i've been having dreams of my grandmother who died about a year and a half ago. i have been thinking about her a lot for some reason, so i'm not surprised she's showing up in my dreams. but i wondered what it meant to dream about a dead relative. in my last dream of her, we were at the mall together, i was a child, and she was obviously younger too. we were having fun and she just kept telling me she loved me so much and i told her how much i loved her too. i even remember realizing in my dream that she was no longer alive, so i told her how much i missed her. she said she missed me too. she kept giving me hugs and kisses and i was crying. it almost felt like i was ACTUALLY talking to her, like she was visiting me from heaven in my dream. any ideas on what this could mean, besides the obvious?

The dead relative can represent an aspect of her that she reminds you of - for example, if your grandmother was very generous, she can stand for generostiy.

Or the dream can just be a reflection of how much you miss her and loved he and how she is always in your memories, even though during waking life you probably have other things occupying your mind.

It's very common to dream about dead relatives. The part of your brain that stores these memories doesn't really have a sense of time - it doesn't understand that your grandmother is now dead and the dream doesn't make sense.

When you realized in your dream that your grandmother was no longer alive, the more logical parts of your brain (the parts that have a sense of time and cause/effect - that know that after someone dies they can't live anymore) were stepping in to tell you that your grandmother couldn't really be here.

That, by the way, is often how lucid dreamers realize that they are dreaming. Something in the dream happens that isn't logically possible, and the logical parts of the brain (which remain very active during a lucid dream) step in and say that isn't possible, therefore, it must be a dream.

Another dream of grandmother died

My grandmother and I were very close and she passed away 24 years ago. Occasionally I dream of her and good things follow. For example, once I dreamed that she and my deceased Father (her son) were in a beautiful garden with a table full of fruits and vegetables. The rest of my immediate living family was there as well. Good things followed this dream. Recently, however I had a dream about my Grandmother again. We were in a dimmly lite room and behind her there were people walking slowly. They all looked ill or hurt. I asked her what she was doing and she said the "he" has her filing now. Then her face came very close to mine. I never felt afraid only peaceful..I could clearly see one of her eyes and beautifully shaped eyebrow and felt no fear just peace. What could this possibly mean?

I think that when you dream about your grandmother, it reminds you of good memories so later on you notice the good things more and the bad things less. Life has good and bad in it; whether see it as good or bad often depends on our perspective.

Dreaming about the people who are ill or hurt might mean that you were worried about the health of someone, or maybe you were just worried about someone being in an unhealthy situation (not necessarily physical).

I think filing could have to do with filing away memories, so the dream could be a message that all of your worries have to do with things in the past and that you shouldn't worry about the past but look to the future.