The Attic Files: Dreams of the Dead

Can dreams warn of death, carry messages from those we've lost, or reveal something before it happens? In this episode of The Attic Files, we explore six stories where dreams seem to cross the boundary between the living and the dead.

From early Victorian accounts of death dreams and Abraham Lincoln’s famous prophetic dream to Carl Jung’s story of a drowning patient, these experiences blur the line between coincidence and premonition. We also explore the Night Marchers of Hawaiian tradition, visitation dreams reported after the September 11 attacks, and the dreams and strange accounts that have become associated with the death of Elisa Lam.

Across history, psychology, folklore, and tragedy, dreams of the dead appear again and again. Whether understood as prophecy, grief, coincidence, or something unexplained, they leave behind the same unsettling question: what happens when a dream seems to know something the dreamer does not?