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

Kelly Bulkeley (Author), Rev. Patricia Bulkley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 15, 2005

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 themes: 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The authors offer a unique how-to on interpreting dreams one has during the period just before death. With a nod to various scientific and religious factions whose opinions of dreams range from considering them to be of no value to believing they are works of Satan, the authors contend that "one of the functions of dreaming is precisely to create the meanings that will help us face the end with courage and understanding." If the very thing that defines humans is the ability to find meaning, they say, then allowing oneself to experience, remember, and find meaning in dreams can only serve to enrich one's last days. To support that supposition, they present anecdotes gleaned mainly from hospice spiritual-services provider Bulkley's professional experience. They make a case in favor of dreams as endowing the journey to death with opportunities for mending fences, making peace with a troubled conscience, and looking beyond temporary pain to a rich reward or, at least, a welcome serenity. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

A slender but powerful new book . . . the authors inject level-headed analysis into an arena often dominated by seekers of the paranormal. --Anne Underwood, Newsweek

"While the book avoids adopting a particular religious perspective and sidesteps questions about the existence of life after death or the predictive power of dreams, it is infused with the sense that dreams-and human lives-are intrinsically meaningful." --Library Journal

"A groundbreaking book . . . from the dying dream of Socrates to the last vision of Carl Jung, it integrates a kaleidoscope of knowledge on the role of dreams in world history, theology, and myth."--Sarah Berkley, Sonoma Index-Tribune


From the Trade Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (July 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807077208
• ISBN-13: 978-0807077207
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Help for the dying and their caregivers, February 1, 2006

By 

K. Sullivan (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreaming Beyond Death: A Guide to Pre-Death Dreams and Visions (Hardcover)

This excellent title helps people to understand the types of dreams that people have prior to dying- and how to honor and use the messages that come with these dreams. It will be particularly useful for family and friend caregivers who may not understand the importance of dreams in preparing a person for death and how dreams can bring meaning and peace to the process. It provides also a very short, yet incredibly useful, introduction on how to interpret dreams in general. This title is highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mortal Wisdom, October 30, 2008

By 

M. E. Tappan (Lakewood, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreaming Beyond Death: A Guide to Pre-Death Dreams and Visions (Paperback)

Patricia Bulkely is a spiritual counselor in Hospice. And Kelly Bulkeley has wide experience as a dream researcher and author. Together they have written a poignant book of the dying and their dreams. By exploring the meaning of the dreams and visions of the dying, the authors hope to help people recover not only a meaningful sense of death, but what it means to be alive.

The lessons of pre-death dreams constellate around three themes. And the authors report that the understanding of these themes can help the dreamer expand and deepen the awareness of their life. The first theme noted from the dreams of the dying is that death in dreams is most often represented by the idea of a journey, rather than the cessation of life. For example, one dying man began to have dreams of a ship on the ocean. And in the dream, he was the captain of that ship.

The second type of dream often experienced by the dying is the "visitation" dream, an emotionally intense and often "hyperrealistic" dream in which the dreamer is visited by someone deceased who returns to provide guidance, reassurance or warning. These types of dreams, the authors report, do not so much deny death but transcend death, "providing experiential evidence of human connections that extend beyond mortal life."

The third type of dream often experienced by the dying is dream in which the obstacles in life are made known. If death is viewed as a journey, write the authors, then these pre-death dreams serve as a source of insight of the obstacles along that path. This type of dream seems to tell us that impending death will not wash away our regrets, our mistaken beliefs or what we view as our transgressions. We will in life, have to come to terms with the obstacles that have hindered us while living. The authors note as example, a dying woman whose traditional religious beliefs offered neither solace nor guidance as she neared death. Her dreams though helped her envision a reality where God did not punish, and where death was seen as a passage into another realm of life that included joy and reunion with those she loved.

"What the dying person experiences in waking life as an agonizing onslaught of painful memory becomes, in dreaming," the authors point out, "the raw material for new growth, broader connections, and a deeper sense of self-integrity." The self that lives in denial of dark secrets, inevitably crumbles in dreams.

The authors disagree with claims "that all religious and mystical traditions lead to the same realization of pure consciousness, peak experience, absolute unitary being, or any other monolithic, one-size-fits-all state of mind. At least in the realm of dreaming," the authors report, "the revelatory experience is so deeply rooted in the individual's personal life history and cultural context that it makes no sense to try and extract a `universal core' from it."

This book also includes a chapter on "Care for the Dying," "A Summary of Methods," and "Resources for Caregiving for the Terminally Ill."

4 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming?, October 17, 2005

By 

David K. Tragle (Mt. Juliet, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreaming Beyond Death: A Guide to Pre-Death Dreams and Visions (Hardcover)

While, I have heard the contention that dreams serve a purpose of helping a person deal with events in their life, I cannot recall any that have accomplished that in my life. The book mentions that category and I wish some time had been spent on that subject. As far as the book went, I found the various experiences of case histories fascinating. Especially the one of Socrates, in which the dream was actually prophetic.