Is it just me, or do other people do this?
I occasionally dream about ghosts. This doesn't seem to be the type of dreams in which I'm communicating with a spirit. Let me give an example:
A few days ago, I dreamed that I was in our den with Brianna, and she needed her diaper changed (you can tell you're a mommy when you dream about changing diapers.) I walked out of the den, into the living room with Brianna on my hip when I saw a little boy, African American, about 3 years old, dressed in tattered clothing. This was a very realistic dream, I could even smell this child in my dream.
The little boy appeared distraught and held his hands out to me. Being a mother, naturally, I bent over to scoop him up with my other arm. I remember thinking in my dream, "OMG, someone has dropped this poor baby here at my house, what on earth am I going to do!" Just then, I looked up and saw an African American woman in what appeared to be 1840-1860's clothing. She had a light colored work dress and a turban on her head. She watched me with a blank expression, but I noticed that I could see right through her. Then, the child that I was scooping up started to dematerialize in my arms.
Now, as far as I know, our land is not part of a former plantation. I've never considered this house to be haunted, even though we've had an occasional odd event or two. We haven't had any indication of a child ghost.
I don't think this was any sort of spirit communication, but I don't know. Have I just been reading too many ghost stories? Does anyone else have ghost dreams?

I sometimes have ghost dreams, but they're just that, dreams of the random, mostly meaningless and quickly forgotten type I usually have. Since I'm interested in, and read about the paranormal frequently, sometimes that works its way into my dreams.

Your dream, however, seems to have more significance, since it was realistic and you could even smell the child. It seems to me that the child's spirit was trying to reach you.

On the other hand, I've never had a spirit contact dream, that I'm aware of anyway. Sometimes I have dreams that are more vivid or memorable than usual (such as the storm dream I posted about a few weeks ago), but they seem to be just be the random, subconscious sorting itself out, type of dream. Or less frequently, lucid dreams.

Maybe you should keep track of your dreams for a while, to see if this child comes back to you in one of them.

Is there anything in your life that might bring to mind poor African American children, say a book you've read or a movie you watched recently? Maybe something like that got tucked into your subconscious files and it got "picked" to be a subject of your dream.

Kevin, I am going to be keeping closer track of my dreams and see if anything comes up. It did seem significant, although I can't for the life of me figure out why.

I've ran it through my head several times and come up empty as to anything that might have caused this. It was a very realistic dream!

Several years ago, while doing some genealogy research, a relative found a branch of our family that were considered "free men of color" during the 1800's. They were not slaves, and in fact were quite affluent. However, they really struggled with the social problems of that era, in fact, one of my great-aunts was captured and sold into slavery by some less than scrupulous people. Her father bought her as soon as he could, but only after she had endured the nightmare for what I assume was at least several days.

This is the only connection I could come up with, but it still just doesn't quite fit. I've got a lot of antiques in my home. One of the latest is an old china head doll from the 1860's era, but once again, it doesn't fit. I can't imagine why the spirit of a little slave boy and what I assume was his mother would be attached to something like that.

It was an interesting dream, and very different from others that I've had. I've dreamed about ghosts in our home before, but this was a little more intense that the others! Creepy but memorable! Maybe it was just a random weird dream. I'd hate to think of a little child spending eternity that distressed. I wish in the dream I had presence of mind to ask the lady who she was and what she wanted, but I was too surprised to find that she was a ghost!

Wow great dream. Interesting dream. I am not a dream expert but I will venture out a couple thoughts. The fact that this was so real to you and you were aware of your senses (smell, touch, sight etc.) I am leaning towards an encounter/visit. It sounded as if the child almost recognized you in the way he reached out to you. With the woman showing herself soon after I think she was there with the child all along. The fact she did not stop the child from reaching out to you tells me she also recoginized you. A past life visit perhaps? In a different way though. Rather than you going back to recall a past life in a dream people from your past life came to you. Based on the history that you have shared there is a potential connection here.

At the recent Sylvia Browne show I attended on the Afterlife, she spoke on past lives. Some of the ghost or spirit visits and dreams we may have can and often are from our past lives. Because we do not recoginize the people or the setting is familiar but not fully reconginizable to us when we dream we to often pass it off as nothing. Just a dream. She mentioned those dreams that are so real, the ones that are dreams of say loved ones that have passed that are etched in your memory forever, the ones you can feel the person or when you communicated although it was more with your minds then speaking, those are more than just a dream they are a visit. If you dream of someone that has passed on and it is a familiar situation that you had encountered in past with them those are most likely the recall dream or the wish dream (wish to do that again etc.). Her words echoed other material (besides her own) that I have read.

Certainly you need to also consider movies, books recently read etc. to be sure that you are not having a type of recall dream or simulated dream that involves that.

I have had spirit dreams and they are darn real, you can still feel the person the next day. One that I had was with my grandfather. I was the only one aware that he was there in the dream. My entire family was gathered at an unfamiliar place and noone could see him but me. I spoke but he didn't, he just smiled warmly at me and gave me a warm embrace. I told him how happy I was to see him and how much I have missed him since he's been gone and that I loved him dearly. I could still feel his arms around me in the morning and actually for a couple days after. Very very real. Still is today. I know it was a visit. The other ones I have had were just as real.

Given that you have not had things happen in your home to leave you to believe you have ghosts and there is no history linked to the house or the land that you readily recognize then I truly feel you've had a connection here.
Very cool.

If you can journal your dreams do. It really does help. I dream often and quite regularly I recall them. The more I have journaled them the better I have become at recalling them when I wake. I agree with Kevin you should keep track of yours. Even if nothing more comes from this, there are answers in our dreams.

Thanks for sharing. Let us know if anymore dreams happen.

Cat, what you said struck a chord with me, maybe this was a spirit visit. Right now, my mind is just reeling after finding some things out.

About a year or so ago, before we got Brianna, I started having a re-occuring dream that really upset me at the time. I dreamed several times I was in a large room with very heavy, dark furniture. The room was dimly lit by candlelight. In the dream, I was giving birth to a child. Two African American women were present, one younger, the other older. There was also a man in the corner of the room, a very handsome, well-dressed fellow, he reminded me of Johnny Depp with a heavy moustache.

In the dream, after I've given birth, the two women, (I assume slaves), take the baby and do not allow me to see it. I can tell the child is alive, and I'm extremely upset. I try to get up from the bed, but end up crashing into a heavy dresser. One of the women puts me back in the bed and I'm hysterical. The man sits calmly, but I can tell he is very upset, he walks to the bed, pats my hand, but is unable to look me directly in the face. At that point I would wake up. I'm not sure if the man is my husband, or a male relative. I chalked it up to some sort of weird anxiousness about the upcoming adoption.

Now, a few days ago, I had the ghost dream that was just as realistic.

I also need to add that when I was a small child, we had gone on a family vacation and drove past an old plantation house. I was about 4 or 5, but I pointed at it and said that "I used to live in a house like that." My parents said that after that, I would start drawing pictures of the house.
Now, for the part that just blows me away. Cat, after I read your post, I called a relative who does the family genealogy and ask her if anything like what was in my dream had ever taken place in that particular branch of the family.

As it turns out, my GGGgrandmother, who was considered to be of mixed race, was rumored to have given birth to a child by a slave. She gave the child to a female slave to raise. The child, as an adult, testified in court about this. According to the court documents, he claimed that because my grandmother and her family were trying to "pass for white" that she could not keep him. At that point, their land and everything they owned was in serious jeopardy because of the speculation on their heritage. He also said that although she never acknowledged him as her child, she met him when he was older and gave him some small trinket. His family denied that this was true. My relative is mailing me the copies of the court records on this.

Well, my jaw is still on the floor. I had absolutely no prior knowledge of this. I'm not sure if I was my own grandmother in a former life, or if for some reason or another one or several of these spirits is trying to contact me for some reason. It is quite a mystery!

I dreamed of ghosts before. It was weird in the fact that I was "me" in this "time" and yet the ghosts were from another time. Im guessing maybe 1700 or 1800's ???

In this dream I was my usual self. The lady from my dream was dressed very conservativly, like someone from the witch trial era maybe. She had a full length full skirt, a waist length coat and a black bonnet hat. We were talking casually and her daughter was running around in circles around my feet. The really weird thing is that I knew they were ghosts in the dream. Like we were both from differnt planes, but meeting in the same area, which did not seem to be from my time???

I remember turning around to say something to someone about the ladies daughter running around my legs, I dont remember exactly what I said, but it was to the effect of her being a bit annoying It was as If knew these people, but from their time, not mine now and present.

I was aware it was a dream when it was happening, but I knew I knew them from before. I hope this makes since. I guess im saying that I was aware I knew them before, but was talking to them in this "dream" and I knew they were ghosts in the dream, but I was just me, not a ghost, just there speaking with these people from a past life????

OMG Carrie, my mind is reeling right along with you on this one. That is amazing. You know how sometimes you read or see something and you get punched with a thought or feeling (that gut instinct), well your post did that for me. It just spoke visit. Now after reading your latest I'm rather convinced. I don't think this is one you want to just pass off.

How lucky for you to have someone in your family that does your families genealogy. Sounds like they have done a great job with it. Very good information. Well in some of the material and books I have read on the subject (including SB info) we do have many of the same people (souls) in our lives through various life times and switch about our roles, so there sure is a possibility that you were the GGGgrandmother.

It would be great if you could find a reputable, validated person who does past life regression and see what comes up. If you do, say nothing up front.

However in the meantime: Start dreaming lady, we need more info

Seriously, before you go to sleep try asking for more info, say aloud you would like to know more or ask specific questions that you would like answered. It may take a few times or a while even. Even if you do not have another dream like these two look for clues in your dreams, you may be surprised by what you get. Someone wants you to know something. Start journaling. =)

Greenfairie, that was an interesting dream there as well. You never know, it could have been?

When I read your post Carrie I felt that it wasn't from the past of the land.
While reading Cats post it felt alot like it was something from your past. That had depth to it. Like finding something real.
Also when I read the one about giving birth and having the baby taken away I heard 'brother' in respect to the Johnny Depp look alike.
They could be anscestral memories. You could be experiencing memories past down from your lineage. Things your anscestors experienced.

I have had many ghost dreams. Some I'm sure that have come from my fascination with ghosts. Some from anxieties being expressed through my subsconscious in dreams.
But I've had many that are like you described. Full blown, real as life, with smells, deep emotions, crystal clear. Some dreams I've woken up crying because the person I've dreamt about was once again lost to me. Some dreams I've woken up from in fits of guilt (I was responsible for their death/not in this life).
In fact I had a ghost dream just last night. I woke myself up sleep talking telling this irksome ghost to keep the light on because she kept turning it off (a light in the dream).

But I know what you mean and how you feel (I believe). They can be quite upsetting, disturbing and disorientating. But then I've had a few that I woke up from feeling like a million bucks. In those I was reunited with someone I had lost and knew I would find again.

I think that ghost dreams like so many others can have a bunch of different reasons as to why they exist. It's up to you to figure out what they are or why you had them.

A dream diary/journal is never a bad idea.

Thanks guys, and I'm glad to hear that other people dream about ghosts! I'm now convinced this was some sort of visit, and I'm amazed that it corresponded with some actual events. James brought up the theory of ancestral memory also, he's had a few unusual experiences himself.

Nakis, at first I thought "Johnny Depp" might have been the woman's husband, but I'm leaning more toward the brother theory now. My GGGgrandmother had an older brother who was a fascinating man. He very much believed in standing up for what was "right" and family loyalty, regardless of the personal cost. He had to leave Texas/Louisiana after an episode with local law enforcement who weren't exactly honorable men. He joined the Confederate forces and was killed at Shiloh. Out of all the ancestors I've read about, I must admit he is the one I'm fascinated with most and feel a connection to. I can't help but wonder if the man in the dream was Samuel.

I don't know if this is a connection to the dream, but yesterday evening, I received word that an uncle on that side of the family had passed away. He had been a favorite of mine in childhood, but had become very reclusive in recent years. It turns out he passed away a month ago, and no one, not even his child was notified.

I will be keeping a dream journal to see if any more pieces of the puzzle fall into place. I'm also going to be doing some reading on ancestral memory. This was a really amazing experience, and even though it was a little upsetting, I'm really glad I was given the chance to experience it. =)