Vivid, memorable dreams or nightmares may be past life memories. Some of the most vivid past life recall I've ever had was through dreams, some that began in childhood, and others that emerged as an adult. I distinctly remember having a recurring dream throughout childhood: I saw myself as a woman in 1940s style clothing, wearing a saucy little hat, a coat down to my knees, and a brown shoulder-bag. As this woman, I was walking down a broad boulevard in a city; there was a stone wall along the side of the street. I remember having this dream often. I remember thinking as a child that this woman was probably who I was going to be when I grew up. During my mid-thirties, when I started getting sick with lung problems, this dream progressed: I saw myself as this woman approaching a large, palatial building. I entered the building and saw several soldiers behind a table. I was arguing with them in German, a language I don't speak, and have had little exposure to. I was asking questions, and they were not giving me answers. I saw myself walking away from the building with a posture of dejection; my head hung low. When I woke up, I tried to utter the words I heard in German in my dream, but they were gone.

About a year later, I saw the same images when I did my first past life regression. During the regression, the dream images expanded and I got a fuller story of my life as a woman during WWII, in which I died. I believe that the images and the memories of that lifetime were so charged, and so vivid, that they came up very early in life through my dreams.

When I work with clients, I always ask about recurring dreams or nightmares. Many of them tell me about recurring, vivid dreams from childhood in which they appeared to be in another time, as someone else, in a dangerous or difficult situation. The dreams usually begin and end at the same point. Some feel that they are about to die in the dream.