Dreaming Beyond Death: A Guide to Pre-Death Dreams and Visions

by Kelly Bulkeley, Patricia Bulkley

Documented throughout time and across cultures, dreams experienced by those on the verge of death can offer profound insight into the process of dying and provide deep spiritual solace for the individual passing away. In Dreaming Beyond Death, Kelly Bulkeley and the Reverend Patricia Bulkley bring together their diverse areas of expertise to create a guide to pre-death dreams that offers practical advice and provides a broader understanding of this phenomenon.

Beginning with a look at dreams and dreaming in culture, history, psychology, and modern dream study, the authors show us that pre-death dreams tend toward three dreams in which death is represented as a journey; dreams in which a guide appears; and dreams involving obstacles that parallel concerns of the dying in real life. They draw on Patricia's ten years of hospice counseling to take us through the pre-death dreams of several terminally ill people, show us how to explore the meanings of dreams, and tell us why these particular dreams gave their dreamers a sense of resolution and tranquility. The last chapter provides clear, practical advice for caregivers on how they can respectfully guide those close to death through their dreaming experience.

Rev. Patricia Bulkley's experience as a spiritual counselor lends this book a deeply personal and human touch, while Kelly Bulkeley's intellectual framework makes it easy to understand the larger meanings behind pre-death dreams. Suitable reading for both the dying and for their caregivers, Dreaming Beyond Death brings to light a distinct and profound part of the dying process. From this book, we come to see that understanding pre-death dreams can not only provide comfort, it can also lead ultimately to a profound sense of peace.

160 pages, Hardcover

Published July 15, 2005

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really helpful little book on experience of pre-death dreaming. Written by a mother-son duo, one a hospice chaplain with significant experience in pre-death care and the other a dream researcher, this is an excellent and informative book.

The authors helpfully chart a path that largely avoids questions of the "reality" of such experiences or the specifics of spiritual practice or tradition, beginning instead by giving an overview of dream psychology and simply stating the fact that people across time and different cultures have related these kinds of experiences, and that they often help people process and move into either their own death or the death of someone close to them. The themes that are highlighted are helpful and clear: dreams that involve journeying, travel, or transition; dreams that involve a guide, or the "visitation" of someone who is already dead; and dreams that deal with obstacles people are facing as they move towards death. The stories related are helpful in making it tangible, and there are easy suggestions for anyone who wants to pay attention to these kinds of dreams and utilize them, either personally, or in caring for others who are approaching death.

The topic covered by this book seems like such a vital one for spiritual leaders and those involved in end-of-life care to be aware of and able to engage in. I would recommend this book for anyone that description fits, or anyone who is interested in understanding more about human psychology and the psychology of dreaming.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a newly trained death doula who hopes to work with the dying and their loved ones (and their dreams), I enjoyed this book very much. Some favorites sections:

"...don’t dismiss “bizarre” dream elements out of hand, but hold open as a possibility the idea that the very strangest parts of people’s dreams may serve as openings to new knowledge and wisdom."

Lakoff: “ 'Dreams are not just the weird and meaningless product of random neural firings but rather the natural way by which emotionally charged fears, desires, and descriptions are expressed.' When we look at the dreams that come before death, we find the metaphor-generating system of the mind working with extraordinary intensity to make sense of something that is, by its very nature, outside the realm of lived experience. This makes pre-death dreams both unusually challenging to understand and potentially profound in their revelatory insight."

"Here, as in many cases, the dreams were far ahead of the dying person’s conscious awareness in terms of preparing for what’s to come." (Carl Jung also believed this.)

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure I agree with many of the premises in this book, but great advice on listening to people who are in last stage of living.

[Dnicebear · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the privilege of taking a class and then being the assistant for Kelly Bulkeley, and I appreciate his scholarly focus as well as the accessibility of his books on dreams. I am re-reading this book, taking it slowly, because right now my mother is dying. I was inspired to gather some of the dreams she shared with us over the past years and to marvel at how they have prepared her/us for this great transition. Today I am enjoying the story of Wang Chiu-lien's visitation dream and the monk's instructions. (p. 25, 26) "This is exactly what religious traditions at their best try to do, namely, to help people cultivate their sense of creative engagement with forces greater than themselves," says Bulkeley.

[Lorin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read like a textbook at times, and could have used more examples of people's dreams, but overall an interesting read.

[Johnny]

Still in the middle of the book...but really enjoying it.