People who claim to communicate with people in the afterlife usually engage in esoteric practices at a special table for séances, but Americans Robert Hoss, Melinda Powell, Linda Mastrangelo, and Jeanne Van Bronkhorst use lucid dreams for this purpose. They even present their methodology at scientific conferences.
They call themselves “psychopomps”—guides of souls who help the deceased transition to the afterlife. They accompany people at the moment of their near-death experience through both lucid and ordinary dreams. They are confident that lucidity can become a portal for connecting with the souls of not only deceased people but also people living with dementia. They also believe you can communicate with people who are no longer around to relieve tension from old conflicts.
They compare lucid dreaming to ancient practices of turning to spirits for advice and are confident that dreams bridge the world of the living and the realm of the dead. Dreams provide access to the wisdom of ancestors and help the living cope with the loss of loved ones. Psychopomps believe that after the body dies, the soul enters something similar to a dream formed by its beliefs and experiences. At the moment of death, the soul finds comfort in familiar images and familiar faces so it can more easily adapt to the new, non-physical state.
Have you communicated with the deceased in lucid dreams?
The report was presented in June 2025 at the 42nd Annual Conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
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