My best friend has had a series of dreams where I die. It starts where she is walking with a group of friends including myself. Suddenly she realises I am gone. She starts asking where I am, and starts to search for me. She ends up finding my body, mutilated.

She said her sister woke her up asking her what was wrong because she was sobbing in her sleep. The next night she had another dream, where she was at school. She opened her locker, and there was my ear, with a note that said “Where’s (My Name)?”

I’m very scared because of the known fact some dreams predict the future. She said she would give me some more details later, so I will submit the rest. Please tell me what it means. I am terrified to leave my house.

- Anonymous, Age 13, USA

Hi Anonymous -

I agree that your friend’s dreams are pretty creepy. Who wants to dream about their best friend dying?

The curious thing about “death” in dreams, though, is that it almost always is a symbol for change, or for making things “go away.” Accordingly, when your friend dreams that you die, it doesn’t mean that you (or anybody else) actually is going to die. What it does mean, most likely, is that she’s afraid that her relationship with you is changing.

In the first dream she’s walking with a group of friends when she notices you are missing. Have you begun spending time in different social groups? In the second dream she finds your ear in her locker. This dream suggests she needs you to listen to her right now. Is it possible you’ve been hard to talk to lately - at school?

What’s the message of this dream? Your friend’s afraid of losing you.

Why don’t you two make plans to spend a weekend together? You can catch up on everything, you can really listen to each other, and you can promise to include each other when you do things with new friends.

Isn’t that what best friends are for? :-)