Special Dream

by Luellen Hoffman
(Fairfax, VA)

Native Americans believe that after someone dies, they come back in a dream to a family member
to let the family know that they are alright.
I beleve this too - Author

Section I

Introduction

This book is about a supernatural topic and was approached from an objective and straightforward manner, following months of research that were conducted in a conventional and nonscientific fashion.

Special Dream contains a series of true personal stories of one specific type of dream that individuals experienced after the death of a close relative, friend or loved one. According to this research these dreams are rare and occur in less than 3% of the population, but can happen to anyone. Why it happens to so few people is unexplainable. My research showed that while the highest number of advertising units went out in the state of Massachusetts the fewest number of people responded. The lowest number of advertising units went out in Alaska reaping the highest response.

Maybe the reason for this is because people in the lower forty-nine states receive a higher exposure to mass communications and the bombardment of messages block people from remembering their special dream. Or maybe it is due to the conservative nature of the people living in New England and thus their reluctance to share their stories. I found no valid answer as to why this happened, and do not believe it is because the people in Alaska are having this experience more then the people in New England. Although they could be. The special dream stories in this book were submitted from people all across the United States.

The special dream experience is described as intense, but natural. The dreamer is fully aware of the encounter as it taps deeply into the emotions within the relationships that bind the human spirit with the deceased person. This book identifies one specific type of dream where the deceased spirit returns to visit and comfort the living. The dream encounter occurs without prior warning or knowledge, and lasts a very short time. No matter how intensely anyone may want to see a deceased person, or how open he or she is to the spiritual world, these encounters are rare and only occur if the gift of a special dream is granted to each by a higher, supernatural power or depending on your faith, God.

Everyone interviewed for this book experienced a special dream but in several different ways. Most felt the dream had a purpose, a message for them, along with a purifying truth infused with knowledge that helped them “accept” the death of the person. The element of a healing played a prominent role and took place for most people during and after the dream experience.

The majority of people had only one type of a special dream, which was the visual experience of the deceased person. Others reported engaging in conversations, and a small portion experienced a multiple sensory contact during the special dream, including the sense of sight, touch and smell. There is no explanation as to why the special dreams differed from one person to another or why the deceased in these dreams would speak and be touched when others could not.

Most people had their dream experience only once, but a few did have more then one experience, either with the same person twice or two different dreams involving two different people.

As initially expected and supporting my original theory, this type of dream experience has been happening to people for the past thirty years, as you will see by the stories in this book. This is the first time the participants shared their information publicly.

A special dream can happen to anyone, at any given stage of bereavement, but this research shows that a special dream usually takes place within a small window of time right after the death of a friend or loved one. As predicted, this type of dream shows no boundaries or limitations in regard to the receiver’s age, sex, race or religion. It is important to note that the manner of death had no affect on the receiver’s ability to process the special dream experience. Deaths caused by accidents, natural causes, diseases or suicide were all processed in the same way, and are included in this research. None of the dreams were interpreted, only identified.

This study reveals true stories that also present a mystery about the subconscious mind and our thoughts transforming into a collective experience that transcends logic. As you read the stories, you will see similarities between the slice-of-life stories written by everyday people, who experienced a special dream first hand. None of the participants were influenced by one another’s dream story, nor did they see them prior to the publishing of this book. All the participants experienced their special dream in a natural sleep state, and none reported being under any artificial influences, such as hypnosis, alcohol or mind altering drugs.

All these people’s dreams have gone untold and kept a secret until now. This book reveals pages of amazing stories from those who have been given a gift, the supernatural gift of a special dream.


Chapter Two

Dreams of Fathers and Mothers

“Love is eternal, and even though they are gone, it doesn’t mean you ever stop loving them.” Author



Dream of my father and forgiveness

Introduction: My father was a product of the 1950’s parenting method and then some. His level of detachment from the daily grind of raising my sister and I took on new heights during my childhood and beyond. I cannot recall any talks between my father and myself about school, girls, goals, careers or anything that remotely involved a guiding paternal hand. What is easily remembered is his love of books and music, a “solitary passion” which involved me only when I was in the living room, and he had a Mahler symphony or a Puccini opera blasting at full capacity on our Columbia 360 record player. He used music and literature to shield himself from the onslaughts of daily living and, for the most part, was successful at doing that. He always thought of himself as a physically weak and sickly person, ever since he was put to bed for a year at the age of seventeen to recover from a malady, which to this day has never fully been defined. And when he had his massive coronary at the age of forty-eight, I suspect it finally confirmed his life-long dread of physical vulnerability. But for the next thirty-five years he lived mostly in good health until his eighty-third year, when he succumbed to a blood disease which assaulted him during his last few months of life.

When my mother called with the not-so-unexpected news, I was more numbed than grief stricken. Maybe I had been expecting his demise for so long, as he had, that there was a constant sense of mourning years before his actual death. Or maybe I had grown as detached as he was to me throughout our years together, and there was nothing within me to grieve about. No real tears were shed, until the dream.

Special Dream: The dream didn’t occur till over a year after his death. My father had made brief appearances in some of my dreams after his death, but none nearly as defining nor as cathartic as this one. The dream’s setting was my home at night., I heard this soulful simpering upstairs, but could not identify where it was coming from. I slowly made my way up the stairs to find my father at the top landing softly crying for me to help him. I knew what he was asking, which was for me to help him die, to give him permission to give up the fight and to tell him that I loved him. I scooped him up in my arms, and with each step on the way down, I kept reassuring him that it was alright to let go and that I loved him. I kept repeating those words over and over again till we got to the bottom of the staircase, where he finally was able to rest in peace. And then I awoke.

I could not stop crying for at least an hour. All the tears that I had bottled inside for over a year after his death, and maybe some that were contained during his life, were now pouring out into emotional buckets of regret, sadness and love. Where the waking hours are full of defenses and denials, dreams reveal truths and now there was no denying that I had missed a closer relationship yet loved my father very much all those years. Not coincidentally, it was about this time that I stopped therapy after two years of weekly sessions and dreams about my father ceased altogether.
Matthew G.