In this post, “A Dream Visit from Robin: A Message about My Future Life in Portugal,” I share a dream in which Robin asked me a question. Even though I did not know it at the time, his spirit was pointing to my future life in Portugal. This experience is a good example of how our deceased loved ones know exactly what is going on in our lives. Sometimes, they know things about our lives before we do.
Introduction: Entering the World of Afterlife Dream Communication
Due to my experiences with Robin’s spirit over the years, I know that some loved ones on the other side have many more abilities than are commonly discussed in the afterlife communication literature. One of those abilities is having the awareness of the futures of loved ones on earth, and to communicate that awareness.
According to Chris H. Hardy, Ph.D., in her book, Living Souls in the Spirit Dimension: The Afterlife and Transdimensional Reality, our deceased loved ones can give us accurate hints and predictions about upcoming life events in dreams. She states that:
…when a luminous being (discarnate or not) talks to me in a numinous, symbolic, and clear dream, this reflects an actual interaction with the syg-dimension and specifically with the Self of that person (1).
The syg-dimension refers to the meaningful energy field of consciousness.
What she is describing falls under the category of visitation dreams. They differ from other types of dreams in the sense that they can be much more vivid. For example, the presence of a deceased loved one often feels incredibly real, like you know they were there with you.
Another characteristic of a visitation dream is that your deceased loved one will almost always address you directly. According to Amanda Linette Meder in her article, “Visitation Dreams: How You Know for Sure,”this can take the form of a smile, a touch or through words which bring joy to your life:
Visitation dreams nearly always include a direct address from your loved one. They turn to face you directly, sit next to you, touch you directly, smile at you directly, or have a message of words for you, directly.
It does not necessarily mean a serious message; it can be playful and often it is. The direct address may simply include a warm smile, which, in itself, is the entire message. Think of the message a warm smile conveys.
The dream I’m about to share with you has these common characteristics.
A Dream Visit from Robin
During the early morning hours of February 25, 2022, I had a very meaningful dream experience with Robin. It was such a real encounter that I can remember it very clearly to this day even though it was almost 2 years ago.
Here are the details:
In the dream, Robin and I are standing in a room that looks like a church sanctuary because there were rows and rows of chairs lined up like what you would see in a church.
It was quiet with no one else around. We were standing at the end of the aisle in the room, near some chairs.
There were a lot of windows in the room with a gentle light coming in, like the feeling of late afternoon.
Robin looked like he did when he was in his early 50’s. Click here to see a photo very close to what he looked like.
He had short hair like in the photo and was wearing his glasses. He was wearing a light blue V-neck sweater and a white dress shirt with a tie tucked into his sweater. His pants were gray dress pants. Robin gave me a warm smile.
As I stood beside him, I leaned over and kissed him on his left cheek. Then I put my arm around his waist, and he put his arm around my waist. I could feel that he was thin like he was when he was alive.
Then, we walked down the aisle together with our arms around each other, like in this photo. We were walking out of the room and passed through a doorway.
Next, Robin turned to me and asked, “Do you want to have lunch at Fatima’s?” He asked me in a telepathic way with just thoughts, not moving his mouth at all. In the dream, I did not know what he meant, so I did not answer him.
I looked at him with a puzzled look, trying to figure out what he meant. Of course, I would go to lunch with him, but I needed more information. The dream ended with me standing there looking at him.
Dream Aftermath: Processing the Message
When I woke up, I remembered the dream details clearly. I wrote them down in my journal. I was very moved by this dream because of the specific details and clear contact with Robin.I could also feel him.
This is the second visitation I have had with Robin that included tactile sensation. I wrote about it in this post:
In terms of Fatima, the problem was, I did not know where Fatima’s was. However, I knew it had some religious significance. I just did not remember exactly what.
So, that day, I went to Google and typed in “Fatima.” Then all this information immediately came up about Fátima, Portugal. All the entries on the first page mentioned Portugal and no other country.
Fátima is the city where the apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared in 1917. You can read about the story here.
It is now a global favorite in terms of being a holy pilgrimage site.The photo at the top of the page is of the beautiful Sanctuary of Fátima.
I was really surprised because even though I vaguely remember hearing about Fátima over the years, I did not know it was in Portugal. This had immense significance for me at that time in February 2022. There were a lot of changes going on in our lives.
Life Context: What was Going on at the Time of the Dream Visitation?
My father-in-law had just died on February 4th, 21 days before I had the dream. Due to the stress he had been experiencing, my husband fell and had a bike accident in which he suffered a severely bruised hand and black eye.
I believe one of the reasons Robin’s spirit came to visit at that time was because he was aware of the recent death in the family and what my husband was going through. I feel like he intended to offer comfort in letting me know he was still watching over me. It was a rough time, but it passed, my husband healed, and things got better. Robin’s presence helped very much.
Around this time, my husband and I had been seriously considering moving to another country to retire. We had been considering retiring in another country for several years, but we weren’t in the position to do so. With the death of his father, there were no more family ties keeping us in Florida, U.S.A., so we were free to move. But we had not made a final decision as to where we wanted to go. Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Ecuador were all countries we were considering and actively talking about moving to. In prayer, I had been asking for guidance about which country would be best for us to move to.
During the spring and summer of 2022, we spent a lot of time watching House Hunter’s International and YouTube videos to get a very elementary sense of where we wanted to go. We had never been to any of these countries and wanted to take an exploratory trip to one of them in the fall of 2022 to see what the pros and cons were. We had to choose one country because we wanted to spend three months there to really get a feel for what it would be like to live there and begin our visa process if we liked it. We couldn’t spend 3 months in 3 or more different countries. So, we had to be very particular in our decision. There was a lot riding on it.
After doing lots of research on the countries I just mentioned, we started reaching out to real estate professionals, tax specialists and health professionals in Portugal to see if it was realistic to retire there. We were still not set on a decision. With current technology, we had meetings through Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The information we received helped us make our decision. Portugal had great tax incentives which understandably influenced our decision. We thought, “Everyone wants to go to Italy and Spain. Why not try something new?”
Our Move to Portugal
After a long summer of research and preparation, my husband and I booked our trip to Porto, Portugal for the last week of September 2022. We stayed for three months and then returned to Florida a couple of days after Christmas, 2022.
Within the first few days of being in Porto, I noticed lots of signs of Our Lady of Fátima. I saw her on tiles and in statue form. Even though I was not in the city of Fátima, Fátima was everywhere.
I had been thinking a lot about Robin’s question about having lunch at Fátima’s. Even though I could not find a restaurant called Fátima’s, her energy was very present. I began to think that Robin’s question was less about an actual restaurant and more about using a name that I would recognize or remember that symbolized Portugal. Fátima was a phenomenon that extended throughout the country, not just a singular restaurant.
In addition to becoming familiar with Our Lady of Fátima and the story about the apparition, we spent our 3 months getting to know Porto and a couple other cities in Northern Portugal.
We did just about everything you would do when you live somewhere, not just visiting. We went grocery shopping in many different stores and cooked in our apartment. We learned how to use public transportation. We also got a new primary care physician and learned what Portuguese prescriptions are like. We got direct insight into what the private medical system is like, which was very good because it’s a major thing to consider when moving to a new country. I began to speak in the little bit of Portuguese I knew. We were not residents, but we were no longer tourists either.
During this time, we decided that we liked Portugal enough to move here. I was not immediately certain. It took a full month of being here before I was ready to commit. It was after seeing the beautiful city of Braga that I knew I would enjoy living in Portugal.
We began taking steps to apply for the D7 visa while we were still in Porto. When we returned to the U.S.A., we had to continue to complete the paperwork necessary for the visa. In March, we had our appointment with VFS Global in Washington, D.C. to submit our paperwork. The visa was approved in April. In May we sold our house and car. In June, we made our final move to Portugal. In August, we had an appointment to apply for temporary residence. The application was approved and now we have temporary residence cards that are valid for two years.
The Significance of Robin’s Dream Message about Fátima
Now that I have outlined this long journey of moving to Portugal, I thought it would be good to reflect on the significance of Robin’s visitation.
Involvement
In addition to providing comfort by sharing his presence, Robin’s spirit showed involvement and awareness of my life.He knew we were considering moving to another country because I spoke with him about it.By visiting me in my sleep time, he was expressing an intent to be connected and to walk through life with me, from Spirit.
Even if I had not spoken with him about it, I believe he still would have known about our plans. Robin and I reconnected after his death. We did not know each other when he was alive. But through the power in his spirit, he found me in 2012 after he died. He began to visit my apartment in Denver, Colorado in 2013 and made his presence known by moving objects.
Robin’s physical body died in London. However, his living spirit connected with my energy, and he made his way over to Denver to my obscure apartment!Since he did that, I know it’s easy for him to be aware of what is going on in my life!He has been involved since 2012.
Guidance
I feel like Robin’s reference to Fátima was a way of providing guidance. I had been asking Spirit about which country would be best for my husband and I to move to. Fátima is a clear and strong reference to Portugal.
I’m sure he knew I would do research to gain insight into what he was teaching me. Robin’s mention of this one word, Fátima, set me on a journey of discovery and contemplation. Once I read more about how people made pilgrimages to Fátima, I realized it was something I was interested in doing someday.
Even though I am not Catholic, I love the different versions of the Divine Feminine/Mother Mary that present themselves around the world. By using the name, Fátima, Robin encouraged me to look deeper into this world of Portugal and pilgrimages which I was completely unfamiliar with. Twin souls in spirit truly can be our best teachers and guides. It was like he was saying, “Hey, you may want to check this out.” This is guidance, not directly telling me what to do or “You should move here.” That was for my husband and I to figure out with our free will.
Knowledge of Future Events
During this journey I have just shared, there was a part of me that wondered if Robin was seeing into my future. Perhaps he was observing me going through the process of researching and scouting out Portugal, knowing all the while that I would eventually end up living here.
According to some authors, this is possible. In her article, “Can Loved Ones in Spirit See Us in Heaven?”Karen T. Hluchan states that deceased loved one have access to information about our past and future:
As for seeing the events unfolding on Earth, loved ones not only have access to current events, but also past and future events. Loved ones in spirit visit us often because they love us and want to help us…
If loved ones are in need of perspectives to help us with our lives, whether it is to achieve understanding from events from the past or to look into potential future events with which they can assist, they will retrieve the records with the approval of the Archangels who oversee the Hall of Records.
So, in addition to the dream of Robin being a visitation dream, it can also be seen as a prophetic dream. According to Dr. Nereida Gonzalez-Berrios, MD, in the article, “Prophetic Dreams: An Intriguing Insight about The Future!” prophetic dreams are defined in this way:
Dreams that give insight into the future and the upcoming events are categorized as prophetic dreams. They are broadly classified into directional, decision, and warning dreams.
There are different types of prophetic dreams. One type is called an apparition dream in which a deceased loved one gives an important message. Robin’s reference to Fátima was an important symbolic message given at a pivotal time in our journey of relocating to another country.
In the article, “Precognitive Dreams Facts and Meanings in 2023,” by Lillian Maclean, she states that one of the 5 signs that you are having a precognitive dream is the presence of strong symbolism. Precognitive dreams are defined in the same way as prophetic dreams.
I consider Robin’s use of Fátima to be a strong symbol that really stood out to me and left me curious in my dream state. This led me to do additional research to find out the deeper meaning and connection with Portugal. It was akin to leaving me breadcrumbs to follow.Perhaps Robin was hinting at what was going to happen within the next year, but I did not know it at the time.
I also think it was very symbolic that we met in what looked and felt like a church sanctuary. Church sanctuaries and Fátima clearly go together.
Robin chose to show up in a sweater in the healing color of blue.
I remember reading somewhere that blue was his favorite color. Blue has many symbolic spiritual properties including being peaceful, calming, and soothing. It was these energies that he offered me in the dream.
In Closing
When I consider this dream with Robin’s strong presence, message, and symbolism, I feel he was very connected with my move to Portugal and was closely observing from his vantage point in Spirit. It is comforting and exciting to know that our deceased loved ones truly are with us during the ups, downs, twists, and turns of our lives. I hope it brings Robin joy to see he was a significant part of my journey to Portugal.
I also want him to know that by visiting me in my dreams in this way, he has given me the most amazing life…after he died.
By writing this blog post, I am processing the events that led to this new chapter in my life. I have not yet made it to the city of Fátima, but when I do, I will surely find a place to have lunch with Robin’s spirit. In the meantime, I have given him food offerings so we can share a meal in my rented home. Serendipitously, the house came with a small statue of Our Lady of Fátima in the pátio area by our kitchen! She really is everywhere in Portugal.
All my best to you! As always, thank you for reading!
References
- Hardy, Chris H., (2020). Living Souls in the Spirit Dimension: The Afterlife and Transdimensional Reality, Chapter 3: Predictions and Caretaking from the Beyond, 79, 81.
- Image of the Sanctuary of Fátima by falco from Pixabay.
Love,
