Recognizing Visitation Dreams

When I was 12 years old, my 29-year-old brother died in Vietnam. Over the years, I don’t recall ever dreaming about him. Then one night I had a dream in which he and I were walking together down an empty road. We were both adults. The dream seemed so real that I asked him, “Are you alive again, or am I dead?” He smiled and said, “It’s a little of both.”

Quantum Physics

At the time I was exploring quantum physics, particularly in relation to paranormal experiences. From one lecture I had learned that when we sleep, our “particle” body and “wave” spirit separate. Our spirit then has the ability to mingle with other wave energy, including other discarnate spirits. As my brother so plainly described it, the living can become a little bit like the dead, and the dead can become a little bit like the living. This gives us the ability to meet in the dream realm, where the rules of traditional physical science no longer apply.

Dream Characteristics

These so-called visitation dreams are fairly easy to recognize, because people who have had them report some common characteristics. First, the dream seems too real to be a dream. Some people even report physical sensations such as feeling the touch of their loved one or smelling a favorite scent associated with that person when he or she was alive. Medium Patrick Mathews reveals in his book “Never Say Goodbye” that when his grandmother visited him in a dream when he was young, he felt the pressure of an object being placed on his pillow as his grandmother placed a cat next to him in his dream.

Secondly, visitation dreams rarely have storylines. They are more like an intense moment than a succession of events. Many times the purpose of the visit is to deliver a specific message. Furthermore, these dreams can be accompanied by unusual bright light, and dreamers report that the person’s face—especially the eyes—is enhanced in some way. Upon waking from a visitation dream, the dreamer experiences a remarkable feeling of love or peace. Emotions, in general, are intensified either during or after psi dreams, reports Rosemary Ellen Guiley in her book “Dreamwork for the Soul.”

Not Just the Deceased

Although visitation dreams most commonly refer to visits from loved ones who have died, some dreamers are also visited by their children-to-be (see Babies From Beyond, January 15, 2008), sometimes years before pregnancy occurs. Other dreamers are visited by friends or relatives who are still alive but living far away.

Let It Be

One of the most popular visitation dreams on record is that of musician Paul McCartney being visited by his mother, Mary. As he explains in the book “The Right Words at the Right Time” by actress Marlo Thomas, McCartney’s mother had died when he was 14 years old. Then 12 years later, when the Beatles were on the verge of breaking up, his mother appeared to him in a dream.

“There was her face,” he describes, “completely clear, particularly her eyes; and she said to me very gently, very reassuringly, ‘Let it be.’” Upon awakening, he went to his piano and wrote the beginning of the song that you have probably heard many times… “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”