In my dream last night, I was visited by my 26-year old cousin, Kelli. In waking life, she shot and killed herself in September. I guess I'm posting wondering if anyone else has had visits from dead friends/relatives.

I know my mom says that after her best friend died of cancer, she had a dream where her friend came to her and mom said, "But your dead." And the friend said, "I know, but I'm here to comfort you."

I just wonder how common this and what people think about it. Is it a mechanism our psyche uses to reconsile someones death or to some how comfort ourselves or are these dream visits outside of ourselves?

Well, here's what I dreamed last night:

Kelli was in the dining room. I wasn’t shocked to see her. We started talking and joking and I hugged her, telling her it was good to see her. I really meant it too. I had missed her. We were looking at all the cookies and we found some that the people had set on the stove after they decorated them and they had sort of melted out of shape. I mentioned that that had been a mistake or something along those lines and Kelli said, “Well, sometimes you can’t know.” The statement, I knew, was in reference to her shooting herself. She sounded regretful, but not sad. I followed her back to her parents’ bedroom and she looked around to make sure no one was coming and she reached under their bed and pulled out a blue knit dress. It was covered in blood. The room was dark and I couldn’t see it well, but I drew back and was a bit horrified. She just seemed facinated. She said that had been what she was wearing when she shot herself. It wasn’t as bloody as I thought it was going to be. As she leaned down to put the dress away, I thought, “Why doesn’t she have a scar?” I began to wonder how she had survived and not been brain damaged, but the train of thought whisped away as they do in dreams and she walked over to her mother’s closet and pulled out a bathing suit. She said that a friend had found her and that this is what the friend had been wearing. It was soaked in blood. She took it over to right under the light in the closet and began pointing out white stains that she said were brain matter. She was very disconnected from it and almost facinated by the whole thing. I wish I had become lucid so I could have really talked to her in the dream. I hope she comes back again so I can try that.

That's another question I have. Has anyone had a lucid experience with a dead relative/friend?