceful, almost harmonious in nature.