Dying in your dreams...what happened to you afterwards??

Has no one ever watched Inception???

reply to post by notkmarx


Ouch, that doesn't sound like too much fun either.

reply to post by Mizzijr


Thats pretty cool that happened. Haven't heard of an obe really inside a dream!

reply to post by linSing



How bizarre! Thats eerie that they said it was supposed to feel that way! Very strange indeed!

reply to post by Manula


That is sad. Cool though, that you got to go and comfort your loved ones. I hope I get to do that when I eventually die.

reply to post by abstractionist


I've had the similar feeling of first panicking about dying but then quickly coming to terms with it and being peaceful. After all, it's just a big ride!

reply to post by Johnny76


That's interesting that you remember the smells in your dream. I can't say I have ever remembered a scent from a dream.

Damn, I hate walking past a butcher - I can imagine the stench working next to a slaughterhouse!

When I was younger, death scenarios would wake me up. Since I awoke to my spiritual side, I have "died" several times in dreams as a test, and a proof to myself of life ongoing after death. I see the whole event as being similar to what happens to a caterpillar, morphing into a chrysalis, and then emerging as a butterfly.

For me death was the most liberating experience I could have. The lesson was about fear and letting go. I had a past life regression type dream where I was shot point blank in the chest. The guy that shot me was wearing a uniform, so I could take my pick as to which war I fought and died in...

Once the realization hit me that I was bleeding out, I began to feel a buzzing all over my body. I fell back onto the ground and stared up at the sky. The buzzing became full on vibrations. Not unpleasant at all. I could hear bells, children laughing, water crashing on the beach, bees, trumpets, and wind blowing to name a few. The sounds combined with the vibration, the frequency and intensity increased, and then POP I was standing next to my recently dead body. There was a guide there with me, and after the release, I was taken off to do something else.. which sadly I forget.

I've also experienced death by sword, plane crash, and by brute force. The last one sucked because even after waking, my jaw felt like it had been knocked off its hinge, which had been part of the beating I experienced. I think there's a reason for all of this. Maybe lessons related to fear, or possible getting karma served in a way that doesn't end the physical existence. I don't mean to sound scary with my descriptions. Interesting post OP Thanks for the opportunity to share some of the "darker" parts of this psyche

Everything in a dream is an archetype. Some of these archetypes are better constructed than others, which makes them more reliable probability wise. Those that aren't well constructed or only half finished are like calling up an missing or incomplete function in a computer program, causing the program to crash.

Since nobody really knows what happens when we die, the death archetype is a weak one. When you dream of dying, that weak archetype has no code or instructions to tell the dream what happens next. Just like the computer program calling a missing or incomplete function, the dream returns an error, it crashes which causes the dreamer to wake up.

Things going black when you die in a dream is the same kind of crash. If you don't wake up completely from this, the dream will build it's self from scratch.

Some people may have well developed death archetypes, and the dream will shape it's self around those structures. Sometimes we build temporary archetypal structures from repetitive video games and the dream will shape it's self around those.

Thanks for making this thread

I've only died once in a dream, last year. I was standing on a beach in Oregon with my husband and two children, me holding my daughter's hand, my husband holding my son's, when a large tsunami swept up on shore, taking us all under the water. I tried getting me and my daughter out and above water, but it just was too strong of a pull under. I remember holding my daughter's hand and being on my back, not too far under the water, and seeing grey sky through the water. The dying actually hurt, so, so badly, but all at once I realized death was coming and when it did, the first thing was the pain was gone and I was so surprised that it felt so good to be rid of that pain. I knew I was dead and couldn't believe the feeling that rushed over me, feeling like, "AH! So THIS is what death feels like!" It was beautiful. I stayed in the water, totally conscious and aware, aware I was dead and at incredible peace, full of love. Upon that realization I woke up. It freaked me out a bit, honestly, wondering if I had stopped breathing in my sleep or something, but if that is what it is actually like, it's not scary

reply to post by Cruff


Usually it just switches over to '3rd person' mode when I die in my dreams.

As in, I will be me during the regular course of my dream and during my death. Then upon dying, I switch to a spectator who is simply watching it all or viewing my lifeless body.

Here's my short dream.

In my dream I am in a hospital room and I hear a male voice say 'There is nothing we can do for him.' I then felt an electric surge go through my body (much like a shock from 120v AC, or the tingle if you put the poles of a 9v battery on your tongue, but much stronger and like a wave through your body). After the surge all was bright white, and then I woke up feeling very much at peace.

reply to post by joeyv23


Wow, that's really cool! Sounds like you heard a lot of things as you were transitioning!

Very interesting indeed! It's not fun though waking up when someone punches you in the dream and then your physical body is sore from it! Has happened to me a few times too.

reply to post by The Cusp


I've found a lot of the psychological analysis of dreams to be quite interesting. I have some dream cards with common imagery which then has a meaning associated with it. I never thought of the dreams as a weak program due to not knowing what is going to happen next - makes sense in some ways.

I still believe though that there is more to dreams than purely the psychological aspect though.

Still, it's something to think about! Thanks for the input.

reply to post by mountaingirl1111


Cool stuff, i'm glad that you came out of the dream with some good experiences as it sounds pretty nasty having that happen to you and your family inside the dream. I can imagine that would bring extra pain and suffering knowing it's happening to your family as well as yourself!

What would've been freaky is if your family had the same dream that night!

reply to post by AshleyD


I can't remember offhand if i've gone to a 3rd person view myself. I think I may have but can't remember right now. Certainly sounds like some type of OBE!

reply to post by jankopernik


Great stuff! It sounds like more and more people are having positive experiences from dying in their dreams rather than negative fire and brimstone type things!

Thanks for sharing

Ive never died in a dream that I can recall.. and I recall a lot of my dreams. If Im drowning, I can suddenly breathe underwater, if Im falling, I can suddenly fly. I mean I dont "lucid dream" or anything spectacular nad its usually a complete surprise I can breathe underwater or fly... just no death in my dreams. My own death, anyway. Ive killed in my dreams, but sometimes Im prevented in the killing.. as if my blows or shots fall weak or short. Dreams are interesting things, but the very few times over my lifetime that Ive had waking dreams.. THOSE are the worst.

reply to post by Advantage


Pretty cool that you adapted in your dream when an obstacle or problem was in your way.

I really wish that in my lifetime someone invents a dream recorder so you can see what you dreamed the next day.

You reminded me when you talked about killing in your dreams...

I had a dream a few years ago that I was in the Star Wars world and in a forest somewhere. Can't remember seeing any ewoks but these stormtroopers were trying to attack me bare-handed and I was systematically killing them all with strength and the force. The emperor and Darth were there observing and after a while I had wiped out so many of them they had to step in themselves. Instead of attacking me though, they kinda disabled me and made me one of their disciples! Crazy dark side stuff haha.

This reminds me of Dreamscape.

Whenever I "die" in a dream I never really see or feel death. Always wake up at the last second.

In the past, I'm almost always falling when this happens. It never occurred to me to attempt flying until a friend suggested that's how they avoid falling to death in a dream. It seems to work, though death now takes a different form. No more falling.

The only dreams I fully remember are the ones in which someone else dies. Most others are just a foggy blur with a lingering wtf feeling. If I die in a dream I awaken quickly and alert. I'm not a morning person, but when these dreams occur I do not linger in the bed, it's up & at 'em.

The dreams of myself dying aren't really scary though, it's usually sudden, sometimes even serene... and it seems they always occur in the moments just before I'd normally be waking. So maybe there is some correlation there. Like the body's internal clock knows it's time to quit the fantasy and go 'make the donuts'.

The most frightening dreams I've had are not the ones with unspeakable horrors or my own death but those in which people I care about die or go missing. Those always leave me with a queasy feeling until I know that person is okay. I say this because one night I dreamt a specific person died in their sleep, and sure enough...