Yesterday I had a dream. In it I was confronting an unbeatable foe. I KNEW I was going to die in the conflict.

I am an avid dreamer, yet I NEVER seem to KNOW I am dreaming while in the dream. I have the ability to ensure I dream. What I do is set my alarm for about 1-2 hours before I really need to wake, then go back to sleep and I instantly dive into a deep sleep where dreaming happens 100% of the time. I learned this when I was in high school. I also am able to continue dreams sometimes, I wake during a dream, go back to sleep and continue right where I left off. Cant get it 100% of the time much to my occasional frustration. ( You know what I mean )

I have never died before in a dream. Much less had SUCH a real and emotional experience and a feeling of reality even after I awoke. The emotions still lingering right now.

The Dream:
Is getting very foggy at this point, except for the traumatic scene in which I faced death and prepared my self mentality. I was in the basement of the house I grew up in, and father still lives in. With a group of people, family and children, I dont know who exactly as in most my dreams I FEEL my connection to the person rather than see them visually. I felt that they were my family and children I needed to protect.

Which takes me to the moment:
An armed intruder or soldier or something like that.... an antagonist.... was armed and out to harm me and my family. He was breaking down the barriers we set for him. The locked doors etc. I was helping get my family and the children out of a window, when he starts breaking in the door to the room we are in. Almost all of my family and the children have escaped but not all, when he gets through the door with his weapon. I knew at the rate that he was breaking in, that he would be in before we all got out.

I had about 10-30 seconds of time (it felt like forever) where I knew I would have to face him with no weapon or be killed from behind as well as others. I knew what I was going to have to do for that same amount of time. I knew I was going to have to put myself between him and the others. I had no weapon. I had no choice. I knew my foe was unbeatable; armed, larger physically, and INSANE with anger.

I knew I was going to die in order to let as many escape as possible... It wasnt sudden, I emotionally prepared for the moment he would kill me. I felt those emotions and they have lingered with me all day. I have never felt those emotions before in such intensity. I remember seeing him get through the door. Aim his weapon at me while yelling enraged coming at me. I went at him...... Then woke up!

I feel very odd.... in the fact that I have experienced something that most people only experience just before they die, yet I am still alive. However..... I do not feel lucky in this experience at all. Truly a Nightmare.

Anyone else faced death, or died in dreams? Please discuss.

Yeah whenever I have a lucid dream I kill myself in the dream - not sure why. All that happens is the scene of dream shifts and I move onto completely different dream setting.

Interesting. Yes most people wake up as soon as they die in dreams it is normal. Me however, whenever I "die" I stay in the dream staring where I died straight in front of me as though I was still conscious even in death. I don't know why this happens to me but it always does and isn't typically common according to other people's dreams.

What I do know, however, is that dreams are the subconscious "talking" to you. I can't remember my dreams 100% of the time as you can but that's a great quality! What you should look into are dream meanings online and see what details mean within your dreams. Things get pretty interesting at that point.

I've died in a dream before - two times - and no, I obviously did NOT really die in real life. I'm still here.

I can also read in my dreams, and have on several occasions.

SO right there are 2 dream 'things' I can say are 'busted.'

yes actually ive died in my dreams a million and one times..in all sorts of ways..the most bizzare one i had was when i was shot in the head and my "spirit" rose out of my body and it is at this point i continued the dream but only in spirit form..i wondered around pretty frantically. funny enough though the person who ended up finding me was medium chip coffey!! LOL. how bizzare is that lol. lead me to what im going to call the "holding place" where everyone who had died was going under a life review. It was up to every individual to come to terms and acknowledge what they had done in their living life..good and bad. wasent such a bad dream really.

World War III in Gary, IN? Does that count?

Yeah, i have died in dreams before while lucid dreaming and while in deep sleep. I always feel weird the next day, like sad or out of place. Its hard to describe it to people but i know exactly what you mean about the intensity of your emotions and how real it felt. Thats one thing i would love to hear more answers about is why we dream and how dreams are fictional but sometimes play pivotal roles in our real lives.

When I'm confronted with death in my dreams I usually either wake up in a state of panic or I become invincible in the dream and the dream continues. The invincibility seems to only really occur though when I'm being shot at by someone. The bullets either miss me or I'm able to slap the shooter's gun away.

There have been times where I've experienced pain while dreaming that I'm being attacked or killed. The pain can range from a dull ache to a sharp pain. The worst example of which was when I dreamt I was being eaten alive by a t-rex (curse you Stephen Spielberg for a lifetime of t-rex nightmares!). Actually, just the other night I dreamt that I was hiding from a velociraptor in a public bathroom. I remember shutting the door to the bathroom stall then making sure my feet weren't visible by jumping onto the toilet . Thankfully, I woke up with my heart racing just before the raptor found me and I wasn't eaten alive again.

The most powerful death dreams I've had, though, usually involve giant objects in the sky. Falling planes, tornados, alien motherships, etc.. Before the 9/11 attacks I remember having a dream where a friend and I were sitting in lawn chairs in my back yard as we watched a plane slam into the apartment buildings behind my house. The most vivid was just a few months ago when I witnessed a rogue planet crashing into our moon. I remember having this terrible feeling of dread as I knew the whole world was about to be destroyed. I woke up not long after the shock wave hit the earth and I was hugging the shaking ground.

Yep, dreams can be pretty intense!

I had one about 2 weeks ago that seemed absolutely, compltely real...

My fiance and I were in a place I have never seen but my mind was comfortable as if it was my house. I'm guessing it was winter as the ground looked mostly barren and the trees were all leafless. Well, we apparently had friends over and I was doing something outside when I looked up into the sky, oh I forget to mention it was quite a dark night. When I looked up onto the sky I saw one of the wildest sights I have ever imagined.

In the sky I could make out the moon which was full but strangely darker than a normal full moon. Well, next to the moon I noticed a line of very bright stars to the right about a foot or so away based on my line of sight. So the I see a huge object to the left of the moon through the clearing in the barren tree limbs. Holy s***, o think as I realize its size trumped the size of the moon. Upon closer examination I notice the object looks just like Jupiter, it had the alternating Orange-red and tan bands with the red storm eye that is present on Jupiter. Wow, I thought, I have got to show my fiance and the quests this so I head inside to grab them. When I returned to the outdoors everyone notices the planet but its moved drastically since just moments before. Now it was beginning to eclipse the moon. Well we watch for just a moment then our guests, neighbors I guess, decide to head home to grab their video camera. So Lauren and I sit down on the yard and watch expecting the neighbors to return any minute. Then I get the scares realization of what is currently happening....

The object in the sky seemed to be getting larger, Oh my God, its headed straight for earth. So I get up and pick up lauren quickly to get her up. We begin to walk back to the house when I notice out of the corner of my eye that the object was currently impacting the planet, I see huge rocks being thrown into the air, an extremely bright light, like a nuclear explosion, who's source seems to be moving closer.... rapidly.

Run, run, get to the house!!! I yelled as I began to Sprint. my thoughts at the time were clearly indicating that I understood there was really no avoiding it but I couldn't convince myself to stop running. I look over towards lauren... this is the last time ill ever see her I thought as the bright explosion of light, magma, and rock traveling quickly towards us.

As it gets closer I get a good glimpse at a huge ball (the unknown planet that looks like Jupiter) smashing into the earth and along the edge where the planets meet there were huge rocks, magma/lava being thrown into the air... a thought occurs, in going to be on top of the ground as the planet near and I'm going to be thrown into the air long with those huge pieces of earth and lava, as will lauren. I force myself to stop thinking about it as the terror was overwhelming.

The collision is moving ever closer and fast, I realize that only 5 minutes has passed since the neighbors left and only ten seconds had passed since we got up and began running. well, the collision is directly behind me now and only 5 feet to my left is my fiance, we are still at top speed and then........

Nothing.

I wake up and realize that what had just happened was all a dream, but it felt so real. It was one of those dreams that when you wake up reality doesn't even seem to be as real as what I had just seen. My assumption about the end of the dream was that as the collision moved closer it was traveling so quickly that anything that came in contact with the leading edge (where rocks and lava were being thrown into the air) was instantaneously vaporized. The wildest part was that when the edge reached us I felt no pain and everything went completely black but I did not instantly wake up as I normally do the instant I die in a dream. I was still dreaming for about a second after everything went black. I don't know what this dream meant about my subconscious but I can tell you that it was the most vivid dream I've ever had and I believe I will always remember it in perfect detail until the day I die.

Well, anyway, just though I would share my most memorable death dream, I hope you enjoyed.

Those types of dreams I have encountered before. Only two or three times. The feeling I got at the very moment is like the one one might feel if their foot slips at the top of the stairs, but they don't fall. It's the best description for it I can give, so hopefully it wasn't confusing.

I don't know of many other feelings than realizing one's own mortality.

I've never died, though I am about to die a good amount, but I wake up right before. My main complaint with my dreams is I can never run forward, I'm always in super slo-mo trying to run forward, yet I can run backwards just fine. Anytime I'm being chased in my dreams I have to run backwards, it's really annoying.

I had a dream in which I was tied up and being threatened at gun point. I was then shot in the head, it went really bright and I fell to the floor. At this point I violently shook awake and it took me a long time to calm down. This happen years ago but I still remember it vividly.

I seem to have a vivid dream each time I go to sleep, even a nap I dream. I've been getting these weird end of the world type dreams lately though, some have been proper real as though I am an observer from above.

I either need to change something in my diet or more probably need to stop looking at this site!

I've had lucid dreams ever since I can remember. But it seems like it was easier for me to remember the dreams when I was younger, than it is for me now - Now I can usually remember the main ideas of my dreams but I can't pick out all the small details like I used to be able to do.

As far as dying in a dream goes, I had one once where I was a guy living in New York and I got shot in the back at night during a thunderstorm. I could actually feel the bullet enter my skin and everything, however it didn't last very long - as soon as I was "dead" I woke up.

I've also had some really creepy dreams where I've seen others die. The most recent one that I can remember was when I woke up in a puddle of sweat at my friends' house - I had this crazy dream that there was a fire in a house and a little girl, probably 4 or 5 years old, burned to death - it really scared the crap out of me because I actually saw this little girl in flames, screaming, trying to escape... it made me wonder if anyone had ever died in a fire near where my friend lives,and I tried looking into it... but never came up with anything.

Doesn't make any sense to me why I would randomly dream something so messed up. It kinda freaks you out when one minute you're seeing a little girl on fire right in front of your face and then the next you're awake lying in bed at a friends house completely soaked in sweat...

I had a dream, I was being hung. It was the most horrible feeling. I KNEW I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it. I was on a horse tied up with my hands behind my back. The men were having difficulty getting the horse to stand still so the noose could be put around my neck. Which they eventuallly did.When they tightened the noose I felt the hairs of the big fat rope prickle my skin and the fear was so real I kept on thinking this cant be happening to me. But it went blank when they hung me.I really dont want to have that one again. The drowning dreams end up with me being able to breathe underwater. I became able to change the course of a dream the older I got.About 5 yrs ago, I had a series of dreams that I should call my fire dreams. It starts out with two snakes fighting while a third one passively watches from the sidelines to see who will win. Then a tornado hits the cabin to the right of me along with a hurricane and all is lost. I then realize that I am on avery distant hill ,fire all around me and no way to get back to to my home and family and see if they are all right.Then some how Im on a huge tank like machine and people are screaming everywhere trying to escape the fire and get a ride. I am barely able to hold on and see the people who we are running over sticking to the tracks of the huge CAT we are on turning around with the tracks as we move along. There was a red sweater and a pulverized human I particularly remember going round

I have died in a dream before. everything just faded to black and then I was outside my body looking at it from an outside perspective watching everything going on. I had no fear.