Why dream of being a ghost?

I've dreamed these dreams twice that I can remember. The first one I had was about 2 or 3 years ago. I was a ghost and I realized that I could move things and say things that someone could hear. I thought it was funny that I could make someone scared (I'm not a cruel person like that though, in fact I hate to play tricks on people because I don't like to be mean). I was telling others in my realm that I could do it and that they could too. Like, I said to another person/entity or whatever, “hey come here watch this...” and said something to scare a person. The person looked so scared, then I felt bad. So I stopped and just wandered around the world, eventually getting annoyed and sad that no one could see me. I was sitting on a rock by a river and someone came over and talked to me. I was shocked at first, then said, “wait, you can see me?” and they said “yeah, why?” and I said “You can hear me too? no one else can see me.” And I was happy and impressed that someone from the other realm could see me.

The other dream I had was just a few nights ago. There was a recital in the village commons, it was a boy. It was a small town, everyone but one person showed up to watch the boy play flute (or some other similar instrument). She was a mother or mother figure, like a village elder type person. When the recital was done, a man went to see where she was, it wasn't normal that she wouldn't be there. I followed him. I felt like he was my son (in the dream), and he was a middle aged adult. He was in the house and looking everywhere for the woman. I followed, happily looking around at the house (which was a nature filled house, like part dirt and trees and part normal house) as I followed him. There was a stairway that wound up to a small secluded area. There she was, near an easel where there was a painting, she was face down in a little step down nook area, like it was her place where she did her art or something. As he looked down at her, I did too, then it dawned on me that it was my body, and I was my spirit, like I didn't know I was dead. I was so upset that I woke up and I couldn't stop crying for a while.

So I just wonder what some people think these dreams could signify. I am open to psychological interpretations as well as supernatural. Honestly, I felt like the second one was real, like a past life or something. I wanted to see the boy play, so I went, even though my body didn't. The first one felt real in the sense that I felt like, “so that must be how it feels to be a ghost.” Also, I'd love to hear other people's accounts of similar type dreams.

it sounded like an astral projection too me.
the past life feeling is one of the things possible in AP. sounds amaizing to me

I really thought I'd get more responses to this question. I thought for sure that others might have dreamed similar things. Thank you for responding truthseeker10, I don't know if it would be an astral projection... unless you mean I was able to go to the time of another life and observe.

Hi there,

interesting dreams I must say. I recommend you to read the book Zhuan Falun to learn more about such things:

www.falundafa.org...

Good luck!

The first dream you mentioned sounds a lot like a "lucid dream" centered around an OOBE or Astral Projection. Let me ask you: do you remember waking up from this dream? When you woke up, did it feel like you had been sleeping, or did it feel like you simply had your eyes closed?

reply to post by xiphias


I don't remember actually, but since I don't remember it, it must have been nothing out of the ordinary. I just looked back in my dream journals to see if I noted anything like that, but I can't find it. I think I had that dream before I was writing them down. I do remember the dream after it though. They kind of blended together. It was like I was still invisible, but gradually more and more people started seeing me until the dream seemed more like a normal dream, and I was happy.

Ellie, I don't interpret other people's dreams.

But maybe I could ask a few questions.

What are the age relationships in the second dream? The actual you, the dream character you felt was your son, and the woman who was found? Are you her age? Older? Younger? Was she a plausible age to have a "middle aged" son?

Beyond that, I appreciate that you associate the two dreams together because of their shared "ghostly" theme. How sure are you that they really are of a single theme?

The second one is richer, much more developed in plot and detail, and seems to have elicited a much stronger emotional reaction from you. How confident are you that the "ghostly" aspect is the "take home message" of the second dream?

And I know this is a stupid question, but you woke up when the woman was discovered. How sure are you that she was dead?

For many people, the shock of seeing themsleves is enough to wake them up. It is not a hugely uncommon thing in dreams to happen. So, that's why I ask.

Originally posted by eight bits

What are the age relationships in the second dream? The actual you, the dream character you felt was your son, and the woman who was found? Are you her age? Older? Younger? Was she a plausible age to have a "middle aged" son?

How sure are you that they really are of a single theme?
How confident are you that the "ghostly" aspect is the "take home message" of the second dream?

And I know this is a stupid question, but you woke up when the woman was discovered. How sure are you that she was dead?

For many people, the shock of seeing themsleves is enough to wake them up. It is not a hugely uncommon thing in dreams to happen. So, that's why I ask.

Thanks for your reply.

1. I am not her age, she was older, frail looking, though I couldn't see her face. He looked to be 50's or 60's.

2. I am not sure they are the same theme, just the fact that I was there, but no one seemed to see me. The first one, I could interact with people, the second one, I could only be an observer, or at least I didn't try to interact.

3. I just felt that she was dead, and also the man looked alarmed and it looked like he thought it was a very bad way to find her, so I thought she must be dead. Then it felt like a realization that she was me.

4. I didn't see myself as I am now, I couldn't see her face, only her back and part of rear end. She was slumped over on the ground like she was on a low stool and fell over, with the cramped nature of the nook she was in not letting her sprawl out.

Thanks for the additional information.

Here's what I think, for what it's worth, which may not be a lot.

The second dream may have been interrupted. I think it may continue from the "recognition scene," or would have if you hadn't woken up.

You've mentioned your dream journal. That's good to have, because I believe you may be thinking about this dream for a long time, and so it will be helpful to have a record made when the details were fresh.

If you think there's anything to the "interruption" possibility, then you might consider "completing the dream" while you're awake by active imagination (searchable).

Interrupted or not, it's a very nice dream. All by itself, the idea that you are connected to the older woman, and yet you hadn't realized that there is a connection, is a powerful allegory of the relationship between the conscious waking self and the unconscious source of dreams.

Best wishes with it.

I can share something that might intrigue you. I have had dreams where I was floating around my house. Very slow like flying I guess. I have had them on a few different occasions. I would visit each persons room then I would visit my parents house and I was telling my mom I was sorry for things I had done and I didn't want to leave yet. I have a theory that I may have almost died in my sleep a few times from drug use.

Also, I had a dream once where it almost seemed like I was a ghost in the house I live in now. I remember there were new people/buyers looking at our house which was obviously for sale. The scary thing is I remember I was watching them from the bathroom. My eyes were drawn to the living room floor. I think something bad happened there. It was a very strange dream and quite scary.

reply to post by rickyrich14


Wow, when I read these dreams of yours I got chills and got that weird feeling in my gut like I feel a little like vomiting... sort of. I don't really know how to explain the feeling, but it is the sensation I get when I am confronted with information that makes me realize that the strangeness of the universe is really real, and not just in my mind. Ok, that probably sounds dorky or whatever... I don't know how to explain it.

I'm glad you shared. Do you think you saw a vision of your future in your second dream? I kinda wonder if my second dream could have been a vision of my future. I do have a son. By the looks of the woman and the man (her son), it would be about 30 years in my future.

a reply to: Ellie Sagan

The second dream is very beautiful and touching. I can feel a world of emotions in it as I realize the ending. Life on this world is so crazy, and pain can run very deep sometimes. I just know there is an infinity beyond this. I can feel it the same way I feel Love and those feelings are intertwined very intimately within my consciousness.

I wonder if I am in a dream right now, and this "life" I'm experiencing is just one of my countless dreams? Love and hate, anger or sadness, pleasure and pain, they are so full and real in this dream. Hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, it's surreal.

I just know there is an eternity of experience for me, it's shouting from my Heart so clearly and loudly. In a way it's very reassuring and gives me confidence, but in another wave of emotions it is troubling and saddening, knowing that I'll always lose though I always win. But I'm ok and at peace with this, I accept it.

I wonder, who am I? Why am I? How, what, and even where exactly?
What a strange universe, a strange reality....

originally posted by: Ellie Sagan
reply to post by rickyrich14

 

I don't really know how to explain the feeling, but it is the sensation I get when I am confronted with information that makes me realize that the strangeness of the universe is really real, and not just in my mind. Ok, that probably sounds dorky or whatever... I don't know how to explain it.

It's like drops of consciousness in an ocean that mirrors all our memories.

I dunno why I even say that in such a way.

I think it's strange that you say it that way, only because I was thinking it that way and in the response above typed my odd reactions and feelings.

I even think it's wild that I was seeing you as an artist, a painter, earlier today about 9 hours ago. Now I read this dream of yours, I find it to be a string of synchronicity.

It's like I'm staring into this crystal ball or something, and I simply haven't a clue what sense to make out of what I'm seeing but I know it's too close to ignore, to compelling to dismiss. I don't know what to make of it all, am I somehow making this happen? Or am I just thrust into the situation where symbols, themes, and archetypes are synchronizing? It appears so rare it's seemingly statistically astronomical...

Hmmm

a reply to: muzzleflash

I'm not a painter, or artist of any sort. Unless you consider musician an artist, or writer, or crafty person with herbs. I always wished I could paint though. I see so many wonderful things in life and in my own mind that I wish I could replicate. I take a lot of photographs though. I see beauty in so many places, even the dark ones.

I had a dream like this a few days ago. I had died but it totally didn't register. I was at my funeral looking at my body in the coffin. My skin was a grayish color that they had unsuccessfully tried to cover with makeup.

I saw my parents and felt really sorry for them. I didn't feel dead though. I still felt exactly the same way that I do now, as someone who is alive.

I was in deep denial that I was dead because I am still young and have a lot more to accomplish. I was trying to figure out how to still communicate with everyone and move and pick up things because if I could do that maybe I could do the things I loved again and maybe I could still have a career and pursue a job...the denial was so strong no one could have possibly talked me out of trying to continue to live even though I wasn't alive anymore.

I was grieving the loss of having a body. There were so many things I wanted to do but couldn't because I didn't have one. The pain of actually acknowledging that I was dead was too great, thus making moving on impossible.

There was only one person/being who could see me in the dream and they were trying to help me figure out how to adjust to life on earth without a body. Maybe they were another ghost.

I tried remembering how I died but I couldn't remember anything.

The ONLY things I thought about being dead was my family and my job and how I still had unpublished work that I hadn't recorded for anyone to find and do anything with. The thought of no one being able to realize my ideas due to the lack of recordings was very painful and I was on a mission to somehow still get my work published.

Again, denial.

This dream was so real, painful, and scary that I woke up crying and still have been crying about it for the last few days.

I am going to quit my job now and only work part time because the thought of leaving nothing behind is really scary. I'm going to publish my work and go for what I really want in my life. I'm scared to do it but this dream is a wake up call.

I feel horrible for people who die and may not understand that they are dead or may be in denial about it and still want to live. I think the pain I felt is truly what it must be like to be a ghost.

a reply to: ForestGnome88

Your post made me tear up a little. I'm glad it helped you. I cried when I woke up from my dream too. It was so emotional. I didn't see it as a catalyst for anything in my life though. Thanks for sharing.