Thinking Aloud....
DREAMING ABOUT THE DEAD
There isn't much scholarly research on the question of "visitation dreams," by which I mean the archetypal pattern of dreaming of the dead, particularly the recently dead. There are numerous books and stories in the popular literature side of things - just take a look at what comes up when you put "visitation dreams" into the search box for Amazon books, for example.
Visitation dreams themselves are so ubiquitous that everybody mentions them in passing: Freud, Jung, Adler, von Franz, the Zohar, Shakespeare, the Dhamapada, and so forth, but I am not aware of any serious scientific studies.
Personally, I am convinced that the rationalist/materialist explanation is at least one of the reliable, recurrent threads of meaning and implication that influence the visitation dreams that I have had and the many that I have heard, namely: that the image of the deceased person or animal, is, at one level a symbolic representation of the part(s) of the dreamer's own psyche that were profoundly influenced by the deceased when they were alive, and which the dreamer may have experienced as unconscious projection on the dead person/animal when they were alive, and that appear in the visitation dreams wearing the mask of the face of the discarnate person for purposes of recognition.
Often it seems to me that the images of the deceased arrive in the remembered dream to make the symbolic point that the vital energies of the dreamer and his/her projection of those energies and emotional patterns on the deceased continue to "live on" in the life of the dreamer, even after the object of his/her projections has died. However, I don't think this can possibly be the whole story. There have been too many instances where the deceased person delivers information in the remembered dream that the dreamer simply had no way of knowing and which when followed up in waking life turns out to be true. As always, dreams have multiple meanings and implications.
I comfort myself that the regions beyond the grave are a mystery and that in all likelihood what we experience in waking life as the "dream" probably persists as the "after-life." The collective unconscious from whence all dreams ultimately spring, is timeless and eternal, and tends to be experienced as the eternal now rather than the "iron road" of past, present, and future that we experience in waking life.
-Jeremy
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November 21
Kentfield, CA
One-Day Workshop 
Hurry, last chance!
Open to all
Schedule:
Saturday, Nov 21, 9:30-5:30pm
Where:
Private home in Kentfield, CA, in the beautiful Bay Area. Please bring a bag lunch as no food is nearby. We will provide snacks and there will be a refrigerator and microwave.
Cost:$80
Sponsored and Organized by Laura St. Claire
More Information:
December 5
Sacramento, CA
One-Day Workshop 
Workshop is open to all.
Where:
4542 North Park Drive, Sacramento, CA (about 1.5 hours from the Bay Area)
Schedule:
9:30-5:30pm
Cost:
$125 (lunch included)
Sponsored and Organized by:
Ruth Reynolds
Registration & Information:
Contact: Ruth at:
December 13 and 20
Berkeley, CA
Personal Theology Series
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View from the back patio of the church.
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Jeremy will once again present two free talks at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley. He has done this for many years and always enjoys the informal atmosphere and the chance to dialog with those who attend.
Schedule: 10-11am
Where:
Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley
1 Lawson Rd, Kensington, CA 94707
510/525-0302
More information:
Cost: free
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