(SIDE NOTE: We can read many different theories for what dreams may mean. So, take away from each post on dreams interpretation and symbols what is relevant to you.)

Dead

To see or talk to the dead in your dream forewarns that you are being influenced by negative people and are hanging around the wrong crowd. This dream may also be a way for you to resolve your feelings with those who have passed on. Alternatively, the dream symbolizes material loss.

If you dream of a person who has died a long time ago, then it suggests that a current situation or relationship in your life resembles the quality of that deceased person. The dream may depict how you need to let this situation or relationship die and end it. If you dream of someone who has recently passed away, then it means that their death is still freshly in your mind. Dreams can also be a way for you to keep loved ones who have past away alive and still be in some aspect of your life. You are still trying to grasp the notion that he or she is really gone. If the dead is trying to get you to go somewhere with him or her, then it signifies that you are trying to understand their death. You also don’t want to be alone.

To see and talk with your dead parents in your dream is a way of keeping them alive. It is also a way of coping with the loss. You are using your dream as a last opportunity to say your final good-byes to them.

To see your dead sibling, relative, or friend alive in your dream indicates that you miss them and are trying to relive your old experiences you had with them. In trying to keep up with the pace of your daily waking life, your dreams may serve as your only outlet in coping and coming to terms with the loss of a loved one.

To dream of your dead child is a way for you to keep your child alive through your dreams. For a parent to lose a child is extremely difficult. Such dreams occur because you still cannot accept or understand how or why your child was taken from you so soon.

Dreaming of a dead person who passes away again in your dream means that you wished they were still around to experience and share certain aspects of your life with you. Such dreams are more likely to occur during happy times or during important milestones in your life.

Death

To dream about the death of a loved one suggests that you are lacking a certain aspect or quality that the loved one embodies. Ask yourself what makes this person special or what you like about them. It is that very quality that you are lacking in your own relationship or circumstances. Alternatively, the dream indicates that whatever that person represents has no part in your own life anymore. In particular, to dream about the death of your living parents indicates that you are undergoing a significant change in your waking life. Your relationship with your parents has evolved into a new realm. If you dream about the death of a child, then it implies that you need to let go of your immaturity and start being more serious. As your child reaches certain milestones and grows into an adult, dreaming of their death may be symbolic of their own self-discovery, transition and transformation into a new stage of life.

To dream that you are faking your own death suggests that you are looking for a new start. You need some change in your life. If you dream that your significant other is faking their own death, then the dream represents something new that you are learning about them. Or it may mean that they are not who you thought they were. 

To have a near death experience in your dream implies that you are experience a relapse of sorts. You are reverting back to your old habits and ways. Alternatively, the dream indicates that you are being given a second chance or second try at something.

To dream that you die in your dream symbolizes inner changes, transformation, self-discovery and positive development that is happening within you or your life. You are undergoing a transitional phase and are becoming more enlightened or spiritual. Although such a dream may bring about feelings of fear and anxiety, it is no cause for alarm as it is often considered a positive symbol. Dreams of experiencing your own death usually means that big changes are ahead for you. You are moving on to new beginnings and leaving the past behind. These changes does not necessarily imply a negative turn of events. Metaphorically, dying can be seen as an end or a termination to your old ways and habits. So, dying does not always mean a physical death, but an ending of something. If you dream that someone is telling you that you are going die, then it implies that you are being pressured to make an important change or choice. You are about to embark on some new life adventure.

If a love one has past away, but you dream that he or she didn’t really die that first time and are being buried again indicates that this loved one was taken before their time and you never got a chance to say a proper good bye. Perhaps there was some unfinished issue that is still left lingering long after their death. You wished you had a little more time with them.

On a negative note, to dream that you die may represent involvement in deeply painful relationships or unhealthy, destructive behaviors. You may feeling depressed or feel strangled by a situation or person in your waking life. Perhaps your mind is preoccupied with someone who is terminally ill or dying. Alternatively, you may be trying to get out of some obligation, responsibility or other situation. You are desperately trying to escape from the demands of your daily life.

To see someone dying in your dream signifies that your feelings for that person are dead or that a significant change/loss is occurring in your relationship with that person. Alternatively, you may want to repress that aspect of yourself that is represented by the dying person. If you see a stranger die in your dream, then it implies that you are feeling detached from the changes that are happening around you. 

To smell death in your dream refers to a situation that has long been dead. It is time to stop dwelling on the past and move on.

Go to Common Dreams: Death Dreams for further analysis. Also See the Meaning in Action: “Eating Out with My Dead Mother” and “Grandmother’s Death“.