I had a dream last night where i was starting to talk to someone and as soon as i realised who they were i went lucid. It was a friend who's died about 10 years ago. His features became so clear and wanted to  ask questions about the afterlife. However i woke up coughing. (Damn!)

But my question is... is that person just a dream character? Or are they are a character that can link back to real person?

Either answer can apply. You'd have to interpret the dream in order to know.

What you said points to a distinction between lucid dreams and regular dreams. In a regular dream you might be with somebody who is dead or a celebrity you wouldn't be likely to be with, and you won't question what you are experiencing.

In a lucid dream, because you are conscious enough to be aware of the fact that you are a person with a physical existence who is having a nonphysical experience, you might also notice that you're interacting with people that you ordinarilly wouldn't have contact with.

Perhaps you should become curious about how you came to have this dream. Was it a random manifestation of your subconscious mind, or did something such as your higher self create it? Sometimes higher selves create dreams such as the one you had with the hope that the people who have such dreams will become curious about the origin of their dreams and about what reality is all about.

That said, whether or not you made contact with a deceased friend you might've had a verification that there is more to reality than our physical life.

O-C,
The fact that you remember the dream so clearly helps the case for a lucid dream visit from a friend from the other side. Did he/she say anything to you before you woke up? Its funny, one of the only dreams that I have had that I absolutely characterize as a visit, was from a dog. We had just lost our most recent dog, whom we had been with for 14 years. About a month after his passing, I was sleeping on the couch, and I "woke up" to see our previous dog (long since passed over) walking through our living room.  She walked over to the couch where I was lying and carefully climbed onto the couch with me and laid down with me. I can't say how, but I interpreted her motions and actions as ones of kindness toward me. She was obviously there to comfort me about the loss of our more recent dog, with whom she had also lived most of her life. Perhaps your dream was a visit interrupted. If so, look for a return visit!

Outsidecreative,
Since you're the creator of lucid dreams, you can decide to blank the canvas you've filled and if someone joined in or you joined someone, a sharing or merging of canvases, they'll still be there. If seriously interested in getting to know this subject you can at the next lucid moment will a person to talk with and notice how thought forms act.

Josh Langley wrote on Oct 30^th, 2011 at 2:18am:

But my question is... is that person just a dream character? Or are they are a character that can link back to real person?

In my view dreams are the most common form of real contact with the deceased.  Your lucid dream could be real or not.  Fortunately. there is a way to tell the difference if you can maintain awareness in the dream long enough to ask the deceased to:
" Show me, tell me or give me something that IS proof that this experience is real."

This uses the Basic Premise from my workshops which says:
1.  Find a way to make contact with a person known to be deceased.
2.  Gather information from this person you have absolutely no way of knowing except by this contact.
3.  Verify that the information is accurate and true.
4.  Verified information doesn't prove anything, but it is evidence that this person continues to exist after death AND that your contact with that person is real.

Happy Hunting,

Bruce

Thanks guys for your responses and Bruce your suggestions are perfect - just treat it like a retrieval... sort of.

I remember during the dream when i went Lucid i had sooooo many questions i wanted to ask my friend they all crashed into each other and i couldn't think of one single decent question to ask! But the coughing fit put an end to anything further anyway.

Recoverer: i've always be 'asking' for contact with someone who's died whether it be in dreams or mediations just so i can get some more verification. (The 'little me' still always needs verification) So it could have been my higher self allowing a connection to be made or something like that.

I still do retrievals, but there's that element of doubt that always creeps in. I've yet to have the awesome belief system crash yet :)

Volu: One Lucid dream i had, i was able to wipe the scene clean and start with a blank canvas and started with a chair and then a table - but lost focus after that. (maybe building a dining setting was just too boring :))

I just wanted to add that I think generally speaking all dreams involving deceased loved ones will become lucid..... at least.... every dream I had has was lucid.

As soon as you see the deceased loved one your mind says, wait a minute... you are dead... this is a dream. At least, that is what happens with me. My mind instantly rejects ludicrous things such as seeing dead people. If they are dead, it MUST be a dream.

That's a really good point Focus 27.

now i just have to interrogate them next time it happens :)

I was looking for lucid dream info and came across this thread. My father passed on Christmas eve as I made my way to visit him.

I am hoping that I can make contact using lucid dreaming, but will not delude myself without accumulating of evidence.

If proven to be real to me,  It is something useful to keep communication going despite other opinions that you should simply let go and move on.

Regarding techniques for distinguishing illusory aspects of a dream from genuine ones, you can demand that all subconsciously-created dream elements of your experience be completely removed from your perception, leaving only that which objectively and independently exists.  It's always interesting to see what stays and what goes.

I think it's good to look for "proof" but I also think it's good to just trust the process in your own journey. It is possible that if we are too fearful of being deluded we can miss messages that we could have received. For me, I feel that repeated lucid dreams about my deceased mother (2 brief dreams within 6 months) point to a need to accept these messages over time, as they are important to my progress through the grief process. In any case, they have contributed greatly to my peace and happiness.

I am sorry for your loss. I truly hope you will receive the experiences which are best for you as you make your way through this time in your life. I do suggest patience, as their time is not the same as our time, and there may be experiences you are having in dreamtime which you do not remember. To have the experiences while aware is a gift, and it comes when it comes and no sooner....

Greetings Josh.

   I haven't posted here for a long time because of health reasons. Now that I feel up to it again, I would like to add some input. Dreaming is one of my favorite ways to learn about levels of consciousness beyond the physical. My experiences have brought me to an understanding that many if not most all dreams create a location on the higher planes that can be revisited.

   I have gone back to dream places on future times that really feel like the same place that I was at on an earlier date. It doesn't have to be a lucid dream to preserve the location, but it helps. Most of my dreams that involved a deceased relative were not lucid, so I was unable to think up any verification questions. All I need is to revisit those locations, but maintain some sort of lucidity so I can get something out of it.

Ralph

Seagull, thank you for your kind words and OBE Dude for that excellent tip.

For me it seems the most natural way, the most likely way to help people heal after a loss in this reality and the particular reality where the loved one has gone.

Perhaps in times long ago it was more widespread, and I'd be a supporter of bringing it back into everyday consciousness to whoever feels a curiosity towards this method.

And after big health issues last year, losing someone is yet another reminder to change life to the way it should always be lived, in the moment.