Many years ago, a friend of mine passed away and I saw him in a dream a few months later. He had always talked about having lucid dreams while I, on the other hand, had only ever had one lucid dream before. Perhaps this is why I realized I was dreaming and it became lucid.

In the dream, we were in what seemed like the captain’s cabin on a pirate ship. That’s not too weird because we had been playing DnD together for decades so it would probably have been more weird if we were in some mundane location. When I realized that it was a dream I also remembered that he had died. Needless to say, I had had the afterlife on my mind for those months since his death. In addition, some people had talked about the concept of dead people visiting the living in their dreams.

I sort of wondered if maybe he could really be visiting me in my dream. I asked him to tell me what the afterlife was like. He just made a face and the dream abruptly started to end. It didn’t just fade to black, though. The scene kind of rushed away from me. Or more like I was rushing backwards down a dark tunnel away from the scene. I screamed, “No!” and mentally grabbed unto the dream and pulled myself back. It was like my sense of motion just kind of stopped as I willed it to and then I rushed back forward back into the ship’s cabin. My friend was still there and I said, “Please, Answer me!”

He shook his head. He seemed to be sad maybe, or maybe a bit angry or something, and told me, “You have all the answers you’re ever going to get.” and I was instantly awake. Dream over.

I don’t really believe the dead visit us in our sleep, but it’s a pleasant fantasy to think so. He’s appeared in my dreams more than a few times since then, but never again was there a dream like that. I’ve also never had another lucid dream. His words have really stuck with me. I’ve pondered them many times and I just wonder…