I had a classmate in highschool who died in an automobile accident just a few weeks before graduating. that was around 15 years ago. i didn’t know him much, but his death seemed to affect my dreams since then. i would dream of him maybe two to three times a year.i would usually pass him by the street in my college campus and i would greet him and ask him how he’s doing. he would just smile at me and then i would remember asking “wait aren’t you supposed to be dead?”, and that’s the cue to end that particular dream. i still dream of him occasionally, and i’d wake up wondering why is he still in my dreams? theories, anyone?
it could be due to your class mate’s death being the realisation that everyone is mortal … someone in your age range had died
your subconscious could have chosen him to represent something to you… when you think about him, what comes to you? what are your feelings?
was he a lost opportunity? someone you could have got to know, but never got around to doing it.
it could be your subconscious reminding you that death isn’t the end … your classmate is still there to speak to you
Sounds as a really strange dream to me.
Sounds to me as you wanna remember him, what about trying to “forget” his dead and ask him how his doing once ?
for a short while i forget he’s dead, as if i dreamed another reality where he didn’t die and he went on with his life like everybody else. when i think of him i remember him as this happy-go-lucky kid who was always teased for his…uh, not so good looks. but he always smiled and laughed with everyone else. what’s so strange is a lot of people i’ve known has died throughout the years and i never met them once in my dreams.
Well how often are you dreaming of him?
I often have dreams ivolving people I hardly know…
It used to be 2-3 times a year. then a year would pass by without me seeing him in my dreams. suddenly i’d dream of him again.
Does his presence in your dreams offend you in any way?
If not, then maybe instead of getting bogged down by all this depressing speculation you could turn it around and see him as one of your dream character buddies.
Failing that, ask him why he’s there?
No, i’m not bothered when he appears in my dreams. he was a nice kid in high school. i’m just curious as to why he’s the only dead person who still occasionally appears in my dreams. it’s not really depressing. he’s always smiling when i see him. yes, i talk to him like he never died, 16 years after the accident. its just very odd.
The death of a person, althought you dont know him can impact anyone. It just shows that you wanted to get to know him, and you feel bad that maby… “What if that were me.” We all take our chances, but there are just some people who have to bite the bullet. That might of shook you up a bit.
I remember just a couple years ago, I was at a waterpark during summer vacation waiting in a line to ride the “Green Machine.” When out of no where, The girl in front of me just drops to the floor, she dies instantly. I watched them do CPR on her and saw her skin turn pail blue. I think about it here and there whenever I think I have it bad.
~sykcase
Woah…thats pretty intense. I’m very sorry you had to go actually be in that situation 
Occassionally I see my father (Who is in fact dead) In my dreams, no matter what, he’s always smiling at me. Even the times I know he’s dead, I see him and I’m just astonished. Maybe dreams work on a spiritual plane of thought also.
somebody dies right in front of you…oh man that would probably scar me for life! last time my grand aunt died, after coming home from her funeral i awoke in the middle of the night i thought i saw a sitting human form slowly fading from the empty bed just across where i was sleeping. i wondered if it was a dream or not…
Oh geesh this is scaring me 
When I woke up this morning, and due to my awakening, I heard whistling in my ear.
I occasionally dream of someone close to me who died. It’s strange how they can live on in our dreams like that. During the day I may get a fleeting thought of him occasionally but in dreams it is like he is standing right there in front of me again. It can be so vivid…
For most of my life, the ones I love who die come back to see me in my dreams, if only to say good-bye. People and pets, actually. Some of them still visit me that way once in a while.
Perhaps he saw compassion or decency in you and wishes to help you. Sometimes he wants you to know he is still there for you. Maybe to remind you to be compassionate or to let you know you aren’t alone.
Just my thoughts…
Falkor I can relate to your experiences with a deceased classmate and/or stranger. When I transferred to another middle school when I was younger, I felt pretty out of place. Then there was this one guy who made me feel welcome and showed me how things worked there. Anyways, a week or two after graduation, he and his immediate family died in a car accident on the freeway (one of the imfamous ‘firestone’ wrecks). It made me feel a little sad but since we just gave eachother the occasional nod in the hallway it didn’t really cut me very deep. But every now and then I have dreams where I see him in passing and I ask him how he’s doing, he always says that “It’s good to see you again.” And the funny thing is that my mind acts as though the accident never happened and he is just another person enjoying life…Sometimes when I wake up from those dreams I feel like his death was just a dream until I really think about it and realize that my conversation with him wasn’t real. Usually at this time I get one of those shivers down my spine…
I’ve had a similar experience once with a victim of an auto accident, even though I never met the person:
I should mention at this point that I have a weird habit of arriving at the scene of fatal auto accidents only a couple minutes after they occur(This one was the fourth time, I think). One such occurance happened when I was on my way back from getting some ink cartridges from the office supply store. I was just listening to some music and I arrived at a farmiliar intersection and was surprised by the slow pace of traffic. The light turned red and I slowed to a stop and noticed a white truck pulling up beside me, it said “Sherrif’s department: Traffic Homocide unit”. I thought this was curious and when I looked over about 15 feet diagonally in front of my was a smashed up old pickup, the driver was staring at me with his mouth open. Then I noticed that his forehead was all bashed in and blood was covering his face and the steering wheel. It was odd, the music seemed to mute and time seemed to stop as I gazed into the eyes of this dead man…Well that night when I went to bed I had a dream that I was back at the accident site and the man was there, he was alive standing next to the undamaged truck and smiled at me as if to say “hello Ryan”. It was just so weird and I couldn’t shake the dream from my thoughts for the next day or so…
It’s odd how death can affect us even if it doesn’t occupy our conscious thoughts. Maybe we’re always thinking about our own mortality subconsciously. Then again on the first dream I mentioned it seemed more like my mind was letting go of my former classmate and thanking him for his kindness… 