DREAMS THAT HELP YOU MOURN Lois Hendricks Paper, $15.95 176 pages, 5½" × 8½" ISBN 0-89390-395-7 View Table of Contents Quantity:

Author Lois Hendricks presents many examples of dreams — gleaned from personal interviews and from literature — to demonstrate how dreams serve a purpose. You’ll learn how dreams serve a purpose. You’ll learn that dreaming after the death of a loved one — whether a family member, friend or pet — is normal; in fact, dreaming is the soul’s way of mourning. This book will be a powerful comfort to the grieving and a useful referral book for counselors.

Reviews

“Like its author, this book is warm, loving and supportive. Using many examples of the sorts of dreams people dream after the loss of a loved one, Lois Hendricks skillfully shows the reader how very much dreaming can help us through the most difficult times in our lives.”
— Gayle M. V. Delaney, Ph.D., founding president of the Association for the Study of Dreams and author of Living Your Dreams and Breakthrough Dreaming

“Dreams That Help You Mourn. is simple and straightforward, unencumbered by dense scholarly theories and endless psychological analysis, but it is pyschologically sound and from a pastoral viewpoint, immensely insightful and wise. By its very richness, the collection of examples provides a strong argument for the importance of dreams in grief-work.”
— Richard Woods, OP, adjunct professor of theology, Black Friars at Loyola, Chicago.

“Dreams That Help You Mourn will be invaluable to those of us who counsel grieving people. Lois Hendricks has provided excellent insights in an easy-to-use format.”
— Bill Hoy, Premier Resource, Lakewood, Calif.

About the Author

Lois Hendricks, a former special education teacher, has been a student of dreamwork for many years. She has served as secretary for the Association for the Study of Dreams, speaks and leads discussion about dreams, and is the author of Discovering Your Biblical Dream Heritage.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part 1: Dreams Shared with Me

1. Dreams about Deceased Parents and Grandparents

• Crying in dreams
  
• The event as it was recalled
  
• The disturbing appearance of the deceased ill and dying
  
• Life without the loved one
  
• The spiritual quality of light
  
• Mysterious dreams and dream-like experiences
  
• A change in daily routine occurs
  
• Cremation and interment
  
• Delightful dreams
  
• Comfort offered by departed loved ones
  
• The management of death and dying
  
• Providing closure to acute grief
  
• The relationship of all dreams to the loss of a significant person
  
• A three-year-old’s grandfather visits her in her sleep

• Resolving grief through a dream series
  
• The departed’s common message
  
• Climbing stairs to visit the deceased

• Dealing with multiple losses
  
• Siblings and grief
  
• Joyous dreams

• Dream visits ease emptiness and longing
  
• Holiday dreams
  
• Dreams bring acceptance of death
  
• Another person’s dreams may bring comfort
  
• Dreams may focus on other issues
  
• Dreams that occur many years after death

5. Dreams about Deceased Parents and Grandparents

• Sometimes the deceased do not appear in dreams
  
• A seventeenth-century Japanese poet’s dream
  
• A mother’s love
  
• Recurring coffin dreams
  
• Receiving help from the deceased
  
• Planning a funeral many years after the death
  
• A double loss
  
• Happy memories about grandfather
  
• Asking the deceased to visit in the daytime
  
• A Swiss psychologist dreams of her father
  
• Recurrent dreams

• A healing dream
  
• Physical sensations in dreams accompanying traumatic deaths
  
• A romantic walk
  
• Dreams of a fourth-century Chinese wife
  
• A surgeon’s wife expects and gets dreams
  
• A miracle dream
  
• A dream poem
  
• Feelings of guilt over enjoying life
  
• The dreams of nineteenth-century Zulu women
  
• Dreamer’s husband comes to family Christmas celebration

8. Dreams about Deceased Children

• An expectant father’s dreams
  
• A mother’s dream helps her let go

• A friend’s death brings a dream promoting family peace
  
• An Anglican priest dreams of a well-known writer
  
• An evangelist’s amusing dream
  
• A nineteenth-century priest’s dream series

10. Dreams in Which Someone Dies

• The precognitive dream
  
• Separation dreams
  
• Clairvoyant and telepathic dreams
  
• Premonitory dreams

12. Dreams of Bereaved Pet Owners

• Pet deaths help dreamers grieve other losses
  
• Dream replaces unpleasant memories with comforting ones
  
• Dream relieves guilt
  
• A waking-up dream confirms a change in daily routine
  
• Euthanasia contaminates scheduled surgery in dream

• Dreams provide a resource for comfort and for resolution of other problems
  
• Dreams move the dreamer through the grieving process
  
• Dreams help with losses of all kinds
  
• Dreams alleviate changes experienced as loss
  
• Dreams call attention to personal issues and to special memories

Appendix: Keeping a Dream Journal

Works Cited

Index