Death dreams

I’ve been thinking about death a lot recently. It’s been a weird but kind of therapeutic journey. I’d imagine a lot of this was driven by my father in-law having a stroke and a potentially near death experience last fall. That experience combined with the fact that I’m now 34 and “not young” anymore has me thinking more and more about life and death in general.

I don’t think it’s something I worry about - I hope to live a long life, but thinking about death has also made me reprioritize my life a bit which has been a net positive.

I listened to a podcast by the The Daily’s Sunday read about death bed dreams and I found it fascinating. In short, people who are nearing the end of their lives often have very happy dreams about their lives and potential after lives. This all starts weeks but goes all the way up to the day of death.

People who studied these dreams report them as very therapeutic. The dreams are often about loved ones, pets, or happy moments in their lives. The dreams can often create a sense of fulfillment about one’s life. It sounded as if one’s brain and soul was recapping the happiest moments of life.

On top of that, people reported having a lot of dreams about seeing loved ones in the future. People who are close to dying were no longer afraid to die because of these dreams. Despite growing up Catholic, I haven’t been a very religious person and I’m not sure I believe in an after life. But this gave me a lot of to think about.

I couldn’t help but think if these dreams were similar to psychedelic induced trips that have been the rage recently.