{"id":15890,"date":"2026-03-10T12:22:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T12:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/what-do-the-dreams-of-the-departed-tell-us\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:00:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:00:27","slug":"what-do-the-dreams-of-the-departed-tell-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/angels-and-miracles\/miracles\/gods-grace\/what-do-the-dreams-of-the-departed-tell-us\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do the Dreams of the Departed Tell Us?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My grandfather Jacques was a man of few words. A sharp dresser who always wore pressed khakis, a polo shirt and a gold chain. He\u2019d sweep me into his arms, his Ralph Lauren Polo cologne so strong, it made my eyes tear. \u201cHello, my grand\u00addaughter,\u201d he\u2019d say, his deep voice overlaid with a vague European ac\u00adcent. As if he was from everywhere but nowhere in particular, which was kind of true.<\/p>\n

Grandpa was a Holocaust survivor. At 14, he was sent to the Blechham\u00admer labor camp, near Kozle, Poland. He later survived a 200-mile Nazi death march and concentration camps Gross-Rosen and Buchen\u00adwald, where he shared Barrack 66 with Elie Wiesel. Following liberation by the U.S. Army, he went to an or\u00adphanage at the Rothschild Mansion in Versailles, France. Two years later, he moved to America. He served in the Korean War, settled in California and raised a family of five. Grandpa rarely talked about the horrors he saw, though I knew he carried the pain with him. When he died in 2016, at 88, I found myself questioning\u2014was Grandpa Jacques finally at peace<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Three days after he died, I got an answer. I had a dream, if you could call it that. It was so much more. I saw myself walking toward a Jewish mourning candle (which in real life had been lit that night), until I felt compelled to turn around. There was Grandpa, walking toward me. The last time I\u2019d seen him, at Thanksgiving, he\u2019d been weary and withdrawn. In the dream, he was beaming at me. His hair was still white, but he couldn\u2019t have been more than 60, his face lineless, luminous. He wore a pink polo shirt with a gold chain peeking out. I could smell the Polo cologne. Smiling, he said, \u201cI\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more: How to Interpret Dreams About Deceased Loved Ones<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The dream was so unlike anything I\u2019d ever experienced that the power of it has never left me. I assumed it was a rare occurrence, a coping mechanism. But then I came across story after story of others who had dreamed of their deceased loved ones in the days after their death. Like Mysterious Ways <\/em>reader Billie Wilson. Her husband, Buddy, passed away in 2007. At the time he died, Buddy had been visually impaired and needed a walker.<\/p>\n

Three days after he died, Billie had a dream. She saw Buddy in the doorway of her bedroom. He stood without a walker and wore a bright shirt. Like Grandpa Jacques, he was recognizable but spry. Full of life. Even his bald head shone. He spoke just three words: \u201cEverything looks <\/em>fine.\u201d From those words, Billie came to under\u00adstand that Buddy wasn\u2019t just okay. God had restored his sight.<\/p>\n

Billie\u2019s dream was so similar to mine that I couldn\u2019t help but wonder\u2014 are the dreams of the deceased more than a figment of our grieving imaginations<\/a>? Could the dead be showing up in our dreams for a rea\u00adson? And, if so, does their radiant appearance hold some clue to what awaits us in the afterlife?<\/p>\n

I took my questions to neuroscien\u00adtist Patrick McNamara, author of Dreams and Visions <\/em>and associate professor of neurology at Boston University\u2019s School of Medicine. Dr. McNamara studies dreams from a scientific and spiritual perspective. He says the type of dreams Billie and I experienced are actually quite common. They have a name\u2014 visitation dreams\u2014and are dreams in which the deceased appears to give a message to the dreamer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people seem to have visita\u00adtion dreams after they\u2019ve lost some\u00adone they love,\u201d Dr. McNamara says. \u201cNobody knows why. But [the dreamer] feels comforted, as if they\u2019ve communicated beyond the grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much formal research into the phenomenon, but visitation dreams have been documented across cultures and throughout his\u00adtory, Dr. McNamara says. From anecdotal reports, a number of common patterns emerge. The dreams, for in\u00adstance, tend to conclude with a short message of reassurance, such as \u201cDon\u2019t worry\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m okay.\u201d This mes\u00adsage can be spoken or communicat\u00aded telepathically. The most distinctive quality? Visitation dreams don\u2019t feel like dreams. They\u2019re vivid sensory ex\u00adperiences, more real than real.<\/p>\n

Read more: He Started to Give Thanks After This Traumatic Experience<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cMost dreams, if we remember them, we think, How strange or fun\u00adny,\u201d Dr. McNamara says. \u201cBut with a visitation dream, the dreamer feels as if they\u2019ve really interacted with the person. Sometimes they can smell their perfume, feel their hug or hear the tone of their voice. They wake up without a doubt that it was a true meeting with that person. It\u2019s an in\u00adcredibly moving experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

So does that mean the dead actu\u00adally visit us in our dreams? Not quite, says Laura Harris Smith, a pastor and author of Seeing the Voice of God. <\/em>When the deceased come to us in our sleep, it\u2019s God doing the talking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that the dead are actually visiting us,\u201d Smith says. \u201cIt is a gift from God to relay information using a face we trust. And some\u00adtimes it\u2019s that deceased person that we need information about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith recalls the visitation dream her great-nephew had. He was in elementary school when his father died. The boy\u2019s older siblings found closure. But he struggled to process his grief. He wondered where his father really was now. One morning, he bounded up to the breakfast table. \u201cI saw Daddy last night in a dream,\u201d he said. \u201cHe told me he was okay.\u201d His family didn\u2019t know what to make of it.<\/p>\n

But they couldn\u2019t dispute the boy\u2019s change. He had finally found peace. He was happy again. But why might one person in a family get a visitation dream and not everyone else? It\u2019s not necessarily God playing favorites, Smith says. \u201cPerhaps the person needs further proof so they can move on,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd God often gives one person the dream and another the interpretation, so that we need one another and don\u2019t become an island.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most striking is that the visitation dreams often leave the dreamer, like Smith\u2019s great-nephew, somehow changed. That reveals a great deal not only about the supernatural quality of the dream<\/a> but the one giving it. \u201cGod is leaning toward us in these dreams and giving us a revelation of peace,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThat shows he\u2019s a loving father.\u201d Tom Barkey, Ph.D., lead pastor at Church of Grace in Yorba Linda, California, agrees.<\/p>\n

Read more: Her Grandpa Jacques Sent a Message from Beyond<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s heard many accounts of visitation dreams from parishioners over the past 40 years. Most frequently, he says, they occur within five days of a loved one\u2019s death. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to quite a few people who had this question in their heads: Is my relative okay?\u201d Dr. Barkey says. \u201cThese dreams come from God\u2019s love so you don\u2019t have to worry about your loved one.\u201d The physical appearance of the deceased in these dreams, especially for those who last saw their loved ones in poor health, is also of great comfort to the dreamer.<\/p>\n

According to Dr. McNamara, the dead often appear vigorous. My grandfather seemed decades younger than the last time I\u2019d seen him, the picture of health. For good reason, Dr. Barkey notes. Perhaps I saw my grandfather in his heavenly body. \u201cI think you had a peek into heaven,\u201d Dr. Barkey says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul writes in Corinthians that our old body passes away and we\u2019re given a new one. There\u2019s no sickness in heaven. I think you saw your grandfather in his glory.\u201dThat doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we are all younger in heaven. The fact that I saw Grandpa Jacques in his sixties might just be because that was the age most recognizable to me, Dr. Barkey says. Grandpa could\u2019ve appeared to his brother, for instance, as a teenager. \u201cSome say when we get to heaven we\u2019ll be 33 because that\u2019s the age Jesus died on the cross,\u201d Dr. Barkey says. \u201cBut people who\u2019ve had near-death experiences have seen children and adults. We will all be different ages. But we won\u2019t be marred by this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like my grandfather, who appeared aged yet ageless. Free of trauma or pain. Maybe visitation dreams reveal how our loved ones will be restored. How we too will be one day. Fully ourselves. Or, as Grandpa Jacques put it, \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My grandfather Jacques was a man of few words. A sharp dresser who always wore pressed khakis, a polo shirt and a gold chain. He\u2019d sweep me into his arms, his Ralph Lauren Polo cologne so strong, it made my eyes tear. \u201cHello, my grand\u00addaughter,\u201d he\u2019d say, his deep voice overlaid with a vague European […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[53,25,151],"ppma_author":[908],"class_list":["post-15890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gods-grace","tag-dream","tag-family","tag-mysterious-ways"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Do the Dreams of the Departed Tell Us? - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Do the Dreams of the Departed Tell Us?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My grandfather Jacques was a man of few words. 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