Can we experience death in a dream?
 

Just saw this quote on the web: “You wake up when you die in a dream because you don’t know what happens next.”
And I thought to myself “as one can’t experience death (you can’t be conscious of being unconscious), what happens if I die in a imaginary world?”

I've heard that if you dream of weddings it implies that a certain death will occur in your life - not necessarily meaning that you or someone will die but rather that a release akin to death will happen i.e. you might lose your job etc.

Good catch. Any other thoughts on this anyone?

Lets see. Here's my ramblings.

I usually tend to think of death as a graduation of sorts, which would not even nearly imply anything about consciousness on the other side. So the graduation concept doesn't benefit the mystery.

Then again, death is only a physical expiration process as we have defined it. Death is a null value of absolutely nothing functional in the physical. It symbolizes something that serves no purpose any longer.

Does death necessarily have a start and finish to it?

Does our spiritual entity expire or age?

I'd like to say that imagination is limited to the mind, but recently I've been questioning such. I guess that is really what should be figured out first - defining the limits of imagination. Does it have the same characteristics and qualities as spiritual life?

I have a tale to tell here.

At the time I'm now talking about we lived in a beautiful ground floor flat in a small block tucked away from all noise. When I sat at my favourite place in the living room I really appreciated one corner of the room, it was so lovely to look at. There was the end of a bookcase, an oil painting of a lake scene and a bushy, strong plant which my wife and I both loved and took great care of.
I can still see the scene in my mind's eye today and it still gives me pleasure.

One Friday evening I didn't feel very well and quickly became worried that I had something wrong with my heart - although I couldn't explain it. So I went to bed much earlier than usual and didn't hear my wife come to bed. In the night I dreamt that I entered a building site, a new house was being erected but it was far from finished. There was however a woman in what would later be the kitchen and she was doing the washing up. I suddenly realised that I was on private property and she'd probably complain - but I needed to go to the lavatory badly. Once there, standing peeing, I looked into the mirror which was already in place(!) and looking at myself it became clear to me in an instant that I had died/was dead. I got such a shock at this very strongly transmitted news that I woke up.

Needless to say I was more than happy to see that everything was normal and dropped off to sleep again.

In the morning I got out of bed at my usual time and noted how the odd feeling that I had something wrong with my heart had gone. So I went off to make breakfast. On the way to the kitchen I glanced into the living room and saw, to my consternation that our strong and bushy and well-cared for plant had collapsed onto the floor and was lying on its side although the roots were firm in the large still-standing pot it was in. The plant couldn't be saved. My wife couldn't understand it - even after I told her about my dream.

One can read into this what one will. But for me there was a very strong sense of connection.

Maybe we don't quite realise just how much we are in contact with other lives.

Yes you can experience death in a dream. When I was 10 years I dreamt that I was dead and I even came out of my body and saw people wrapping my body in a linen and I could feel and see that I was dead. My grandmother passed 3 weeks later.

In 2011 I saw a dead body on the road covered in white linen and an ambulance taking it away on the stretcher and it was my body. The dream was telling me that my life as I knew it was ended and that was my spiritual awakening.

I have no clue... It appears I'm literally immortal in my dreams because whenever I'm in danger I either wake up or the dream theme changes before poo hits the fan.

I think it is hard to answer this question generally, because we do not know what death is and what happens after it to the disembodied person or consciousness for sure !

If we knew, we could then precisely state whether we died in a dream or not .

This reminds me of the concept of baptism, where one is "buried" in water and then raised back to life, coming out of the water.

Another thought that rises in my head: do spiritual awakening and physical death carry any similar qualities?

well to answer that... contrary to what you said above I have always thought of the purpose of baptism being to give you a taste of life...

People can die in a dream. I think maybe it's from a weak heart and having a nightmare.