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

by Kelly Bulkeley, Rev. Patricia Bulkley

Drawing from a rich understanding of dreaming in culture, history, psychology, and modern dream study, Kelly Bulkeley and Patricia Bulkley's Dreaming Beyond Death explicitly addresses three common aspects of pre-death dreams and offers interpretations that will aid both dying persons and their caregivers. Rev. Patricia Bulkley's experience with the transformative possibilities of pre-death dreams as a hospice counselor lend this book a deeply personal and human touch, while Kelly Bulkeley's insightful analysis and intellectual framework provide an understanding of the deeper meanings behind this type of dreaming. A final chapter provides resources and concrete methods for caregivers to respectfully guide a dying person through the dreaming process to a sense of peace.

Genres: Death, Psychology

160 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2006

Reviews

[Craig Bingham · 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.