Religious narrative · Death & the departed
The false dream of one’s own death
India · c. 6th–10th c. (text)
As the false dream of one’s death, appears to be true in the dreaming state, so the false world seems to be a field of action and gain to the deluded man.
Open this dream in the galaxy →
- Source
- The Yoga-Vasishtha Maharamayana, vol. 1 (trans. Viharilala Mitra) — Valmiki (attributed); trans. Viharilala Mitra, 1891 (translation). Vol. 1
- Record type
- Religious narrative
- Place
- India · Indian
- Date
- c. 6th–10th c. (text)
- Uncertainty
- Moderate — Philosophical teaching (Viharilala Mitra translation, 1891–99).
- Imagery
- The dead
- Feelings
- Confusion · Calm
How traditions have read this kind of dream
Psychological
Dreams of the dead returning are widely reported after bereavement. Ellis noted how such dreams often move, over years, from disbelief to quiet acceptance; many people describe them as comforting rather than frightening.
Ellis (1911), ch. VIII
Mythological
In Homer, dreams pass through gates of horn and ivory; across many cultures the dead were believed to visit the living in sleep, and dreams were a place where the two could meet.
Odyssey XIX
Chinese traditions
Chinese poets wrote dreams of the departed as acts of remembrance: Su Shi’s “Ten years, living and dead” and Du Fu’s “My old friend entered my dream” are read to this day as elegies.
Su Shi (1075); Du Fu (759)
These are cultural lenses, not a diagnosis.
Dreams that share its images
- She dreamt of her uncle and foretold her death London, England · January 1664 (as told to Pepys)
- 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
- As in a mirror, as in a dream Ancient India · c. 5th c. BCE (text)
- About to be nailed down England · before 1911
- Who is dead in the White House? Washington, D.C., USA · early April 1865 (as reported)