Every person experiences the pain of losing a loved one at some point in their lives.

But, the loss of a particular loved one can have a greater impact on us than we anticipate.

Have you ever, for instance, dreamt about a person who is no longer living? You may not have given any thought to the significance of their appearance in your dreams.

Everyone grieves differently after the loss of a loved one. Many people cry their hearts out, while others go silent and withdraw inward.

“Now if I, an individual who studied dreams with a skeptical scientific cast of mind, could not shake the conviction that I had just communicated with my dead parents, how much stronger must be the conviction of someone with a less skeptical approach to dreams than me?,” McNamara writes.

There are more people than just Patrick McNamara who are curious about dreams like these, and a number of studies have been conducted to learn more about them.

A study analyzing the effects of mourning dreams was published in 2014 in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care.

“Dreams of the deceased occur frequently, can be highly meaningful and further healing from a loss.”  the study concluded.

Themes in the dreams included “past memories or experiences, the deceased free of illness, memories of the deceased’s illness or time of death, the deceased in the afterlife appearing healthy, comfortable and at peace as well as the deceased communicating a message.”

In 2016, a group of Canadian researchers examined the dreams of 76 middle-aged people who had just experienced a significant loss.

Those who had just lost a loved one, 67.1% said that dreaming about the departed strengthened their faith in a hereafter.

Seventy percent said they felt like they were having visits from the dead in their dreams, and 71 percent said that dreaming about the dead strengthened their sense of connection to the departed.

also read