By Karim © 2016

I had this lucid dream on the last day of Ramadan. This is a religious fasting month in Arabia that is followed by 3 days of Eid festival. This is a kin to Easter for Arab muslims. It is a time of family gathering together and lots of gifts to be given especially to the kids in the family. The reason I am mentioning this is that it is significant to the content of the dream.

At the beginning of the dream I noticed myself walking on a footpath in a big garden or sort of natural park. The weather was beautiful with a cool soft breeze and the sunlight was warm and fuzzy. The whole scene was inviting and comforting. I kept hearing my name being called from a distance. Trying to find the source I followed the sound until I saw a lady in her early 30s wearing a beautiful white dress with interesting embroidery waving at me from far. As I approached I recognized her immediately as my grandmother.

Photo by sharonang via Pixabay

She comes up to me and said “I really missed you” she says. I was bewildered because at that point I remembered Grandma died almost 2 years ago…then the thought hit me ‘Oh this must be a dream!’. I immediately became lucid remembering that this was not the first time I see my grandmother in a dream after her death, but it is the first time I see her so young!

I said “This must be a dream because you are dead.” She replied “No dear I am pretty much alive and well right in front of you” then she twirled around with her pretty dress.

I couldn’t help but comment “Wow you look fantastic and you are young again!”. She said “Yes and I can see again! No more diabetes or illness. I feel great!”. Grandma had a few illnesses in her old age. She had diabetes, high blood pressure, lost her sight, and broke her hip as well. She lived long though and died a very conscious death (as in knew she was about to die at the hour of her death) surrounded by her family at the age of 86.

“I am so glad you are well” and gave her a big hug.

“Come with me” she said. “There are some people that would love to say hi to you.”

She held my hand and lead the way along the foot path. At this point I remembered an old Arabian tale about seeing the dead in dreams. We were told as kids that if we see the dead in dreams never to take any gift from them and if invited to follow them somewhere not to go. That this heralds bad news that we will follow them in waking life.

The adventurous part of me totally ignored this childhood warning and thought to myself, I am lucid so if I feel anything is weird I can easily exit the dream. That thought always gives me comfort and confidence to proceed during an LD.

We arrived at a clearing. There was a horizontal log on the ground and sitting on it was a man and next to him standing was another young lady. This lady was younger than my grandmother in her early 20s. Both the man and his daughter were also wearing white. More traditional white Arabian robes or what is called a dishdash. At that point I thought ‘what is up with the white theme?’

I recognized the young lady as my cousin and the man as her father, my aunt’s husband. They both died before my grandmother.

Surprised to see them I told my cousin “Oh God, I totally did not expect to see you! You died 20 years ago. And you are the same age as when you died!” Jokingly she responded “well hello to you too!” and we burst out laughing. “Sorry I didn’t expect you guys to be here. I am so happy to see you after all this time. You look great!” Interestingly the three of them had a certain glow on their faces. They looked relaxed, and happy.

After the meet and greet with everyone. My cousin told me “I have a message I want you to give to my mother. I visit her and others in the family in their dreams but non seem to recall at all. I approached you because I know you will retain the memory upon waking up.”

I thought to myself ‘interesting if they know I am a lucid dreamer?’

“I want you to tell mom that I am well and alive in the spirit world. We are all together here (she meant the dead in the family). Every year the night before Eid, Mom does this weird ritual of going into her room early in the evening and tells everyone she is going to sleep. She locks the door and takes out all the photos she has of me, lays them out on the bed, and cries all night long. She has been in deep sorrow about my death since the accident. That was a long time ago and she needs to learn that I am ok and at peace with my death. Her sorrow and mourning is causing her a lot of health issues and it is only going to be downhill from here on if she doesn’t learn to let go. Please comfort her and tell her that we are all well and healthy and she should not worry about us anymore.”

My cousin was hit by the car of a drunken driver over 20 years ago. He lost control and drove over a pavement where she was walking. She suffered for a few days and then died in the hospital leaving 2 kids and a husband behind. It is true her mother never really recovered from the loss or the sorrow.

“I promise I will tell her when I wake up.”

“You said you are all here together. Where is grandfather? I would like to say hi.” Then, Grandma replied, “He is somewhere else praying and holding the space for us to meet. Will send him your regards once you are gone.”

She took me back to where she found me, gave me a big hug, and called me with a childhood nickname that is too embarrassing to mention here. “Karim, do not forget to call my daughter (which is my aunt) and tell her about our meeting. I entrust you with this. Please do not forget. Also send our regards to everyone in the family. Now go wake up!”

With that, I awoke. It was just about sunrise. Another old Arabian tale said that if we wake up from a dream at sunrise then it is not a regular dream, it is considered a vision. I thought perhaps this maybe true in this case.

I waited for a reasonable hour and called my aunt. She burst into tears over the phone as I was telling her about the lucid dream. She said “How did you know about what I do on the eve of Eid? No one in the family knows that I look at her photos and cry all night. My daughter should have been alive and spending eid with her kids and with us.”

I comforted her as best as I could and told her that I couldn’t have known about her yearly ritual. That there must be something about this dream that is more than just a dream. I asked her to entertain the possibility that perhaps it was a real visitation from her daughter and husband. I made her promise she will not do this little ritual again and to try to remember that they are alive and well in the ‘other world’. I knew this went in line with her spiritual beliefs.

I do not think she has listened to her daughter’s advice. As time went by sadly her health continues to decline as predicted by the dream.

I have to say it was really comforting to meet them. I woke up with a sense of peace and calm. I have to mention that the quality of this dream was quite different from that of regular dreams I have. It was clear, vivid and very life like. My lucidity also was effortless unlike in normal LDs where I have to put an effort constantly to keep the dream stabilized. It was a very interesting comment that my grandma made about my grandfather. That he was holding space for this ‘meeting’ to happen.

I cannot be 100% sure that this was a visitation from the dead. I can only theorize. However, it is interesting that I received information that I could not have known in waking reality and then got it validated. Also it is interesting there was a prediction in the dream that came true later in waking life.