Dying in Dreams

[Ziltron]

Pain is definitely memorable. The only other dream sensation I've had that continued into the waking was from a very pleasant childhood dream involving a kiss under a weeping willow. One of the branches got caught between myself and the female involved, and when I woke up, I could still feel where it had been pressed...

[Ziltron]

Ah...the frightening details.

Well that one was definitely pleasure ^_^ So residual 'energetic sensations' don't just come from dreams involving pain or death. Maybe we experience many of these 'energetic sensations' while dreaming, but don't realize it because they're not all that memorable/we don't wake up directly after them?

[gavi dvan]

Wow, didn't know so many living people had died.

I once died in a dream, I think... It was a big long epic dream which slowly ended with the end of the world, which for some stupid reason was caused by two massive asteroids or something colliding with each other in the sky, and therefore causing everyone to choke to death from lack of oxygen. Yeah, very scientifically accurate. But I'll never forget that one, I vividly felt the choking, running out of air, and everything fading away, but then the fading away became the dream fading away instead.
Apart from that unfortunate side-effect, it was one of the most amazing-looking dreams I've ever seen, these asteroid planet things, covering up the entire sky, man George Lucas ain't got nothing on me.

[floatingadam]

I've had some long epic dreams like that, they are amazing! It's always too hard to turn it into a book though...

[Beekeeper]

I've died a few times. Once I was shot to pieces, another time my family and I were on a train heading towards ground zero and watching the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb, another time we were camping and a tidal wave washed over us. I didn't feel any sensations of pain or even distress, just acceptance.

On the other hand, I've had dreams where people I love are dying or have died and I've woken up distraught.

Death is a common symbol in my dreams. Once I dreamt about a friend being murdered by having his shirt and jacket being pulled up over his face. Our friendship pretty much ended the next day.

Another time a "thug" version of my husband pushed a younger version of me out in front of the car I was in with a normal version of my husband (confused?) Then the "evil" version shot the in-car version in the forehead, killing him instantly. This symbolised the beginning of a significant challenge in our marriage.

Recently I was walking towards a funeral with the head teacher from my work. The next day he announced his resignation.

September 11 was particularly interesting too but this post is long enough....

[Beekeeper]

I just had to be intertextual:

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
'Cos I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very

Mad world, mad world

(Gary Jules)

[floatingadam]

Hey, that's a good song! I first heard it when Donnie Darko came out.

[Astralonaut]

I remember only one dream in which I died. I was shot in the heart. It was very vivid and realistic, I mean, no one can know how it actually feels, but after awakening I thought, this is how it really must be to be killed that way. I felt the bullet hitting my chest, only a very light pain, and then I felt how my heart stopped and all physical strength leaving me within seconds - afterwards I was walking around as a ghost, one of my best dream OBEs

I've had a lot of dreams in which I was in danger of dying, but usually I wake up before it actually happens. If I find myself in such a situation, I often become lucid (hey, this *can't* be real, this *must* be a dream), but I don't make good use of lucidity then, because I'm so frightened of the dream that I only want to wake up ... the dreams are often about myself being executed, but some nights ago I was in an elevator (yes, again, my good old elevator ) falling freely and about to crash down. Again - this must be a dream, I'm dreaming, wake up, wake up, WAKE UP ... and out.

[r0bb]

Dying in a lucid dream can represent the death of a particular aspect of yourself.

I think this is not correct most of the times, at least not for me.

I've had lots of 'dying' dreams and, funny, but most of the times they
don't make me feel bad. I guess sometimes it's because it really symbolizes
the death of an ego for example, but the circumstances often point to
even an opposite direction. Here's an example::

I was a part of kinda SWAT-like team. Other team members were some of
my closest friends then. We were covering behind a street corner,
waiting for the right moment to strike the enemies who were behind the
corner. I guess I was kinda leader of the team because I had to give my
buddies a signal. When this happened I jumped on the street, aiming my
weapon at an enemy. The enemy was standing on the top of a
baroque-style fountain so it shouldn't be hard to shoot him but there were
about 10 more bad guys who immediately started to shoot me. At this
moment I felt that I'm alone against these people but it was too late - my
body was already full of bullets and while falling I turned to the direction
where my friends used to cover. I guess they were supposed to come out
with me and help/cover me but this just didn't happen. When I last looked
at them, a few moments before I die their expressions were something
like 'Sorry, pal. Did you really expect us to risk our lives for you?'.


I think that dreaming your death is not a negative experience at all.
I accept it as kinda alarm - a reminder of feelings/experiences which you
systematically underestimate or pass by. I think such dreams occur when
you really don't realize this.

[KireiYume]

I don't think I've ever died in a dream, not that I can remember. Most of my dreams though seem to have a recurring theme of someone or something trying to hurt me physically in order to either get something for themselves, or just for the hell of it.