It has a few deep meanings and it also might be a call of awakening that you direly needed to deal with the challenges in life.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 5, 2021. It has since been updated.
Dreams are not uncommon, in fact, an average person has at least five dreams per night and therefore, it is not abnormal to land into a jungle of our subconsciousness. But there are some dreams that are particularly disturbing, horrific, and graphic. It is hard to forget visuals of such dreams, as a result, we wake up restless and dry-mouthed, as though we have lived the dream.
One of such dreams could be about your parents dying, irrespective of whether they are still alive or not. Dr. Sigmund Freud opined that dreams are a form of suppressed longing and our unconscious desires, thoughts, and motivations, reports News Corp. Building upon this, one can say that dreaming about your parent's death might mean pondering over your life choices and trying to figure out the approaches you should undertake to lead life.
However, modern theorists have concluded that dreams should not be taken literally. Experts like dream analyst and former scientist Jane Teresa Anderson believe death dreams are a normal reaction to daily life stressors. Some go as far as to say they can help in working through traumatic life events.
Others believe that dreaming about your parents' death usually means regret, nostalgia, disappearance, broken relationships, and mistrust in love.
It could also mean that you are trying to cope up with the challenges in your professional and personal life and the after effect lingers on even when you are unconscious. Additionally, it indicates that your mind is laden with doubts and apprehensions about issues more than one and you are trying to figure out a way to navigate through the tough times. If you dream about one of your parents dying and speaking to you, it could suggest that your fear of losing them is overwhelming you and you are not ready for that phase.
Psychotherapist Jeffrey Sumber believes that the unconscious mind plays unsettling situations when you are asleep because you may not be able to go through it in real life. “Dreams also allow us to process information or events that may be painful or confusing in an environment that is at once emotionally real but physically unreal,” he said.
He told Huffington Post that a dream about death could help to resolve anxieties or anger towards the subject. “We dream in order to learn about ourselves and develop undeveloped elements of our personality. The only way to avoid anything from the unconscious is to do our inner work and make peace with it.”
M. Anderson, an author of six books on the subject, told News Corp that dreaming about your parents' death can be a positive thing. She says they are symbolic of the positive transformations awaiting in your life. “Death dreams have a theme of what is ending, what’s changing in your life … This ending is the start of a new beginning,” she said. “It’s really important to say that most deaths we might dream of are probably positive, in order to move onto new things we have to let go of old things,” she added.
She continued that people who are struggling to make bigger decisions in life even when necessary experience death dreams which in a way gives them an unconscious insight on the subject and opens doors for better decision making.
“What it is doing is giving you insight into your mindset and how your unconscious mind is working. You can look at them and see how you feel about a subject and make a great decision.”
No, dreams cannot be predictions, if they were, we would have experienced many impossible things unfold in front of us. “We all have death dreams, if you haven’t had one before now it is really quite surprising. They are really common,” Ms. Anderson said.
As scary as they pan out to be, they cannot be predictions. “If all those death dreams were predictions we wouldn’t have many people left walking around on the planet,” she said.
However, she did say a death dream may be an indicator of an unhealthy lifestyle or a health warning that might need consultation. “Just to be on the safe side and put your mind at ease go and see a doctor and get a general health check,” she said.
Right from the time we are born, we look at our parents as guardians and role models. As we grow up, our relationship paradigm with them alters and they carry out different roles at different times. Dreaming about the death of a parent could mean that we are longing for security and the carefree days of our childhood.
It could also mean that you are more attached to your parents than ever and want them to be your guiding force like the olden times. As we said, dreams as such bring out our emotional state and current needs, therefore, it could indicate that you want your relationship to go back to square one where they protected you from every situation in life. Alternatively, this could reflect the stresses and insecurities in your life and your longing to be at peace with yourself.
Disclaimer: This article is based on insights from different sources. The views expressed here are those of the writer.
References:
https://dreamastromeanings.com/dream-of-dead-father-meaning/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2011/07/13/dreams-about-death_n_891555.html
