I met the Grim Reaper in a dream

Had a dream last night that has given me quite the freakout. I actually don't remember the first part of it, which is annoying because I recall all the events in the dream having significance, but what happened at the end overwhelmed the rest of it and I forgot the rest.

So at some point in the first part of the dream I ended up at the back of a grocery store walking past all the aisles. In one of the aisles I saw the Grim Reaper. You know, black-cloaked dude with scythe. Next to him, also in the aisle pretty much blocking it, was a table with a white tablecloth. The top of the table was uneven, as if there was something under the tablecloth, perhaps a body. On top of the tablecloth was a small white candle, burning.

I saw this scene and took it in all at once. At that point I basically submitted myself to Death. Somehow I felt like I "know better" than to try to run from Death, so I didn't. I closed my eyes and thought, "Take me if you want me."

Immediately I started feeling a sensation that I cannot really describe because I've never felt it in my life. I've never had an OOBE but wouldn't be surprised if this is what people feel going into one. It felt like I was being pulled in a direction I never knew existed. Something not in the three spatial dimensions.

At this point, I had the passing thought, "Heck, maybe I really am about to die." That's the first time in this dream I got frightened. I opened my eyes, and found myself on my bed, quite relieved to have woken up but also with a small lurking disappointment, and full of thoughts and wonder.

But I felt chilled, and still feel chilled four hours after waking up. So much so that I am bundled up, which is unusual for the current indoor temperature.

Anybody wanna take a stab at this one?

When you woke up did you happen to have a tingling sensation all over your body? Kind of like when your leg falls asleep but without the pain. I believe that sensation is related to OBE's upon awakening.

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


I would just take that sort of dream as a reason to live everyday as if its the last

Death represented your mortality and you not running from him shows your understanding/acceptance for death happening sooner or later. The white table, if it was clear probably represents a pure yet not exiting path. Maybe your dream is telling you to "fill the table" (make some memories) before death takes a seat(end of the road) so whatever you have been hesitant to do, do it!

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


what part of the country do you live in? i have a reason for asking that relates to the story. you don't have to get very specific, very general might do.

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


I'll tell you what you want to know. You had a prophetic dream. You have guardian angels watching over you. Your angels are telling you ahead of time that someone that you consider a very good friend is not your friend at all, but someone that you should not trust, even though you trust and believe in them right now. That person is dangerous to you because you trust that person with the way your life is; but this person wants to take the life that you enjoy and make your life they way they want your life to be, which means they really want your life or spirit to be extremely miserable.

The night of your dream can point out who this person is. Obviously that person is someone that you were thinking about before the dream, and you were thinking how great a friend that person is to you; but your guardian angels are giving you the true insight of that person. You must have been thinking about some person being a great friend of yours for days or weeks before the dream, but that person is not to be trusted and is waiting to change your life for the worst. That person doesn't want to harm you physically, but that person wants to do something that you and your spirit will not like, and control your life in some way that you and your spirit will not like. Beware of this person that you in your own mind consider to be a great friend of yours.

Originally posted by snusfanatic
what part of the country do you live in? i have a reason for asking that relates to the story. you don't have to get very specific, very general might do.

I live in Gainesville, FL.

Originally posted by RussianScientists
I'll tell you what you want to know. You had a prophetic dream. You have guardian angels watching over you. Your angels are telling you ahead of time that someone that you consider a very good friend is not your friend at all, but someone that you should not trust, even though you trust and believe in them right now. That person is dangerous to you because you trust that person with the way your life is; but this person wants to take the life that you enjoy and make your life they way they want your life to be, which means they really want your life or spirit to be extremely miserable.

The night of your dream can point out who this person is. Obviously that person is someone that you were thinking about before the dream, and you were thinking how great a friend that person is to you; but your guardian angels are giving you the true insight of that person. You must have been thinking about some person being a great friend of yours for days or weeks before the dream, but that person is not to be trusted and is waiting to change your life for the worst. That person doesn't want to harm you physically, but that person wants to do something that you and your spirit will not like, and control your life in some way that you and your spirit will not like. Beware of this person that you in your own mind consider to be a great friend of yours.

I do appreciate the speculation, but that can't be exactly it. Actually I'm in a very low point in my life right now and currently have no friends that I trust, just acquaintences that I hang with at times. I do have an ex who, before I ended it with her, may have loosely described what you're saying. But I took care of that situation a month and a half ago.

My best guess was that I'm being warned to kill some of my bad habits before they kill me

Originally posted by TheLieWeLive
When you woke up did you happen to have a tingling sensation all over your body? Kind of like when your leg falls asleep but without the pain. I believe that sensation is related to OBE's upon awakening.

Somewhat. There was definitely a weird sensation all over my body shortly after waking up, but it went away fairly soon as I attempted to get back to sleep. (I woke up 6-something AM so I really didn't want to get up for good then, but as it turned out I didn't trust myself enough to get any restful sleep after that. I finally got up just before 11 after several very short bits of sleep.)

There isn't much point in deciphering your dream. It may be realism, or a hint for you to take heed in some form. I employ you to dig deeper into the matter by taking control.

I feel you can find the answers with a little willpower.

Try to take control of every dream. Simply ask the first person you see if "this" is a dream. If they answer you in a calm respective manor, take control of your dream. 99 times of 100 you will be dreaming when you ask.

Watch the movie "Waking Life" for examples of how to find out if you are dreaming, and in order to fully understand the concept of controlling your dreams.

reply to post by Tribble

Heh, come to think of it, part of me wishes I had peeked under the tablecloth to see what was under there. I've never had much dream control. In fact there have been many instances of dreams where, after waking up, I wished I had done a certain ballsy thing but in the dream I didn't do anything except watch passively.

My girlfriend just had a dream recently about Freddy Kruger in her car. She wanted to blow him up with a pipe bomb.

Dreams...strange things these.

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


In my Expert opinion, ( LOL )
Here is what Stand out to me:

The Table Cloth was white, The opposite of death.
It was in a familiar place to you? The supermarket.
There was Something Hidden, (under the White Cloth)
You had an Odd sensation.

Also, Can you recall how many legs the table had?
Can you remember anything else which may serve as a hint?
What Aisle where you on? What was on the shelves, who else was present? etc etc.

I think the best thing to do is read into it yourself, (which IS the best way to interpret Dreams)
The reason being, the same dream could mean something Completely Different to two different people.
What to do:
remember what Stood out in the dream,
Write it down.
Then write down EVERYTHING that you attribute to the Objects/People in your dream.
Then piece it together.
this way, You can try to work out for yourself what your subconscious was trying to tell you.

Good luck if you have a go

But alternatively If you type into google "Grim reaper dream meaning" " white cloth on table Dream meaning" Etc etc etc, then That can also give you a vague idea of what your dream MAY mean.

I would have a go myself, BUT,

A) I am not an expert "Dream reader" or whatever they call them
B) It isn't My Dream, so what I would pick out from it, May not be relevant to you.

nice topic though, and thanks for sharing

Originally posted by Corrupted Data
Also, Can you recall how many legs the table had?
Can you remember anything else which may serve as a hint?
What Aisle where you on? What was on the shelves, who else was present? etc etc.

The cloth completely went down to the floor so I don't know how many table legs.

Death and the table were pretty much at my end of the aisle (I was in the back walkway where you walk past all the aisles). Like they were right there when I turned to look down the aisle, maybe 5 or 10 feet in. I don't know what was on the shelves.

Otherwise, yeah, I've already found a couple possible personal meanings that I'd have to go into life details in order to explain.

One of them is somewhat simplistic but could certainly be it: I have been at rock bottom for a couple months and have been drinking and smoking tobacco way too damn much. I could see my unconscious trying to tell me "Keep it up and this is where you're headed."

And actually since waking up from that dream today I have not touched either. Went out and bought and set up a Christmas tree in my little apartment. Just keeping busy like that. We'll see how long this lasts.

I have no idea on why they call this guy the Grim Reaper. He's kind of round, balding and short, sensitive, patient, and seems at times reluctant, sort of hesitates, as if he's going to offend or even scare his appointments.

He's more like that little guy on Seinfeld. But not as intrusive.

I think folks just like to scare the dickens out of folks. Grim Reaper. Nothing grim about him.

It's not like you have a choice.

Every one of us will eventually go for a walk with him.

Best of all, sometimes he lets others you know take your hand.

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


The archetypal symbols that we can receive in dreams from our Inner Being, are said to be related to the Arcana of the Tarot and Kabbalah.

Your dream definitely reminds me of Arcaum 13 of the Tarot. And perhaps even Arcanum 1.

The best advice I've heard given for dream interpretation, is to Meditate on our dreams, also as to become proficient in the practice of Dream Yoga.

I think your self-analysis hit the nail on the head.

Try visiting a local church for XMAS services...sometimes there's a second, physical-plane message that follows such a soul-wrenching dream.

Best of luck to you.

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


did your heart beat felt like it slowed down or really slowed down?

reply to post by NewlyAwakened


Hi, I had a very similar dream experience. Like you said the first part of the dream seems quite vague thinking back but I remember one part in particular very plain. It started off with me in a friend's house, It was me my friend and his brother, I was just chilling in the house playing the guitar, baring in mind this friend I haven't known for very long and don't really know that well. Just getting these details in as it might have any significance to the dream meaning. This friend of mine lives on a farm out of the way in the middle of nowhere, Lots of valleys, woods, rivers etc surrounding. Out of nowhere another friend that I hardly know turns up outside in his car, The car was very sporty kitted up ect, Barring in mind this friend doesn't even drive. The next part of the dream I remember was being in the car with the friend that doesn't drive a few other people and my cousin who I am quite close with. My friend was taking us for a spin around the valley back roads and then quite fast as if he was out of control goes off road through loads of fields still driving extremely fast ramps over a hill gets air Bourne lands on the other side of the hill and drives straight down the bank into a wide open river. As far as I remember the river was flowing quite fast. As the car started sinking everything went to slow motion but at the same time I knew the car was sinking quite fast. With it happening in slow motion I had a strong sense of being able to think very clearly in that situation on how I was going to deal with it and what I was going to do. I quickly wound my window up, took my seat belt of and said to everyone on 3 we open the doors and swim for our lives straight towards the river bank. Now here's the scary part on 3 we all went ahead with the plan got out my friends managed the get straight to the bank I seen them climb up the side back onto land and this is the weird part. After seeing them get onto land safe I remember going under water then sort of blanked out this is when quite hard to explain but the focus in the dream went from me and my body and zoomed to a big wooden raft floating quite stable in the middle of the river as if it was bolted into the ground with a wooden shed on top of it. Instantly everything went pitch black as my view was still zooming closer towards the open doorway of this now dark wooden shed I start to see a very tall white hooded grim reaper standing inside the shed at the open doorway looking straight at me is if he was starring into my soul he had your typical grim reaper features skulled face, a pointy hooded robe which was white I found that unusual as I normally picture grim reaper in the typical black hooded image. He had yellow eyes and looked quite animated in a way. My view kept on zooming closer and closer to his face as he stared deeper and deeper into my soul thing was I didn't feel threatened by him then really unexpectedly he winked and smiled at me then all of a sudden I go back into my body in the dream and I'm right beside the bank in a position to safely climb up and get back onto land. That was when I woke up with an intense sense of fear I had cold shivers thinking about it all day and at the time it really affected me as I knew it meant something it was as if when he winked and smiled he was telling me he's going to spare me my life. Any ideas on the meaning of this dream guys? Would really appreciate it! This dream happend a good while ago but I can still remember the main part very plain as if it was yesterday and still feel like it means something to me.