Research case · People & kin
A friend returned from the dead
France · 17th century
An early example is furnished by the philosopher Gassendi, who states that he dreamed he met a friend, that he greeted him as one returned from the dead, and that then, saying to himself in his dream that this was impossible, he concluded that he must be dreaming.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- The World of Dreams — Havelock Ellis, 1911. Ch. VIII (citing Gassendi)
- Rights
- Public domain (US)
- Record type
- Research case
- Place
- France · French
- Date
- 17th century
- Uncertainty
- High — Second-hand: Ellis paraphrases Gassendi; exact date unknown.
- Imagery
- Friend
- Feelings
- Wonder · Confusion
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Family members, friends and strangers populate most dreams. Freud read many such dreams as wishes in disguise; contemporary researchers emphasise continuity with waking relationships and concerns.
Freud, Dream Psychology (1920)
Mythological
Dreams in epic and scripture are often addressed to someone — a wife waiting for a husband, a son receiving a vision for his family — and are told aloud to be understood.
Odyssey XIX; Genesis 37
Chinese traditions
Confucius lamented that he no longer dreamed of the Duke of Zhou; in Chinese letters, dreaming of someone is a measure of how much they are on one’s mind.
Analects 7.5
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- You sleep, Achilles, and have forgotten me Troy (setting) · c. 8th century BCE
- My dead brother with bleeding fingers England · before 1911
- Where she last saw him Vienna, Austria · c. 1900
- The skull that spoke in a dream On the road to Chu, China · c. 3rd century BCE
- Hector’s ghost before my sight Troy (setting) · 19 BCE (poem)
- The false dream of one’s own death India · c. 6th–10th c. (text)