Dreams are mysterious mind musings of our sleeping brain. Most of the dream meanings about friends, animals, death, falling, and pregnancy remain elusive and hazy.
Another dream theme that can be added to the list and can baffle you in no time is dreaming of a dead friend.
A dead loved one in a dream certainly holds a deeper meaning and that’s the reason your subconscious mind is creating images of someone close to you, with whom you still hold an emotional connection.
When you see a deceased person in dreams, it means you are missing him/her in reality. Sometimes this dream has a symbolic connotation. It symbolizes loss of something important in waking life.
Sometimes your dead friend may appear in dreams to give you some advice or warning that you need to acknowledge.
In this article, we will explore the hidden meanings and messages of such a common dream, especially from those who have left us behind and travelled to an unknown land of mystery and can connect with us only through dreams. Right?
Dreaming of a Dead Friend – General Meaning
SUMMARY
When you dream about a dead friend, it symbolizes old bonding and past connections that you seem to miss in real life now. The dream conveys deeper emotional connections with your beloved friend. It also denotes unfinished business, regrets and guilt that you are carrying in reality.
Dreaming of a dead friend is a common one in dream dictionaries. This dream is symbolic and the friend appears in dreams as an emotional image. Maybe you are missing an important and happy timeline of your life.
You wish to cherish the old bond again in waking life with someone else but are unable to do so. The dream signifies that you are longing to get back something that you have lost in reality.
When you dream of a deceased friend, it also means that you have some unfinished business with them.
Your subconscious mind is still showing the hidden conflicts that remain as deep scars in your unconscious mind.
Maybe you are feeling guilty and repenting for not settling out things with your deceased friend when they were a part of your real life.
Sometimes you may dream about a dead person in times of adversities in real life. They symbolize comfort and emotional warmth.
Your dead friend represents a close confidant who had helped you many times previously and now you’re badly missing them in your waking life.
Maybe the dream assures you that there is someone in waking life who can help you in similar ways like your deceased friend.
The dream tells you to seek support from that individual to overcome your real-life issues. In most dream scenarios, dreaming about a dead friend also means blessings for a good future.
The dream represents that your misfortunes will soon go away and your life will shine in peace, happiness, and harmony.
Dreaming of dead friends also means you will feel lighthearted and joyful in waking life. Seeing your old confidant in dreams represents positivity, success, and prosperity.
If you are experiencing any real life loss or in grief due to some failure or disappointments, you may see your dead friend in dreams.
The dream conveys the message to go through a process of emotional healing. You are reminded to let go of past pains and overcome the grief. It reminds you to stop mourning and start rebuilding whatever you have lost.
If the loss symbolizes something tangible such as job loss, failures in accomplishing goals, the dream tells you to work hard, with utmost focus and concentration and rebuild your future in a brand new way.
Dreams about dead friends signifies the end of suffering and a new beginning of growth and development.
Symbolically dreaming of dead friends mean the following:
1. Deepest fears and insecurities
When you dream about a dead friend, it means you are feeling insecure about losing something important in waking life.
The dream indicates that certain things are not going right in your real world. It represents deep fear of failing in an endeavor that may give rise to unhappiness and hopelessness.
Dreaming of a dead friend signifies losing emotional support from significant others in waking life. Probably you have been missing your friend for quite some time now and feeling insecure about not having anyone around to seek help and support from.
2. Grief and mourning
When someone close to you passes away, it is obvious to feel sad and depressed. The grief and emotional pain attached with the incident of death will take time to overcome and heal completely.
Thus, they may appear frequently in your dreams. Your subconscious mind is showing the emotional pain and agony of losing someone dear to you.
Dreams about dead friends symbolizes grief and mourning. Maybe you are missing his/her presence in your life and holding onto the memories of the past.
A common psychology is you have never wished to let go of your friendship. But in reality, life is full of surprises that may change everything pretty soon.
Your dead friend comes back in your dreams because you have not yet overcome the loss and accepted the death as a real happening.
3. Lifestyle changes
Dream of a dead friend also symbolizes certain lifestyle changes that compelled you to get separated from your loving friend.
If you have taken up a new job and moved to a new city, you could have lost touch with your dear friend. So, the dream symbolizes separation from your friend that you have never expected to happen in reality.
It indicates that you’re missing the presence of your friend in reality and the death only signifies a symbolic meaning. It denotes the end of friendship, not being able to connect with them in reality.
You are experiencing a major life change or transition in which you would have preferred to have your friend living with you in person, but somehow it’s not happening and as such you are lamenting the loss in waking life.
4. Guilt and agonies
Sometimes dreams about a dead friend also means you are feeling guilty of wrongdoing with your friend in reality. It means you are carrying an emotional burden with you and have not been able to come out of it.
The dream symbolizes an unfinished business with your friend and they are coming back in the subconscious mind to remind you that what you did was not right.
Maybe the dream is showing you are repenting for your mistakes and want to seek his/her forgiveness.
Sometimes the dream also means that you’re feeling guilty for being too busy in waking life that led to neglecting your friends in reality.
The dream signifies self blaming tendencies. You think you are at fault for not being able to maintain close ties with your friend in reality, somehow you were not there to help them when they needed you most.
5. Troubles coming ahead
Sometimes dreams about dead people, especially of someone close to you such as friend, family members, or relatives also symbolizes bigger troubles coming your way that can rob your inner peace and happiness.
The dream represents misfortunes and unforeseen problems that may test your resilience to move through trying times. It signifies helplessness, self-doubt as well.
If you are under some kind of stress and pressure in waking life, you may see your dead friend in dreams. The dream reminds you that you are overburdened with negative emotions that are getting hard to bear in reality.
6. Sign that you need to let go Pessimistic thoughts
Sometimes dreams about dead friends also signifies pessimism, sadness, and mental agonies. Maybe you are feeling overwhelmed and the dream gives you temporary relief from agony.
Your friend appears in dreams to remind you that everything in life is transitory, so your problems will also go away one day. It tells you to stay strong in adverse times and never give up hope.
Seeing a dead friend is an indication that your subconscious is trying to communicate to build your inner strength and optimism.
It tells you to seek help and support from others in waking life if the need arises and to stop feeling helpless and lonely.
7. Loss of emotional support
When you dream of losing someone dear to you, it symbolizes lack of emotional support in reality. You are feeling lonely in waking life because you do not have anyone to lean on in trying times.
The dream holds a symbolic significance in your life. Maybe you’re missing the physical proximity with your deceased friend. You are feeling alone in waking life. There is no one to support you in times of adversity.
16 Common types of dreams about dead friends
If you dream about close pals very frequently, it means you shared a strong connection with them when they were there in the real world.
This is a visitation dream because your dead friend visits you to deliver some message that you have ignored in reality. Maybe the message will help you navigate through life’s problems in a better way.
However, the correct interpretation of death dreams depends upon the details of the dream scenario and your emotions attached to it. If you were comfortable seeing your friend in need, it symbolizes growth and progress.
It also symbolizes that you want to imbibe certain good qualities of your friend in waking life.
On the flip side, if the dream appears fearful and you seem to experience discomfort after seeing such a vision, it means you’re guilty of some wrongdoing with your deceased friend.
There is still some unfinished business with them that you need to resolve in order to free yourself from the emotional baggage that you were carrying for so long in waking life.
In this section, we will discuss the 16 dream scenarios of dreaming about a dead friend and illustrate the symbolic significance in waking life.
1. Dream of seeing a dead friend alive
This dream symbol is a wish fulfillment maneuver of your unconscious mind. When you dream about a dead friend alive, it means you are missing them in reality and wish that they could be there with you now.
The dream suggests an emotional bonding with the deceased friend. Maybe the person was an integral part of your life and your mind is still carrying the old memories and cherishing it to the fullest.
Maybe unconsciously you are stuck in a happy timeline of your life that was pleasant, easy-going, and with no worries to ponder every now and then.
The dream symbolizes your lack of acceptance about the death of a dear friend. Your subconscious mind is reminding you to cope with the loss in a healthy manner.
It’s advising you to let go of the emotional pain and accept the fact that the deceased friend cannot come back again and become a part of your real world.
Sometimes seeing a dead friend alive means unexpected changes coming in your waking life which can put you in disbelief and confusion.
2. Dreaming of a dead friend smiling
If you dream of a dead friend smiling, it can mean many things. The exact interpretation depends upon your relationship with the deceased friend.
If you had a very good relationship with your friend while he/she was alive, this dream represents joy and happiness.
Maybe something good is going to happen in waking life and the dream just tells you to be prepared and enjoy life to the fullest.
If your friend was having a gentle smile, it actually denotes your loving and kind feelings towards them. Moreover, it also means you have a loving and caring group of friends and family in waking life who are ready to help you in times of distress.
However, if your friend smiles at you wickedly, it means a sarcastic smile. It actually denotes your ill feeling towards the deceased. The dream represents unhappiness with friends in waking life.
The dream also reveals your actual experiences with the deceased friend when they were alive. A dead friend smiling in a dream also reminds you to accept the reality and move on with your life.
The dream reminds you to find peace in waking life by accepting the loss. You should never get stuck in negative emotions and regrets, otherwise the emotional pain will not go away soon.
3. Dreaming of a dead friend talking to you
This dream interpretation has to do more with you than your dead friend. Seeing a dead friend talking to you actually symbolizes your hidden wish to reconnect with them, talk to them and spend time with them.
You are lamenting the loss of someone with whom you may have spent many years of togetherness. The death of him/her is still unacceptable to you.
You are still living in pain and agony and the subconscious hints towards an innate wish to unite with them in real-life.
Sometimes this dream also has a negative message or the dreamer. It indicates that you are having some real-life issue with someone that is getting sour day by day, but you are unable to resolve it because you do not know what to say and how to undo things in the right manner.
A dead friend speaking to you in dreams symbolizes inner chaos, lack of confidence, public speaking issues etc.
However, in some dream scenarios this dream also indicates a positive sign. Your dead friend is trying to convey a good message.
People in your waking life are helpful, kind, and compassionate. They will always help you sail through trying times by giving you valuable advice.
4. Dreaming of kissing a dead friend
When you dream about kissing a dead friend, it means you are worried about the plight of your relationship with a loved one in real-life.
This dream is a symbolic one where the dead friend actually represents someone dear to you in waking life.
Maybe you had some recent issue with them in reality that is undone and the dream reminds you to sort out the issue to live in peace and harmony. It symbolizes certain untold stories from either side that need to be heard and undone.
In some dream scenarios, kissing a dead friend means you have adopted a new way of life, maybe you have learned better ways of behavior management with people around you. Now you are trying to ignore all the differences with the loved one and wish to blend with their viewpoints and opinions. In this regard, kissing a friend represents forgiveness of mistakes from both sides, moving towards a healthy union.
5. Dreaming of sex with a dead friend
When you dream of having a sex with a dead friend, it simply means that you’re trying to revive your old bond in reality.
Maybe there was someone in your waking life with whom you initially had a lot of differences and conflicts but now everything is in place and you are at peace with him/her.
Symbolically this dream denotes that it’s time to change certain things in your present relationship, if it’s not working in the desired direction.
Usually this dream is a negative one, symbolizing lack of emotional closeness to your partner or spouse in waking life.
If you’re not happy in your present relationship and crave for happiness and emotional closure but not getting it in reality, the dream indicates your unconscious attempts to revisit a past timeline of life where you had great connections to look forward to.
As you are unhappy in real-life, your subconscious mind is showing scenes of emotional closeness and happy bonding with a dead friend, just to help you overcome the present relationship crisis that you are in.
6. Dreams about fighting about a dead friend
If you dream of fighting with a dead friend, it could mean many things depending upon your real life scenarios and problems.
Sometimes this is a wish fulfillment dream that reminds you of your past fights and squabbling with them. You wish you could relive those moments again in real-life.
The dream also hints towards a negative connotation. Maybe you had some unresolved issues with your dead friend before they passed away.
You didn’t get a chance to settle or sort out the issue and your subconscious is popping up with weird scenes of fights that show your guilt and remorse.
Sometimes, fighting with a dead friend also means real-life quarrels and disagreements with someone else, close to you in waking life.
It could be a family member, an acquaintance, or a dear friend with whom you recently had a fight and carrying the burden of unresolved conflicts, yet to be sorted out easily.
The dream symbolizes an inner battle, chaos, and restless state of mind that is robbing your inner peace and happiness.
7. Dreaming of hugging a dead friend
When you dream of hugging a dead friend, it means you are missing your friend in reality and wish they were still around. It means you still harbor a close connection with them. This is an easy way to interpret.
But as said, this dream also has a symbolic meaning. When you hug a dead friend in a dream, it means you’re trying to resolve an inner battle with yourself.
Maybe your present day relationships are not smooth enough and you are constantly fighting to attain peace and harmony.
A big hug to a dead friend symbolizes your trials to resolve issues with ‘self’ and others in reality. It means you have learned to let go of some past hurts, if any and move on in your life.
It means truce and mutual collaboration with them, so that peace, happiness, and harmony can prevail in each other’s life.
8. Dream of a dead friend lying in the coffin
This dream symbol is no doubt troubling and terrifying. If you dream of a dead friend lying in the coffin, it means the end of good relationships.
It indicates new problems coming your way that can rob your peace of mind and happiness.
It also means some unexpected changes and bad surprises that may become hard to accept in reality.
The dream represents that your real-life connections may get sour soon. It is a warning sign to take note of what’s happening in your present life.
The coffin in dreams represents that you need to let go of certain old habits and faulty perspectives in life. You need to bury those things that do not serve a good purpose in waking life.
Your dead friend reminds you to forgo stuff that has become useless. It tells you to remove negative vines from your life, so as to invite peace, joy, and harmony around you.
9. Dreaming about the death of a close friend
When you dream of the death of a close friend, it signifies a big loss in waking life. The dream symbolizes pain and sufferings that are hard to bear in reality.
A close friend represents comfort, joy, happiness, and peace of mind. So seeing them dead in dreams indicates loss of something important in waking life.
It also means you are concerned about the well-being of someone in real-life. It could be a friend, or family member, and even an acquaintance with whom you share a special bonding.
10. Dreams about someone killing your friend to death
This dream symbol is disturbing and shows your fear and concern about people in real-life. Maybe you are concerned about the well-being of your loved ones in waking life.
The subconscious mind is popping up scenes of fear and apprehensions about whether they would remain healthy and hearty in real-life.
It also means that someone close to you in waking life is moving through some hardships and struggles and they are seeking support and refuge from you.
In some dream themes, this dream signifies a major life change, a transition from good to bad; or bad to worse. Whatever it may be, the dream reminds you to stay strong amidst adversities and sail through life’s journey gracefully.
11. Dreaming of a dead friend through an accident
If you see a dead friend who died of an accident, it means you will undergo some major change in life that will be stressful and emotionally overwhelming.
The dream also shows your weak and vulnerable ‘self’. It represents unexpected changes that can challenge your inner strength. You may not be prepared to face the hardships and thus feel scared and worried.
Your tenacity and perseverance will be put to tests and trials to see whether you can resolve your real-life issues in the best possible way.
12. Dreaming of a dread friend dying from falling
If you dream of a friend who passed away due to a fall, it means failures and disappointments in real-life. The dream suggests failure in accomplishing life goals that you’ve set for yourself.
It also reminds you to reassess your goals and see what needs to be done to make it happen in reality. In certain dream scenarios, this dream signifies your immature and insincere nature. You are not taking your goals seriously and thus failing in your endeavors.
Your dead friend appears in a dream to advise you to be focused and consistent; to keep up with your good work and appreciate and embrace all the good changes happening around you.
13. Dreaming of a dead friend dying due to drowning
If you dream of a friend dying or dead due to drowning, it means you are feeling anxious and emotional in waking life.
The dream suggests uncontrolled emotions, deepest fears, and agonies related to some failed relationship in waking life.
It symbolizes you are stuck in negativity and drowned in unhappiness and despair. A dead friend denotes death of a good bonding, you are feeling alone in waking life.
Maybe there is no backup support from anyone in waking life and you are feeling insecure and vulnerable from within.
Your true feelings are getting reflected in the dream world.
14. Dreams of finding the dead body of your friend
Seeing dead bodies of a loved one in dreams is a sign of a major crisis in waking life. It symbolizes some unexpected changes for which you were not prepared.
The dream is a manifestation of fear and insecurities of waking life. It symbolizes failures and disappointments that are hard to overcome in reality. Your confidence level has gone down and the dead friend tells you to revive what you have lost.
The dream signifies a transition that can be beneficial if you do something to stay strong and keep going without feeling overpowered by negativity.
15. Dream of a dead friend who died a long time ago
This dream symbol means that you still possess deeper feelings of your dead friend, maybe you are still stuck in your past memories. You still remember them and your subconscious is showing images of love and connectedness with your deceased friend.
Your dear friend haunts you in dreams because you are having an unfinished business with someone in waking life. Your dead friend is just a symbolic representation of that person in reality.
Maybe your subconscious mind is telling you to take the ongoing events seriously and remove the differences between you and the person, if any.
The dream also represents mourning and deep feelings of gloom and loneliness. It represents loss of something important in waking life, maybe loss of job, breakup with your partner, or failure to accomplish major life goals.
16. Dream of a dead friend asking for food or some other assistance
This dream symbolizes unfinished business between the two of you. Maybe you deprived your friend in some way when they were alive and now your subconscious mind is showing your misdeeds.
When someone shows up in dreams seeking your help and support, it symbolizes your guilt feelings. You are regretting that whatever you did with your friend was not right.
You wish your friend could forgive you in reality. The dream symbolizes agonies and emotional pain, a suffering and shame that hints towards a repentant heart.
Spiritual meaning of a dead friend in dreams
Dreaming of a dead friend means you are holding on to something which is painful and can never give you happiness and peace. You have not overcome the loss of someone dear to you. Thus, your sufferings are going on and on, breaking you from within.
Dreaming of a dead friend is a scary dream theme that no one would ever wish to see. It is a common human psychology that we want to get pleasure and avoid pain.
So a dream that gives you a lot of emotional pain can never become a part of your wish list. Spiritually, this dream symbolizes that you still hold a deeper and passionate connection with your dead friend.
They may have left you for their heavenly abode long ago, but they are fresh in your unconscious realm. You have not overcome the loss yet and may get recurring dreams about your dead friend.
Sometimes this dream represents your conscience. It reminds you that you were not there to help, when your friend needed you the most. It can also represent some wrongdoing done towards them for which you are repenting till now.
You are holding on to some past memories that were either too painful to accept or enough pleasurable to savor for a lifetime. Anything can be true, depending upon your personal experiences with the dead person.
Biblical meaning of a dead friend in dreams
In the Bible, dreaming of a dead friend means that they are offering you some valuable message that you need to listen to. It tells you to accept any change that comes your way in a healthy manner. The dream symbolizes transition and a new beginning.
The Bible says that death represents the end of a journey and beginning of a new one. It means the soul leaving one physical existence and entering into a new physical body for continuation of life.
Dreaming of a dead friend reminds you to give up your old ways of thinking and take upon new perspectives in life. It tells you to forget past hurts, pain, and grief and walk along the path of happiness and peace.
Your dead friend visits you in dreams to tell you that life is transitory and change is constant. Whatever is there today in your waking life will not be there forever. People who seem to be an integral part of your life now are not always going to be present always.
You are advised to accept the change gladly and move on with life’s journey happily. The dream also suggests that grief is transitory. With the flow of time, your wounds and cuts will heal and you will not feel the pain any longer.
Does dreams about dead friends mean healing from grief and guilt?
Dreaming of a dead friend, like any other death dreams symbolizes healing and overcoming grief. Sometimes your unconscious mind can tempt your sleeping brain to create weird stories that may or may not have any significance in waking life.
Dreaming of a dead friend may come to you when you are going through a major life change that is emotionally overwhelming.
You are missing a close confidant with whom you would have shared your worries and concerns, but since they are not a part of your real world now, you want them to be with you in dreams.
Whenever you lose a dear one in reality, grief and sad feelings may overtake you. You may start to overthink about the same person and process the emotions in a negative way. As if you are stuck and trapped in sadness.
In one way, these sad feelings help you to accept the reality of death. It tells you that a dead person cannot come back again.
If you are carrying an emotional baggage and feeling guilty of your wrongdoing towards your deceased friend, the dream helps you to process the emotions and take the burden off you.
The dream allowed you to say a ‘sorry’ to them and finish the unfinished business that irked you for so long in waking life.
How visitation dreams of a deceased friend affects the dreamer in waking life?
Dreaming of a dead friend is a visitation dream. Your deceased friend comes to you to give some important message, maybe some life lesson that can help in your spiritual growth and live a life of happiness and poise.
These dreams can affect the dreamer either positively or negatively. If you are baffled after seeing such a vision, the dream can affect you negatively.
It means that you are mourning about some loss in waking life and are yet to overcome it in reality.
Maybe the deceased friend is guiding you through a process of emotional healing. He/she is teaching you to accept life as it happens.
As every good and bad happenings in life are short-lived and transitory, you will also see new changes every now and then.
You are reminded to accept these changes easily without getting overwhelmed easily.
If you comprehend the meaning of these visitation dreams in a healthy way, it means that you have learned to enjoy your life and live in the best possible way.
Dreaming of a dead friend – The Good and the Ugly
A dead friend is an emotional image to reckon in a dream theme. It means that these dreams will carry both positive and negative connotations in dream symbolism.
The good side of such a theme would indicate the following:
- New beginning
- Major life changes
- Emotional healing
- Accepting reality
- Wisdom and important life lessons given by the deceased soul
The ugly side of dreams about a dead friend indicates:
- Grief
- deepest fears and insecurities
- Unfinished business
- Failures and disappointments
- Losing something significant in waking life
- Missing someone dear to you
- Conflicts and negative emotions attached with someone dear to you
- Poor insight
- Hazy life goals and indecisiveness
Questions to ask yourself when you dream about a dead friend
The dream interpretation of such an emotional vision takes into consideration the details of the dream theme, the feelings that accompanied such a scenario, and the real-life circumstances that you are in now.
To interpret the exact meanings of these dreams, you should ask yourself several questions before deciding on anything concrete.
- How often are you seeing your dead friend in dreams?
- Are they trying to tell you something important?
- How did you feel after getting up from such a dream?
- Do you think you still miss your dead friend in waking life?
- Are you happy with your present relationships? Is there anything that seems to be troubling you lately?
- Do you feel stuck and trapped in grief and want to overcome it?
- Do you harbor any hidden desire to get back your old and easy going days of fun and pure joy?
Wrap Up
Dreams are more emotional and less logical because they represent the visual, sensory, and verbal images of our waking life.
A dead friend in dreams is a symbolic image. They visit you to impart wisdom and teach important life lessons in an easy and friendly way.
You are reminded to follow your intuition and lean on your inner strength to fight odds in life. After all dreams are created by your unconscious mind foretelling something that you may want you know.
Over to you now…..
If you get dreams about unexpected guests then check its meaning here.
