Dream you’ve died

[Nano22]

Has anyone had a dream they’ve died? What does it mean?
I had a dream I was driving down the highway. My teenager in back seat. I wasn’t suicidal but I just knew it was my time and I swerved into a tractor trailer coming the other way. I wasn’t afraid. When we crashed all I saw was this magnificently bright white light. My daughter said to me, are we dead? And I said, yeah. Then I walked around trying to right the wrongs I had done in my life. When I awoke I was so shook up. Took me days to get over it. It seemed so real. I never told my daughter.

 

[bin_tenn]

It means nothing, except perhaps that you worry about death to some extent. This is a very common theme here, including for myself. I often wake up with death as the very first thought on my mind. I don't remember dreaming, but I'm willing to bet I dream about it very often.

Even if you don't specifically fear death, dreams are nothing more than the conscious and subconscious mind melding together and intertwining. It could be the way those two parts of your brain interpreted a recent event, or something you've seen on TV, etc.

 

[Nano22]

It means nothing, except perhaps that you worry about death to some extent. This is a very common theme here, including for myself. I often wake up with death as the very first thought on my mind. I don't remember dreaming, but I'm willing to bet I dream about it very often.

Even if you don't specifically fear death, dreams are nothing more than the conscious and subconscious mind melding together and intertwining. It could be the way those two parts of your brain interpreted a recent event, or something you've seen on TV, etc.

Thanks for your explanation. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[MATD]

Dreams are the subconscious at work. They aren’t straightforward but our issues are definitely the plot to them. Jonathan123 just recently made a good post about dreams. You may want to try to find it.

 

[Nano22]

Dreams are the subconscious at work. They aren’t straightforward but our issues are definitely the plot to them. Jonathan123 just recently made a good post about dreams. You may want to try to find it.

Dreams are the subconscious at work. They aren’t straightforward but our issues are definitely the plot to them. Jonathan123 just recently made a good post about dreams. You may want to try to find it.

Thanks. I looked but can’t find his post.

 

[bin_tenn]

Thanks. I looked but can’t find his post.

If it's the same one I thought of, it was in November and you can find it here https://www.anxietycommunity.com/index.php?threads/dreams.11094/#post-83272

 

[MATD]

If it's the same one I thought of, it was in November and you can find it here https://www.anxietycommunity.com/index.php?threads/dreams.11094/#post-83272

He made a post reply a day or so ago too.

 

[Cuchculan]

As the great @Jonathan123 would say, dreams about dying can be simply ways of saying new things are starting in your life. The old things are dying off. The dreams do not have to mean you are dying. I shall leave it to the grand master himself when he wakes up.

 

[Jonathan123]

Well!!! Thanks mate!!!! The grand master'. WOW!!! My head is big enough already and more praise will just make it worse. Like you, (no offense) I have 'the gift of the gab'. Now I think that is an Irish expression as is 'kissing the Blarney stone'. The English expression 'a pain in the backside' comes to mind. (ME not you)!!. Seriously, we all contribute in our own way and according to our abilities. The main thing is that in our small way we help each other. And the top of the morning to you too!!!!!

 

[Jonathan123]

Has anyone had a dream they’ve died? What does it mean?
I had a dream I was driving down the highway. My teenager in back seat. I wasn’t suicidal but I just knew it was my time and I swerved into a tractor trailer coming the other way. I wasn’t afraid. When we crashed all I saw was this magnificently bright white light. My daughter said to me, are we dead? And I said, yeah. Then I walked around trying to right the wrongs I had done in my life. When I awoke I was so shook up. Took me days to get over it. It seemed so real. I never told my daughter.

A lovely dream!! Yes, I do mean that. Now this is a good example of how analysing a dream can shed some light on our condition. Your teenager is in the backseat. Behind you! Are you helping him/her enough? He/she is not sitting beside you, on equal terms but behind. In the crash you saw that bright light. A car crash is a major trauma, and that may be what you have been going through. It is said that as we pass in death we do experience a bright light that we move toward. Many with near death experiences have talked about this. You have been given a rare insight. Something in you is dying or is in the process of dying. It may be your anxiety and the 'death' of that would be good! You are being told to right the wrongs you have done. Another wonderful message. Forgiveness is one of the keystones to recovery. To right wrongs is to forgive. 'To err is human, to forgive divine'.

It frightened you! You see how if we judge a dream on its apparent content how wrong we can be. It's the latent truth behind the dream that is important. The unconscious, from which dreams emanate, is neutral. It but points the way in dreams. When I was in the middle of GAD I had the repetitive dream of going to the USA. I could see the tall buildings and the Union flag flying from them. I knew nothing about dreams then so was rather puzzled. My old counsellor, a Jungian, told me that 'the new world', as the USA is called, awaits me. I was progressing at the time and the dream stopped after being analysed. It was very true, I was entering a new world. My life changed dramatically for the better. The dream is showing you the way forward. To forgive all the wrongs that have been done to you. Never let a dream or even a nightmare upset you. Look at it. What is it telling you about your condition.

 

[Cuchculan]

@Jonathan123 used to have this on a t-shirt years ago. No doubt you have seen the image before.

 

[Jonathan123]

@Jonathan123 used to have this on a t-shirt years ago. No doubt you have seen the image before.

View attachment 1259

Yes, poor old Freud!! Everything in his theory was based on sex. A dream of a train entering a tunnel would be seen as a sexual act!
While sex is an important aspect of human life, it is not the begin and end all. Jung fell out with Freud because of this theory and left his circle. Adler, also an ex pupil of Freud, also left. He founded his practise on the 'will to power'. He felt the main driving force in humans was the need to have power and authority over others. When you look around the world of politics today there is a lot in that theory. But Jung was eclectic. He took all of humanity as a very complex study, and did not attribute one thing only. Anxiety can be caused and kept going by a multitude of things. Finding what they are is the job of a good counsellor/therapist. Jung also felt that there was another aspect of mankind and that was Spirit. Most therapies today are based on mind and body only. The Spiritual aspect is left out because it is thought to be too religious, when in fact it has little to do with orthodox religion. But that's another story!

 

[Cuchculan]

Curious here. Do you think Freud and his way of thinking was a lot to do with the years he grew up in? Meaning in an age were women were covered from head to toe. Thus the male mind would be thinking more about what is under all those clothes. Or at least that was his way of viewing things. What they can't see and can't have they think and dream about a lot more. That is just the sex side of things. We know he also spoke of the ID, Ego and super Ego. Which was more just normal sort of thinking. That could be used in this day and age. Were the whole sex thing, to me, might be hold up in the age we are living in now.

 

[MATD]

I kind of view Freud as an equal in brain capacity to Darwin. While both may have made some valid points, they couldn’t back up most of their ideas with valid proof. They were never able to move past the “theory”.

 

[Jonathan123]

Yes, I agree. It's all very much like the 'Big Bang' theory. It's OK to speculate about what happened after the big cloud of gas exploded, but where did the gas come from in the first place? However, having seen most of Jung's theories in practise, I do regard him as one of the greatest minds in psychotherapy of the twentieth century. He went through a bad patch of anxiety that lasted many years so he did know what he was on about. He introduced art as a therapy, and an indication as to how his patients were thinking. But 'the proof of the pudding'! I have seen many of his theories actually work, and they did in my case.

Curious here. Do you think Freud and his way of thinking was a lot to do with the years he grew up in? Meaning in an age were women were covered from head to toe. Thus the male mind would be thinking more about what is under all those clothes. Or at least that was his way of viewing things. What they can't see and can't have they think and dream about a lot more. That is just the sex side of things. We know he also spoke of the ID, Ego and super Ego. Which was more just normal sort of thinking. That could be used in this day and age. Were the whole sex thing, to me, might be hold up in the age we are living in now.

Yes, that may well be true. His marriage was not a happy one, and he may have been deprived of any sexual outlet. Also his view of women was distorted. His theory of the Oedipus complex does not hold water. It may have a applied in some cases, but to use it as a blanket theory was wrong. But it still surprises me how many Freudians there are in the psychotherapy world. I went to one before I knew better in the early days of GAD, Never again!

 

[Nano22]

A lovely dream!! Yes, I do mean that. Now this is a good example of how analysing a dream can shed some light on our condition. Your teenager is in the backseat. Behind you! Are you helping him/her enough? He/she is not sitting beside you, on equal terms but behind. In the crash you saw that bright light. A car crash is a major trauma, and that may be what you have been going through. It is said that as we pass in death we do experience a bright light that we move toward. Many with near death experiences have talked about this. You have been given a rare insight. Something in you is dying or is in the process of dying. It may be your anxiety and the 'death' of that would be good! You are being told to right the wrongs you have done. Another wonderful message. Forgiveness is one of the keystones to recovery. To right wrongs is to forgive. 'To err is human, to forgive divine'.

It frightened you! You see how if we judge a dream on its apparent content how wrong we can be. It's the latent truth behind the dream that is important. The unconscious, from which dreams emanate, is neutral. It but points the way in dreams. When I was in the middle of GAD I had the repetitive dream of going to the USA. I could see the tall buildings and the Union flag flying from them. I knew nothing about dreams then so was rather puzzled. My old counsellor, a Jungian, told me that 'the new world', as the USA is called, awaits me. I was progressing at the time and the dream stopped after being analysed. It was very true, I was entering a new world. My life changed dramatically for the better. The dream is showing you the way forward. To forgive all the wrongs that have been done to you. Never let a dream or even a nightmare upset you. Look at it. What is it telling you about your condition.

I must say I, after all the praise of Jonathan, that I feel honored he would comment on my dream!
Thank you for your very insightful and valuable insights. I am going to digest them for a bit. I believe your interpretation has helped me. Blessings.